Tag: asks

Is it bad for an Eevee to evolve at a young age? My beloved 3 month old baby Eevee just evolved into a Sylveon! My local Nurse Joy says she’s perfectly healthy. She’s only the size of a fully grown Eevee and she’s the littlest, most adorable Sylveon ever!

Not at all! In some cases, it can be better because your eevee(lution) can unlock its potential much faster, and it doesn’t deal with the stress of resisting its urge to adapt to its every environment. The downside, of course, is the fact that it’s deciding early what it wants to be, and not all eevee possess that level of confidence in its decisions that early on. However, if an eevee wants to evolve into a certain form and is absolutely sure of that, then it’s perfectly fine.

On that note, congratulations to your sylveon! She certainly sounds adorable.

No, Bill, you can’t ask an anonymous poster for pics. —LH

But what if I strongly imply that I would like to see pics? —Bill

No. —LH

Hey Bill, I’ve heard people describe Dragonite as Dragonair are rapid onset Diabetes. this makes me wonder, is it possible for pokemon to have Diabetes, specifically Gardevoir? I’m worried about how mine avoids sugar like made. Is there anything i can do if nurse joy does diagnose her as Diabetic?

It is possible for pokémon to have diabetes, but for the record, dragonite’s physique is pure muscle, thank you very much.

On a serious note, pokémon diabetes, as with human diabetes, has a longer list of causes than “too much sugar.” (Granted, many sugary foods trigger other health problems in pokémon besides diabetes, including kidney failure, depending on the food you’re feeding them, but this is a side point.) In truth, the main culprits to pokémon diabetes are simply a bad diet and a lack of exercise. This is why it’s extremely important to train daily, even if that training is for something other than battling, and why you should follow the recommended diet plan for your pokémon’s species.

If your gardevoir is diagnosed as diabetic anyway (as it’s also possible for certain humanshape pokémon to become diabetic anyway, despite exercise and nutrition), then it’s important to follow your Nurse Joy’s directions for care. Increase exercise as well and consider a diet that’s high in fiber. And of course, never forget her medication. Even if she needs insulin shots, keep her calm and administer her medication daily. Being consistent about your pokémon’s health needs prevents permanent physical damage and prolongs your pokémon’s life, but taking your pokémon to the center at the first signs of physical distress (excessive thirst, abrupt weight loss, lethargy, dehydration, vomiting, and unusually sweet-smelling breath, to name a few) and making those lifestyle changes earlier means it’ll be easier to incorporate those changes into your current day-to-day life. It’s much harder if you ignore the warning signs out of fear of a diagnosis or if you deviate from your treatment plan.

In short, handling a pokémon’s diabetes is, for the most part, a matter of increasing their exercise, having them eat right, and remembering to administer medication daily. Besides, of course, following any other order from Nurse Joy.

Best of luck!

Hi! I’m alittle worried about my partner Sunlight. She’s a Luxray that I’ve taken care of and raised since she was a tiny lil shinx. I still don’t know what happened to her parents. Anyway, we just came back from a long hike in Mt. Silver and she’s been acting very odd. She’s become overly protective and she’s been stealing all of the blankets in the house. Along with that, she’s also super picky when it comes to food, and normally she eats almost anything, exept for blue gummis (part 1)

Actually, these sound like classic nesting behaviors. Several pokémon native to the Mt. Silver range are capable of breeding with luxray, including absol (a rare find, but nonetheless), as well as ursaring and donphan. Even if you only lost sight of Sunlight for a day, that could be enough time for her to meet and, well, mate.

Keep an eye on Sunlight for the next few days. If she begins eating more than usual, you may be expecting an egg or two soon. The next step would be to follow her to find out where her nest is and to see if there is an egg to be concerned about, and if so, the step after that would be to convince Sunlight to let you help her (as opposed to electrocuting you on sight if you’re anywhere near her nest, which tends to also be classic luxray nesting behavior.)

Best of luck!

Why do nidoran evolve differently based on gender, but other pokemon which experience relatively extreme gender dimorphism (such as frillish) become the same pokemon no matter what their gender? What sets nidoran apart?

Strangely, the nidoran lines are the only pokémon lines whose male and female counterparts … are not the same species. That is, although the two get along well enough, they’re about as similar to one another as plusle are to minun. The only reason they’re both called nidoran is because they look like one another, often form mated pairs (even if the advanced stages can’t breed), and live in the same burrows, so scientists mistook them for the same species with a divergent evolution tree (much like the burmy line) until later studies revealed that they’re only related, not the same.

So that should answer the question about their evolution lines: they are, quite simply, actually two separate lines from their base onwards.

Hello bill, concerned citizen here. I was walking yesterday and saw this man with an absol, but the odd thing was that this absol’s horn had a Scalloped edge. the man said it grew that way, but i noticed faint grooves in the horn. i think he bound the absol’s horn while it was growing to make the dips in the horn. Is this enough for me to call officer Jenny on him? I know that an absol’s horn is a major sensory device and worry for it, and am also concerned as to what happens if the horn breaks.

It’s worth it to know that there are genetic conditions that may affect the way an absol’s horn grows, so there’s a possibility that this trainer is right in that regard. Alternatively, the absol could be a rescue whose previous owner was abusive, and its current owner simply doesn’t want to talk about it. If you suspect abuse, it’s important to look for other signs, including malnourishment, fresh injuries, or strange (anxious, aggressive, etc.) behavior. Making an incorrect call on such a matter could put an owner and a pokémon through quite a lot, some of which can be highly traumatic for a rescue.

