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Neopian Pound

You may currently have up to 20 Neopets per account:
  • All accounts start with 6 pet slots.
  • Active Premium subscribers receive +4 pet slots as a perk.
  • All accounts may purchase +10 pet slots from the NC Mall.
Pet slots limits were last upped on December 20, 2021.

The Neopian Pound can be used to adopt a new Neopet, transfer a Neopet to another specific owner, or abandon your Neopet for another random Neopian to pick up.

This guide is about the mechanics of the Neopian Pound! For a guide on adoption and trading of pets as an activity, see our adoption/trading guide.

Adopting

Before you adopt a pet, here are some notes to keep in mind.

  • All adopted pets come without clothing, including paint brush clothing!
  • You can get paint brush clothes only through a pet transfer. (See the Transferring Pets section of this guide.)
  • Before the transfer system was introduced, users would often transfer pets through the Pound. This meant that if you nabbed a pet intended to transfer to someone else, there was a chance that TNT could revoke the pet from you! These days, such transfers must be done using the transfer system, and any pet you adopt through the Pound is yours to keep.
  • You are not able to adopt a new pet while you have a pet in transit to another account.

How To Adopt A Pet

When you first enter the "Adopt" door at the Pound, you will be shown one to three random Neopets whose names begin the same letter.

You can view a different set of Neopets using the "View More Neopets »" link, which shows new pets without reloading the entire page, though you could also reload the page instead if you prefer.

To adopt a pet, first make sure you have enough Neopoints on hand. Then, click on the image of the pet you wish to adopt then click the Adopt button in the bottom right corner. You will then receive a dialog box like the one shown below.

Hit "OK" and you have a new pet! The adoption fee will be deducted from your on-hand Neopoints as soon as you adopt the new pet.

Adoption Restrictions

As of December 20, 2021, there are no account age restrictions. Prior to this, accounts less than 4 months old were restricted with what types of pets they could adopt. Rarer colours, most limited edition species, and high-level pets were off-limits.

Adoption Fees

When you adopt or transfer a pet, you are charged a certain amount of NP based on the pet's Battledome statistics. If you want to calculate what the adoption cost for a pet would be beforehand, check out our Pound Adoption Fee Calculator.

Transferring

The transfer feature allows you to move pets from one account to another.

Before you transfer a pet, here are some notes to keep in mind.

  • Each pet may only be transferred once per day.
  • Transfers not accepted after 72 hours are cancelled, with the pet returned to the original owner's account.
  • Pets with a No-Trade Petpet attached to it cannot be transferred until the Petpet is removed, unless it has been changed via the Petpet Lab Ray into a normal Petpet. No-Trade Petpets include those found in Newbie Starter Packs.
  • You are not able to transfer a pet if it is your only pet. You will instead receive an error: "An error occured while moving your Neopet. Please try again."
  • While you have a pet in transit, you will not be able to create a new pet or adopt a pet from the pound. In fact, you cannot even peruse the pound! However, you can participate in transfers. This means it is possible to fill all the pet slots on your account despite having a pet in transit, with the following implications:
    • If the transfer is rejected (or automatically cancelled after 3 days), you will receive the below Neomail once every 24 hours until it is resolved.
    • Both the sender and recipient will be considered to have a pet in transit until it is resolved.
    • The site will only attempt to return the pet in transit once per day (and sends the Neomail only if it cannot), so if you re-open a slot the pet will not return immediately; you must wait until ~24h after you last received the Neomail.
    • As detailed in the Neomail, if you do not make space within 30 days, the pet will be sent to the Pound and the items it was wearing will be permanently deleted. The delivery fee is not refunded.
The user to whom you were trying to transfer {PETNAME} has not accepted the Neopet. However, we cannot return {PETNAME} to you because you currently have 6 other Neopets. Because of this, {PETNAME} is now stuck and will be placed in the Pound after 30 days. Any items worn by {PETNAME} will also be deleted upon its placement in the Pound. If you would like to have {PETNAME} returned to you, please make an opening for it in your account. Also, please be aware that you will not be refunded the delivery fee and will not be eligible to attempt another User-to-User Transfer until next month.

Thanks,
The Neopets Team

Transfer Limits

As of December 20, 2021, there is no limit whatsoever on "one-way" transfers. Any account is able to directly move pets to any other account an unlimited number of times each month. Additionally, the pet age restriction for transferring pets was also lifted. Prior to this, pets had to be at least 7 days old before they could be transferred.

