Customizing Pets - Going Beyond Clothes

     There are endless ways to go about choosing a name, whether that be through adoption or creation. You can go for a really "badly named" Pet with underscores, numbers, CamelCase, or silliness. These Pets can be valued for being funny or nostalgic. Think of all the little kids who made bad names and then put them into the Pound.

     Common name types include real words, misspells, made up words, and naming after existing characters. Names that are 2 words or phrases are very unlikely to be taken. Sometimes Pets are created as a memorial for a loved one or real life Pet. Another option is using 1337 speak (leet speak), for example, my Pet 4L13N5 (ALIENS).

     More name ideas: scientific names of animals, existing Neopian characters, words in other languages, seek out name generators, obscure real words, song names

     Find Pets to adopt and untaken names: https://neopets.com/~petpage#ufa

     - BIRTHDAY:

     You can create the Pet on a specific day to make the Pet more special. My Pet Drawlloween I created on Halloween. The day could be your birthday, a Neopian holiday, or an anniversary. If you want a species with limited availability (can't create it any day), you'll need to factor in the price of a Morphing Potion, Transmogrification Potion, or Magical Plushie.

     - MOOD:

     All Pets start out feeling content. This is in the very middle, meaning they are one mood change away from becoming happy or sad. If your Pet feels "Delighted!", they're at max happiness, meaning it will take more work to bring their mood down. You can either stop feeding your Pet and let them become teary eyed or you can have them play with a broken toy repeatedly until it shows in their mood. The Broken Fake Uni Hat is a cheap option. The Glowing Jelly and Poisonous Lollypop are cheap items that have a chance of making your Pet sick, which looks different from sad Pets.

     - SIZE:

     Feeding your Pet a Pumpkin Negg will increase their weight by 1-2 lbs. and decrease their height by 1-2 cm. Your Pet can be a minimum of 20 cm tall.

     - PETPET & PETPETPETS:

     Petpets and Petpetpets can be chosen for a variety of reasons. Colour matching is an obvious choice, whether that means the paint brush colour or the literal colour palette.

     A small number of Petpets actually look like existing Pets. The Baby Blu, Krawk, Lutra, and Trumpadon are a few examples. You can even model a Pet's custom based on their Petpet.

     Your Pet's lore can impact what kind of Petpet they have. Maybe it's a random species they met during their story? Maybe the Petpet is based on one of their interests.

     There are so many amazing Petpets at very affordable prices. Be sure to give them a look before committing to something expensive.

     If you send a Petpet on an adventure in Grave Danger, a poof will replace the Petpet on your Pet's lookup while they're away. If you never retrieve the Petpet, they can remain a poof.

     Find every Petpet here: items.jellyneo.net/search/all-Petpets/

     Find every Petpetpet here: items.jellyneo.net/search/?cat[]=95

     Compare Pets with Petpets here: items.jellyneo.net/tools/Petpet-matcher/

     - STATS:

     Use books to make your Pet varying levels of intelligent. The lowest levels are "Dim Witted" and the highest are "Ultimate Genius".

     Find all the level names here: https://jellyneo.net/?go=petintelligence

     Feed these to Decrease your Pet's intelligence: Dumb Negg, Dumb Negg Slice, Dumb Negg Juice Negg

     You can train your Pet to be successful in the Battledome if you'd like them to be powerful. Even the Battledome abilities you choose can reflect their lore.

     Find guides here: https://neopets.com/~petpage#bd

     Or you can increase or decrease their stats based on what you think the Pet is good and bad at.

     Stat Decreasers: items.jellyneo.net/search/?name=negg&scat[]=343¬es=decrease

     If your Pet enjoys fishing or is aquatic themed, take them to the Ye Olde Fishing Vortex once per day. You aren't guaranteed a level each time you fish, so it can be a slow process. The highest fishing level is 500. Fishing can only be done with your main account. If you fish with a Pet then transfer them, their fishing level will disappear. If you transfer them back, their fishing level will reappear.

     Your active Pet can also participate in Faerieland Employment Agency jobs. If your Pet is particularly helpful or hardworking, their number of jobs completed can be a reflection of that. The lowest level is "Unskilled", but to attain it you need to go out of your way to have your Pet have a higher number of failed jobs than completed ones. This is easy to do. Start a job, then wait for the timer to run out without completing it. This may be a good fit for Pets that are unreliable or kinda dumb. All Pets by default start at "Intern". The lowest level for completed jobs is "Beginner" and the highest is "Arch Master". Jobs can only be completed with your main account.

     All employment ranks: https://jellyneo.net/?go=employment

     - BOOKS & GOURMET FOOD:

     Your Pet can read anything, or they can focus on the subjects they're interested in. The list of books read is private. There is such a staggering variety of Neopian books out there that you can get really specific with how much of your Pet's lore you can tie to specific books.

     Gourmet foods eaten on the other hand, can be viewed by anyone!

     Replace the name: https://neopets.com/gourmet_club.phtml?pet_name=petNAME

     The foods are shown in rows of 10. You can use this to plan on feeding foods in rainbow or colour order. Make your list (in order) before you start feeding them, so you can factor in how much you'll be spending if you go for a specific order.

     - GENDER:

     Did you know you can change your Pet's gender? You can have them fight the Lab Ray Scientist in the Battledome or use a Strange Potion. Regardless of your Pet being queer or not, you can cover or customize the gender on their lookup.

     Remove the gender: https://neopets.com/~Mariquita#gender

     Customize the gender's colour or add a flag to it: https://neopets.com/~Kyriient

     If your Pet is one of the gendered colours (Royal, Usuki, Quiguki, Elderly), you can change their gender after painting them. It will only affect their eyes while the rest of the Pet looks the same.

     - LOOKUP & PETPAGE:

     Use a premade layout or code one yourself! If there's lore or art for your Pet, there's a community that wants to see it.

     Find layouts here: https://neopets.com/~petpage#layout

     As long as the art matches the species (and is a drawing), you can enter it in the Beauty Contest. All 1st, 2nd, 3rd placing entries for each species will get a gold, silver, or bronze trophy on their lookup. The more popular the species, the harder it is to place and vice versa. The Customization Contest is very competitive, but winners also get a trophy on their lookup.