What we learned was very promising! It seemed that every time we paired one these visual spotted adults to a Genetic Stripe het Trans female, at least one visual spotted baby was produced per clutch! But no visual babies were produced when pairing them to non-Genetic Stripe het Trans females. We never breed any visual Trans x visual Trans Dragons here a Killer Clutches. 

Based off of these results, we were able to figure out that this mutation is most definitely reproducible, however it doesn’t seem to follow traditional Mendelian Inheritance. 

Given that visual babies were produced from multiple pairings of an F1 adult to a non-related female, this could not be a simple recessive mutation.

Concurrently, not every pairing produced visual offspring and the percentages were no where near 50% indicating this was also not an incomplete dominant/dominant mutation. 

It seemed as though certain conditions had to be met in order to produce more visual offspring which meant we weren’t dealing with an isolated gene mutation but a combination of genes working together to produce something new. 

We currently believe we are dealing with a fixed polygenic trait similar to what we see with the Genetic Stripe trait itself. However, there is still a lot of breeding and research to be done to fully understand what is happening here. 

By studying how these babies look when they hatch, how they develop into adulthood, and discussing our findings with many experienced breeders, we have been able to deduct that these babies are displaying an Incomplete Expression of the Translucent gene. The ‘patches’ of colored and discolored scales are not translucent like the rest of the body, they are normal scales. This mixture of normal and translucent scales creates a unique high contrast look in babies. As these guys age, the high contrast typically lessens & the mutation goes on to affect the color and pattern that these dragons display.

Since we now know that this is in fact a reproducible trait, we decided to name this particular mutation a KC Paradigm Bearded Dragon (pronounced para-dime).

baby KC paradigm belly- note the high contrast created from the normal white scales on the translucent base

juvenile KC paradigm belly- note the contrast has lessened as the trans skin has thickened

adult KC paradigm belly- note that both the normal & trans scales have changed to a more off-white color

So what exactly is a KC Paradigm Bearded Dragon?

A KC Paradigm by definition is a Translucent (incomplete expression) Genetic Stripe (specifically a Thunderbolt) Bearded Dragon. 

To break that down further, 100% of visual paradigms are displaying an incomplete expression of the translucent mutation and the spots you see are created by normal scales instead of translucent scales giving them a paradox-like appearance. 

Secondly, they will always also be Thunderbolts which is the name given to dragons that are produced from breeding two Genetic Stripes together that simultaneously carry the Trans gene. *We do not breed visual Trans together* This gives the dragon a very unique, defined pattern with stripes that are typically outlined in black, blue, or purple. I do want to note that our KC Paradigm line isn’t related to Thunderbolt lines overseas since we have never imported or purchased imports to the best of our knowledge. Lastly, we have never produced a Thunderbolt that wasn’t also a KC Paradigm. This mutation occurs as part of the same complex.

comet - female kc paradigm

note how the thunderbolt mutation often outlines the stripes in black

So to sum that all up, when you say a dragon is a KC Paradigm it should be implied that it is also a translucent (incomplete expression) & Genetic Stripe (Thunderbolt). If these conditions aren’t met, then you cannot possibly have a KC Paradigm Bearded Dragon. 

Other mutations can be stacked on top of a KC Paradigm and we have currently produced Leatherbacks, Dunners, and Hypo KCPs. We haven’t incorporated patternless genes into this mutation like Zero or Witblits so it would be interesting to study the results! 

*The ‘KC’ portion of the KC Paradigm is simply an acronym for Killer Clutches*

ren - male dunner kc paradigm

Wouldn’t this just be a Paradox Bearded Dragon?

Great question, but the answer is no. Let’s compare the two!

• KC Paradigms are born with their spots from the second they hatch. 

• Paradox dragons are born looking normal and then change as they age and develop. 

newborn kc paradigm hatchlings from 1 clutch

these dragons can range from high to low expression

our largest kc paradigm clutch to this day

7 visual babies out of 32 eggs

• Paradigms never gain or lose spots as they age, but they do grow with the dragon and change color as they develop. 
  

• Paradox Dragons are constantly changing pattern, color patches, etc. 

Zodiac - male kc paradigm at 3 months old

babies can remain in an 'ugly duckling phase' for several months

zodiac at 6 months old

just starting his color up journey into a citrus dragon

note how he still has all the same spots

• Based on the spotting (particularly on the belly and beard) you can identify a Paradigm dragon from a baby all the way into adulthood. 

• A Paradox Dragon will be unrecognizable from a baby to adulthood.

baby kc Paradigm before going to its new home

still sporting typical muted colors

raiden - Kc paradigm owned by Roten Exotics

you can tell its the same baby from the previous picture based on the location of the spotting

• 100% of KC Paradigm Bearded Dragons are Translucent & Genetic Stripes (additional genes can be added to this mutation but those two must be present to produce a Paradigm). 