Still, it’s good to hear that you’re concerned for a pokémon’s well being! Please continue to care as deeply for pokémon as you do.

How do gender based evolutions work? (Specifically Gallade, Froslass, and Salazzle, Vespiquen is kinda obvious)

Well, Gallade and Froslass’s evolutions are determined by genetics, as noted here: http://bills-pokedex.tumblr.com/post/149893951891/a-recent-ask-about-gallade-got-me-wondering-why

Salazzle is a bit more complicated, and it’s actually far more interesting. You see, one of the hallmarks of a salazzle is her ability to attract and enrapture male salandit. She does this through the release of powerful pheromones, which are emitted through scent glands located under her tail and on the red markings in her chest.

The reason why I bring this up is not because these scent glands are directly responsible for a female salandit’s ability to evolve. Rather, they’re directly responsible for the males’ inability to do so. To put it in short, these scent glands are present in female salandit as well, and although they are far from as powerful as a salazzle’s collection of glands, they still do the job just as effectively. Between salazzle and female salandit, male salandit often find themselves at the beck and call of half their species for the majority of their waking lives. They’re compelled to expend much of their energy building nests for and protecting females (as well as their eggs), and much of the food gathered by a reverse harem of male salandit (that is, incidentally, the actual, scientific term for it) is given to nesting females. Consequently, male salandit often lack the energy to evolve, if they’re not simply too underdeveloped from malnutrition to do it.

Of course, one might ask if it’s remotely possible for a rebellious male salandit to achieve evolution, but I’m afraid there are two issues with that. First, while it’s true that there might still be outliers, it’s widely believed that the salandit species has gone on this way for so long that male salandit actually lack the ability to evolve on a genetic level—as in, they lost their ability to evolve via adaptation. Second, even if they hadn’t, a female salandit’s pheromones are much too powerful for a male to resist. And to those of you who question how one can be virtually incapable of dodging a request from someone with whom you’re thoroughly in love … try rebelling against your significant other when they ask you to put the wet laundry in the dryer. See how well that goes for you.

Bill, can you really make that kind of claim when you haven’t dated anyone in years? —LH

Of course I can. By the way, your shirts have about ten minutes to go, and you’re welcome. —Bill

…this is one of those times when I try to be clever and realize all too late that it went horribly wrong, isn’t it? —Bill

Why does the Alolan pokedex say such horrible things about mega evolution? My blazekin, Hina, gets a real thrill from the temporary power boost it gives, She eagerly taps her megastone when she goes into battle, and when she mega-evolves, she gives that particular cluck that she uses to mean “Good! Good!”

To be fair, the Alolan pokédex says horrible things about s lot of pokémon. That’s what happens when you let a ghost-type write the entries and an eccentric “approve” whatever it writes.

In all seriousness, though, mega evolution can be a highly stressful, extremely violent event. For most pokémon/trainer combinations, it takes time and effort to control the process, and only the extremely lucky or highly skilled master it right away.

Hey Bill, I have a raichu I raised since she is an egg and I recently took her to nurse joy to find out my raichu is actually intersex. That explains why raichu acts as male and female. I still love my raichu and care about her the same as before I found out. Nurse joy also said that she is likely not able to reproduce. I consider my raichu close to female because her tail seems it has a flat tip. How rare is this in Pokémon?

To be perfectly honest, genetics is a very complicated topic, and as with all things in nature, it can be … rather messy. That is to say, if you have something that’s traditionally thought as being binary—such as biological sex—oftentimes, the actual definitions of those concepts are a bit on the hazy side when put in practice. That is to say, a lot of things determine the way a pokémon’s sexual characteristics develop (depending on the species), and sometimes, some of those factors don’t fall into the clean-cut categories one would think they would. For example, in pokémon that follow the XY sex-determination system (which is to say, most mammalian pokémon, raichu included), we’re commonly taught that males have XY chromosomes, whereas females have XX. However, there are a whole host of other combinations an individual may have, including XO (i.e., only one sex chromosome), XXY, XYY, XXX (right on up to XXXXX), and so forth. Granted, a number of these combinations actually produce genetic disorders that affect an individual’s day-to-day life (if the disorder doesn’t simply kill them early on), but there are combinations that can be virtually undetectable, save for levels of estrogen or testosterone and minor physical differences. An individual could even have a “standard” pair of chromosomes but develop sex characteristics associated with the other “standard” pair. In short, genetics are far from neat.

(As a note, the above merely describes mammalian sex determination. Reptiles, insects, birds, and all the other pokémon in existence have entirely different biological mechanisms for sex determination, varying from environmental factors, whether or not the egg is fertilized in the first place, right on up to whether or not the newly fertilized egg undergoes mitosis properly—the latter of which is very similar to the process of XY determination.)

How often does that happen, though? It’s difficult to say, and it varies by species, but it’s generally thought to be not particularly common or rare across the board. I know that sounds odd, but I mean that there really isn’t hard data concerning how often an intersex pokémon occurs. In mammals, though, it’s estimated that eggs have a 1 in about 1700 chance of being intersex like your raichu, but it’s somewhat more common than that in insects and crustacean pokémon. Genetically intersex bird pokémon, on the other hand, are either nonexistent or extremely rare. (The known cases of intersex bird pokémon on record actually aren’t genetic. These pokémon have suffered damages to their reproductive system sometime in their lives and consequently started to produce sex characteristics of another gender.)

In short, it’s not often that you see a pokémon like your raichu, but rest assured that she isn’t alone!