Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello -

I have a question about the variation in the hypo gene. I just received a dragon that was sold to me as a hypo trans leatherback. The trans leatherback part is easy to tell, however, when I looked at his nails there is a bit of color to them. I thought that the nails had to be COMPLETELY clear for the dragon to be considered a hypo. I would call the second dragon a non hypo compared to the first dragon which is a hypo. Or is there a fair amount of variation in the degree of nail "clearness" in bearded dragons? I know many genetic traits have quite a bit of variation about them such as leatherbacks and trans. I have attached two pictures 1) is a dragon that I already have which is a hypo trans and 2) this new dragon that is supposedly a hypo trans. What you you guys think?

Thanks in advance for your opinions,

Kyle

Hypo

Non-hypo?

-----
Kyle

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The first picture is a hypo dragon.
The second one is NOT a hypo.

There is no variation when it comes to the nails. And since many lines have colors added into them over time the only really 100% for sure way to tell is by there nail color. I have many dragons with the "almost" clear nail (that you have as the second picture) with the black strip in the front of the nail. Many of which have no hypo gene's at all in there linage. That to me is a totally ordinary nail color. I have personally never seen a dragon with totally black nails but I have seen pictures online of wild dragons that have them. Either way you got scammed out of some money and I would make sure you let the seller know your dragon is not hypo after all!
-Amy
CalicoDragons.com

I agree with the last poster and personally would not call the 2nd picture a hypomelanistic dragon, BUT.

The word Hypo is short for Hypomelanistic which is a reduction in dark pigment. Some breeders say an animal is Hypomelanistic "with clear nails" which would be the correct way to state what you were looking for.

In general somone could claim that any light colored dragon is hypomelanistic and it really wouldn't be a lie.