Why don’t some people nickname their Pokemon? It’s so weird to just call it by its species, yknow? It just feels like.. the trainers aren’t emotionally invested in their team if they don’t even name em… just very impersonal I guess. It’s like calling all your friends “Human!” Do you guys have any idea why someone would abstain from Ni? Oh, And do you guys use nicknames?

You’re actually one of two possible camps on the matter, believe it or not. The other side of the coin is that some people feel it’s not right to force a name on a possibly sentient creature, particularly one that the pokémon themselves didn’t help decide on. It would be very much akin to giving a human an unflattering nickname.

Either that, or they simply aren’t creative enough to give their pokémon names. That would be the third camp, but believe me when I say that this group is far smaller than one would think.

As for myself, I’m more of the second camp (the one that doesn’t believe in forcing names onto sentient creatures), but when I started my journey right up until my career as a researcher took off, I always offered names to my team. Some, like my various eevee, didn’t really take to any of them. Others, like my core team that had remained with me all these years, had. For example, my kadabra is very fond of his name, Foxglove (or Fox, for short). My venusaur is named Lucky after a very long story, my clefairy is Primrose (or Prim), and I’m also occasionally helped by a porygon-z named Beatrix. On the other hand, my farfetch’d absolutely refuses to respond to anything but Farfetch’d, and any attempt at an offer for otherwise would typically be met with a near-swordfight.

As for Lanette … I’ll let her speak for herself, actually.

LH: Well, I was part of the second camp too when I started out, but Bill convinced me that offering names to pokémon was a good idea. It helped that it was such a cute method. Of my personal pokémon, though, only my swampert really wanted one; the others didn’t really show any interest in getting named whatsoever. In any case, my swampert’s name is Cetus, after the constellation.

Oh, and then there’s the porygon I work with as part of the storage system. I don’t really consider her mine, though, so I haven’t really thought of a name for her. Yet, anyway.

Are Yamask actually the souls of dead humans, as the Pokédex states? I feel a bit odd about catching and training Yamask because of it. Sure, it’s not the worst afterlife fate I could imagine, but it still weirds me out.

Luckily, no. Just like phantump, this is only Unovan folklore, albeit a popular story. It stems from the fact that people have a tendency to look for something familiar in the unfamiliar, especially when it comes to things that might vaguely resemble faces. So while yamask’s mask is generically humanlike, it’s only a generic humanlike mask, created to help yamask harvest negative emotion for its meals. If you stare at it long enough, you may begin to make out the face of someone you know who has died, but this is just your mind using your memory of them to play tricks on you.

In truth, yamask are just like any other pokémon: they hatch from eggs, no death necessary.

My walrein loves to play with beach balls, but he always ends up popping them with his tusks. He does have other toys he likes to play with, but beach balls are his favourite and he gets upset. I’ve heard someone suggest filing down his teeth, but is this safe? Do you have any other suggestions

Ah, no, it’s not a good idea to file down a walrein’s tusks, I’m afraid. This could damage them and lead to long-term pain for your partner. Instead, you should always let your walrein maintain the length of his tusks on his own by supplying him with sturdy tree trunks, bones, or specially made posts for pokémon with continually growing teeth. The only time you should touch a walrein’s tusks is to brush them or to examine them for any signs of disease, particularly around the gum area.

When it comes to balls, though, you might want to consider a sturdier ball. While it’s true that volleyballs are no replacement, they are designed to take more hits than a beach ball and can be painted to resemble one using nontoxic paint. If your walrein can tell the difference, though, the alternative is to make or buy tusk caps made of food grade/nontoxic plastic to temporarily “dull” the sharpness of his tusks. If you go with this route, don’t forget to remove these caps when he’s done playing with his beach balls or at least when it’s time to eat and train.

Best of luck!

Any tips for raising pokemon that have lost an eye? I recently caught a croagunk that’s missing an eye and need some tips.

First off, is it safe to assume that the croagunk is already used to living without one of its eyes? If no, I’ll cover that in a moment, but first, allow me to answer this as if your croagunk is already adjusted.

The biggest thing you need to know when dealing with a pokémon that’s disabled in some way is understanding what that disability actually means. In this example, you’ll need to know how the eyes work together in order to understand how best to work with your croagunk.

