How to Link Parents and Build Lineage

Buyers expect documented ancestry, and accurate lineage is what separates a proven pairing from a guess. Linking parents to your animals builds the lineage tree that powers pedigrees, pairing predictions, and ancestry tracking across your entire collection.

You can link parents when you first add an animal, or come back and do it later from the animal's detail page.

Finding the Lineage Section

Web: Open any animal from your Animals list and scroll down to the Lineage section on the detail page.

Mobile: Open the animal, scroll to the bottom of the detail page, and tap Edit Animal. The lineage editor is inside the edit form.

Linking a Parent

Each parent slot -- Sire (Father) and Dam (Mother) -- gives you three options:

From my collection

Choose an animal you already own in ReptiDex. The lineage tree updates immediately and no approval is needed.

Link from platform

Search for an animal owned by another ReptiDex user. Type the animal's name or ID to find it. When you tap Link, a request is sent to the owner. They'll see it in Settings > Link Requests and can approve or reject it. If approved, the parent is added and the full lineage tree -- including all ancestors already attached to that parent -- populates automatically.

Add external

Add a reference placeholder for an animal that isn't on the platform yet. You can enter a name, sex, morph description, and breeder or source. External animals won't appear in your main animal list and don't count against your subscription limit. If you've added external animals before, ReptiDex will show existing reference animals to reuse rather than creating duplicates.

How the Lineage Tree Builds

When you link a parent, ReptiDex doesn't just add that one animal. Every ancestor already attached to that parent carries over automatically. Link a sire who already has his own sire and dam recorded, and all three generations populate in your animal's pedigree at once. You don't need to manually link grandparents and great-grandparents if they're already recorded on the parent.

Link Requests

When another user requests to link one of your animals as a parent of theirs, you'll see a notification badge on the Settings page. Go to Settings > Link Requests to review pending requests. Each one shows the animal being claimed, the role (sire or dam), and the morph description. You can approve or reject each request individually.

You stay in control of your animals' lineage connections at all times.

Tips

• If a parent isn't on the platform yet, use Add external as a placeholder. You can replace it with a proper platform link later once that breeder joins.
• On mobile, the lineage editor is inside Edit Animal at the bottom of the detail page -- it's not editable from the detail view directly.
• Ancestors cascade automatically. Once a parent has their own lineage built out, all of it flows into your animal's pedigree the moment you link them.