• Paradox Bearded Dragons are random and can occur in any genetic combination or lack thereof. 

handful of kc paradigm babies

note how everyone is a genetic stripe & trans

handful of kc paradigm babies

note how everyone is a genetic stripe & trans

• Lastly, the spotting seen in Paradigm dragons is caused by an incomplete expression of the translucent gene. The patches are created by ‘normal’ scales instead of Trans scales giving them a Paradox-like appearance. 

• The color and patches seen in Paradox dragons is caused by changes in color expression (or lack thereof) not changes in the mutations themselves.

eros - paradox bearded dragon

owned by Roten Exotics

pied veiled chameleon

note how the original base color of the lizard remains intact but the patches throughout its head, legs, & tail are paper white. even the eyes in this particular animal are completely white because no pigment is able to be produced there

pied ball python

note how the original color of the snake remains but it has paper white patches throughout its body

pied alligator

note how it still has a dark green base color but patches of paper white scales are mixed throughout its body. absolutely no color or pattern are visible within these areas due to the lack of melanocytes

This is simply not the case for KC Paradigm Bearded Dragons. Aside from not being a simple recessive mutation (there can be no Het KC Paradigm) like we explained earlier in the article, BOTH color & pattern can be seen within the patches found in this morph.

As babies, KC Paradigms are typically born very dark and colorless so their patches create a very high contrast, unique look that can be confused for piebaldism. The only reason the spots on their bellies & beards look white is because that is the color of a ‘normal’ bearded dragon belly. So you’re looking at bright white/off-white ‘normal’ scales poking out through an iconic blue translucent belly.

translucent baby with the iconic

'blue belly'

kc paradigm baby with a 'blue' translucent base & 'normal' white scales poking through

'normal' baby with a typical white belly *please note that the faint lines are known as 'stress marks' and are commonly seen in babies*

However, when you flip the animal around, you can see that any spots that land over the genetic stripe pattern can still be seen within these patches- they do not disappear. Also, on our high color KC paradigms, color can also begin to be seen inside these patches located on their heads, face, & back. Both of these facts conflict with & contradict the exact definition of a Piebald animal. 

kc paradigm baby

notice how the patches located along the body are NOT paper white & how the pattern is clearly still visible passing through those patches. this is possible because melanocytes are present within the spots

echo - female KC Paradigm 100% het Hypo

she was born with white beard & belly spots but they have started to turn a pinkish/red color as she's aged. This would be impossible if no melanocytes were present in her scales

Furthermore, as you watch these animals grow and develop, their color and patches change drastically with them. The high contrast look you see with babies typically lessens as they age because the Transclucent scales thicken as they get older and they mostly lose that dark, blue color. The patches never disappear but depending on how your dragon develops, they can either stand out or blend in with the base color of your dragon. 

opal - female kc paradigm 100% het hypo

notice how her patches have mostly blended into her base color as she developed

haze - male hypo kc paradigm

notice how his spots have continued to be very bright and contrast with his base color as he has aged

Choji - male kc paradigm

f1 generation dragon with relatively low color

female kc paradigm

f1 generation dragon with relatively low expression

We then introduced higher colored, non-related animals to pair with our F1 dragons. The results gave us an F2 generation with more high colored babies and additional morphs introduced into the KC Paradigm. We also began getting higher expression animals with spots located throughout the body including the head & back in our F2.  

ruin - female kc paradigm 100% het hypo

f2 generation dragon with high color

baby kc paradigm

f2 generation dragon with high expression

What we hope to accomplish with the F3 generation and overall future of this project is to slowly create higher color, higher expression, & higher contrast animals. However, we want to ensure that the health and structure of this new mutation is maintained. By continuously introducing new, unrelated bloodlines into each progressive generation we hope to continue to strengthen this morph and would like to ultimately try and cross it into hybrid lines as well. 

baby female hypo kc paradigm

juvenile male hypo kc paradigm

We maintain a high breeding standard here at Killer Clutches and don’t believe in cutting corners to obtain more visual animals. Only a select few animals out of each clutch are born as visual KC Paradigms so our availability is relatively low. 

We will NEVER breed 2 visual KC Paradigms together or a KCP to a visual Trans dragon in order to produce an influx of visual paradigm babies. Unethically breeding this new, beautiful mutation so early on in the process would truly be heartbreaking and detrimental to their future. Please choose Quality over Quantity. 

We will do our best to keep you guys updated on the progression of this project and encourage anyone who owns one of our KC Paradigm Bearded Dragons to stay in contact with us! Feel free to email us with any questions or your thoughts on the KC Paradigm Bearded Dragon.

glitch - female kc paradigm

baby female hypo kc paradigm

comet - female kc paradigm

Saturn - female kc paradigm

Choji - male kc paradigm

baby male hypo kc paradigm