Breeding and Raising Dragons
by Katt

To set the foundation of breeding for dragons, the sexes, colors, and roles of each dragon must be laid out.

Colors/Sexes: There are five colors the in which a dragon can be born to. Green, Blue, Brown, Bronze and Gold. And easy way to remember which sexes are which colors is the G/B rule. Girls are colors that start with G and boys are colors that start with B. Very few people need the rule to know the sex of the dragon they are looking at. But it's there for the confused. There has been record of an sport color but now that only remains in folklore and is believed to be impossible to breed for.

Descriptions: The most basic role for any dragon is that of the Thread scorer for which they were designed to be for. But there is a hierarchy to the way dragons live and grow. 

Greens are the smallest, fastest most agile of all dragons. They range in length of 22 to 25 meters long, head to tail tip. They are commonly messengers and firestone transporters. They are very accomplished Thread fighters but the lack of size means they have not the energy stores to maintain fighting Thread the entire length of the Fall. Typically the average green will stay in fall for 2-3 hours and rotate out with other wing members. Greens are also born infertile. Many believe it's the chewing of firestone that renders these delicate females incapable of breeding but it's a rather debated topic at Healer conventions. The color range of a green is the vast spectrum that is defined as green. They can be a pale soft yellow green or so dark and intense that they are one shade away from being black. 

Blues are the second smallest dragon on Pern. Typical lengths for Blues is between 25 and 30 meter in length. They aren't as fast and agile as greens but can stay the full length of Fall if it's no longer than a five hour fall. Search dragons are very prevalent among the blue brothers. It's unknown as to why they tend to be more attuned to the empathic abilities of humans other than their own rider, but they are. Many blues also provide courier services for small fees since they are strong enough to carry a number of passengers and are not to dignified to find it beneath them to do so. Blues can and will mate with Greens. Blues can try to fly Golds but there has not been a recorded catch to base wether or not this is a good idea. Only greens can match the Blues in their color spectrum. The vivid delicate ice blue to the vibrant, invigorating midnight black shows how wide their color range is. 

The middle and pack 'mule' of the dragon hierarchy is the Brown. They are very sturdy in build and immensely more powerful than their littler siblings. Ranging from 30-35 meters in length, they are capable of flying the full length of Thread Fall without any problems. They are also capable of carrying a half dozen passengers and luggage for the group. When a blue can not move a necessary object, browns are called in to do the work. The middle range at everything, browns tend to do what ever is necessary of them, there for came about the nick name of being a pack 'mule'. Browns will eagerly mate with Greens and are sometimes encouraged to fly Gold. Though should a Brown catch a Gold, the clutches produce few bronzes and no queens despite the hatchlings being as healthy as any other hatched dragon. Color to these middle dragons aren't as varied as the lower two colors. Browns tend to be varying shades of rich tan through mellow klah colors. None being as soft or dark in color as to be borderline white or black. 

The largest of all the males is the Bronze. They are the leaders in Fall. The support beams in which all wings base their patterns off of and range in length about 35-38 meters long. They are the most stable fliers in Fall. Can endure almost two full falls back to back. Normally their riders give out before they do. They are no where near as graceful or fast as their lower colored kin, but they make up for it in their strength and command abilities. Bronzes will fly both Green and Gold. Only Bronze/Gold mating flight result in possible queen hatchlings. The spectrum of color in which a bronze falls in is the smallest and least different between bronzes. The average bronze is a brown with a greenish hue to his hide. Not really metallic at all. But the amount of brown and green varies enough from one dragon to the next that there is a bit of variety in their color. 

The largest dragons on Pern are by far easily the Golden Queens. The average length of a Queen is about 40 meters in length. The typical range is 38-42 meters long. The Gold females are the egg bearers and rulers of the Dragon Hierarchy. There is not a dragon on Pern that will disobey a direct order from a Queen dragon. She can command all as easily as she guards her eggs. At typically two to four turns of age, Queens are capable of producing clutches. Mating twice a turn and producing anywhere from 5 to 45 eggs in a clutch. Many factors set in to determine the number of eggs. Golds are restricted from chewing firestone for the belief it would render them infertile. Instead, the Queens fly their own wing during fall with their riders welding a flamethrower to sheer thread with. While the average Queen is not as graceful in flight as a green, Queens have a more guided since of flight than any other dragon. They are more aerobatic then most colors and this probably stems from the need to elude chasers in mating flights. The color range of a Gold is almost as broad as the two smallest colors. She can range from a pale yellow to a rich tarnished golden hue. Like the bronzes, Gold truly are not metallic in color. It's the perception of that color that makes them metallic.

