Don’t you think it’s weird all Pokemon breed with eggs? It strikes me as bizarre to imagine a Rapidash lay an egg large enough to contain a foal. How does a foal emerge from a tiny egg? I would think it made more sense for the egg to be incubated and hatched inside the body, going through a gestation period before it is birthed. Perhaps the ‘egg’ rule differs for certain Pokemon? Thoughts?

To be fair, the platypus exists.

In all seriousness, anonymous, all of these are good questions, but it’s worth it to note that eggs work very similarly to poké balls. For example, a ponyta can emerge from a small egg because it exists as a half-solid, half-energy form until it hatches. This is why you often see a burst of light as the pokémon emerges: because upon hatching, it shifts into a completely solid form (or … you know what I mean, when it comes to pokémon such as gastly). Some pokémon tech researchers even theorize that poké balls were inspired by this process, as ancient poké ball craftsmen witnessed pokémon hatching and used apricorns and other devices to trigger a pokémon’s reversion back to this energy-based state.

Ultimately, however, which reproductive method an organism uses depends a lot on energy efficiency, and live birth is, in general, a very costly thing. That’s why pokémon lay eggs instead: as creatures whose lives focus on battling (another high-energy activity), it’s just easier for them to lay eggs than it is to undergo pregnancy. So I must say I respectfully disagree with your proposal, although it’s certainly an interesting thought nonetheless.

My Swanna keeps bringing home random Pokemon and trying to keep them. They keep trying to run but she keeps trying to force them to stay until I order her to let them go, but then she gets mad at me! I suspect that this might be because she can’t lay eggs, but what can I do?

There are a couple of things you can do, depending on whether or not you have room for another member of your team.

The first and possibly easiest choice is to consult a breeder and adopt an egg. If your swanna is indeed under the influence of her nesting instinct (and you will know if she is—the behavior you described alone is a hallmark of such for swanna, but she may also be attempting to build a nest somewhere close to your home), then allowing her to bond with an egg may be the best way to pacify her. Be sure that the first pokémon the hatchling sees is your swanna, and she will be able to channel her energies into raising her adoptive child from there. You will, of course, be expected to offer some level of care for the newborn as well (particularly in the form of food and toys), but your swanna will fortunately see to grooming, early training, and general basic care, particularly if you were able to secure a bird pokémon’s egg for her.

Alternatively, if you have no room for a new team member, you may be able to placate her with toys and distractions (such as battling), but if she’s aggressive towards you, her own trainer, then this may be less effective than the above solution. Still, it’s certainly worth trying; there is always a chance that with enough distractions, your swanna will calm down just enough for you to reason with her.

Best of luck, anonymous!

two of my pokemon, both male and same species, somehow has an egg between them. I checked and it looks like it’s the same species with them which is weird because there is no female around where I’m at. they’re making a nest for it. do I need to take it to the lost and found or, what do I do???

First, perform these steps:

1. Look about for a female, a trainer, or a breeder who may be searching for an egg. Humans are typically easier to find; as eggs are valuable to one’s team, a trainer who had lost an egg will usually be searching frantically for it. Wild pokémon are typically harder, as new mothers will shy away from human contact to avoid attracting attention and thus drawing predators to herself or the rest of her clutch. However, you can look around your neighborhood for any sign of a new nest. If you can find any identifying marks on your egg (patterns, for example), try to match that pattern with eggs you find in the wild. You can also look online to determine what the species of the egg is by searching for its pattern.

2. If you can’t find anyone on your own, assess the situation a little more closely. If one or both of your pokémon seem aggressive when you approach the egg, you may wish to consider keeping it and allowing him and his partner to complete their nest. It’s likely that the egg may be a rescue or may actually belong to one of your pokémon. Depending on your place of residence, one of your pokémon may have encountered a wild ditto or a stray female, or one partner may actually have been a ditto in a long-term Transform. Whatever the situation, it’s still a possibility that your pokémon have acquired the egg via perfectly natural means, if they haven’t simply adopted it themselves.

3. If your pokémon seem rather ambivalent to the egg and are simply constructing a nest because it’s the natural thing to do, consider taking the egg to your nearest pokémon center or breeding center—or at least inform either that you found an egg. If no one comes to claim the egg, allow your pokémon to take care of it and try to figure out based on the egg pattern what hatchling you should prepare for.

Best of luck, anonymous!

