Nice looking group of Dragons! How the heck did you get them all to sit still long enough to get a picture?
It is my understanding that 99 percent of the colored dragons can be traced back to Sandfire. Bob imported a few dragons with more color than any of the others (long ago) that ultimately produced the Sandfire morph, lots of the dragons they produced (and still do) where not “classic” Sandfire but had a lot of color (reds, yellows, gold’s, etc.). Other breeders worked with these to develop the color even more like Kevin Dunn and his Bloodred morphs. Sandfire exported a great many Sandfire and high colored dragons to Europe too so many of the recent imports from Europe that have nice color can also be traced back to Sandfire. Ultimately, we all owe Sandfire for our colorful dragons.
All the names for colored dragons are arbitrary, that is why they are confusing. I’m sure there are some that will disagree, but for the most part, they are names a breeder made up to help set their colored dragon apart from the others. That does not mean the breeders have not put a great deal of effort into creating a certain look. A “Sunburst” is yellow dragon with orange highlights, a “sunrise” is a yellow dragon with orange highlights, a “yellow Sandfire” is a yellow dragon with orange highlights, a “citrus” is a yellow dragon with orange highlights; yes there are differences that each of the breeders can recognize but, well it all confuses me too. I know what I’m looking for when looking for a dragon and what people want to call it is not very important to me. There are a few mutations in the mix too like Hypo, tiger, translucent, etc. Certainly, someone can probably tell you whom the breeder was that made up the specific names. As to what was bred to create each names color, well that is arbitrary too. I’m sure someone can answer in more detail on the specifics of each morph/variety.
I can use our own project as an example. We started with a male from Sandfire, added a female from Dragon’s Den, mixed in some stock indirectly from Dachui lines (had other stuff mixed in) and a different female from Sandfire, etc. There’s even hypo in the woodpile. The babies range from buff yellow, bright yellow gold, orange, red, and the ones we are calling Rainbow (see rainbow pics below). The “Rainbows” are what we strive to produce. What is easier to say, Sandfire-Bloodred-Dachui line-Hypo mix or Rainbow? The fact is, you could go buy dragons from the same exact breeders and come up with different results. Every dragon is going to have differences (some obvious, some subtle), which will create a different look down the line. We as individuals will pick out certain features that someone else will not, thus even with getting clutch mates from the same mix of breeders we can all get different results. Also, we don’t want to inbreed, so we have to add new stock from another breeder anytime we keep one of our own to breed; this adds a different set of genes and can have a change in the results.
I just realized I didn’t really answer your question, but I hope I at least gave you something to think about.
“Rainbows”
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles
