Tag: mawile

Do Mawile’s antenna serve a purpose? I recently got a mawilite and she wants to match me and my keystone earring, so is it possible/ethical to pierce my Mawile antenna?

Those antennae serve as balance, actually—counterweights to their bulky horns. Don’t let this alarm you, though; you can still absolutely adorn them with jewelry and not harm your mawile.

The problem lies in the fact that they’re difficult to pierce. After all, they’re actually reinforced with organic metal (the same sort that causes mawile to be classified as a steel-type). It may be a good idea to create a clip-on earring for your mawile or a clip that otherwise resembles your earring instead.

Best of luck!

I heard a rumor that steel and rock types can’t swim because they just sink, and when my mawile went near a pond i accidentally panicked and now shes freaked out by water, so first is the rumor true and if it isn’t could you give me some tips to help her get over her new fear?

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not true—many examples of both types can swim. This is especially not true for steel-types, which consist of pokémon that have the flexibility to physically swim or that have abilities that help them repel off the planet’s own gravitational field enough to keep them afloat. (That last one is not actually a pun. I do mean they literally bob in the water and fail to sink solely because their magnetic forces keep them from doing so.)

That having been said, at the risk of putting things bluntly, your mawile has a fear of water because you taught her to have a fear of it. This isn’t me accusing you of wrongdoing; your fear was indeed valid due to how much that rumor has been perpetuated in our way of thinking about steel-types. However, it is important to know because it’s the key to helping her overcome her fear.

What I’m trying to say is you need to teach her that it’s safe. If you can, go back to the same pond. If you can’t, any large body of water will do. Once you get there, get in the water yourself. Swim out a bit and show your mawile that you’re fine. She doesn’t need to get in herself at this point; she just needs to see you work with water so she understands that it won’t necessarily hurt.

Then, start with a bit of exposure therapy. Begin with smaller bodies of water: a bathtub or a very slow, very shallow stream will do. Have your mawile rest in it for as long as she feels comfortable, then take her out, dry her off, and give her a treat. Repeat this until she grows used to the smaller body of water, then move up to the larger. Once you get to sufficiently deep bodies, you may also wish to give her a few swimming lessons. (Some towns have water-type specialists who offer swim lessons for non-water-types, but if this isn’t an option due to finances or the lack of one yourself, just know that swimming for a mawile is very similar to swimming for a human. The only difference is that they need to exert more effort in keeping their upper bodies above water due to their false jaws.)

Either way, work your way up until you can return to the pond and let her swim. Take it easy and maintain a good hold on her until she’s relaxed and capable of either standing at the shallow end or swimming on her own.

It will take some time, yes, but with effort, consistent rewards, and a lot of patience, you’ll be able to teach her that there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to water.

Best of luck!

My mawiles tooth just fell out! What do I do!? Its from her false jaw not her mouth, do I put it in moo moo milk? I heard that’s a thing…

It is for most pokémon that have teeth, but with a mawile’s false jaws, it’s actually far easier to take care of. The fact of the matter is that a mawile’s horns are normally lose their teeth every so often because they’re used to bite deep into a victim and hold, even when the victim struggles. Losing teeth is simply often inevitable in these situations. Thus, a mawile’s horns can regrow teeth rather quickly.

In other words, don’t worry! Your mawile will be fine. As for the tooth, some trainers like to collect them to make jewelry or as keepsakes, but otherwise, it would be fine to throw it away.

Hey Bill, Mawile hoarder egg Anon again. Thanks for the advice. as you probably guessed by the origins of the egg, i’ve got some connections to Law enforcement, and was wondering if Mawile can be effective Police partners if i decide to join the Force myself when the little lady’s a bit older?

Truth be told, practically anything can be an effective police partner with the right sort of training, in the right type of situation. Many pokémon are even trained for particular specialties, such as psychic-types for investigation, canines and flying-types for search and rescue (as they’re hardier than psychics), ghost-types for psychic crimes, and so on.

