I have a skitty and an espeon as pets and my skitty keeps jumping on espeon! He follows him around the house, as if waiting for him to relax and the pounces. Whenever I’m in a room, seemingly alone with espeon, skitty suddenly appears! Is this normal behavior?

Strangely enough, yes! Skitty are notoriously playful pokémon, and they seem most attracted to other creatures they perceive as cat-like beings. While you are essentially a very large cat to your skitty, your espeon has a generally cat-like shape that’s larger than your skitty’s, so therefore, your espeon is a much more ideal target. Usually, this behavior subsides upon evolution, but that’s not really a guarantee, unfortunately. Either way, if you’ve chosen not to evolve your skitty, I’m afraid that your espeon has many, many days of being pounced on ahead of him.

I recently adopted a Very young swablu that was rescued from an awful and abusive owner, and she has awful anxiety. So I had my bulbasaur use his sweet scent and just all around wonderful personality to help her become more used to me and my Pokémon. Well she’s bonded with my bulbasaur, but refuses to leave his side and becomes defensive when my houndoom and togekiss get near them, going as far as to peck them! No accidents involving serious injury yet, but what do I do to help her and my team?

As with all instances in which one pokémon has trouble integrating with their team, it’s important to ensure that you have all the information about what’s going on correct. That is to say, it’s worth observing your team for just a bit longer to see if your swablu’s behavior is definitely because of her anxiety and not due to some other issue that may need to be resolved (such as some level of hostility or disinterest from your togekiss or houndoom).

If this issue is indeed caused by swablu’s nervousness, start slowly. Try to keep your togekiss and houndoom away from your swablu at first. Use their poké balls if you have to, but the important thing is, if at all possible, try to avoid exposing your swablu to the both of them at the same time, especially at times when you can’t keep an eye on them.

Now, for your first step, I would recommend introducing your swablu to togekiss first, as togekiss in general have nurturing dispositions and an innate urge to make others happy. To set up the introduction, have your bulbasaur stand by swablu and use Sweet Scent to keep her calm. Explain to your swablu what’s about to happen and who your togekiss is to both you and your bulbasaur. (That is to say, emphasize that your togekiss is a friend.) Take a few steps back, enough to ensure that there’s plenty of space between you and your pokémon, and release your togekiss next to you, rather than between yourself and your swablu. Do not have your togekiss block your swablu’s view of you.

If your togekiss knows Heal Bell, now would be a good time to use it. I know that sounds odd, but the soothing tones of Heal Bell can possibly calm and entrance your swablu, even if she doesn’t suffer from any specific ailment. If your togekiss doesn’t know Heal Bell, don’t worry. This is just a helpful tip, not something that’s absolutely vital to bridging the gap between your swablu and togekiss.

From there, as with most instances in which one of your team members is terrified of another, begin with short, simple interactions, perhaps led by your bulbasaur. Have your bulbasaur interact with your togekiss first. Let him converse with your togekiss and then draw your swablu into the conversation naturally. Allow your togekiss and swablu to have a short conversation with each other, then end the session by withdrawing your togekiss back into its ball to show your swablu that you have the ability to ensure that none of your pokémon hurt her. If at any point, she attempts to attack your togekiss anyway, have your bulbasaur calm her down with Sweet Scent or by using a gentle Vine Whip to hold her back (by wrapping her, not hitting her).

Once your swablu is able to handle short, friendly conversations with your togekiss on her own, give your togekiss more time to interact with her. Additionally, at the start of each session, work your way closer and closer to your swablu until you’re able to release your togekiss within beak’s reach of her. If she isn’t startled by your togekiss’s presence then, graduate to using the two of them side-by-side in double battles or sparring sessions to reinforce the bond between them.

