Yes! Hypo bearded dragons have clear nails on all 20 toes. Additionally, they have lighter color tones on their skin and scales and lack a dark brown or black band running along their back because their bodies produce less melanin (the dark color pigment) than other beardies.

Bearded Dragon Colors, Patterns, and Breeding Basics

Different bearded dragons possess varying body sizes, colors, and scale arrangements. Likewise, there are many variations in color schemes and scale patterns among bearded dragons of the same species, such as the Central beardie.

Why is it important to know a bearded dragon’s body color, scale patterning, and genetic composition?

Here’s why: Some bearded dragon owners prefer to buy beardie pets with specific eye colors, a particular body color, or specific scale patterning in line with their tastes and preferences.

But that’s not all. Some beardies fetch higher market prices than their counterparts as they’re harder to breed, thus rare in the market. Sadly, beardie breeders sometimes mislabel or flaunt classic (wild-type) bearded dragons as rarer types to fetch higher market deals.

Here are a few common bearded dragon breeding terms and their basic meanings:

• Morph: This term refers to the overall physical appearance of a bearded dragon, including its body type, size, color, eye color, and patterning. The genetic makeup of the beardie determines its morph.

• Genes are the biological stock codes that determine any living organism’s physical appearance and behavioral traits. Gene mutations cause physical and behavioral variations.

• Genotype: An organism’s set of genes

• Phenotype: This is an organism’s general appearance (such as body shape, color, and size) or observed behavioral traits and is determined by the organism’s genotype

• Allele: These are the protein blocks in genes that determine whether a particular trait is dominant or recessive. Each gene has a pair of alleles which are dominant or recessive.

• Homozygous Gene: A gene whose both alleles are the same

• Heterozygous Gene: A geneconsisting of different alleles

• Leucism: A condition describing an organism whose melanin content is significantly lower than normal, resulting in lighter or paler colors or patchy color patterning

• Albinism is a condition referring to the complete absence of melanin in an organism’s skin, leading to distinctive pale coloring and pink or red eyes. Although there isn’t a proven albino bearded dragon to date, unconfirmed reports insinuate that albino bearded dragon hatchlings are unhealthy and weak and usually die off. The organism’s lack of melanin is suspected of causing vitamin D3 deficiency and severe health abnormalities such as MBD, hypocalcemia, and digestive anomalies, among others.

• Pattern: This refers to the arrangement or design of color spots on a bearded dragon’s back

Bearded Dragon Breeding

The classic (wild-type) captive bearded dragon resembles the wild beardie in many aspects. However, through selective breeding, bearded dragon breeders have developed a broad range of bearded dragon morphs that are fascinating in appearance and traits.

When reviewing bearded dragon morphs, we consider two major classifications- Scaling Morphs and Visual Morphs.

Scaling morphs refer to the arrangement of scales on a beardie’s body and result in bearded dragon morphs such as:

• Normal scaled beardies
• Leatherback bearded dragons
• Dunner dragons
• Silkback beardies

On the other hand, visual morphs of beardies include:

• Hypo bearded dragons
• Trans beardies
• Zero
• Witblits
• Wero beardies
• Paradox bearded dragons

This post will focus on Hypo bearded dragons and their toenails.

Leucistic Bearded Dragons

Leucism is a recessive trait that causes mutations which cause a beardie to produce exceptionally low amounts of melanin than the wild beard or classic beardie morph has.

Unlike people with albinism who lack melanin completely, Leucistic beardies display significantly reduced dark colors and patterns but don’t have red or pink eyes. The red or pink eyes result from a lack of dark color pigment in the eyes, an absence that displays the blood-rich tissues and capillaries therein.

Leucistic bearded dragons come in patchy, white, or many other lighter colors than normal beardies and classic bearded dragon morphs.

Hypo, Witblits, and Zero beardie morphs are Leucistic since they all stem from mutations that diminish the melanin a beardie produces and the intensity of dark colors its body displays.

