Changing Your Pet's Gender
Hee hee hee!
The ray is fired at your pet...
... and she changes gender!!!!
Does this look like a familiar scene to you, or maybe you accidentally choose "Female" instead of "Male" in the Create-a-Pet sequence? Well, this guide is about getting your Neopet to the gender of your choice!
There are three ways to change your Neopet's gender as of now:
The Lab Ray
The Lab Ray can change your pet's gender, and it can change it back. There is approximately an 8% chance of changing gender, so just keep zapping your pet until it changes! However, this might be a risky idea if you don't want your pet to also potentially change colour, species, or stats as well.
Fighting the Lab Ray Scientist
A more reliable way is to fight the Lab Ray Scientist in the Battledome. The Scientist has a Strange Potion equipped and when he uses it against you in battle it will change the gender of your pet. You don't have to win against the Scientist to get a gender change, but it may take a few battles before he decides to pull out the right weapon.
To get the Scientist as a challenger, just refresh at the "Select a Pet" page when you go to use the lab. This means that you will have to have unlocked the Lab Ray before you can get him as a challenger. Since battling in the Battledome is a Neopoint-earning activity (you will receive Neopoints and items), it can only be done on your main account, even though you're allowed to unlock the Lab Ray on your side accounts. If your mis-gendered pet is on a side account, you will have to transfer them to your main account (or a friend's main account) first.
Muahahaha! I'll see you in the Battledome...
Using an Item
The Strange Potion is not only a weapon for the Lab Ray Scientist, but also an item you can buy and use outside the Battledome. The Strange Potion is rather costly, but it may cost less than the lab map, so it is worth comparing the two if you are absolutely sure you just want to change your pet's gender.
Alternately, if you specifically wanted a Royal Boy or Royal Girl Kyrii, there are two morphing potions which will change your Neopet's colour and gender at the same time. The Royal Boy Kyrii Morphing Potion will convert your pet into a male and give it a Royal paint job, whilst the Royal Girl Kyrii Morphing Potion will turn your pet female and give it the respective Royal colouring.
If you're not picky about anything other than gender, another option is to feed your pet a Witchy Negg. While it very well may change your pet's gender, there is also a possibility instead that your pet will turn into a Lenny, Tuskaninny, or Moehog, gain some intelligence or hit points, or have a disease cured.
Defunct Methods
There used to be another method, although it no longer works. If you equipped your pet with the Cape of The Sun, your male pet could randomly change gender. This only worked from male to female and not the other way round. This, however, was a glitch, and has since been fixed by TNT.
I'm glitchtastic!
Effects On Appearance
Ever since the launch of customisation in 2007, the gender of your pet has an effect on how it looks to a certain extent: for example, female pets tend to have longer eyelashes than the males. Where this becomes a larger issue is when your pet is painted Royal, Elderly, Usuki, or Quiguki. If you own a Royal Boy Zafara, for example, and then change its gender to female you will end up with the same dark blue Zafara wearing the Royal Boy clothes, only now its eyes will be yellow and have fluttery lashes. By the same rule if you have a Royal Girl Zafara and change its gender to male then you will end up with the same yellow Zafara in a pretty dress only now it will have dark blue eyes with no visible lashes.
Changing a Royal Boy pet's gender by battling the Lab Ray Scientist will not make it revert into the colour of the Royal Girl of that species, nor will you get the clothes that belong to the opposite gender. However, if your Royal pet is zapped by the lab ray and its gender changes, the appearance of your entire pet will change. So if you zapped your Royal Girl Zafara and the lab ray switched its gender from female to male, you would then have a dark blue Zafara dressed in the Royal Boy Zafara clothes (the Royal Girl Zafara clothes would still be stored in your closet though). This is also the case for Elderly, Usuki, and Quiguki pets. (Thanks to Vala for helping to confirm this!)
Note, however, that none of this affects pets wearing a Pet Style. Pet Styles have specific appearances that do not change based on a pet's gender.
This page was written by Ruby and last updated on July 23, 2024.
