Do pokemon typically have only one egg at a time, or can they have clutches?

It depends on the species, anonymous. Some of the smaller, more mammalian pokémon only lay one egg at a time, as do humanoid pokémon. (They can lay multiple, but this is rare.) Larger pokémon as well as reptiles, birds, and insects all lay clutches, and pokémon that are more inorganic in nature lay a varying amount of eggs, depending on how much material exists around them. For example, geodude can lay more eggs if it forms its nest underground, in rocky terrain. It lays fewer eggs if above ground and indoors.

In short, I suppose you could say the answer is, “Yes, they can have clutches, but not all of them do.”

Hi, I’ve just travelled to Johto from Hoenn with my Marshtomp. He never been left in a daycare before as he’s very nervous with strangers and I just wanted to know how trustworthy the daycare is near Golderod, especially when handling shy pokemon. I ask this as I may need to leave him there for a short while with my Linoone, who has been in a Hoenn daycare before. My friend’s (who I am currently staying with) Totodile is currently sick and I don’t want them to catch anything.

Having met them personally, I can tell you that they are absolutely trustworthy.

They’re a bit … eccentric when it comes to eggs (they have yet to train their ditto to leave their other pokémon alone, so they tend to stick passing trainers off with eggs now and then under the pretense that they have no idea how the egg came to be), but when it comes to pokémon care, you’ll find no one in Johto more trustworthy and caring, to be honest.

Well. Besides my mother, actually. But unfortunately, she’s not a licensed pokémon caretaker, so I’m afraid she won’t be available to care for your marshtomp.

Let me guess. You’re only mentioning her because she’s reading this, isn’t she? —LH

No, of course not. ~~(Yes.)~~ —Bill

my pelipper recently discovered the trend of mail-carrier pelippers, and now he’s utterly smitten with the idea. i don’t want to break his heart, but he’s been a valued member of my battling team for years, and i’m not ready to retire him in favor of a full time job. how do i let him down gently? also he keeps swallowing my mail.

Well, I was going to suggest that he “delivers” your outgoing mail to the nearest post office and your incoming mail from the mailbox to you, but that last part makes that solution rather inappropriate.

Unless, of course, you can train your pelipper to not swallow mail. Perhaps introduce to him the idea that real mail-carriers always deliver their mail undigested to discourage him from eating your letters and packages, then proceed with the above mentioned compromise. This should satisfy pelipper’s need to deliver mail while at the same time keeping him on your team and restricting the amount of time he spends “on the job.”

If, however, he insists on becoming a mail-carrier pelipper, begin by emphasizing that he’s a valued member of your team and that you respect him and his wishes as much as you can. Then follow through by telling him politely that becoming a mail-carrier would mean giving up his adventures with you and that you would prefer not to part with him. He may still wish to become a mail-carrier after this, but at the very least, you can be open with him about your stance on the matter. By being that open, you’ll invite a conversation in which he (as best as he can, considering the fact that he’s a pelipper) and you discuss his options and try to find a suitable compromise.

Best of luck, @basilbones. May you find a balance that will make the both of you happy.

Or, at the very least, may you find a balance that doesn’t result in your mail getting partially digested.

My Hawlucha sleeps perched hunched up, which seems to be how they do it out in the wild, but lately it seems like his back is getting stiff. We get regular exercise and flying drills so I don’t think it’s anything in our training regimen. I remember getting knots in my back when I was sleeping against my Charizard on my journey, and I don’t want Hawlucha to wind up with those kinds of aches. Is there a better way for him to be sleeping that would alleviate some of his back pain?

Unfortunately, the way hawlucha sleep in the wild is actually the ideal position for a trained hawlucha to sleep, so changing that isn’t particularly something I would recommend.

However, there are other things you can do to keep your hawlucha from experiencing back pains. Giving him a massage after every battle (or daily) as well as a warm compress will help his muscles to relax and, therefore, heal themselves. Additionally, some fighting-type pokémon—even in the wild—engage in their own forms of meditation or relaxation techniques to avoid the exact problem you’re describing (or muscle issues in general). Consider engaging in guided meditation with your hawlucha to ease his tension further.