Hypo Bearded Dragons

Hypo is short for Hypomelanistic, meaning that hypo beardies’ bodies produce significantly lower amounts of the dark color pigment (melanin) than other bearded dragons. Consequently, hypo beardies appear substantially lighter in color than the other beardie morphs.

Beyond that, Hypomelanism is a type of visual morph. This means it affects the overall body color and appearance of the beardie.

Visual morphs are recessive traits, meaning a beardie must inherit a specific visual quality from both parents for the trait to manifest.

If only one parent carries the Hypomelanistic trait, the offspring from such a bearded dragon parent will still have the trait but won’t display it visually.

On the other hand, dominant traits are expressed in offspring even if only one parent carries the specific attribute.

How do I Know if My Bearded Dragon is Hypo?

Bearded dragon morphs are rare in the wild as the environment naturally weeds out weak offspring in favor of those adapted to the surroundings. Conversely, beardie breeders cleverly breed select beardie morphs to produce desired morphs better adapted to the environments.

While selective breeding offers breeders and beardie pet enthusiasts an opportunity to obtain their perfect or preferred beardie morph, it opens a door for unethical business.

Many bearded dragon pet breeders and pet shops often advertise their beardies as hypo while they aren’t.

Fortunately, we have designed a way to help you find a proven (true) hypo bearded dragon pet by laying out its qualities.

True hypo bearded dragons have the following standard characteristics:

• All-clear nails on all 20 toes unless there’s a missing toenail
• Absence or significant reduction of dark colors in the eyes
• Lighter body color than the other beardie morphs, along with the marked absence or reduction of dark colors
• The absence of a brown stripe running from the head to the tail along the bearded dragon’s back
• Lack of a brown or dark melanin stripe running along the top length of each toenail
• Brightly colored scales due to the low amounts of melanin and consequent dark colors
• Absence of or inability to form dark-color scaling patterns
• The beardies have a body type similar to standard-morph beardies with a distinct large triangular head and scales and spikes all over the back.

Although some bearded dragons are marketed as hypo beardies, they’re often standard or other beardie morphs. The ‘hypo’ tag is a marketing gimmick to attract more buyers and profits.

But that’s not all.

Besides the true hypo-bearded dragon morph, numerous other morphs of beardies carry the hypo trait. These morphs result from breeding a hypo beardie with another beardie morph. Thus, they possess a mix of traits from both morphs. They include:

• Hypo Trans: A bearded dragon morph that carries and displays both the Hypo and Translucent gene traits. Such beardies have 20 clear toenails, black eyes, and significantly lighter body colors.
• Het Hypo: A beardie morph that contains the Hypo gene but doesn’t express it visually. Such beardies have black nails and brown melanin stripes along their backs and can form dark patterns, amongst other traits.
• Hypo Leatherback
• Hypomelanistic Zero
• Hypo Witblits
• Hypo Silverback beardies’
• Hypo Het Trans beardies
• Trans Het Hypo beardies

How do You Cut a Hypo Bearded Dragons Nails?

Nail trimming is integral to hypo pet bearded dragon care as with other beardie morphs. It not only gives the dragon an easier, safer, and more comfortable time in their enclosure but also keeps you safe from painful skin punctures and scratches resulting from handling the pet.

Remember, overgrown bearded dragon nails easily break or come off completely and might leave injuries that can contract severe beardie infections.

