Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have spent the last week looking at beardies for my son. He has decided to get into reptiles with dear old dad but beardies are not my strong suit. I know the basic husbandry stuff but the color variations are mind boggling. I see alot of them advertised as thisXthat. Now as a "snake guy" I think that would produce a normal looking animal that was double het for this and that. Is this true or do these crosses look unique as well? And if so what will they look like? Mom? Dad? Freaky combination?

Specifically what would a hypo pastel X sandfire look like?

Thanks for the help?

Most beardie morphs are codominant (mix together). The only recessive ones proven are leucistic, translucent, clear nails, and some hypos.

Sean
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Heart Mountain Herps

The color phases of beardies are a product of selective breeding like what Jeff Ronne has done with his "pastel" line. They are not co-dominate merely an inherited trait. Much like blonde hair and blue eyes. This is proved by the variances in each clutch. A codominate trait would produce a number close to 50% looking like the parent with the desired trait..... This is not true in any of the color phases of any of the bloodlines. There have been different color phases bred for out of the same bloodlines. Sandfire yellow, sandfire red, and sandfire orange is a good example as all of these color phases were produced form the same bloodlines. Selectively breeding the yellow ones to the yellow ones has started producing some super nice yellow sandfires but you can still get reds' yellows, oranges and normal colored animals from each clutch. The genetics that create these color phases can pop up seven generations later.... A polygenic trait. I believe this info to be true because I bred a Redflame/sandfire red feamle to a Zilla/sandfire yellow/pastel male and in the clutch of 13 I had a couple that looked pastelish, one that resembled a sandfire red/flame, two or three that looked sandfire yellow, so on and so on....

As for recessive traits..... There are a few of those starting to emerge in bearded dragons. Hypo-pastel and marketed leusistic are actually one trait. Hpoymelanism. This was proved by Rob and Vicki Dachiu as they bred a Marketed Leusistic to a Hypo-Pastel and got 100% clear nailed offspring. So there are two seperate bloodlines of hypomelanism out there.

Another recessive trait is hypo-irrisistic or "translucent". These dragons lack the ability to reflect the base color of white due to misalligned platelets or "irridiphores" causing them to have a transparent look.

Though albinos aren't in the USA.... (supposedly).... They have been produced in Australia.... Another recessive trait as well.

If you have any other questions please email me.... phone chats are better for this as I could type till I'm blue in the fingers....LOL

Later,
Robert
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen, philosophers and divines.
Ralph Emerson

Wow, thanks for the info. It's alot more involved than I thought. More like dogs and cats than snakes.

Yeah it's not nearly as cut and dry as it is with say the boa morphs. If you breed for color, it's kinda like the pastel boa line from Jeff Ronne.

As far as breeding a sandfire to a hypomelanistic (hypo-pastel or Marketed Leusistic) animal, you will get 100% het for hypomelanistic. After you find another het to breed back to you will se that the black in the animal is dropped and more of the color is able to shine through making it look brighter and more intensly colored.

The thing everyone has been talking about though is how inbred the beardies are. (This is of course only what I've read in forums or discussed with other beardie lovers...) They are saying that breeding for the traits by taking father back to daughter is really a no-no. You have to be carefull and trace back a few generations to make sure that there is no relation. Kinda like what happened to the albino boas before they crossed in the surinams. You were getting albinos but they had bad eyes, had to be hand fed due to lack of fedding response....etc. So just be carefull and trace your beardies lineag back as far as you can and make sure to deal with reputable dealers so your not getting something toher than what your told your getting. When beardies are too closely related you'll get all sorts of complications that will make the breeding experience less than enjoyable.

Good luck to you and your son!

Robert
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen, philosophers and divines.
Ralph Emerson