Welcome to Gaia! ::

*Rhea shakes her head*

Call Hopian...he can explain it better than I can...warping is the D. Miner term for puberty...apparently they experience it differently than a human...

*Rhea laughs*

Not much to watch...Kero doesn't really get mischievous until he's tired...that's when ye need to watch your tail...go talk to Hopian...and tell him I said hi...

*He hears a yawn in his mind, then his fur stands on end*

What is it, Bro? I was just about to take a nap?

*Hopian soon appears, electricity sparking around his paws*

What's up....Tam? Kero gone done and kilt himself again?

*Hopian shrugs*

Okay...firstly, ye should know we're desert creatures...and this has affected our biology somewhat...we can eat plants, although meat and milk are our main sources of nutrients...we're very strong, much stronger than we look...and are also curious, like any cat. We can dig through solid stone, and our claws can cut almost anything...don't bother clipping them...they sharpen themselves.

Now...our venoms are generally active from birth...but until about age five, our glands are delicate...easily broken...once we reach age five, however, they toughen. Kero is melatoxic...which means his poison is an anesthetic in small doses...and a ticket to dreamland in large.

We have to bathe everyday...in water...our bodies excrete salt through the skin, not in urine...that way, if we're caught in the sun, we can just lick it off...

Saltwater, if swallowed, causes us to convulse for about a minute...this is a useful thing for those who don't mind, as it empties our venoms, relaxes our muscles...and is a marketed cure for constipation...no joke.

Now, as you're raising a baby miner, ye kin choose to diaper or box-train him...know that if ye box train him...he will fling the sand all over with his paws...

Ye should also know about warping, which is what brought me here, I'll bet. We don't go through puberty like normal creatures...it's fast and furious with us...when a miner hits about thirtenn for a female and fifteen for a male, we undergo a spasm...our blood is flooded with hormones our brain had been storing...for about one to two weeks we must be kept locked away, or we will mate with anything...and I mean anything, of the opposite gender...after this, we settle down, as our bodies learn to process this.

Now, Kero's second venom gland, which contains a paralytic venom, will come online at about age ten...his final gland, containing Mortitoxin, will come online after he warps. Any other questions?

*Hopian nods*

Iffin ye kin teach him to go in a box, get one at least 3 times his size...better yet, train him to take his business out of doors...and away from any camps ye set up...and don't worry...he'll understand...he's an empath...so even if he doesn't speak the language...he'll get the gist...and Miners are very intelligent lions...

Anything else?

He'll jabber at you in desert miner for about a year...but when you start to speak your language to him, he'll pick it up...we develop our intelligence at about the same rate as a human's...but much faster during the early years...expect him to learn really fast on the simple things...but slow down to a normal human on complicated ones...okay.

He'll understand what you want if you send images to him...but only do that as a last resort...he can pick up on understanding language fairly quickly...just don't use baby talk on him...

Anything else?

Ummm...not really...he can get most childhood illnesses...but he will need shots...Rhea can give them to him...she and Kero are both licensed Physicians...for many different species.

And I just thought of something...ye don't speak desert miner, do ye? Ye'll probably need to learn a few words...particularly our curses...we're born speaking Desert Miner...so ye should learn these post haste, okay?