Paradox Bearded Dragons

A bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps) with a Paradox morph displays colours that its morph should not give it. These are random splashes of blue, white, purple or another shade across the base animal. Because no two are alike, nobody can breed one to order. These dragons are rare. Price follows how striking the patches are and how much of the dragon they cover.

Appearance

A Paradox looks like any other dragon of its morph when it first hatches, with patches appearing over its first weeks to months. These marks appear on the head, body, or tail at random, and they are least often on the belly. A patch can be a small smudge you might miss or it can be a large share of the animal. At the far end, a dragon can be split half and half down the middle including the head. The eyes can also be affected, and sometimes each eye has a different colour.

People talk about the colours purple and blue. The name Purple Paradox was coined by Venom Dragons in 2005. Not every Paradox shows purple, however, as the patches can be white or any other colour.

Genetics

The Paradox is not linked to one specific gene. It does not have a dominant or recessive mode. Having two Paradox parents gives no guarantee of a Paradox in the clutch. This look appears most often on Zero and Witblits animals and in Translucent and Hypo Translucent lines. The name is a loose label for an unusual look and does not name a genetic category. There are two usual explanations. A mosaic is where one embryo ends up with two genetically different cell lines, and a chimera is where two embryos fuse into one animal. A mosaic is almost certainly the cause of a clean left-and-right split. The first recognised Paradox was produced by Phantom Dragons in 2003.