# Co-dom beardie morphs?



## Rum_Kitty (Jun 14, 2009)

Are there any co dominant bearded dragon colour morphs? Seen lots of piccies of gorgeous colours but no info on the genetics!!! Also, are the reds (hypo, blood etc) recessive?


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

Silkback is the only one proven to be co-dominant. There is some suggestion that "US Smoothie" is also co-dom, although some people are suggesting that the "true" form is recessive and that the co-dom US Smoothies are actually just leatherbacks (the het form of silkback), as they look phenotypically like the Smoothies, and the gene is allelic to silkback...

Many of the other traits are much more complex - this is a reply that I wrote to another forum member a few weeks back which hopefully explains a bit:



hadesdragons said:


> adamzarahmae said:
> 
> 
> > *I may sound like an idiot but sometimes the advice on the net can be baffling but here goes...
> ...


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## Rum_Kitty (Jun 14, 2009)

Hmm...interesting. The reason I ask is that I was considering getting my normal male a ladyfriend and I was thinking about a red of some sort...would I get any red babies if I bred him to a red?


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

Rum_Kitty said:


> Hmm...interesting. The reason I ask is that I was considering getting my normal male a ladyfriend and I was thinking about a red of some sort...would I get any red babies if I bred him to a red?


Most "red" morphs are made up from a lot of genes, each of which has a small effect on a dragon (ie the effect is small enough that a single gene doesn't produce enough of a difference to be classed as a morph, but when you have lots of genes it makes a difference). Some of these "small-bit-of-red" genes will be recessive, some will be co-dom, some will be dominant. If you breed a normal to a red, the babies will normally show a bit more red than the normal, but less red than the red parent - the recessive genes from the red parent won't do anything unless a copy is present in the non-red parent, but the co-dom / dominant genes will have small effects. Generally speaking, the redder the "red" parent, the redder the babies are likely to be.


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## Rum_Kitty (Jun 14, 2009)

Thats fascinating! Will need to read up on my beardie genetics! Thanks v much for your help.


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## ignorantshed (Jul 19, 2007)

I think alot of the colour morphs have been crossed so much that they are more "line bred traits" rather than being totally genetically recessive or incomplete dominant, i'd say your best bet is to just get the nicest/brightest dragon u can find, u will then at least get some nice babies in the 2nd generation


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

ignorantshed said:


> I think alot of the colour morphs have been crossed so much that they are more "line bred traits" rather than being totally genetically recessive or incomplete dominant, i'd say your best bet is to just get the nicest/brightest dragon u can find, u will then at least get some nice babies in the 2nd generation


That's pretty much it - aside from the "simple" genes such as hypo which have large, noticeable effects, the majority of traits are line-bred, and are composed of so many individual genes that the visual trait won't behave simply.


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## Squirrel (Oct 23, 2007)

Crackin post, mind if I print it out for reference and for customers? all credit will go to yourself obviously.


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

Squirrel said:


> Crackin post, mind if I print it out for reference and for customers? all credit will go to yourself obviously.


Go for it - I'm in the process of writing a genetics section for my website, so if you hang on for a bit there should be a more presentable version of it online soon.


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## puyopop (Oct 21, 2008)

why doesn the albino have a beard?


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## puyopop (Oct 21, 2008)

anyoneee?


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## Billy Hunter (Oct 2, 2010)

*dragons*

Can anyone help me find albino bearded dragons?!


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

Billy Hunter said:


> Can anyone help me find albino bearded dragons?!


Not in this country :lol2:

Last I heard, they're periodically produced from several known het animals in Australia, in addition to the occasional (dead) baby being found in the wild.

Given the export ban on Aussie fauna, they won't (legally) be appearing outside of Australia for some time - either when the ban's lifted, or the mutation crops up in a non-Aussie line of beardies.


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