Here are the tools and equipment you’ll need to clip your hypo beardie’s toenails:

• Rubbing alcohol or another disinfectant to sterilize the nail clipping tools before and after use
• A pet nail/claw trimmer/clipper- a specialized pet nail trimmer clips the nail by cutting in a circular pattern and applying pressure equally around the nail. Contrarily, a human toenail cutter applies cutting pressure at only two points on the nail, thus can easily break unevenly or split a dry, damaged, or weak beardie toenail.
• Styptic Powder or styptic pencil to stop the bleeding, seal the wound, and prevent infection in the unfortunate event of an injury
• A yummy treat to soothe your beardie pet after the process and congratulate it for staying calm and composed through the entire process

Cutting a hypo beardie’s toenails should be an easy, straightforward, and stress-free exercise. However, your pet dragon should be calm throughout the process. Let’s dive right in:

1. About 30 minutes before collecting your nail trimming tools, stop feeding your pet beardie and dim the lights in their tank to relax the lizard and make them docile for the nail clipping exercise. You can cover the terrarium with a light cloth to mimic dusk, thus calming down the dragon and nudging them to nap.
2. Ready everything you need for the exercise, including all the tools and a bowl with warm, clean water to activate the styptic pencil in case you need to use it
3. Use rubbing alcohol to sterilize the pet claw trimmer thoroughly.
4. Check if your beardie is docile, retrieve it from the tank, and place it on your lap or a flat table. Another person can help gently hold the reptile in position as you proceed with the nail trimming.
5. Ascertain the portion of the toenail you need to clip off. The top of a hypo beardie’s nail is a smooth and clear curve or keratin. On the other hand, the underside consists of the pointed tip and the quick. While the tip is dead (doesn’t have blood vessels or nerves), the quick is alive and has a host of blood vessels and nerve endings. If you look or feel with your finger at the toenail’s underside, you’ll see or feel a small bump where the quick begins. Unlike beardies with dark or black nails, locating the quick in a beardie with clear toenails such as a hypo is relatively fast and easy.
6. Gently but firmly hold the toe in position and clip off the nail where the quick starts.
7. If you cut too high and accidentally nip the quick, the dragon might react violently because it feels a sharp, sudden pain. Rather than panic, hold the dragon firmly but gently to protect yourself from a bite and then quickly apply some styptic product (powder or pencil) to halt the bleeding and seal the wound
8. Finish trimming all your hypo beardie’s toenails
9. Sterilize the pet nail trimmer thoroughly after the exercise
10. Offer the hypo beardie a treat such as a big scrumptious worm or piece of tasty fresh fruit right after trimming its nails to help in faster relaxation.

The process of trimming a hypo bearded dragon’s nails might seem daunting to a new beardie owner. Nevertheless, clipping a Hypomelanistic bearded dragon’s toenails isn’t much different from trimming a wild-type or classical morph beardie’s nails.

Still, it would help if you were extra cautious not to nip the quick as a hypo’s nail lacks the usual brown melanin stripe running along each toenail.

You don’t want to miss this: A hypo bearded dragon can be fussy and react violently if you’re trimming its nails for the first time. However, the pet will get used to the exercise over time.

Then again, spending plenty of time with the pet will help the dragon feel safer and calmer around you and enable you to understand the lizard’s claw structure better and perform nail trimming more easily, safely, and safely faster.

Final Thoughts

Hypo bearded dragon nails are all clear-colored and lack the characteristic brown melanin stripe running down each nail as with most wild, wild-type captive, and standard morph bearded dragons.

Nevertheless, the toenails are still vulnerable to most bearded dragon nail issues such as injuries, overgrowth, and frequent breakage in captive beardies.

Thus, hypo bearded dragon nails require frequent cleaning and periodic trimming (thrice or four times annually) to keep them healthy, functional, and comfortable on the dragon. Remember, overgrown beardie nails hurt both the pet and its owner.

Here’s something you don’t want to miss: Bearded dragon morphs with significantly lower melanin and scales such as Hypomelanistic, translucent, silkbacks, and leatherbacks sometimes require specialized care to thrive in captivity.

Moreover, these beardie morphs often suffer from broken, dislodged, or missing nails and toes, experience shedding complications, and generally have a shorter life expectancy than other bearded dragons.

Fortunately, taking specialized care of your hypo beardie helps the beardie to thrive and live a long, full life.