Mating: When a female dragon reaches her maturity, she will begin to mate on a regular basis. This takes place in a flight/chase. She will wake up from a restless sleep, which can average up to a week long of restless slumbers, and primitive instincts take over. Her hide may or may not have taken on a glowing hue in the time prior to the flight. She will take down and gorge on the flesh of her prey to consume as much energy as needed to provide a long flight. While Green-riders are taught the principles of not letting their dragon gorge, they are not held to it. Weyrwoman are taught early on to make their dragon blood their kills only to satisfy the primitive urge to store energy without weighing the dragon down. Once the dragon consumes enough energy to satiate her need, she will launch herself into a dizzying flight. 

Any color can pursue either color female but it's not always encouraged. The males may or may not blood their own kill before a flight. But once the female has left the ground for good, it's all about the chase to them. They know she'll do everything in her flight capabilities to make them drop out one by one, till only the strongest are left. One may catch her or she may actually choose the mate that is right for her. When the catch has been made, the mating pair will fold their wings and plummet to the ground, entwined together. They will only break apart moments before what might have been their deaths. 

There are incidences where a catch is not made. The female in question will usually rise again in a matter of days. There are also times of great discord that the empathy of the entire Weyr will feed into the flying dragons resulting in a catch that is more popularly excepted or more necessary for the welfare of the Weyr. Not all catches are based on who chases best or who the Queen herself chooses.

Eggs: Queen dragons will gestate their clutch for up to three months. At which time she'll take up residence in the Hatching Grounds to lay her eggs. Depending on the time of pass will dictate how many eggs she lays. During an interval, 5-12 is a normal clutch size. At the beginning of a pass, clutches would slowly begin to increase in size till the height of the pass when a queen can lay as many as 45 eggs. There is only typically one queen egg to a clutch if there is any at all. It's unknown how dragons can predict the number of needed eggs and how they control the Queen population but they do.

Once contractions start, the mother dragon can take up to three days to lay her eggs. They will typically be half an hour to an hour apart, per laid egg. But the time between the first and second and that to the last one is usually a great deal of time. At first the reproductive track has to align itself with the muscles to safely push the soft eggs out of the body. Which takes time and soft contractions. The just about the time of the last egg, the muscles begin to relax and return everything to it's normal state, thus taking a long time for the last egg to be laid. Most eggs are healthy at laying. Few are ever noticeably dead at this point in time. All will stay on the sands just in case and be cared for equally till hatching. All duds will then be escorted between. A young queen is expected to have complete, healthy clutches. While as she ages, she starts producing more dud eggs. Eventually, the Queen will just fail to rise when she is to old.

Each egg is checked at laying and once a month the first two months. Then every sevenday till the hatching. Candling an egg can help show the growth and development. But to produce a flame large enough to candle dragon eggs is dangerous. Instead a stethoscope is used to listen for the heart beat and the firmness, color, and textures of the eggs are noted to insure correct development.

Each egg has it's own identity as far as color and size goes. Eggs vary in length from one meter to a full two and a half meters in length. Color range is a broad as the dragons them selves. The eggs are marbled in one color or multi colors. Only a queen egg is decernable from the rest. It gives off a mild golden glow dispite is color markings and tends to be more one solid color unlike the lesser color eggs.

At the end of the third month after laying, the occupants of the eggs will consume all nutrients and liquids within their shells. In three days time, they will rinder their liquidy world into nothing. They end up filling up all avalable space with a growth spurt. Also in those three days, the shell quickly becomes several times harder and thinner than it was during most of the incubation period. This is to allow the dragon to crack the shell from the inside when there is no more food to consume with in.

That is the drive, initionally, for which all dragons hatch. Hunger. After consuming all their egg liquid, the dragon start to work the shells to break free of them. The hatchlings aren't able to claw their way out for their nails are still soft and felixble but they are 'born' with an egg tooth on the bridge of their nose. This hard nub of hide lets them peck their way out. Some hatchings will work on the shell right infront of their nose till their head pops out, most others have a tendancy to get impatient and work all over the shell till they can just spread all their limbs outward and break/shatter the shell. At some time after hatching, the egg tooth will fall off the young dragon's nose as if it never existed.