Due to houndoom’s rougher nature, it’s unwise to introduce it to your swablu until after she’s absolutely comfortable with your togekiss. Once she reaches that point, perform the exact same steps with your houndoom, only have your togekiss be present for the introduction as well. Thus, place your togekiss and bulbasaur next to your swablu, give yourself enough space, release your houndoom next to you, and begin by having either your bulbasaur or your togekiss (or both) interact with your houndoom. There’s a good chance that your swablu, at this point, will recognize this process and understand on some level that you’re attempting to introduce her to a friend, but don’t assume that having her interact with houndoom will be any easier. Take it slow and let your swablu tell you when she’s comfortable enough to proceed to the next step.

In other words, the most important thing here is that your houndoom and your togekiss are parts of her team now, and team dynamics are vital, both on and off the battlefield. They may even be vital to your swablu’s ability to heal from her past. Thus, there is likely no way around introducing her to the rest of her team, but with enough patience and time, you may be able to coax her to connect with your other pokémon.

I sent an ask a while back about my scyther, and it seems like the situation’s getting worse… just when I was at the point where I could leave her alone with flareon, I stepped out for a few minutes and he was literally trying to attack her! He’s a bit feisty but not to this point, and I honestly don’t think she provoked her because she’s normally very well behaved… what should I do?

Yes, this would be why it’s important to keep a close eye on pokémon that seem to have a tense relationship. One thing I’d forgotten to mention in the previous answer (for which I apologize) is that sometimes, it’s not a matter of type but rather an issue with team dynamics.

Now that you’re aware that your flareon hosts a level of hostility towards your scyther, your next step is to determine why. This could be for any number of reasons. Does your flareon act this way towards all bug-types or just your scyther? Was your flareon raised by someone else who had a scyther, or did you catch him in an area with a high population of wild scyther? Did the amount of time you spend with your flareon change when you got your scyther, or did you change its living arrangements? (Did it used to be an outdoor flareon until you had to make room for your scyther, or vice-versa?) Do his teammates treat him differently now that your scyther is part of the team? The answer to any of these questions could be the reason behind your flareon’s behavior—or it could be something completely different. Keep an eye on your flareon for a few days to see if you can spot any clues that point to any specific reason.

It’s only after you can discern what the issue actually is that you can work towards resolving the matter. Without knowing why your flareon is reacting this way, it’s difficult to recommend a particular course of action because each situation requires something completely different. For example, if your flareon’s behavior stems from a past trauma, that requires a specific form of therapy (perhaps even exposure therapy), but if he’s simply jealous, then it may be as simple as reassuring him you haven’t replaced him. It could even be that your scyther accidentally provoked your flareon, at which point it would require mediation between the two. Or the reason behind your flareon’s behavior could, again, be none of these things, which would mean you would need a completely different strategy.

The point is, try to figure out why your flareon is acting this way through observing him first, and then you’ll be able to work towards a peaceful solution.

I’m a Hoennian and am moving to Alola in a month with some friends. My concern is I have a Dewgong that was gifted to me by my Kanto born mother and I’m worried the Hot environment will be really bad for him. Any tips for us to become better acclimated?

Strangely enough, it’s worth noting that Hoenn hosts a very similar climate to Alola, despite the vast difference in latitudes. Both are tropical regions known for warmer temperatures, so if your dewgong is used to the weather in Hoenn, it’s very likely it should have no problem in Alola. Doubly so because in Alola, there are actually places with colder weather, as evidenced by the fact that Alolan vulpix and sandshrew had to adapt to snowier climates. So if anything, it’s very possible that your dewgong will be more at home in Alola than Hoenn, strangely enough.

Nonetheless, when you get to Alola, keep an eye on your dewgong. If it looks uncomfortable, return it to its poké ball and keep it there until you can find a body of water. Then, release it in the ocean and allow it to soak. While the ocean around Alola is actually warmer than around Hoenn, allowing your dewgong to soak will help it manage its body temperature. It may also help to begin this regimen at night but perform it earlier and earlier each day until you start releasing your dewgong into the ocean during the afternoon. Then, follow similar steps to get it used to climbing ashore: allow it to swim during the afternoon but then allow it to come ashore at night, then repeat this process earlier and earlier until your dewgong can handle being ashore during the day.

