Hey, so I've had Oliver for around a month now. And he's roughly 7-8 inches. And for the most part he's had stress marks all over his belly and his chin.
There will be times where he has a white belly (normally when he's sleeping) but he'll hear a noise, see my brother or mom and he gets stressed again. He'll especially get stressed when I try to pick him up and he loves to run away. But when he's in my hand he's fine and he actually goes to sleep
He's in a 40 gallon tank. With a repti sun 10.0. His basking sight gets between 105-110 depending on the day and the cool side is around 80.
Am I doing something wrong? It can't be healthy for a dragon to be stressed all the time.
I feed him kale and collard greens with the occasional fruit. He eats around 30-40 repti worms per feeding
I think the term stress marks is misleading. The dark lines are quite common with young dragons and can appear even when they're just darkening their colors to bask. If he is eating well and is alert/active then I don't think there is a cause for concern. It sounds like his temps are just fine. How far above the basking area do you have his UVB light? A T8 ReptiSun 10 tube should sit about 6-8'' above the basking area for optimal output.