My beardie’s colour...?

[ottothedragon]

so to start i do not know anything about the parents of my dragon, i know he isn’t a fancy morph, he’s no hypo, i know he’s not a translucent or leatherback or anything fancy like that; however, i was curious as to if he’ll probably just grow up to be flat drab brown or if his orange markings will stay as they are or what... i love him regardless but i don’t know how much his colour will change and i’ve heard that sometimes they grow more drab as they age while other people i know say my baby might get MORE orangey but i’m now left clueless after research and differing statements. anybody know? also. i’ve never used a forum like this and therefore don’t know how to attatch a picture which is kinda necessary to see what my dragon looks like... help?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, the answer is that you can not know for sure if you don't see the parents and even within a clutch there is variation of brightness between clutchmates. I raised loads of babies and they do change as they grow.


Here's how to post pics :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload pics

 

[EllenD]

Well said by AHBD, there is no way to tell, even when you do know what the parents look like it usually doesn't help. My now 12 month old girl was a creamy white color with a dark brown pattern down her back at a month old, and around 6-7 months old she shed and became the most beautiful shade of bright orange all over her body, and her face and beard is creamy white with gorgeous corl/orange splashed all over it. She's absolutely beautiful and looks nothing like she did as a baby. In contrast, my 6 month old male Leatherback was very, very red as a month old baby, and he's only gotten more and more red, and has the same patterns as he did as a baby, they're just brighter. So you probably won't get an idea of what she'll look like until she's at least 5-6 months old or older, after a full body shed around that time. She may look exactly the same as she does, she may be brighter or darker, or she may totally change colors completely like my girl has. I also have a year and 3 month old normal male who I rescued at 8 months old, and he's the plain, drab brown and white color that they look like as babies, with a few blotches of orange here and there, but for the most part he's just brown...he also had no UVB lighting at all until I got him at 8 months old (has severe MBD), so maybe that had an effect on his colors, I don't know...

 

[ottothedragon]

okay, thanks! my beardie’s only 3 months old so i suppose it’ll just be a waiting game for now. here he is though

 

[EllenD]

The top photo of him looks very much like my 12 month old female I was describing did when she was young, just white with dark brown markings and a bit of orange. She is flaming orange and corl right now, here is a photo of what she looked like at 9 months old, so 3 months ago, She's much brighter right now. But seriously, she looked just like your little guy does...

These are all from 3-4 months ago, she's twice as bright a shade of orange all over, and her beard is now this beautiful, flaming corl color...nothing like she looked as a baby.

EDIT: Weirdest shed pattern ever in the third photo, lol. She looked like that for a week or so, she did this a week after she had shed her entire head. I guess that circle didn't quite shed enough for her, lol.

 

[ottothedragon]

don’t know if anyone’ll see this or not but otto seems to be getting more colourful
him right before shedding:

and him right after:

he’s so pretty

 

[AHBD]

He looks great, and growing very quickly. Looks like a very healthy boy. BTW, if you're not sure of his gender you can post pics here with his tail arched high up in the air. [ Think of a happy/excited dog, tail straight up and almost arched back. ] This is done while he's on a flat surface. If you're not comfortable doing that or he doesn't cooperate you can wait until he's older.