Incidentally, this is just for routine care. Your dewgong should still be able to battle either way, thanks to its typing. Ice naturally bring down the temperature of a battlefield, and your dewgong’s water attacks may help it to stay hydrated (by exposing the battlefield to moisture) as it moves. Just be sure to allow your dewgong to soak in the ocean as soon as the battle concludes.

Also, I know you likely meant to ask what you can do in Hoenn to help your dewgong to become acclimated to Alola, but the truth is, the only spot of high heat in Hoenn would be in and around Mt. Chimney—which may be a bit much for an ice-type (even one that’s partly a water-type).

Best of luck in Alola, anonymous!

Hey Bill, I just recently caught a dratini and while it gets along fine with my pikachu, it is absolutely terrified of my sylveon! My pikachu and sylveon are pokemon I always have out with me and I’m not sure how to curb my dratinis fear! Help please!

In general, whenever one of your pokémon is terrified of another, it’s best to start slowly. It’s good that your pikachu and dratini get along well, as it may be the key to your dratini’s predicament. Have your pikachu mediate interactions between your dratini and sylveon. Whenever dratini shows any level of discomfort, have pikachu be there to ground it and reassure it that sylveon is a friend who would never hurt it.

Moreover, have them start with short interactions and work up to longer conversations. Think of it like exposure therapy to humans: you want to begin with only a little bit of exposure to avoid trauma, and as your dratini adjusts to that level of interaction, increase the amount of time it spends with your sylveon, bit by bit, until it can tolerate long-term exposure. Eventually, when your dratini can tolerate conversations with sylveon, begin having them fight alongside each other in double-battles to reinforce your dratini’s progress. If you’re not a trainer, have them perform tasks together around the house.

Also, be sure your sylveon is in agreement with whatever you do. That is to say, ensure that your sylveon hasn’t done anything to warrant dratini’s fear, and be absolutely sure sylveon wants to interact with your dratini. If your sylveon is just as uncomfortable with the idea of being on the same team as a dratini, this is something you’ll also need to resolve using similar gradual introduction methods as mentioned above. Your pikachu should be able to help as well. If, however, your sylveon is very eager to make a new friend, allow it to be involved in the efforts to calm dratini down. Ensure your sylveon takes things slow and avoids showing affection through touch at first. At the same time, be sure that your sylveon extends friendly, welcoming gestures—just from afar. As dratini begins to warm up to your sylveon, then your sylveon may show physical forms of affection, but it should still be careful and wary for any signs of discomfort from your dratini.

In other words, some relationships should start slowly and work up to a certain level of closeness, and that goes for pokémon too. Be cautious and careful, show your dratini that your sylveon won’t hurt it, and allow dratini to grow comfortable around your sylveon in its own time.

Best of luck, anonymous.

Hello Bill! I have a sweet little happiny in my care, I was wondering if you had any tips on raising her? Another thing is she is very shy and has a hard time interacting with the rest of my team, any tips on integrating her? Thanks so much!

First, the necessary information. Much like babies, happiny need plenty of sleep. Ensure they have a soft bed and warm blankets. Do not swaddle them but rather loosely cover them if they look cold. Feed them at least twice daily with either kibble or pureed fruits and vegetables, as well as milk for calcium. Baby formula, strangely enough, also works. Happiny will also need a litter box with standard poké filler, and this should be changed daily. Give your happiny a daily bath with gentle soaps in your sink or tub. Finally, happiny should be given durable, soft or plastic toys—never anything with small parts—as well as a polished, round stone that resembles a miniature chansey egg (an oval stone, in other words). Even if you don’t evolve your happiny, the stone does wonders for its mental health.

Now! As for integration, this is a bit tougher. If you still have one or both of her parents, allow them to help you with this. Let them show her that the rest of her team is friendly, and let them introduce her. If you don’t still have her parents or if you adopted her, start with the youngest, gentlest member of your team. Introduce that specific pokémon to her on its own as a playmate. Let that pokémon play with her and “babysit” her, as it were. Once she begins to trust that team member, introduce another one with the first one present. Work your way towards introducing her to your team one by one until she meets the fiercest, oldest members, and have each of your team members play with and care for her in turn. Introducing her to your team all at once may intimidate her, but going slow and allowing her to start with your most approachable members allows her to get comfortable with them at her own pace. Likewise, keeping the members she’s already befriended out as you introduce her to someone new allows her to seek comfort in the friends she’s already made.