You see, when you lose an eye, the biggest thing is that your depth perception is affected. This in turn means your ability to judge distances will be affected, which, for a frog-like fighting-type pokémon, is a pretty big deal. While your croagunk may have had time to learn how to work around this and adjust accordingly, it’s a good idea to keep this in mind when giving orders. Get to know your croagunk’s battle style. Observe the exact things it does to prepare for a strike, and incorporate your observations into the orders you give it, even in the heat of the moment.

Then, of course, there’s also the fairly obvious point that your croagunk will have a blind spot. Again, this may be something it’s figured out how to compensate for, but be prepared to warn your croagunk if an opponent or other obstacle comes in from its blind side. Be particularly alert and train yourself to give orders quickly—perhaps even instinctually.

If, however, your croagunk has only recently lost its eye, you’ll first want to take it to a Nurse Joy to have it examined. Of course, you’ll want to do this either way, but a recent loss may need to be checked and monitored for potential infection.

After that, you’ll need to begin training. It may be slow going, especially given that your croagunk isn’t used to you, but have patience and be gentle. If you live in a town or city, you may also have access to therapists at your local pokémon center who may be able to work with you and croagunk. It certainly doesn’t hurt to ask. If not, consider asking Nurse Joy herself if she can offer therapy.

Outside of the pokémon center, don’t be overbearing when helping your croagunk. The last thing you want to do is rob it of its independence. Instead, teach it (how to punch, grasp, or leap) only until it starts to get the idea, then let it do it on its own. Be there, of course, if your croagunk is really struggling to adjust its movements to its eyesight, but wait until it signals for you to help. This can take different forms, depending on your croagunk’s disposition. If it looks like it’s getting angry, reassure it first that it’s doing the best that it can, then nudge its target a little closer to it until it can reach for it itself.

This, of course, isn’t the only possible signal. It might also grasp at the target, then look at you. If it does this, guide its hand to the target and then encourage it to follow through itself. Reward it every time it successfully reaches for its target on its own so it begins to learn how to calibrate itself in space without your cues, so to speak.

Also, concerning the blind spot, avoid approaching your croagunk from the side where it’s lost its eye. This is true even if it’s used to seeing with only one eye, but if it’s new to partial blindness, you don’t want to startle it. If you must, verbally let your croagunk know that you’re approaching so it can turn if it needs to. If it seems upset that it can’t see out of one eye, I would recommend a training session tailored towards helping it develop its spacial perception, as noted above, in a battle scenario. Don’t have it spar, of course, but rather have it train against stationary objects. The battling will hopefully boost its confidence enough that it will regrow its sense of self and inner strength. Alternatively, you can achieve the same effect with basic training exercises for day-to-day life or even for whatever its interests are. For example, if it’s not much of a battler and more of an artistic croagunk, consider setting up an art station in your home and having it create its own art. Any activity that relies on visual skills can be used for retraining, so pay attention to what catches your croagunk’s attention.

Best of luck!

I’m pretty sure my Serperior is using my computer when I’m away or asleep, or he’s at least trying to. I never find anything in browser history, but his vines tapping on the keys when he thinks I’m asleep in the next room are far too rhythmic for just play. How should I handle this? I doubt he’ll admit to it, seeing as he covers his tracks, but I’m worried he might get one or both of us into trouble, whatever he’s doing.

Have you tried enabling parental controls on your computer? Even if your serperior has learned how to use a computer, that should keep him out of trouble. If he hasn’t and is just tapping on the keyboard to mimic you (which is likely, as many pokémon like mirroring their trainers to be closer to them), it will still protect him from accidentally going anywhere he shouldn’t. On that note, if he is mirroring you, this isn’t a cause of concern at all, but you may wish to consider getting him a dummy keyboard (that is, one that isn’t connected to anything) and setting up a “computer” (which can be as simple as a cardboard box with a printed-out copy of your desktop pasted to it) to keep him entertained.

And if he isn’t mirroring you and manages to bypass parental controls and navigate his way to the worst parts of the internet … honestly, by that point, he merry well deserves to be there, considering how savvy he clearly is. Still, you may wish to teach him about Tor and get a VPN. Just in case.

