Dragon stages

Creatures on Dragon Cave grow through three developmental stages: egg, hatchling, and adult.

Eggs


The first stage of the dragon life cycle is the egg. Eggs can be stolen from the biomes or Abandoned Page, or produced by breeding two adult dragons. They require views to hatch, and will display a cracking sequence when they are near to hatching. Eggs must hatch within 7 days of being stolen or bred, or they will die.

Hatchlings


After an egg gains enough views to hatch, it becomes a hatchling. Hatchlings are young dragons, which require even more views to continue growing to adulthood. When a hatchling is close to maturing, it will display a different sprite and the dragon's gender will become visible.

Unlike eggs, hatchlings can be named. A user can also choose to freeze a hatchling, preventing it from reaching adulthood. A frozen hatchling no longer counts toward the user's growing creatures limit, and will remain permanently in its hatchling form.

Adults


Adults are the final stage of a dragon's development. Once a dragon reaches adulthood, it no longer needs to gain views to stay alive. Adult dragons can also breed to produce new eggs. However, adult dragons cannot be traded or abandoned for another user to adopt. The only ways to remove an adult dragon from a user's scroll is to release or kill the dragon.

Limits
Users can only care for a limited number of eggs and growing hatchlings at a time. The number of growing creatures a user can care for depends on the user's badge level, indicating the number of grown and frozen creatures on the user's scroll.

Prior to the scaling slot system, all users could only raise four eggs at a time, though a fifth slot could be used for an egg bred from the user's own scroll.