Of course, if you haven’t already done so, adding exercises to increase flexibility and core strength may also help by stretching the muscles and reinforcing the abdominal muscle. The latter is handy by taking pressure and weight off the back muscles whenever your hawlucha performs day-to-day activities. Not to mention it strengthens his front so that moves such as Flying Press are much less of a shock to his system.

And finally, most importantly, ensure he’s standing straight when not in battle. If he slouches to eat, while walking—anything, this could further strain his back.

In short, while correcting one’s sleeping position is the easiest way to alleviate back issues in humans, in bird pokémon, it’s far more complicated. Instead, it’s far better simply to treat or prevent back pain in a bird pokémon’s waking state, when it’s active and can adopt changes to its routine.

What advice can you give me on how to take care of a drilbur or two? I have a large mostly empty and unused back yard which I think will be good for them to dig in. Is there anything I can do to make it more interesting for drilbur?

One thing you can do is offer them small boulders or a shallow pit of gravel. This may seem dangerous for a drilbur, but this is actually necessary for the maintenance of drilbur’s claws. Gravel pits give them something to dig into that will “refill” itself eventually, and boulders offer larger surface areas to scrape. (It’s extremely difficult to maintain a drilbur’s claws otherwise, although with patience, a human may be able to use a claw file on them. Drilbur generally don’t sit still long enough for this process, however.)

Planting logs or stumps (if one of your neighbors is looking to remove a stump from their yard) may provide obstacles for a drilbur to play with, especially if either of them have thick roots. They can also encourage insect breeding and provide something natural for a drilbur to snack on. Do not plant actual trees, however. Drilbur activity can damage the tree’s roots, which means planting trees in your drilbur’s “territory” may endanger them. The same can be said for gardens, incidentally (although you can use any area of your yard that your drilbur has grown tired of to garden).

Otherwise, simply giving your drilbur plenty of space (such as your entire yard) will be sufficient enough. Your drilbur will create tunnels and occupy themselves on their own, basically.

Other than that, drilbur eat insects, worms, and nuts when not on kibble, and they will often find sources of these on their own. However, it’s still recommended that you feed them regularly, especially during the winter, as those three food sources may not be plentiful enough to support your drilbur exclusively. Give them clean water for drinking as well, but keep in mind that as ground-types, they should never be bathed or placed in a wet environment. (They’ll self-groom, but you can provide them a sand bath as well if you can afford one large enough for them.)

They’re also mainly outdoor pokémon, so while you should bring them inside during the winter or during heavy rains, they can actually survive well enough by being left outside. Additionally, some trainers worry about whether or not their drilbur will wander or create tunnel systems that travel too far away from home, and quite frankly, these are valid worries. Some drilbur do dig burrows that lead far, far from home, but others prefer staying close and digging downward. To curb the potential of your drilbur digging too far from home, offer your drilbur treats and a warm, dry place for inclement weather. This will encourage it to come back or keep its tunnels close to you.

Good luck, anonymous!

Can you have more than 6 pokemon with you if some of them arent part of your team? If I had a full team of 6, would I be able to bring along my Umbreon in addition simply as a travelling companion, as he does not enjoy battling?

Absolutely! Service pokémon, for example, are always separate from your full team of six, as if you have one, then they’re absolutely necessary for your day-to-day life. It wouldn’t do at all to force you to have one less pokémon to battle at your side, just because you need another one for medical reasons.

Outside of service pokémon, people often keep pets in addition to pokémon reserved solely for battling. These trainers are often more domestically-inclined, meaning the reason why they have no problem keeping pets is because they stick close enough to home to take care of them. While teams can double as pets, some people find it’s easier to pamper a pokémon that you’re not trying to train for hard battling. There are no limits to the number of pokémon you can keep as pets in your own home, but for obvious reasons, you can’t take many of them with you on your journey. Typically, the rules for “companion pokémon” (or those that are basically pets or team mascots, rather than team members) varies from region to region, but most of the currently recognized leagues only allow for one companion per trainer. This is largely for similar reasons to the six-pokémon rule: any more than that, and it may get difficult for a trainer to manage.

In other words, you absolutely can bring your umbreon along, so long as he’s properly registered as a pet or companion, rather than as a battler. You can do this by visiting your local pokémon center (or wherever you register for a league) and informing them of your umbreon’s status.

