Bearded dragon gets stress marks randomly please help

[Connor135]

Hello this is my bearded dragon (rango) he is 3
months old I have had him for two weeks I bought him from petsmart, he is male and for the first 5 days he always had these stress marks, I got rid of them by not touching him and putting a cover over his tank so he couldn’t see me and only interacting with his tank to give him food/water for almost a week he was awesome ate great and had no stress marks even when I handled him and bathed him but a couple days ago he started getting stress marks again and becoming more skittish. He still has a great appetite except today, he didn’t eat much. He usually eats like 10-14 crickets per feeding I feed him his veggies in the morning and his insects twice a day and leave his salad in there all day so he can snack which he does the amount of insects he eats fluctuates. But the stress marks worry me he gets a little jumpy when I walk in the room and look at him, he doesent really run but I can tell he’s on alert. I was wondering if you guys could help me understand why he’s becoming stressed randomly. Some times I’ll come in and he will have no marks but other times I come in and he has a full black beard and belly

He has a reptisun t8 uvb bulb the long tube about 12 inches away from his basking spot here is a photo of his enclosure

The basking spots are 115-100 he has different spots with different heats to do as he pleases, the cool side is 85 degrees I keep the humidity at 38-40% but sometimes it can get a little high 45% after I take a shower (my bathroom is attached to my room) I feed him pinhead crickets dusted with calcium and d3 (see photo)

I spray him once every day and drop water on his nose and I bathe him 1-2 times a week, I gut load the crickets with various vegetables. I have two heat lamps because I couldn’t get it hot enough with just one. Here is a photo of my basking light bulbs

My tank is 4 foot by 12 inches, a little small I am upgrading as soon as he hits a year, or just simply gets too long. Please help I am super worried about him thanks

 

[Julee1971]

U are doing better than most people. I rescue and rehome. He has a black chin cuz hes stressed, uncomfrotable and temps are off.; 1st of all; DO NOT EVER COVER THE TANK. He needs air flow to breathe. Turn on the Tv or place his tank by a window they love to look at the greenery on the outside & look at things & watch Tv; soft not violent movies and shows. 2ndly, the Thermometer is worthless, remove it and buy the zoomed digital thermometer $10 & the digital Thirve brand Hygometer $10. The digital ones are the best & most accurate. U have the correct basking bulb, only use one of the 100watt zoo med basking bulbs not "2". Its blazing HOT in there for him, i promise you the temps are not reading correctly becasue those guage thermometers are wrong/not accurate. A 40 gallon tank takes one 100watt bulb only. if the tank is samller than 40 gallons get a 75 watt bulb. Place the black probe of the digital thermometer on the basking spot and wait 15min or more and u will get the rite temp if not raise the bulb with something or buy a bulb raiser or lower his basking but he can go higher or lower to bask with his logs or tree; u need to reaarange. Remove all or any colored bulbs, never use a colored bulb and at nite it needs to be pure dark. Humidity should never be over 40. And the reptisun is very good & the best uVB to have; the T5 10.0 is better and brighter, if u can order that, it wud be better. 115 is way too HOT. For a baby under 4months basking should be 105-108 never higher. Do 105 to be safe as he gets older (6-7mnths) temp should be 95-100. Calcium buy the REPCAL brand (Return the one you have they will give u store credit) and dust the crickets once per day only and give it 5times per week. Lighty dust; don't over do it. The feedings are great, do 4-5 feedings of 15-20 crickets or dubia roaches, u feed till hes full. When he turns 4 months u can feed 3-4 times a day. Buy buy regular crickets not familiar with pin crickets & feed him 4 times a day; he needs lots of protein when growing. Now the cage should be deeper than 12 inches. Buy a 40 gallon tank with the doors in the front. 36by18by18 u can order from petco or petsmart with the doors in the front. They hate being approahed from up above. When he turns a year old or a bit before cage should be minumum 120 gallons 4feet by 2 by 2. U can do that when hes 7mnths old or 9 mtnhs old. For now tho; remove the logs from the hammock; they love to lay on their hammock and u can raise his hammock a bit so he can bask on it also and place the logs in front of the hammock or place the tree there so that side will be his basking side/the hot side. Find a way to rasie the logs with some sqaure blocks or something. This will help or get him a smaller basking tree thats more comfy from petsmart; they have good stuff. Follow all this asap and u will see a happy dragon. Oh and place the water dish and the veggie/greesn dish on the cold side, buy a small low feeding dish and a water dish., U are crowding the cage & the plate is in the center which gets the veggies wilted. Plate is too big. Feed him always an hour after basking which means an hour after the ligths are on. Dandelions, mustard, collard greens, snap peas, butternut sqaush, yellow sqaysh and green beans. Those are the best and only ones to feed. I do mustard,collard, dandelions, snap peas and yellow sqash and endoves dice it small and place it on the cold side. REmove it mid afternoon and give him a fresh one if u want but def feed 4 times a day the protein IF u have qyestuons bug me I will send a photo of my little ones cage and u can copy it somewhat also temp and Hygometer go on the hot side in basking area the black one should be next to thermometer.