And look! Its fins and tail have gotten bigger, and you’ve moved it to a larger body of water to swim in. It must be close to maturing.
Young dragons are relatively defenseless. They are born with relatively soft scales, which are shed and replaced with harder ones as the hatchling matures. Once a hatchling’s wings grow in, it marks the beginning of maturation. At this point they are often capable of hunting on their own and are usually left alone by their mother.