My beardie and stress lines..

I've had my Bearded Dragon for exactly one week and I've noticed that he always has those black stress lines under his chin and belly.

Now I expected this for the first few days while he settled, but is it normal for him to have them constantly? Honestly, the only time he doesn't have them is when he is sleeping! And they change so quickly too. Last night I was on my computer and he was asleep. I noticed his throat was white with no black lines and that his belly (from what I could see from the side) had no lines either. He also looked a nice sandy brown colour all over. Anyway I went to get up and knocked something over on my PC desk. I turned round to see if I had woke my Lizard and I had, and the black lines were on his throat and belly again and his whole colour had darkened! He went from being nice and colourful with no black lines to dark with black lines in the space of about 10 seconds!

What is wrong? Is this just because he is still settling or because he is a baby? Maybe both?

The temps in my tank are fine (98F basking, 80F cool side) and he eats perfectly fine on a good diet (I've read the caresheets). His enclosure is perfectly big enough for his size and I haven't over crowded it either.

Anyone got any suggestions or anything to say?

Thanks.

It can some time for your beardie to calm down. But in time it will. I had a adult that it took a month for to finaly get unstressed. Give it time .

My suggestion is to bump your temps a little bit and cover the sides of the cage about half way up with copy paper. This will eliminate some of his view of the activity in the room.

The darker markings that you are seeing are caused by more than just stress - dragons will also darken some to absorb more heat while they are basking and will stay dark until they reach the desired temperature.

Vickie