Hey Bill, do Magikarp have any Natural Predators in the Wild? I ask because I recently saw a Dragonair eating what i think were Smallmouth Bass and began wondering about Predator-Prey Relations in the pokemon world.

Magikarp’s natural predator is everything. Or nearly everything. Humans don’t eat it because there’s not much meat to it, and it takes a particularly strong set of claws, teeth, or attacks (or a particularly hard rock) to get past magikarp’s scales. But it can be done, and practically everything that considers itself a predator might eat magikarp if they’re looking for an easy meal.

It’s actually one of the reasons why gyarados are so notoriously angry and vicious when they evolve.

Why can some pokemon let themselves out of thier pokeballs? Or is it that they all can but choose not to?

The latter, surprisingly enough. While poké balls are indeed capture devices (meaning there is a baseline capture rate for all of them), whether or not they can contain their captured pokémon until a trainer releases them depends entirely on the willpower of the pokémon in question. You see, inside every poké ball is a capture grid that works like an electrical net. So long as the pokémon’s will is neutral, it won’t disrupt the grid, and the ball will remain closed. If, however, the pokémon passionately wants to get out, there’s a chance they’ll disrupt the grid, which causes the poké ball to think a trainer has opened it, thus leading the ball to eject its contained pokémon. For some reason, smaller or basic-level pokémon seem to be more adept at disrupting the grid than larger, more evolved ones, which is why you might see pikachu break out of their balls more often than charizard, even if they’re both equally bonded to their trainers. Some smaller pokémon will even disrupt the capture grid every time, which means their poké balls are really only effective for the initial capture. (This occurs especially with pikachu.)

You may think this is a design flaw, but actually, it’s perfectly intentional. While, yes, a poké ball’s main points are to ensure a pokémon can be withdrawn from a dangerous situation or to prevent rampages, the poké ball is also designed to allow a pokémon to break free in dire situations, such as those in which its trainer is in danger and unable to summon them. That and it’s just seen as more humane to allow a pokémon to break free if it has the overwhelming need to shower its trainer with affection.

Hey Bill, an acquaintance of mine found some wild Dratini fry(barely newborn) and caught one. I was wondering how ethical it was to catch newborn Pokémon, and I’m actually sort of worried for both the mother and the Dratini in question! She’s a decent trainer, but that doesn’t mean she’s qualified to raise a literal newborn Dratini. Help!

I know this might sound a bit repetitive, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If a very young trainerless pokémon as rare as dratini appears before a human, there are two possible reasons for it. First, it was abandoned or lost as an egg. If this is the case, then its chances of survival are actually incredibly low. Second, it’s not a hatchling but rather a juvenile, which in some species’ cases are difficult to distinguish. However, the difference is extremely important; juveniles can survive on their own, whereas hatchlings cannot.

The driving reason behind both of these things is actually the same: most pokémon nests aren’t easy to find precisely because of human involvement. That is, while we aren’t technically predators for pokémon, it’s true that we do remove them from their natural habitat. Pokémon by instinct will make their nests hidden, inaccessible, or both precisely to protect their young until they’re ready to go out into the world on their own. While young pokémon won’t necessarily die if they leave their nests, they’re still vastly inexperienced and may not be able to stand up to predators or other pokémon without the watchful eyes of their parents, so it’s extremely rare for a pokémon that young to be on its own, without anyone to help it develop its skills enough to battle.

With that having been said, dratini nests are especially difficult for humans to reach. Part of this has to do with the fact that dratini are so few in numbers (and thus aren’t as bold as magikarp, for an off-hand example), and the other part is that dratini fry aren’t particularly strong. Unless your friend dove deep into very remote lakes and fought her way past a swarm of protective dratini or dragonair (or perhaps even dragonite), it’s likely she simply happened across a pool of slightly older, more independent dratini. If that’s the case, then her dratini will be fine in her care.

However, if, perhaps, the dratini she had caught was indeed a fry, it’s actually safer in her care than out in the wild, as the nest was apparently too exposed to be safe. It’s also worrying if only one dratini, dragonair, or dragonite (whatever the mother might have been) was on guard, as dratini form colonies of many nests clustered together and guarded by multiple dragons. It may be a good idea to contact a local pokémon ranger or other authority to check on the nest and see if there’s anything wrong.