Best of luck and congratulations on the new addition to your family, anonymous!

Hey Bill! I’m having some problems with my Hawlucha and Pignite. They have been rough housing a lot lately. Now, While this is normal as it more of “play” fighting, it getting to the point of being competitive? Like, they get too into it and start jumping off of tables and the room would be a mess by the time they’re done. Finally, my biggest worry that they may injure themselves during these “wrestling” matches. I tried to separate them but they keep on doing it anyway. Any advice?

You may benefit from giving them a space to battle. If you live in the suburbs of country, establish that they’re not allowed to battle indoors and reinforce this with positive reinforcement (by giving them treats whenever they keep themselves from fighting inside). Then, give them their own battlefield in your yard and be sure to oversee their battles. If you can, obtain a psychic pokémon that can separate them if they get too rowdy.

If you live in the city, however, that psychic pokémon I’ve just suggested may be essential to you, especially if it can learn Disable and possesses some level of precognitive skill. You see, a pokémon that possesses these exact characteristics can either see a fight and stop it before it starts or, if the fight breaks out anyway, use its telekinetic abilities to keep them separate until they cool off. Hence, a psychic-type can serve as an ideal mediator for fighting-types.

After that, of course, you will want to establish a safe place for the two to fight—a park or the courts at your nearest pokémon center, for example. Establish a routine in which you’ll allow them to battle so they’ll know they can regularly spar and fight as aggressively as they’d like without destroying your property.

In other words, the best way to establish boundaries is by offering alternatives and being consistent with your alternatives. Once you teach your hawlucha and pignite that there is quite literally a time and place for everything—including battles—they’ll be less likely to demolish your home and more likely to look forward to this special something every day.

But yes, consider getting a psychic-type too.

I caught my scyther a few days ago, and she isn’t very much trouble but she’s scared of my flareon to the point where they refuse to be in the same room. How can I help them get along?

Scyther can sometimes be difficult to reach emotionally because of their proud natures and vastly different social norms. The reason I bring this up is simply because while I would normally say “employ team building exercises,” that might not work in this case. The fact that your scyther refuses to be in the same room as your flareon only makes matters more complicated.

What you should do first is work on getting her to trust you. Since she’s a recent capture, you’ll need to bond with her until she respects you and trusts your decisions. If you can establish yourself as the leader of your team (directing her through battles is usually the quickest way to do this), then she’ll be more willing to listen to you if you tell her she shouldn’t worry about another pokémon under your command. Not only will she take your advice to heart because you’re her leader, but she’ll also be convinced you have control over your flareon too.

But to reinforce this, if you have any other pokémon on your team, introduce them to her first, before you try again with your flareon. Have her work alongside them, and let her watch you command them during battle as well. The more she understands how your team structure works by interacting with the rest of your team and by watching you interact with them, the more she’ll understand that the team structure comes first.

In other words, your main goal is to emphasize that there is a hierarchy and that it works, and you should do this largely just by being a trainer and commanding her and your team through battles. While scyther aren’t exactly hive pokémon (they live in swarms and have swarm leaders, but these work like mammal packs, not insect hives), they respect social structure, even those set by humans, and they think in terms of that and seek out strong leaders as a result. Therefore, if you establish that there’s a social structure within your “swarm,” your scyther will assume that all other members of her new swarm obey you to the letter—or, in other words, she’ll believe that the other members of your swarm are perfectly safe because they can’t attack her without putting the swarm structure at risk.

