My leafeon recently had a litter of eevees and she’s taking excellent care of most of them. Expect the little runt. I’ve had to resort to hand feeding but do you know anyways to get a mother to accept a baby she’s already rejected? I’m not home all the time and have no one else to feed the little one so I’m worried he won’t get enough nutrition if I can’t get my leafeon to let him nurse. If you could help I’d be very grateful.

One important thing to know is why a mother pokémon would reject her offspring. In the cases of canine pokémon such as the eeveelutions, it’s often because the rejected puppy is seen as the least capable of surviving. It may be sick or too weak to live, so the mother sets it aside to focus on nurturing puppies that have higher chances at survival.

So your first step with this eevee pup is to see if he was rejected just because he’s small. The only way you can do this is by taking him to the nearest pokémon center, explaining the situation to your local Nurse Joy, and getting a thorough examination. If all is well aside from his size, the unfortunate second step involves quite a bit of work. First of all, you may need to continue feeding him through a bottle until he grows stronger and larger, as your leafeon will likely continue to reject him until she sees that he stands a chance.

The other half of the equation is that, after a few days to a week of vigilant care, you’ll need to reintroduce the pup to his mother … by assisting with feeding. It works very much the same way as it would with introducing new pokémon to one another: set up a calm environment, be present for the reintroduction, and place the puppy close to his mother for as long as she can tolerate him. Have her turn on her side and coax the puppy into nursing from her. (Point of clarification: Yes, mammalian pokémon produce milk. They’re not exactly monotremes, as that’s a word reserved for animals, but the concept is the same.) Keep the mother calm through gentle words and petting, but if she looks like she may attack, gently remove the puppy and switch him over to formula as quickly as possible. Continue doing this until the puppy grows and the mother begins to recognize him as her own.

This might be difficult to do, I know, considering what you’ve said about your schedule, but reintroducing a pup takes quite a bit of time and effort. In the end, it’s worth it, but you will need to figure out how best to care for the eevee pup in the meantime. If you have another pokémon, they might be able to assist, or you could discuss things with your local Nurse Joy to see if the puppy can be taken care of at the pokémon center in the interim. Just be sure that you do as many of his feedings as possible and that you set aside time to reintroduce him to his mother every day to minimize trauma and help him grow.

Best of luck!