In mawile’s case, while the species can in general be effective for interrogation (given their usual special abilities), it wouldn’t be unusual at all to find one on the beat as well, given their size and ability to startle fleeing suspects.

So in short, absolutely. Best of luck!

Hey Bill, can you offer some tips for Mawile care? I got an egg from a Hoarder Situation Rescue, and she just hatched maybe a day ago? What are some Do’s and Don’t’s i should be aware of after she comes back from Nurse Joy? Sitting in a Pokemon Center as i type this on my pokegear waiting for Nurse joy to give her a once over before i start parenting in earnest XD. A concerned Mawile Parent

It’s certainly lucky that you’re getting this mawile as a hatchling, rather than as a pokémon who was raised in the aforementioned hoarding situation. Because of this, you won’t necessarily have to help it through any resulting trauma.

That having been said, though, you’ll of course want to follow the instructions Nurse Joy will give you on infant mawile care. Once it’s grown enough to be weaned and to live on its own, basic care should be fairly easy. It will need a soft bed and a room indoors, preferably one that’s a little on the cooler side if you live in warmer climates or climates in which it gets hot during the summer. Feed it a varied diet (mawile are omnivores) consisting of mostly berries, vegetables, and grains, with leaner meats for protein. Mawile also can be trained to use the toilet, although they typically use a litterbox (as with many fairy-types), and when grooming, be sure to polish your mawile’s horns with standard steel-type polish (as with all steel-types).

About the only differences between caring for mawile and caring for most other pokémon lies in, well, its jaws and nature. First and foremost, as a part-fairy, it’s important to be on guard around it at all times. It’s not as mischievous as, say, a clefairy or a mimikyu, but it’s still well known for deception and trickery. Never hand-feed it, in other words. And make sure you place everything that can fit in its horns out of reach.

As for the second part of that equation, its horns. Those must be well-maintained, and you do this by not only polishing the outside but also brushing the inside as you would teeth. Keep your mawile calm through the process, as challenging as it may be to do so. You may wish to distract it with music, a movie, or toys when it’s young, but it’s also possible to train it to consider such grooming to be pleasurable. That should take care of unintentional bites, but when it comes to intentional, you’ll want to wear heavy gloves at first as you work with your mawile’s jaws. Of course, it’s also important to teach it that biting you would hurt more than just a little bit, but when it’s young, it may be difficult to wean it off mischievous tendencies. Just have patience and reward your mawile whenever it displays positive behavior (sitting still while not biting you), and the job will eventually get easier as time goes on.

Best of luck, anonymous!

Mawile

bills-pokedex:

Mawile
The Deceiver Pokémon
Type: Steel/Fairy
Official Registration #: 303
Entry: A small, childlike pokémon first discovered in the cave systems of Hoenn. This pokémon is famous for its giant and fantastically strong set of false jaws growing from its head. Trainers should take caution: the front of this pokémon looks adorable, a fact that this pokémon uses to its advantage in order to lure in prey. When prey is close enough, it turns abruptly and chomps down on the unsuspecting victim with its false jaws. As for its strength, mawile is capable of biting through steel beams. Its false jaws, meanwhile, can do much worse.

Mega Mawile
The Deceiver Pokémon
Type: Steel/Fairy
Official Registration #: 303+
Entry: The advanced form of mawile, via mawilite. Should anyone wish to know why mawile grows a second false jaw upon mega evolution, the answer is simple: one is for gripping a victim with a bite force so strong escape becomes impossible, while the other is for viciously tearing said victim apart. Although, really, if you’ve attempted to physically assault a creature whose modus operandi in its base form is to lull a victim into a false sense of security with its cute face and then whip its single set of jaws at them, then at the risk of being thoroughly unprofessional, what it does with two sets of jaws should hardly be a surprise.

Do shiny pokemon know that they’re special? My shiny mawile has a bit of an attitude compared to her teammates, and I’m wondering if it’s just her personality, or if it has anything to do with her coloration. Is it bad to treat her differently?

