Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering where I can find some unusual color morphs of collared lizards. I have two desert collards and two eastern collard lizards. I have seen some of the pictures on thi sforum and would like to find some more "colorful" caollard lizards. I think they are more fun then bearded dragons. They are always acting funny and are very feisty. Mine all like to play "King of the Mountain."

...well, within what are called "Eastern" collareds, there is a pretty good range of variations over their geographic distribution, which is rather....large. Collareds were once partially segregated into subspecies based on an attempt to catagorize some of them into "pattern classes" which were later found to be virtually useless, due to overlapping colorations within diverse populations. There is some locality based consistancy in coloration in specific areas, however. In terms of color, there are what you could call "good" examples of the pigmentation for the area, and there are less vivid individuals in the same range. This is complicated by the affects of the onset of breeding season, temps, and even "mood" LOL. The mechanisms of color inheritance seem to be elusive in Crotaphytus, as I have heard of highly colored individuals producing less vivid offspring and drab parents unexpectedly producing quite colorful progeny. Getting a captive bred collared to equal the color intensity of the wild lizards is also a bit of a moving target, it seems. Basically, forget about "color morphs" in collareds and concentrate on obtaining offspring from the best examples of the regional variant that appeals to you, within the several species. That seems to give the best odds, but of course, your milage may vary.

DC
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I've got the blues...LOL...them screamin' yellow-head blues...