What's going on with my dragon here? I'm confused.

[Lurhstaap]

I wasn't sure what forum to put this in. Sorry if this is wrong.

So when I first got Sunset I didn't notice anything unusual about him. It had been many, many years since I had owned a bearded. When I got Pele, recently, I was struck by how much larger she is and how different the texture of her hide is, but I put it down to him being a pet store mutt, and possible stunted growth from a mistake I made early on, as compared to her as a carefully bred and raised 'purebred'. But now that I've just rescued this third dragon I am finding that MUCH more difficult to believe. Because I never mistreated Sunny half as bad as this dragon has been neglected, but it's much bigger than Sunny and it has the same pebbly-spiky back texture that Pele has. And his little face seems to be shaped somewhat differently from both of theirs.

So now I'm wondering about Sunny. Is he a leatherback? Is he a Vittikens? Did I do something even more horribly wrong than I realized and mess up his scale development? (OH GOD please don't tell me that, but if I did, I need to know now so I can start trying to fix it. x.x) Or is he just... little and smooth but not unusually so?

I wish I could get better photos, but here's a couple of comparison shots of him and Pele. (Goldie, the new one, does not get along well with Sunny yet, so I do not want to put them together for pictures. Sunny and Pele get along fine, Pele and Goldie get along fine, but Sunny and Goldie do not. Kind of aggravating but hopefully Sunny will get over it once he's out of this hardcore puberty stage.) Pele is the large red one, Sunset the smaller brown one. (He's usually yellow but he doesn't like being photographed so he got all dark and grouchy. He's been such a stinker lately.)

 

[Toria88]

My honest guess would be that he's a leatherback. Puff (my beardie) is a leatherback, but he is just a baby. The smoothness on Sunny's back looks similar to the way Puff's back is. I'll put up a picture of him so you can see what I mean. He does look a lot smaller than your other beardie. What is their age difference?

Puff's back:

 

[Lurhstaap]

That's the especially odd thing, with their sizes, and why the idea that he might be Vittikins crossed my mind. Sunny is about seven months and Pele is only four to five months. It's just that, while he is still growing, he's obviously just not attaining the same kind of size as Pele.

 

[patrickmb21]

You have never heard of a leatherback

 

[Lurhstaap]

Oh, I've HEARD of them, but I've never actually SEEN one. That's why I don't feel confident identifying Sunny as one. x.x The few photos I've seen of leatherbacks look even smoother than he is, but I really have no idea. That may well be what he is and I'm just too ignorant to recognize it for sure.

 

[patrickmb21]

Heres my leatherback back in july. ill try to find a recent pic

 

[Lurhstaap]

Sunny was older than that when I got him, but that does remind me of what some of the younger dragons in the same store (presumably from the same parents or breeder) looked like.

 

[patrickmb21]

some more recent pics

 

[Lurhstaap]

Hmmm... interesting. Based on those pictures Sunny looks somewhere between a normal dragon and an actual leatherback. He's got larger and more spines than your guy does and he has a few of the lumpy nodules on his back which your guy seems to entirely lack. But otherwise that does look a lot like Sunny. Perhaps one of his parents was a leatherback and the other was normal? Is a "less leathery" leatherback-normal cross possible or is it one of those all-or-nothing type mutations?

 

[patrickmb21]

Hmm very interesting

 

[Lurhstaap]

Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of my little boy at this point. XD This is why the Vittikins thing keeps crossing my mind. Maybe that would explain the odd scale texture too. But I haven't been able to find a lot of solid information on Vittikins, so I'm not at all certain about anything really. It doesn't matter to me, as I love him to death no matter what, but it is interesting to wonder what's going on with his genes.

EDIT: So I've been looking it up and I am becoming more and more convinced that Sunny is in fact a Vittikins. This video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWuk78rPPBQ

purports to be of a vittikins, and that dragon's back appears to have the same texture as Sunny's, plus its spikes are just like his. Sunny has much different colors and patterns, but the actual look of that lizard is very similar to my boy otherwise. How fascinating. I don't think the place I bought him has any idea. Do you guys see the resemblance or is it just me?

 

[patrickmb21]

What do you mean by vittikins?

 

[Esther19]

If I recall correctly, a Vittikins does not have much of a beard.

 

[patrickmb21]

Hmm i have never heard of them. so where did you get sunny and how old is he now?

 

[patrickmb21]

I watched the video. i cant believe i never heard of these. very interesting