It actually depends on a number of factors, anonymous, including whether the pokémon is wild or domesticated and what species it is. Many pokémon are actually colorblind, and while some researchers claim that alternately colored pokémon also put out slightly different scents than their average-colored kin, there really isn’t enough evidence to substantiate that claim. For this reason, by and large, the pokémon themselves might not notice a difference.

However, coloration does play into the predator-prey dynamic. A differently-colored prey pokémon such as rattata, for example, are far easier to spot in the shadows of their native forests than the average-colored deep purple rattata. For that reason, they’re far easier for avian predators to spot and hunt down (as birds are not colorblind), which means other rattata may give them a wide berth. Conversely, stantler, which are normally brown to allow them to blend in with their environment, are also larger and stronger than rattata. Thus, stantler herds will typically rally around alternately colored individuals (which are normally bright gold or green) to protect them from larger predators that can see color (such as ursaring).

A similar phenomenon occurs with predatory pokémon, actually. Smaller or more solitary hunters such as sneasel normally rely on their coloration to help them blend in with their surroundings and avoid being detected by their quarry (or, in sneasel’s case, the avian parents of the eggs they’re trying to obtain). However, shiny sneasel are brightly colored due to errors in melanin production, and as a result, they’re far less successful hunters. If a shiny sneasel is lucky, it can coerce other sneasel to do its hunting for it, but by and large, other sneasel will force it to fend for itself. On the other hand, mightyena, which are pack pokémon, will always make sure every member of their pack is strong enough to hunt, which means the chestnut-colored mightyena will always have something to eat, regardless of whether or not its coloration makes it easier for avian and large-game quarry to spot. The sheer numbers of the pack will guarantee that the hunt is successful.

Then, of course, you have pokémon whose alternate colorations are so close to their normal colorations that even if the specimen could see color, it wouldn’t matter. For example, no wild pikachu can tell the difference between themselves and any pikachu with a slightly different color. Thus, the shiny pikachu is treated just about the same as an average pikachu within the same colony.

On the other hand, among wild pokémon with slightly more advanced cultures, alternate coloration can be considered a status symbol. For example, jynx seem to believe that shiny members of their species are destined to be elders, and thus, if a pink jynx exists in a jynx tribe, she’ll be the one to care for smoochum exclusively (an honor given only to elder jynx due to smoochum’s extreme value to the exclusively female jynx tribe). Likewise, pale fur and pink ears are signs of status among clefairy, to the point where they regard any cleffa born with such traits as being destined to become a colony leader—or clefairy king or queen, depending on the gender. Thus, if a shiny cleffa is born in a clefairy colony, the entire colony will eventually take orders from it once it evolves. It will also be the first to be offered a moon stone during a clefairy evolution ceremony. (Granted, it’s normally difficult to tell which individual in a colony is the clefairy king or queen until they direct their colony to attack you en masse, but that’s a different story.)

With that all said, domesticated pokémon tend to be different. This is largely due to human influence, actually. Because humans value shiny pokémon over average-colored ones, it’s easy to get carried away and dote on a shiny more than the rest of one’s team. That, in turn, may cause the shiny to become pampered, which indeed affects a pokémon’s attitude towards its teammates. It’s important from the outset to instill a sense of equality among your team, especially if you only have one or two shinies in a full team of six. In other words, the earlier you begin treating your shiny pokémon just as you would any other, the easier it will be to integrate that pokémon into your team.

Of course, there’s also nothing wrong with grooming a pokémon for a specific purpose (such as pokémon shows, where color variations are a key factor), but it’s also important to make the rest of your team feel valued at the same time.

Regarding your mawile, her attitude could be due to any number of reasons. It could very well be her natural personality, or—if this is a sudden change or if she’s a new addition to your team—it could have something to do with the way she had been treated earlier. Alternatively, it could even be part of a mawile’s natural mischievousness. It’s difficult to say right off the bat, but I can tell you that if she has always been like that and if she is not a new addition, then it’s unlikely that it has anything to do with her coloration.

