The Life of Copper and Callie

Good evening, y’all. I want to introduce you guys to my two, new, baby beardies. I’ve been a bearded dragon owner since 2011, with some breaks here and there. I’ve had a total of 4 beardies, and continue to learn more and more every single day.

So come along with me into the journey of “The Life of Copper and Callie”

Edit 1: Week of Purchase (Week of 06/28/2024)
This week, my wife and I were looking at different reptile shops in our area. The first shop we went to had a good selection, but unfortunately, their knowledge was lacking, and more importantly, they had no clue where their beardies came from. The last shop we ended up at was Scales an’ Tails in Phoenix, AZ. The staff was friendly, knowledgeable, and knew where their animals came from. My wife and I decided to pick up our first dragon…Copper. Copper is estimated to be approximately 5 months old. I’m not sure. If you can tell, please let me know. He looks to be a Leatherback with no Het genes for Hypo or Trans. His coloration is a bright orange and yellow with black tiger stripes. I’d feel comfortable saying he’s an Orange Leatherback. Let me know what you think! Copper is currently housed in a Zilla 30x12x16 (20 Gallon Long). I plan on upgrading him to a 36x18x18 (40 Gallon Breeder) when he gets to be about 18 inches long. Heating him is a 100wt Zoo Med Powersun. This is the first time I’ve ever used a heat/UVB in one bulb. From my previous experience, I’ve heard to stay away from bulb UVB, and go with the strip. Due to this, I will be keeping a sharp eye on Copper to ensure he is getting the UVB he needs. Copper’s diet currently consists of Dubias (which I breed) 2 times a day, at however many he’ll eat in a 5 minute timespan. Please take a look at him, his enclosure, and please…feel free to drop suggestions below.

About 3 days after we purchased Copper, my wife was HOOKED. We needed to get Copper a friend. So back down to Scales N’ Tails we went. After looking at their selection, my wife landed on Callie. A BEAUTIFUL dragon. The coloration, and huge possibility of some amazing het genes in this girl is wild. One of her eyes is standard (colored iris), and the other eye only has a colored iris on the top quarter! The rest of the eye is black. She’s got translucent legs and a translucent base of her tail with clear nails. I’d feel comfortable saying she’s an Orange, Het Hypo, Het Trans, Leatherback. Her age is estimated to be about 3 months old. As always, please let me know what you think of her morph, and age. We purchased her, and placed them together…big no no. We realized that fairly quickly due to Copper chasing her around and nipping at her tail. To Facebook Marketplace we go! We found a killer deal on the Zilla 20 Gallon, which came with a Zilla heatpad, a thermostat, and TONS of decor for only $35. We had an old 20 gallon long from my last beardie. We brought the new enclosure home, I deep cleaned it, put in new substrate, deep cleaned the decor, and got it ready. We decided on giving Copper the Zilla 20 gallon, and have Callie in the standard 20 gallon. Callie is heated by a 100wt Zoo Med basking bulb, with a ReptiSun 10.0 for her UVB. She is also on Dubias. We have not attempted greens yet, due to us just getting her today.

So there you have it! Update #1 on Copper and Callie. I plan on doing weekly updates with their length, and weight, along with the pictures we all love!

Copper Week 1:

Copper’s Enclosure Setup:
(see if you can spot Copper sleeping)
(I do plan on getting something to cover the other 3 sides of the encloser)

Callie Week 1:
(No editing. Her tail is THAT much more vivid than her body)

As you can see, one eye has the full color iris, while the other only has color at the top of the iris.

Callie’s Enclosure Setup:

Please comment down below any questions, comments and/or concerns you may have regarding Copper and Callie. I am always looking to learn, and more importantly help out where I can.

 

[Chris.]

Hi there, looks like you got yourself two beautiful dragons.

The age of your boy seems about right.

Your girl looks hypo to me but hard to say based on pictures alone.

Looking forward to those updates on how they are doing. How have they seddled in so far?

