Do hoothoots and rowlets and their evos get along?

Well, they rarely share habitats, so in the wild, I unfortunately can’t say. However, I also admit that hoothoot and rowlet would consider one another competitors for resources, so I doubt they would.

On the other hand, in captivity, they get along quite well, as their needs often overlap, allowing them to be housed, fed, and engaged with equally. Additionally, both pokémon fill different niches on a team, allowing the two to interact and work together in harmony.

So in short, I suppose in scenarios where resources are abundant, I think they would indeed get along quite well, but in an average forest with limited resources, the possibility of the two getting along would unfortunately be quite grim.

Do you think there is mental hospitals for Pokémon?

In a way, a good trainer is that for a pokémon. While not every trainer is capable of doing this, it’s not unusual for a trainer to adopt and help pokémon with mental health needs of one sort or another. Moreover, pokémon centers often have pokémon psychologists—either Nurse Joy or another trained professional—on staff to offer advice and therapy.

In short, anonymous, no, there are no mental hospitals for pokémon. That’s generally more of a human concept, to be honest.

Bill, my Granbull is beginning to be uncomfortable with his huge jaw. Would it be safe to get surgery to reduce its size?

While every granbull’s jaws are cumbersome to them, if your granbull’s are getting in the way of his ability to function (walk, eat, and so forth), then yes, by all means, discuss surgery with a certified Nurse Joy. The procedure itself is safe, of course, but it can be a bit tricky to recover from. Your granbull may be in pain for a week or two after surgery, and he may find it difficult to maintain his balance after having walked for some time with a larger jaw. However, so long as you care for him according to Nurse Joy’s post-op instructions, then there really isn’t anything you would have to worry about.

Best of luck to you and your granbull, anonymous!

Do phantumps remember their past lives?

Luckily, no, anonymous. Whether that’s due to trauma or the nature of technical reincarnation itself is not well understood, but the fact of the matter is that although phantump know intellectually what they had been, they don’t seem to remember anything about who they were or where they had come from.

How do we know? Quite simple, actually, especially thanks to widespread modern pop culture and technology. Researchers as of late have been presenting phantump with well-known items of pop culture (dolls from the My Little Ponyta line, Gligarman comics, and so forth) to see if the phantump recognized these objects beyond simple curiosity and preferences. Alternatively (but not preferably, as this is a less reliable test thanks to the minimum age for trainer’s licenses), we would take phantump to nearby villages to see if they recognized potential former homes. In every single case, phantump were more likely to express curiosity and excitement over being tested than show any indication of familiarity with the objects and places presented to them.

So if you were considering training a phantump, rest assured that this inability to remember their lives as humans is one of many reasons why it isn’t technically unethical.

I’m lucky enough to own a lot of land and so I let my Pokémon roam on it. I have a rule, no Pokémon larger than 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide in the house because I don’t need them knocking things over on accident. Well Pokémon like my pikachu and sylveon sleep with me at night and my outside Pokémon, like my venusaur, are getting jealous. What do I do?

Ah yes, the struggle of raising a venusaur.

The trick, anonymous, is spending as much time equally with all of your pokémon as possible and to create habitats that your larger pokémon will feel welcome in. For example, while my eevee, clefairy, and rattata are allowed to roam anywhere they wish in my home (so long as they behave themselves), my kadabra and venusaur are limited due to their inherent abilities and sheer size, respectively. However, I’ve taken steps to reassure my pokémon that I care for them equally. My kadabra and I spend an hour a day with each other meditating and training his abilities, and I quite admittedly spoil my venusaur with a “secret garden” of his own. (As a note, while I don’t expect many people to be able to afford a greenhouse, even just a modest garden that you and your venusaur spend time maintaining together, without the help of other pokémon, is sufficient.)

The key is to spend time making sure each of your pokémon is loved, in addition to ensuring each gets an equal share of, say, food, water, exercise, and so forth. Once you validate each of your pokémon, it will be easier to reassure them that their treatment isn’t different in the amount of affection you give but rather the form that affection takes, which in turn will allow your pokémon to maintain harmony with each other.

This is good advice, Bill, but didn’t your kadabra and clefairy get into a violent battle that took out your kitchen? —LH

That was once. —Bill

A month. For this past year. —LH

Exactly! They’re getting better! —Bill

Would a ditto be a good parent? If not what does it do that makes it a bad parent?

Actually, ditto tend to be some of the best parents in the pokémon kingdom. Ditto are often either eager to please or eager to maintain their disguise, and as such, they’ll work hard to resemble whatever their target pokémon may be. This is relevant to breeding because as a result, a ditto will often do its best to mimic typical brooding behaviors of whatever form it’s assumed to produce offspring. If such an example is not readily handy (for example, if it assumes the form of a male charmander to produce charmander eggs, but another male charmander isn’t readily available to mimic in terms of behavior), then it will simply do its best to serve as a parent to its brood however it thinks a parent of that species should be until their children are capable of fending for themselves. Otherwise, it risks breaking its facade.