I have a few Steel-type partners, a Mawile and Bisharp, and I’ve noticed that especially during Summer, it can be a little difficult to regulate their temperatures. I don’t have enough room in my home to let them get their proper exercise, but, leaving them outside in the sun for too long makes them visibly uncomfortable as all the metal uncontrollably heats up. Can you recommend any ways to keep them cool besides leaving them indoors? I can’t afford the restless biting and clawing damage.

As neither of these pokémon are partially rock-types, you can actually give them a pool or other body of water to keep them cool. Ensure, of course, that the water is always as cold as possible by stationing a water-type at its side.

Alternatively, many steel-type trainers give their pokémon a form of shelter, such as a lean-to or hut, to provide them with additional shade. Planting more trees may be beneficial to the bisharp in particular, as they tend to be forest-dwelling pokémon and will take comfort in the presence of a forest shade. Mawile are cave-dwelling pokémon, meanwhile, so a hut, a shed, or even a small, cave-like structure dug into your yard will do for its needs.

If all else fails, however, consider partnering them with water-types and have them periodically spar with their water-type teammates. Water from a pokémon is typically of the optimum temperature to cool most pokémon down, so this may be sufficient short-term solution.

im the proud trainer of a lovely little mawile, but im afraid i might have spoiled her a bit too much – she’s developed separation anxiety. she never even wants to go in her luxury ball anymore, she just follows me around. is this a concern?

It depends on how old she is. If she’s particularly young, this is actually rather normal behavior. However, it can and should be corrected to maintain her mental health. This behavior tends to be unusual in older pokémon (generally speaking), especially if it’s sudden. If your mawile is older and this behavior has only recently started, it’s imperative that you rule out other causes of stress before proceeding. As I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog, sometimes a new move or a new teammate can cause extreme stress, and it’s up to the trainer to reassure their pokémon that all is well. Alternatively, she may be trying to tell you that something is legitimately wrong with your home—as in, there is a legitimate threat—so it may be prudent to check for any specific behaviors (or behaviors that indicate that she is reacting to something specific).

If your mawile is most definitely suffering from separation anxiety, regardless of whether your mawile’s case is mild or severe, counterconditioning and desensitization are the keys to helping her stability.

Begin by establishing a routine for leaving. Whenever you leave the house (or even her sight), give mawile a clear cue that you need to go temporarily. This can be as simple as jingling your keys, or it could be as direct as telling her, “Mawile, I’ll be back soon.” Once she associates that cue with your leaving, she’ll be able to anticipate these absences.

Additionally, give your mawile an item of yours (such as a worn piece of clothing or something she would associate with you) to remind her of you in your absence. It may also help to take the object back when you return so your mawile will be able to associate the act of you giving her an item with a temporary leave. She will, in other words, begin to see this act as a sign that you will be back for this item—and, by extension, her.

Don’t just give her an item of yours, either. Also give her a toy or leave out a treat. If you leave something just for her, then she’ll also associate your absences with something good, and thus, she’ll be more likely to relax and even look forward to them.

Of course, you’ll also want to use positive reinforcement with all of this as well. Whenever you come home to find that she took your absence well (or comparatively calmer than she is right now), give her a treat. The more you do this, the more you can train her to understand that your absences are not a bad thing.

Finally, above all else, do not start by leaving her for hours on end. Use the above steps on even minor separations. For example, if you need to spend a few minutes in another room but don’t want her to follow, give her a cue, a toy, and a token, then give her a treat if she takes it well. Once she’s able to handle a few minutes, proceed to leave her alone for an hour, then a few hours, then for a full workday. Likewise, increase your time away from her more and more, even if the problem is just that she refuses to reenter her poké ball for fear of being separated from you. Until she can handle longer periods of time away from you, you will still need to take her with you wherever you go or leave her in the care of someone she trusts. As with helping to relieve stress in any pokémon, it will take time, patience, and the right amount of care and reassurance to help her.

Good luck, anonymous.