Additionally, there is now no limit to how many "exchange transfers" or "two-way transfers" (where two accounts trade Neopets at the same time) that each account can do in a month. Previously, every account was allowed at least 1 exchange per month. As one of many loyal user perks, older accounts got additional monthly exchanges; see the table below for the breakdown.

Additional Pet Transfers
Age At Or Over... Number of Transfers
New account 1 Transfer
24 Months (2 Years) 2 Transfers
48 Months (4 Years) 3 Transfers
72 Months (6 Years) 4 Transfers
96 Months (8 Years) 5 Transfers
120 Months (10 Years) 6 Transfers
144 Months (12 Years) 7 Transfers
168 Months (14 Years) 8 Transfers
192 Months (16 Years) 9 Transfers
216 Months (18 Years) 10 Transfers
240 Months (20 Years) 11 Transfers

Although two-way transfers are unlimited, your transfer status page will only display the first transfers of the month up to the amount displayed corresponding to account age above. For example, if you have a 17-year-old account and have completed 15 transfers for the month, only the first 9 transfers will be displayed in your log. The log is reset monthly.

While initiating a transfer, you'll see the following message (with an example transfer count). Although the count is displayed, all transfers are unlimited, so pay no heed to the warning.

"You are about to exchange PETNAME for a Neopet currently owned by OTHER_USER. This will cost 1,000 NP plus the adoption fee for the Neopet and will count as your 3rd User-to-User Transfers for this month. If accepted, it will also count as OTHER_USER's 4th User-to-User Transfers for this month."

If you offer a pet to another user in an exchange and they reject the request, your pet will remain on your account and you also not be refunded the 1,000 Neopoint transfer fee. The same applies if you offer a user a pet and they do not accept it within the three day deadline period.

What Gets Transferred

  • Neopoint wearables: any Neopoint wearables currently worn by the pet are transferred with it.
    • Often, these items will not appear on the pet's image after transfer, but they are still being worn by the pet. This can be fixed by re-saving the pet's customisation in the customisation app.
  • Relevant paint brush clothes: Paint Brush clothing will also be transferred, but only clothes that match the pet's current paint job.
    • For example, if you transferred a Plushie Poogle that was wearing Pirate Poogle clothes, the clothes would not be transferred because they are not part of the pet's current colour.
    • If, however, you had a Pirate Techo, any of the Pirate clothing it was wearing would be transferred along with it.
    • Even if you remove your pet's current paint brush clothing and leave them in your closet, the clothes would still be transferred to the new owner along with the pet. This may not be readily apparent in the pet's picture during transfer!
    • If you have multiples of any of the paintbrush clothes (for example, two Pirate Techo Captain Hats), only one will be transferred to the new owner.
  • Petpet: if a Petpet is already attached, it will be transferred still attached. All of the Petpet's stats, including name, age, and level, will be unchanged.
  • Stats: All of the stats that appear on a pet's lookup page (such as age, strength, hit points, intelligence, etc. and even Battledome history and Employment Agency history) will remain the same, with the exception of the Fishing skill (see next section).
  • Pet Trophies: Any pet trophies the pet has earned (such as from the Beauty Contest) will remain.
  • Neoquest I Games: Any current, unfinished games of NeoQuest I will transfer with the Neopet as they are tied to pets, not accounts.
  • Training enrollments: If the Neopet to be transferred is currently enrolled in a training course at the Swashbuckling Academy, the Mystery Island Training School, or the Secret Ninja Training School, then they will remain in the course. This is true for all stages of completion: not yet started, in progress, and completed.
  • Neolodge stays: any bookings at the Neolodge remain active.

It is against the rules to require a user to pay for any of the above as part of the transfer. If you wish to receive compensation for any of the Neopoint items, you should remove them from your Neopet and arrange for that via the Trading Post or your shop as you would for selling any other Neopoint item.

What Doesn't Get Transferred

  • NC wearables: These items will be returned to your closet. NC items can only be traded using a gift box; see our NC trading guide for more information.
  • Battledome weapons: any Battledome weapons equipped to the pet will be returned to the inventory.
  • Petpages: the pet's petpage will be reset to the default for their species after the transfer is completed.
  • Pet Lookup: the pet's description will be cleared after the transfer is completed.
  • Fishing skill: a pet's Underwater Fishing level will be reset to 0 after the transfer is completed. When returned to the original account the pet earned their Fishing level on, they will regain their original Fishing level, so moving a pet between a main account and a side will not truly restart your Fishing progress.