 

[xp29]

Copper is for sure a leather back.
I agree with Chris that callie looks to be a hypo. Look at each nail. If they are all clear she's hypo. If even one has the black line down the middle, she isn't. As far as trans, not all homozygous trans dragons display the solid black eyes. And also even if they do it doesn't always remain for the entirety of their life, it can change. But seeing the one eye is nearly completely black I would venture to say she is a translucent.
Does she have the blue belly and clearish undersides on her legs?

 

[JohnLillywhite23]

Copper is for sure a leather back.
I agree with Chris that callie looks to be a hypo. Look at each nail. If they are all clear she's hypo. If even one has the black line down the middle, she isn't. As far as trans, not all homozygous trans dragons display the solid black eyes. And also even if they do it doesn't always remain for the entirety of their life, it can change. But seeing the one eye is nearly completely black I would venture to say she is a translucent.
Does she have the blue belly and clearish undersides on her legs?

She does not have any blue belly or underside of her legs. Her tail and legs are super gummy looking tho. Just no blue.

So safe to assume she’s a hypo, and POSSIBLY a trans

 

[JohnLillywhite23]

06/29/2024 Update:

Week 1 Weights and Lengths:
Copper: 20.4 Grams @ 8.25 Inches
Callie: 12.4 Grams @ 7 Inches

Greens Aren’t Loved:
To be expected, neither Copper, nor Callie like their greens. This morning, I made her a salad of collard greens, turnip greens, carrot shavings, red, blue, and yellow bell peppers. Copper, eyed the salad up and down once I put it in his enclosure, and ate a couple leaves out of my hands. After that, he was uninterested and let the salad sit in his enclosure. Completely expected behavior.

Callie, didn’t even care. She didn’t look at it, look interested in it, or even care about it. I can tell she’s going to be the difficult one.

That’s all for today! Check back for more in the future!

 

[ChileanTaco]

Welcome
Regarding greens: What got my dragon Taco hooked are live plants. Could you maybe get some organic potted herb (basil, rosemary), or a golliwog (scientific name is callisia repens, sold under these names or also as "turtle weed", often sold in garden centers)? They'll serve as edible tank decorations. Golliwog was actually the first of the greens Taco ate at home. He also likes to sit in the plant, licks off water from the leaves, and... yes, he eats it a lot. Did also at 3 month old when I got him.
Should, of course, not be the only veggie offered, but I think it's a nice addition, and it grows easily in a hot and high-uv environment (i.e. dragon enclosure) and won't go to waste.

And yes, Copper is a leatherback.
Looking forward how the color of especially Callie evolves! They can change a lot when they grow. My Taco, for example, went from chocolate brown with grey (grey on this back, I don't mean stress marks) as his typical color to a light sand color with bright orange and purple as now his typical color.
Didn't select him by color, and I thought okay then it's that, I'm fine with a chocolate brown one instead of a more typical sand-and-orange one, and was surprised

 

[xp29]

She does not have any blue belly or underside of her legs. Her tail and legs are super gummy looking tho. Just no blue.

So safe to assume she’s a hypo, and POSSIBLY a trans

Can you post a picture of her underside. It won't be blue like a crayon, but will have a blueish or blackish tint because the skin hasn't thickened up yet and her internals slightly show through the skin (if she is trans.)

 

[xp29]

The legs looking gummy sounds like a trans, my girl Zsa Zsa looked like that when I first got her.
You can see it a little bit in this picture.

 

[JohnLillywhite23]

Welcome
Regarding greens: What got my dragon Taco hooked are live plants. Could you maybe get some organic potted herb (basil, rosemary), or a golliwog (scientific name is callisia repens, sold under these names or also as "turtle weed", often sold in garden centers)? They'll serve as edible tank decorations. Golliwog was actually the first of the greens Taco ate at home. He also likes to sit in the plant, licks off water from the leaves, and... yes, he eats it a lot. Did also at 3 month old when I got him.
Should, of course, not be the only veggie offered, but I think it's a nice addition, and it grows easily in a hot and high-uv environment (i.e. dragon enclosure) and won't go to waste.