It only really becomes a bad parent if it’s forced to produce eggs of a wide variety of species in a short amount of time. If this is the case, then it becomes confused and incapable of taking care of any of its offspring, so it will consequently reject the whole brood. Likewise, ditto used with an abundance of different partners will find it more difficult to become emotionally attached to any particular species and will begin acting detached from the act of breeding in a way. It will, in other, admittedly human terms, begin seeing breeding as a job and will begin to anticipate its movement to another partner, rather than anticipate its parenthood.

So in short, breeders: please don’t abuse your ditto.

My florges recently had 5 eggs and I was wondering if I got the babies different flowers like roses or daisies alike their florges form become roses and daisies?

Yes indeed! A florges’s form depends completely on the flowers it held as a flabébé, so differing flowers means differing florges. Many trainers and coordinators use this to their advantage, even, as the flower variations help them tell their pokémon apart … and make for a rather spectacular display together, for that matter.

I am from Sootopolis, Hoenn and I recently took a vacation to Alola where I caught an alolan vulpix. Would she do alright living in Hoenn?

Yes, of course. Alola and Hoenn have very similar climates, and although Alolan Vulpix are specifically native to the colder, more mountainous parts of Alola, they fare just as well in the sunnier, more humid coastal areas. Moreover, as Sootopolis benefits from the shadows of the caldera it’s located in, your home may even be cooler than the Alolan coastlines many tamed Alolan vulpix grow up around. Just be sure she’s always hydrated, and brush her daily to keep her fur coat thinned and free from any heat-trapping debris. Otherwise, she should be fine.

How do human like Pokémon like gardevoir and medicham sleep? Do they need a human bed? Or can they curl up like eevees and other Pokémon do?

They sleep very much like humans, anonymous. That is to say, they don’t curl up but rather lie down wherever they can. However, they don’t necessarily need special beds. Oftentimes, they’re content enough to sleep on whatever soft surface you have at the ready, including a couch, a cot, blankets on the floor, the ground itself, trees (in the case of the more … unusual sorts of fighting- and grass-types), or in very rare cases, your bed. Of course, many trainers still like to offer a simple bed to their pokémon anyway, although this isn’t always feasible for every trainer.

As a separate note, regardless of what less scrupulous blogs may have you believe, pokémon such as gardevoir, lopunny, and so forth are not the pokémon I was referring to when I said some human-like pokémon enjoy sleeping in the same bed as their trainers. (In fact, gardevoir especially prefer sleeping spaces as far from their trainers as possible, due to their inherent psychic abilities.) Rather, I was referring to sawk, throh, mr. mime, elgyem and beheeyem, and members of the machop line (but especially machamp).

Furthermore, I would not advise sharing a bed with a machamp. I will let your imaginations come up with the reason why.

My Growlithe feels hotter than usual, almost like he has a fever. Is it possible that he’s overheated?

It’s possible, anonymous. As mammalian pokémon, a growlithe’s body temperature can indeed skyrocket if they’re feeling a bit under the weather. However, keep in mind that it’s also possible that your growlithe is reacting to the weather. For half of the world, it’s currently summer, and many fire-types “feed” on the heat, in a way. That is, they thrive in it and sometimes even feel more energetic and powerful on a particularly sunny day. For simplicity’s sake, this process (of “feeding” on heat) is often called “heat-boosting.”

Telling the difference between a fever and a heat-boosted growlithe is simple but requires quite a bit of observation on your part. Keep an eye out for these signs:

Lethargy
Faster or labored breathing; panting if it’s not particularly hot
Dry nose and/or gums
Lack of appetite or difficulty eating or drinking
Runny nose
Shivering
If you’re particularly well-verse in your growlithe’s vitals: increased resting pulse

If you see any of these signs, then yes, your growlithe has a fever, and your next step should be taking him to the pokémon center immediately. If, conversely, your growlithe is displaying these signs:

Disinclination to sit still for at least half a minute
Fire displayed in his mouth, despite the fact that you haven’t ordered him to attack
Increased appetite and thirst
Increased energy and mood overall

…then your growlithe is actually heat-boosted, and it would be a good idea to take him out for exercise, a battle, and a period in cool water, in that order. These steps aren’t for his health, exactly. They’re more for you, as a heat-boosted growlithe will very likely continue to run about attempting to set everything it can see on fire until it releases its pent-up energy, and I highly doubt anyone short of someone paid rather handsomely by the League would have homeowner’s insurance good enough to cover fire damage from a rambunctious pokémon.