This hatchling appears to be... dead?

Perhaps not. It seems to be active during the night.

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 typically 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.

This dragon is the pet of a young, well-mannered boy. His mother doesn't like the pet at all, says it gives her 'the chills,' but his father insists it looks ferocious and thus makes his son more manly. Despite both the parent's arguments, however, the creature doesn't really fulfill either of their expectations; he's quite friendly to his young master, and the two go everywhere together that they can. But when the boy has to go to school and leave his pet behind, funny things happen--the raw meat in the cellar loses all its blood, the cattle have strange nip marks, and the mice and rats of the place are found dead and drained throughout the house...