How To Transfer A Pet

First, make sure that you have at least 1,000 Neopoints on hand, then head on over to the Transferring Pets Room. If you look at the picture below, you can see that there is a button below each pet. Click on the button that is below the pet you want to transfer.

After you have selected your pet and have clicked the Transfer button, you will be shown a prompt, as depicted in the image below. Be sure to type in the username correctly, and in all lower case letters (or else the transfer will error)!

When you have typed in the account name (and PIN Number, if applicable), you will be shown the following screen where you will be given the option to either confirm the transfer or to trade your pet for one of the recipient's. (For trading pets, see the next section.)

Once you click on the "Confirm Transfer" option you will be shown either:

  • Error: The new owner has already accepted all of their User-to-User Transfers this month!
  • A new page allowing you to check your transferred pet's status. (You can click here to check your pet's status.)

After this, it's all up to the receiving user!

Trading Pets

If you choose to trade pets rather than just transfer one, after you have selected which pet you want to exchange you can click on the link at the bottom where it says "If you would like to exchange..." to be shown the pets of the person you are transferring your pet to. From there you will be able to select which of their pets you would like in return for yours, as shown below.

Once again, after clicking on the "Exchange Neopets" option you will be shown either:

  • A new page allowing you to check your transferred pet's status.
  • If the recipient already has a pet in transit, you will just get a blank page without explanation!

As with regular transferring of pets, you will be charged 1,000 NP for the transfer, as well as however much it costs to adopt the other person's pet when they accept the swap.

How To Receive A Pet

If you are receiving the pet, you will be sent an event notification like the one below:

Clicking on it will bring you to the page below:

Here, you get to either accept the pet or reject the pet. If you accept the pet, you will have to pay the adoption fee that is shown. (In this example, it is 102 Neopoints.) You should have the Neopoints out on-hand, as this is where the Neopoints will be deducted from. When the transfer is done, you will be brought to the Quick Ref page and your newly transferred pet will become your Active Pet.

Abandoning

Abandoning a pet will move the pet into the Pound, able to be adopted by any other user whose account meets the requirements. Before you abandon a pet, here are some notes to keep in mind.

  • Only pets that are at least 7 days old can be abandoned.
  • It costs 250 Neopoints to abandon your pet.
  • You are not able to abandon the last pet on your account. Attempting to do so will simply redirect you to Quick Ref with the pet still on your account; no error is shown.
  • Pets with a No-Trade Petpet attached to it cannot be abandoned until the Petpet is removed, even if they are changed via the Petpet Lab Ray into a normal Petpet. No-Trade Petpets include those found in Newbie Starter Packs.
  • You used to be allowed to abandon only one pet per day from an account, resetting at midnight NST, but this has since been changed to unlimited daily abandons since at least July 2022.

Species and Colour Restrictions

Some pets, when abandoned, will either disappear or convert to another colour.

  • Lutaris, rather than enter into the Pound, will disappear forever, unable to be adopted by any user (even the original owner). The pet name will not become available for a new pet.
  • Ice Bori will turn into a Blue Bori.
  • Magma pets will turn Red.

Items After Abandonment

All clothes worn by the abandoned pet will be returned to your closet.

All Battledome items equipped to the abandoned pet will be returned to your inventory.

If a Petpet and/or Petpetpet is attached to the abandoned pet, it will remain with the pet. If you wish to keep the Petpet, remove it before abandoning (although this will permanently destroy the Petpetpet).

How To Abandon A Pet

Head over to the Pet Abandoning Room; if it's the first time you've ever been to this page, enjoy your new avatar as well! All you need to abandon your pet is at least 250 Neopoints on-hand and be able to click the button below your pet (after typing in your PIN number, if applicable).

Dr. Death

Dr. Death

Visit the abandon page in the Neopian Pound.

This avatar was also obtainable from the 2019 Charity Corner perk, In a New Avatar.

Released: September 12, 2003

You have to click the button five times before it will abandon your pet. This feature was built in to ensure that nobody would accidentally disown their pet or disown the wrong pet by mistake. Each time you click, the button will change to one of the phrases below.

  • Break my heart
  • Cast me aside...
  • Desert me?
  • Get rid of me
  • Give me up?
  • Kick me out
  • Leave me to die
  • Let me down?
  • Oh please nooooo!
  • Throw me away
  • What.. really sure?
  • What did I do?
  • You would leave me?

Once abandoned, you will be brought to your Quick Ref page.

You can only abandon a pet once per calendar day, resetting at midnight NST.

Browsing the Pound

There are multiple ways to explore the pets located in the Pound.