Once it looks like she’s beginning to trust you and understand that her team is basically her new swarm (you’ll know by watching for any signs of respect from her, such as keeping her eyes on you and bending her knees to make herself look smaller than you), it should be safe to reintroduce her to your flareon. She’ll very likely still be a little bit wary around him, so it’s important that you keep watch over them until they feel more comfortable with each other. It may also help to reintroduce them in a place where there’s plenty of space, rather than indoors. This will give your scyther plenty of room to back away if she still feels too threatened to warm up to your flareon. (Forgive the pun.)

Best of luck, anonymous.

My blaziken had just laid eggs and she has been aggressive towards every pokemon around, including her mate. So far I’m the only one in general she allows near her eggs and while I can understand her behavior and was even prepared for it, this is a bit too much. Is there any way to make her feel less on edge?

Sometimes, a blaziken will grow more comfortable and at-ease if you give her treats before her mate approaches, and other times, she may grow more comfortable if you show her that she can trust others around her eggs with your usual daily care. (That means cleaning her nest, refilling her food and water supplies, getting her to exercise daily, and checking on the temperature of her eggs.)

However, it’s also possible that there’s very likely little that you can do until her brood hatches. Remember, blaziken are one of the few bird-like pokémon that don’t normally have “shifts” when it comes to incubating the eggs. That is to say, the hen lays the egg and incubates them; the mate has very little involvement in them after fertilization. It’s very likely that your hen is attempting to drive away what she perceives as a clingy mate—or, perhaps, a threat to her brood (as a male blaziken can get rather aggressive, even to his own offspring).

For that reason, at most, I would advise just keeping an eye on the hen and ensuring that the hatching goes smoothly—and, of course, that the hen doesn’t do too much damage to her mate.

Dear Bill, I am wondering my grumpig has recently done nothing but use his manipulation powers on my poor feebas he makes her splash around and come on land constantly only to make me freak out and rush her into the water again I’m really worried I’ve tried telling my Grumpig it isn’t funny but he only snorts and runs off he’s been like that ever since i fished up Febas I’m really starting to get worried! Please help

Hmm. First and foremost, are you preparing your feebas for evolution, and what is your native region? I ask because in some cases, feebas require a lot of effort to maintain. This is especially so in the Hoenn region, where you have two options for evolving your feebas. The first is by way of feeding it dry poké blocks to enhance its beauty. Granted, this method is less condoned because of the Pokéblock Maker Recall of 2007, but it’s still an option in rare cases. Even then, preparing for feebas’s evolution in general can be time consuming because the alternative method of applying a prism scale and finding a trading partner not only requires the obvious trading partner but also hunting down the rather rare and extremely expensive prism scale. Never mind, of course, the fact that it’s always a good idea to prepare your feebas for evolution by feeding it a specialized diet and maintaining its scales until they shine—which, incidentally, is also something you should be doing, even if you aren’t evolving your feebas.

In other words, feebas are a bit difficult to maintain, and it seems as if your grumpig is displaying classic signs of jealousy because he realizes this.

If this is indeed the case, then I must say that jealousy within a pokémon team can be tricky to resolve. While it’s prudent to give your grumpig a bit of extra love and care (to reassure him that he isn’t being replaced), it also won’t resolve things in the long term. What will may be some team-building exercises. Engage in double-battles with other trainers using your grumpig and feebas. Give them tasks that would require them to work together (as odd as that sounds, considering one of the involved parties is a fish). Have your feebas help your grumpig by offering to help him clean his pearls (using her water-based attacks, for example), and encourage your grumpig to do the same for your feebas. The main idea is have them spend time with one another and acclimate to each other until your grumpig sees your feebas as a teammate instead of a threat to his position on your team.

If, however, he’s not doing it out of malice, see if he’s curious. Ask him if he wishes to learn more about his new teammate and offer to teach him about her. Explain to him that she needs the water to live and show him her fins and gills to illustrate why. Then offer him more information about feebas and allow him to help you take care of her to educate him on feebas care.

Alternatively, observe his reaction at the exact moment you put your feebas back in the water. If he seems angry with you for doing it or if he looks even remotely worried that you’ve put your feebas back, test the water. Grumpig noses are more sensitive than a human’s, and he may be picking up on problems with your water quality, including pH imbalances or an excess of waste.