Tag: asks

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

Lately my Nidoking has been acting strangely lately. He’s been extremely grumpy and wont listen. I’ve had him for years and raised him from a little Nidoran and this is the first time he’s acted this way. I’ve tried extra training and changed his diet, neither of which have worked. I don’t know what to do anymore, none of my team will come near him anymore and it breaks my heart, is there anything I can do so he’ll go back to his normal self?

Because you’ve raised your nidoking for years, communication may still be an option for you. You may be more in-tune with your nidoking than you may think, in other words, so I would highly recommend sitting down with him and simply asking what may be on his mind. He may not reply to you in Common (few pokémon can), but at the very least, if he feels up to it, he can indicate through signs what he may want.

However, I have a theory. As he’s an older, presumably unpaired nidoking, he may be lonely. That is, he may be at the age when his kind would want to establish a territory and find a mate, but because he’s confined to your home and your team, he may be unable to do so, which may be causing him some frustration. This isn’t to say that you should release him, of course. Rather, consider obtaining a potential mate or taking him to a breeder to … relieve tension, as it were.

As a note, keep in mind that although nidoqueen can’t produce eggs, nidoking like yours will still happily settle down with nidoqueen mates. Nidoking in such pairings don’t seem to mind the inability to produce eggs, although if you do end up getting a nidoqueen, consider using a ditto surrogate with your nidoking if it appears that she’s distressed by the presence of an eggless nest (which is a rare but still possible occurrence).

If your nidoking seems disinterested in mates, take him out to a wide-open space whenever possible, as having an abundance of territory to roam may also lift his spirits.

Good luck, @darkrivermori!

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.

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:

  1. Lethargy
  2. Faster or labored breathing; panting if it’s not particularly hot
  3. Dry nose and/or gums
  4. Lack of appetite or difficulty eating or drinking
  5. Runny nose
  6. Shivering
  7. 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:

  1. Disinclination to sit still for at least half a minute
  2. Fire displayed in his mouth, despite the fact that you haven’t ordered him to attack
  3. Increased appetite and thirst
  4. 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.

I live in Kanto, and caught a Vulpix in the wild quite a while ago, and a friend from Alola recently traded me an Alolan Vulpix. They seem to be rather jealous of each other, and keep fighting over toys and food. I’m afraid my Kantonian Vulpix might hurt my Alolan Vulpix, any tips to keep them from fighting?

You may have introduced them to one another too quickly, anonymous. It may be prudent to start over by following similar steps outlined in this post (http://bills-pokedex.tumblr.com/post/159389928380/so-i-live-in-a-house-converted-to-two-apartments, or formal supervised introductions in which you place both vulpix in the same, comfortable room a fair distance apart, then work your way to a point where they can interact comfortably in close proximity to one another). As it stands, it’s very likely that your Kantonian vulpix is experiencing jealousy due to fear that it may be replaced, whereas your Alolan vulpix may be experiencing jealous because it considers the older vulpix competition for resources. If you provide both with equal amounts of everything (food, toys, and so forth) and work to introduce them slowly and through supervised play, perhaps reinforced with team building exercises, you may be able to alleviate some of the tension between them.

Best of luck, anonymous!

There is a skarmory terrorizing my neighborhood! Whenever you go outside it’s there to attack and no one knows how to stop it! What do we do!

Usually, if you battle a pokémon, it will either calm down or allow itself to be captured, thus ending its rampage. My advice would be to obtain a fire-type pokémon, as these are particularly effective with chasing skarmory away. The most effective in this case would be a pokémon that possesses the ability Drought (most notably torkoal, charizard equipped with charizardite y, and very specific breeds of standard-form vulpix and ninetales), as they possess the inherent talent of summoning Sunny Day at the start of every battle. If you can’t find a pokémon with Drought or if you’d like to supplement your team, also obtain a fire-type that can either fly or hover (chandelure, talonflame, baile form oricorio, etc.), as these will be important for getting as close to this skarmory as possible.

If it isn’t intimidated by your fire-type choice on the outset, prepare to battle. Use distance moves but take care to keep property damage minimal. (This would be why your flying or hovering pokémon would be vital.) Try to drive away skarmory, but if necessary, weaken it enough to capture, then proceed to tame it as you would a wild pokémon.

Of course, also keep in mind that the invasion of an aggressive pokémon may indicate problems with its native habitat. Consider investigating this skarmory to determine where it came from and what sorts of environmental problems would drive it into civilization, especially given the fact that its appearance seems to have been abrupt. If there is indeed a problem, then this may be something you bring up to your local government at worst or attempt to also resolve yourself at best.

Good luck, anonymous!