I have an espeon and a umbreon, they are both male and they really like each other and is looking after this egg I received from the professor. I think they are telling me they want a egg on their own but how can I tell them that it’s biologically impossible?

You might not need to tell them at all, anonymous, especially if their problem is less about the fact that they don’t know they can’t procreate and more about the fact that they want young and are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill that need. That having been said, if letting them take care of your professor’s egg and resulting hatchling over a longer period of time is out of the question, then oftentimes, breeders end up with abandoned eggs, or a trainer decides they can’t take care of a hatchling. Either would be perfectly acceptable avenues for securing the egg or hatchling your pokémon want. Ideally, you may want to adopt an egg in order to give your espeon and umbreon the full experience of pokémon parenthood (short of laying the egg, of course), but if that’s not an option, allowing them to raise a hatchling together after it’s born works just as well.

Alternatively, you could use a surrogate ditto lay an egg or few for them so that the hatchling will at least be biologically one of the parents. Some trainers opt for that option, as it’s easier for the parents to bond with the egg, which is really the important thing. Your espeon and umbreon may not see the egg as theirs because it’s technically yours, as far as they’re concerned. If you, quite literally, give them an egg of their own, that should be sufficient to fulfill their wishes to be parents.

If, however, you’re referring to the possibility that they are mating with extreme vigor because they don’t understand that neither of them can lay an egg, then I would suggest explaining it to espeon first. Espeon, due to their psychic elemental, are more likely to understand human conversation than a dark-type umbreon, and in any case, it would be much easier to deal with the telepathic backlash from your espeon’s shock sooner, rather than later.

Best of luck, anonymous!

Hey Bill, If Pokémon could get pregnant instead of laying eggs, and if two Pokémon in the same gender could have a biological child together( I know it’s impossible but what if.) would the baby’s genetics be screwed up and have complications developing or die shortly after birth? I know that this is a strange question but I’m curious.

Not really, no. Once genetic material is removed from its cell, it doesn’t take into account the gender of the source. That is to say, if you removed DNA from eggs sourced from two genetically different beings, it won’t matter that they’re both organisms capable of producing eggs (as opposed to sperm). The genetic material will simply combine the same way it would if the material came from a sperm and egg. The only difference is that because both sources have the exact same type of sex chromosome, the offspring will always be the same gender as both parents. So for example, if both of the parents had a pair of X chromosomes, then the child will also have a pair of X chromosomes; there is no chance for it to have both an X and a Y.

While mutations are always a possibility (because no biological process is perfect), a child will only have a higher risk of being born with them if:

A. One of the parents is a carrier for a genetic condition anyway.

B. The parents are biologically related.

C. The parent carrying the child was exposed to environmental factors (such as cigarette smoke, high doses of radiation, and so forth).

The first scenario is self-explanatory, so I don’t feel the need to go into detail about that. The second, meanwhile, has a lot to do with the first, as parents who are biologically related also share more genetic material than two parents from completely different families. As a result, they also share markers for … less than desirable traits, including recessive genetic issues. Consequently, combining genetic material from two biological relatives results in those less desirable traits being expressed, which in turn leads to a wide variety of problems in the child.

The third, meanwhile, has less to do with the parents and more to do with the fact that mammalian fetal development is surprisingly a highly delicate thing.

In short, anonymous, no, two pokémon of the same gender would not produce a child with debilitating genetic disorders unless those two pokémon were also biologically related. Or, well, mating in Pripyat, but I highly doubt that to be the case.

Hey Bill, what do you think would occur if a regular-form and an Alolan-form Ninetales were bred together? Or would they not even be compatible mates since they would never interact in the wild?

They’re technically breeds of the same species, so yes, they’re compatible. What’s interesting about both forms of ninetales is actually that whether their young is fire or ice depends on two factors: which region the egg is laid in and whether or not one of the parents is holding an everstone. The more obvious of the two is the regional detail. An egg laid in Alola will always hatch into an ice-type, whereas an egg laid elsewhere will hatch into a fire-type. This may be because the unique environment of Alola triggers the shift towards vulpix’s Alolan variation, even if one of their parents is the fire-type ninetales.

