There are two important things you should know about caring for an unown:

1. Don’t turn your back on it. An unown’s powers are strange and mysterious, and letting your guard down around it is an invitation for equally strange and mysterious mischief.

2. Never let your unown within sight of another unown, especially a wild one. If that should happen, strange and mysterious mischief will be inevitable.

Other than that, you could quite literally stick your unown on a wall and leave it there, and it will likely be perfectly healthy and content.

(You may think that this is rather disrespectful of me to say, considering the fact that the unown were once minor deities in Johto, but to be fair, everything was once a minor deity in Johto. Some old cults simply died off sooner and more spectacularly than others. While it’s true that the Ruins of Alph is still a sacred site to Johtonians and while we do indeed take the messages left within its depths with extreme seriousness, the unown themselves are very much akin to the fae to us. We don’t worship them, but we do acknowledge their power and understand that bribery is an excellent way of keeping them out of our hair.)

If you do offer it more care than that—which wouldn’t exactly hurt, to be perfectly honest—it’s a pokémon with very simple needs. It doesn’t need to eat, but it will eat anything your other pokémon would eat if offered. Likewise with water. It doesn’t often need amusement or enrichment (as it’s often most content watching others), but if you wish, it’s often fond of puzzles. As the only move it can learn is Hidden Power, training should include both meditation (to develop its mind) and target practice (to hone its power and aim). It doesn’t need a litter box (don’t ask how it eliminates waste, as this is actually a mystery for researchers as well), and as for a bed … I wasn’t joshing when I said you can stick it on a wall. That’s where it’s most comfortable, and if you don’t do it, it will simply find the most comfortable spot to perch. It’s just heavily recommended that you select a spot for it, as it will otherwise often stick itself above its trainer’s bed. To watch them. All night long.

Probably the most interesting part of caring for an unown (besides the constant avoidance of being drawn into a bizarre alternate dimension) is figuring out the typing of your unown’s Hidden Power. You may be lucky and have an expert in the matter living right in your town. These experts can take a look at your pokémon and, after only one glance, determine what type they wield, and these readings are often pretty accurate if you’re working with a reputable reader. If, however, you don’t have access to a reader, it becomes a simple matter of taking your unown out and battling against as many different types as possible, then using process of elimination to figure it out. It’s actually quite exciting, and given that trainers offer a wide variety of pokémon to battle against, it’s an excellent opportunity to meet new friends.

Best of luck, anonymous!