Pound Surfing

The easiest and most common way to browse pets in the Pound is doing what's known as "pound surfing", which involves browsing the Pound through the regular "Adopt" interface. Simply press "View More Neopets »" (or refresh the whole page) over and over again, hoping to stumble on interesting pets.


Not that kind of surfing...

While this is the most straightforward method, you can only ever find certain pets using this method. More on that in the next section!

Stuck Pets

The Pound will only ever display pets with certain names. Other pets whose names begin with certain characters will never be displayed while pound surfing, and must be found using other methods and adopted by entering their name directly into the Pound search. These pets are called "stuck".

Which Pets Get Stuck?

The exact machinations of how the Pound displays pets are complicated and mysterious, but we present a simplistic explanation here.

Whether or not a pet will be stuck is determined by the first 3 characters of its name. When the pound page displays pets, it first randomly chooses a 2-character prefix, such as JE. It will then randomly choose up to 3 pets whose names have that prefix. However, it seems to only select from the first few thousand pets (alphabetically) with that prefix. If a pet's name sorts it after whatever that cutoff number is, it cannot be chosen for display.

Because of this, some rare and unusual prefixes (say, XG) will never get stuck, but very common prefixes (such as MA) will get stuck at some point. Pets with later letters as their third character are more likely to be stuck than early letters; for example, Matthew123 may be stuck while Mackenzie789 is not.

For a current list of stuck prefixes and which 3rd character they begin to get stuck, Jellyneo recommends the /~Megablade petpage.


Not that kind of stuck...

Finding Stuck Pets

Our affiliate site Lost and Pound maintains a list of stuck pets by species, and also highlights notable details such as high stats or age. Lost and Pound is a certified Neopets fan site, so you are able to mention them by name (but not link to directly) on Neopets.

There are also a few methods for finding stuck pets on your own. The most efficient method uses a spreadsheet program (such as Excel) and your own petpage; this method is described in detail on /~Megablade. Lost and Pound's pet page /~Lorrenn includes instructions on a brute force manual method.

In the past, stuck pets could also be found with some creative Google searches; you may still see this method recommended on some older pages, but changes made to pet lookups in early 2016 made this method infeasible as search engines are no longer able to index them.

pound_release

On April 28th 2007, the Pound closed down to perform some maintenance due to the recent conversion for customisation. It didn't reopen again until a full year later, on April 29th 2008. During the time in between, pets could be abandoned, but not adopted or transferred. Because of this, a large backlog of pets waiting to enter the pound built up. According to TNT, this backlog consisted of millions of pets.

In order to avoid a debilitating strain on the servers by adding these pets to the pound all at once, TNT decided to add them slowly over time. To do so, TNT created a staff account called pound_release and made it the owner of these millions of pets. The account is frozen to prevent users from easily seeing all the pets, some of which are unconverted or have highly desirable names.

Release Timing

For years, pets were released from pound_release twice daily around 9:45 am/pm NST; the precise minute began to drift after Neopets transitioned servers in 2014, but remained approximately 12 hours apart.

Pets were released quasi-alphabetically: a handful of two character prefixes would be randomly selected, and a small number of pets would be released alphabetically within them. For example, if one of the prefixes chosen was JE, a pet whose name started with JEA would be released before a pet whose name started with JEL. Numbers are sorted before letters, and letters are sorted before underscores. Users could use this to see if a pet on pound_release they were interested in was likely to be released soon.

On November 22, 2019, pound_release stopped releasing pets due to a change by TNT that modified the owner of all pets on pound_release to instead become "none". It is unknown whether this change was intentional. In December 2020, TNT stated they would look into reactivating it while updating the Pound for the mobile-friendly site conversion.

Finding Pets on pound_release

There are many strategies for finding and tracking pets on pound_release. Many users track and share lists publicly on pet pages. If you are interested in learning about recent releases or methods of finding/tracking pets on pound_release, Jellyneo recommends posting on the Pound Neoboard asking for users to direct you to active projects.

Other Holding Accounts

TNT has several other staff accounts used for holding unowned pets, but unlike pound_release none of these have ever been known to release pets. You may occasionally run into these while searching for stuck or pound_release pets.

  • breik_u5: a mysterious account holding similar pets as pound_release, but with an intriguingly high proportion of Grundos.
  • baduser: used to house pets that were removed for inappropriate names.
  • testflash: a destination for Lutaris that were abandoned and the reason why those Lutaris' names cannot be reused!
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This article was written by: Terry and Kenny