Are Dragons Born Wyrmlings?

[Yakmala]

The players in my campaign recently came across a small clutch of just hatched dragons. I've not fully stat-blocked them out yet, but I've been treating them as fairly weak hatchlings, rather than as Wyrmlings.

By lore or by RAW, are dragons born as Wyrmlings? Or are there some other stats for hatchlings out there? If so, how long does it take for a hatchling to become a Wyrmling?

[nickl_2000]

This is usually a fairly reliable site for lore.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_aging#cite_note-MM-0

Looks like aged 0 dragons are Wyrmlings according to it.

[Chronos]

There is no such thing as a baby dragon. As a dragon is poking its snout out of the egg, it already has wyrmling stats, including humanlike intelligence, an alignment, and knowledge of the draconic language, as well as combat ability sufficient to make it an apex predator in most environments.

[Hellpyre]

Based on a couple of sourcebooks from 3.5 more deeply going into it, it looks like you have a few seconds after hatching where a dragon encounters the world and somewhat imprints on the first creature it sees, but beyond that they act as fully self-aware wyrmlings from the minute they leave the egg.

[RedMage125]

According to the 2e supplement Council Of Wyrms (allowed you to play AS dragons), dragons start their education while still in the egg. So they hatch with a knowledge of the Draconic language, and at least a rudimentary understanding of how to use their abilities.

So I would say, yes. They have the "wyrmling" stats as soon as they hatch.

One should note, however, that White and Black dragons are not terribly bright. Whites in particular are little more than cunning animals with special abilities. I think in 3e they didn't reach INT of 10 until like Old category.