Of course, keep in mind that the rules are extremely strict about using your umbreon to battle, and once he’s registered as your pet, you can’t even use him to help you catch new team members. This may work out for him if he continues to dislike battling, but should he change his mind, you will need to visit a pokémon center to adjust his status.

Because I’m less attached to modern media, what caused the pokeblock maker recall of 2007?

Let’s just say there was a slim chance that metal shavings would become a flavoring.

Also, there was another, unrelated risk the whole thing could burst into a ball of flames when handling dry berries.

Mostly it was the latter, actually. And although Devon could have simply fixed that, the salmonella outbreak in 2006 put a number of people off blocks for some time. It didn’t help that poffins became hugely popular the summer after.

Why are some species (pichu, riolu..) classed as “baby pokemon”? Why are they different from ‘real’ baby pokemon? After some time they wont exactly be babies anymore right? And why cant they breed? (sorry so many questions)

Quite all right! These are all very good questions.

To answer, baby pokémon are more or less equivalents to larval stages of certain animals. While they’re certainly more functional than their animal equivalents (to the point where pokémon can engage in battle, problem-solve, and do much more that a larval insect or amphibious tadpole can’t do), they’re still merely infertile juvenile stages, and thus, they can never gain the ability to fully mature and breed unless they evolve. This is in contrast to many other hatchlings, which retain their forms even to sexual maturity, so a puppy growlithe is still the exact same species and form as an adult growlithe. It’s just that the puppy needs to grow into an adult before it can breed (as oppose to evolve in order to reach that point).

Thus, in other words, baby pokémon are considered as such because they’re essentially larva. They can’t breed, meanwhile, because they’re infertile until after they evolve and, thus, develop functional reproductive organs during evolution. For this reason, a three-year-old pichu will still be considered a “baby pokémon,” as this is just shorthand used by trainers and researchers to denote a larval pokémon that has yet to evolve, not literally a hatchling.

Thank you so much for your help with my Grumpig and Feebas I took everything you said into consideration and I found out the river where I was hunting down a prism scale (which are really rare in alola) was actually an alola form Muk! My Grumpig knew the waters were a site of one of the trash storing places and a muk had escaped so we up and left to find the scale my Pokemon now get along very well! Thank you so much!!

Glad to hear that the issue has been resolved, @deliriousfan606, and it’s great to hear that your grumpig and feebas are doing well together now! Not to mention, of course, that it’s quite wonderful to hear that your grumpig actually cares for his teammate so much that he would go to such lengths to protect her from a literally toxic environment.

(Of course, it’s also worrying that the environment in Alola can be so volatile that a rainbow-colored muk can be mistaken for a river, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there.)

In any case, it is quite fascinating to know that pokémon are so much more aware of our shared environment than we are. Your grumpig seems incredibly loyal and wise, so may he continue to give you trustworthy advice from here onwards.

Thank you for your advice! One brave little wild Taillow from the park came up to my Haxorus and started playing with her and sometimes picked berries for them to share. We have revisited the park many times and the same taillow keeps coming back to her. Is it a good idea to catch this Taillow if they are getting along so well? And Could this show other trainrs that my Haxorus is gentle and kind?

It’s certainly uplifting to hear that your haxorus has made a friend!

To answer your questions in reverse, it’s very likely that this will show other trainers that your haxorus is kind. It’s difficult to argue against that idea when you have a large, intimidating pokémon treat a small, fragile-looking bird with respect and gentleness. Of course, it’s worth it to note that humans are unfortunately complex, anonymous, and sometimes, even when presented with overwhelming evidence of a certain point, human beings have a habit of refusing to believe the obvious. (Politics is a great example of this.) Nonetheless, while it may not convince all humans, I have no doubt that it will convince some of them, and once you can convince some humans that your haxorus means no harm, you can build up your haxorus’s connections from there.

As for whether or not you should catch that taillow, that may be up to the taillow itself. If it wishes to spend more time with your haxorus, it would be worth offering it a home. If, however, it prefers to live in the park, allow it to continue living in the park, but keep an eye on it. If another trainer catches that taillow, make an effort to befriend that trainer so that your haxorus and that taillow can continue being connected to one another. Alternatively, continue interacting with that taillow but make it clear that it will always have the option of coming to live with you if it so chooses.

Good luck, anonymous, and good luck to your haxorus too!