As for the everstone, that is an interesting object in general when it comes to pokémon breeding. By itself, the everstone has the power to override a pokémon’s physiological shifts. Outside of breeding, this means that the everstone has the power to block evolution, even if a pokémon wants to evolve and/or is in contact with an evolution stone. When it comes to breeding, however, an everstone has the power to boost a parent’s genetic traits and “lock” them into their young. For example, let’s say you have a pikachu with Lightning Rod as its ability. Even though this is technically a recessive gene for the pikachu species, giving that parent an everstone overrides the egg’s tendency to shift towards the more dominant option of Static and instead locks it onto the same ability as the parent pikachu. Something very similar happens when breeding an Alolan and a standard variation of a pokémon. If you give an everstone to the Alolan parent, the breed of the egg will “lock” onto the genes for an Alolan variation. If, however, the standard variation is given the everstone, then the resulting egg will become a standard variation of that species.

I’ve noticed that in some asks about a pokemon’s behaviour, sometimes you recommend and in others you don’t bring this up at all and instead suggest allowing them to breed. Is this because certain pokemon cannot be neutered? Which ones?

Actually, I don’t often bring up the subject of breeding because not all behaviors have to do with sex, contrary to what Freud may have you believe.

Joking aside, whether or not it would be prudent to have a pokémon breed depends on completely on circumstances. If a pokémon is depressed, then companionship may be the best solution, as many pokémon are actually social in nature. However, aggression is a sign of unchecked sexual frustration, and sometimes, neutering can allow a pokémon to gain control of their temper by reducing their hormone levels to a manageable state. Likewise, if it’s clear that the owner doesn’t wish to raise young or if the pokémon wanders off to mate with a large amount of wild pokémon (or pokémon owned by other trainers), neutering may help to reduce a pokémon’s urges, which in turn will help control the population of unwanted hatchlings.

In other words, whether a pokémon should breed or should be neutered depends entirely on circumstances. In some cases, one is simply a far better option than another. Likewise, it’s also worth it to note that although I was largely kidding in my first line of this response, it’s true that not all instances of aggression or wandering have to do with a pokémon’s libido. Sometimes, they’re simply signs of stress, lack of sleep, or something far, far simpler than sexual frustration.

Its not possible for a pokemon to impregnate a human, right? For context, have this. I run a hot spring and there are alot of volbeat and illumise that fly overhead at night, and since they are classified as ‘human like’ breeding wise, please, please tell me that none of my clients are at risk?

It is indeed impossible for two reasons. First, volbeat and illumise are genetically incompatible with human beings, and thus, they can’t crossbreed (regardless of what early Sinnohan myth may say). Second, one would assume that “please do not engage in intercourse with wild pokémon in the hot spring” would be among your policies because of sanitation issues.

I got both Ninetales, regular and the alola kind, they are male and female so if I breed them would they be mix breeds, or they be same as one of their parents and could use some of their other parents typing?

Ah, as I’ve said in another ask (which I admit is in queue as of this writing), it depends on the environment in which the egg is laid and whether or not either parent is holding an everstone. If the egg is laid in Alola, then the specific environmental conditions unique to Alola will cause the genes inherited from the Alolan parent to express themselves, resulting in an Alolan vulpix, whereas if the couple lays an egg anywhere else, the standard-form parent’s genes will be expressed instead, which will result in a standard-form vulpix. However, if one parent holds an everstone, then the genes of that parent will express themselves over the ones inherited from the other parent, regardless of where the nest is located. For example, if you give a standard-form ninetales an everstone and allow your pokémon to mate in Alola, then the resulting hatchling will be a fire-type, rather than an ice-type.

Incidentally, should anyone be curious, this phenomenon does not occur if both parents are of the same variation, likely due to the lack of variant genetics in the combination. For example, if both of a trainer’s ninetales are of the Alolan breed, then the resulting hatchling will be an Alolan vulpix, even if the nest is located in Kanto.

What age do pokemon reach maturity? Are they like humans and reach maturity in their teens or more like animals and much earlier?

It really depends on the pokémon and your definition of “maturity,” anonymous. Assuming you mean “adulthood” or “age at which pokémon are ready to breed,” some pokémon, such as caterpie, can reach this point within months after birth. Others, such as members of the dratini family, may take years to reach that point, and rock-types such as geodude may take decades. Still others—namely the traditionally classed “baby” pokémon—never reach that point at all unless they undergo evolution first.

Generally speaking, though, the shorter the life span, the quicker a pokémon matures, and only a handful really reach maturity in their teens like humans do.