And yes, Copper is a leatherback.
Looking forward how the color of especially Callie evolves! They can change a lot when they grow. My Taco, for example, went from chocolate brown with grey (grey on this back, I don't mean stress marks) as his typical color to a light sand color with bright orange and purple as now his typical color.
Didn't select him by color, and I thought okay then it's that, I'm fine with a chocolate brown one instead of a more typical sand-and-orange one, and was surprised

I’ll have to look into the live plants! Never heard of that being an option.

Thank you for confirming Copper as a leatherback!

I too look forward to seeing Callie’s color progression

 

[JohnLillywhite23]

Can you post a picture of her underside. It won't be blue like a crayon, but will have a blueish or blackish tint because the skin hasn't thickened up yet and her internals slightly show through the skin (if she is trans.)

As soon as they warm up tomorrow morning, I will!

 

[JohnLillywhite23]

The legs looking gummy sounds like a trans, my girl Zsa Zsa looked like that when I first got her.
You can see it a little bit in this picture.

Yeah. The upper half of her tail and legs are super gummy. I’ll try to get some better pics for you tomorrow.

Is $130 a good deal on a Hypo Trans Leatherback? It’s a mouthful, and sounds nice

 

[xp29]

Yeah. The upper half of her tail and legs are super gummy. I’ll try to get some better pics for you tomorrow.

Is $130 a good deal on a Hypo Trans Leatherback? It’s a mouthful, and sounds nice

It is actually. I've got about 700 in Sinatra 400 in Zsa Zsa and if I remember correctly 350ish in Ruby.
If they have good color, I see hypo/trans bring 200-250 quite often here in vegas. If you add in known hets the price goes up quite a bit beyond that.

 

[JohnLillywhite23]

It is actually. I've got about 700 in Sinatra 400 in Zsa Zsa and if I remember correctly 350ish in Ruby.
If they have good color, I see hypo/trans bring 200-250 quite often here in vegas. If you add in known hets the price goes up quite a bit beyond that.

Interesting. Of course, I didn’t purchase because of the genes only, but it was a huge selling point for me.

How does one accurately identify known hets? And would she just be an orange? So a Translucent Hypo Orange Leatherback? I don’t know too much regarding morphs, other than the common ones such as hypo, trans, leatherback and silkie.

 

[Chris.]

Interesting. Of course, I didn’t purchase because of the genes only, but it was a huge selling point for me.

How does one accurately identify known hets? And would she just be an orange? So a Translucent Hypo Orange Leatherback? I don’t know too much regarding morphs, other than the common ones such as hypo, trans, leatherback and silkie.

You could by selective breeding but other than that hets don't display their genetics.
Orange is the color, those have gotten many names over the years. I'd call that orange but if you want to call her citrus, that might also work

For the greens, you can try arugula/rocket. My girl is 4 months (she is 12.6" and 120g but still fits in her bowl) and on some days she will finish the bowl if there is arugula and carrots in it. Also hibiscus flowers work really well for both my dragons.

 

[xp29]

Chris is correct on the color.
Color isn't considered a morph.
Morphs are specific gene mutations that can be reliably reproduced, such as hypo, trans, ect.
Color is more like melting crayons and swirling them together, you kind of know what you'll get but not in what quantity or patterns.
Your girl would be for instance an orange, hypo, trans, leatherback. If she develops some yellows if would be fair to call her a citrus, hypo, trans, leatherback.
The term het is short for heterozygous. A heterozygous gene is recessive and offspring have to receive a copy from each parent for the trait to be visible. So the only way to prove an animal has a het gene is by breeding into another animal that is know to carry that gene. If you get babies that display the trait then you have proven yours is het. Hypo, trans, zero, witblits, wero are all examples of recessive traits.
Homozygous on the other hand are dominant genes and only one copy is needed for the trait to display. Leatherback, Dunner, genetic stripe are some of the Homozygous traits. So if an animal carries the gene it 100% will display. There is no het for these genes. (With the exception that there is a recessive leatherback gene, but I think it's pretty rare)
Both of your beardies are leatherback, I DO NOT RECOMMEND ever breeding them together. It creates a super form of leatherback. They are called silkies. They are EXTREMELY hard to care for and can suffer a great deal by just being alive.