My Bearded dragon

Question
Hi i got two female bearded dragons 5 days ago. They are both 6 weeks old and are eating crickets and the lighter 1 is also eating some veggies. However the other girl has been eating her crickets but no vegetables and has gone very dark on her underside. I was wondering if this is because of stress or something else.

Answer
Hi Hamish,

There can be natural variation in colour between hatchlings, even those from the same clutch.

Low temperatures or stress can cause an overall darkening (not just on the underside) but you would also notice a corresponding change in behaviour, usually lack of feeding.

I don't think it is anything you need to worry about. Lol, I don't think I ever thought to look at the undersides of the hatchlings back when I was breeding beardeds!
Focus more on their behaviour, specifically feeding and basking. It is not unusual for  6 week old beardeds to take primarily insects. The high protein diet at that age fuels their rapid growth. It often takes a bit of coaxing to get them to eat their veggies but the tendency to take  greens will increase as they age.

When you house more then one together you just have to make sure that there are no dominance issues. Even at that age, slightly smaller or shyer animals can be intimidated from eating or from accessing the basking area.

You mentioned that they are females but beardeds are virtually impossible to sex accurately at that young age. As they mature, just keep in mind that the sexing may not be accurate which may mean separating them at some point.