I've never even heard of stress marks until tonight. My lil guy always has a pattern on his belly. He can't be stressed all the time. Are those stress marks on him?
Yes, those are stress marks. They could be there from a number of things like if you just got him or him being cold. Whats his basking temp? Do you use a probe thermometer or temp gun?
Well I actually had a friend of a friend of mine look at a lot of the pictures of my baby beardie including the one that I thought was stress spots. My friend's friend works in the reptile department of a zoo. She said my temps and everything is fine including my Gizmo. She said he is just a baby and its normal. Baby patterns are different than adults. Some beardie's stomach patterns fade away as they become adults and some just lighten up. She said they are perfectly normal and as long as he is eating, pooping and comfy in toasty basking zone he is doing great This makes me very happy to hear.
I don't want to sound like a jerk but those are for sure stress marks. There are a lot of reasons beardies can have them But the belly should be white. It may not be anything to worry about if your dragon is eating, pooping and basking.
He's never had a white stomach though, I mean from day one. That's why I asked because I was like he can't be stressed all the time. I never even heard of stress marks until a friend mentioned it to me. Which raised my curiosity and worried me. All I know he seems healthy and happy so I'll keep it an eye on it but he always has a pattern.
Babies typically have more consistant stressmarks as they are growing. Once he hits a certain point you should start to notice less and less of them. Then, you will only see them when he is legitimately stressed out.
I have had a variety of animals all my life, and my little girl is by far the one I have worried about and checked on the most. It is the closest thing to having a newborn I have ever experienced. I laugh at myself daily. I least I don't feel like a complete nut thanks to this forum...lol
My friends say I'm being ridiculous over a "lizard", but all I gotta say is they post pic of their dogs on facebook an awful lot, too....