I'm looking more for experiences than advice since I'm very unsure about what to do at the moment. A while ago I returned from a hiatus and downsized from 26 to 16 pets and for some reason I still want less than that. I won't have much time for this site in the future, so it isn't very realistc that I'll be able to spoil all of my pets the way I'd like to and them just sitting there doesn't seem right. However, I'm quite attached to most of the pets I'm owning right now, so getting rid of them won't be easy. I'm especially worried that possibly no one will want them, I've never cared for IDs so I guess they are not very desirable in that regard. Has anyone here ever adopted out most of their pets, even those you were attached to? Did that go well, did you end up regretting it? I think that I could part with at least eight out of my current pets, possibly more. If I'm totally honest, I would like to only have one pet, but that does seem a bit extreme right now.

Hi there! I felt the same way around two years ago and adopted out 7 of my pets (more than half my pets at the time) even though I quite liked them. Some of them were adopted out to people who were interested and others were eventually placed in the pound because I was in a super-purge mode and was committed to completing my downsize. At the time I was also planning on leaving subeta because I thought I had to be serious about my career/studies and wouldn't have time to play. But, I came back and I ended up adopting more pets lol.

While I'm attached to my pets now, I do occasionally find myself looking up my old pets. I wouldn't say I regret adopting them out though, especially if they went to someone who is still active and/or did more for the pets than I did, but it does make me a little sad when users become completely inactive without finding another home for the pets.

I find peace in the thought that maybe they'll come back from a hiatus like I did and the fact that I'm happy with my current pets. It helps that my current pets are associated with things I enjoy in real life whereas some of my pets before were simply names/colors that I really liked. I think if I had the space and option, I would be happy if one of the pets I adopted out returned to me because she was somewhat of an OC, but it's not a huge deal because I didn't ever flesh out the character.

On a side note, I occasionally still get feelings of wanting to downsize to just 3 pets, but I've found that I feel that less so now and I think it's because I'm okay with what I've done for my pets and really don't mind if they just sit there LOL When I think about it, all pets usually end up just sitting there unless they're getting things regularly revamped. I've also come to terms with the fact that I won't ever have the time, money and/or skills to spoil them as much I'd like to. And since non-unique names became a thing, I don't feel bad about hoarding names cause if someone else wants the name, they can make their own pet with that name. We'll see what happens down the road, but this is where I am now.

Lastly, I just wanted to say I'm happy to see

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I totally understand that you keep looking up previous pets, I do the same, even those that I haven't been super attached to. I think my urge to downsize is comming from a similar place as you describe, I'm about to go to university again and know that I won't have much time for online games anymore. I don't want to leave though, I think Subeta is great to relax and forget about RL issues for a bit.

So you're Harleigh's previous owner?! I sometimes wonder about pound finds, where they've come from and how their little pixel-lives have been going before I met them :D Harleigh was more or less an impuls adoption and I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to keep him at first, but he really grew on me within the few days I've had him and therefore is actually among those pets I do not plan to adopt out.

I really regret downsizing a couple of years ago. It was a biiiig downsize too. I went from 50-some pets to one. ONE. My biggest regret is that I gave away pets of mine who'd won the spotlight. I was able to get a couple back, but I'll never get the others. One who I gave away won spotlight the day I tried to get him back and the owner said if I'd asked the day before, I could have had him, but she's keeping him now. I'll probably always be mad at myself and I will never, ever give my pets away again.

Ooh that's exciting! I know with Covid-19, things at uni may be kind of odd now, but I hope you still form amazing memories with people and learn lots ^^

Haha, yeah, it's hard not to be curious about where our little pixels go xD I will say that I get feelings of wanting a pet purge whenever there is/is going to be a change in my personal life because it's much easier for me to act on my desires impulsively here than in real life. While it may sound a little cruel, I'm totally okay with it because Subeta is my place to relax, be creative, splurge money, and do my own thing without worrying about how it affects real life. I was pretty inactive for a year when I started grad school, but as much as I enjoyed school/the people I was with, nothing could quite replace how comfortable I felt just browsing through Subeta. So, you can take however long you need to be away and spend as little or as much time as you'd like here, you do you!

Regarding your pets, if you feel reservations about adopting out, you can always ask the new owners to contact you first if they no longer want the pet. While it's not 100% guaranteed, if you want them back at that point, you'll potentially have the opportunity ^^

Yup! I have no idea who he was with before, but he was stuck with me for a good while haha. I'm glad he's grown on you! <3 I'm going to send you a little something, but feel free to do whatever you'd like with it!

That sounds awful and I'm so sorry you ended up regretting your decision :( From 50 down to one is really drastic. I absolutely see the appeal of only having one pet and usually get jealous if I stumble over those few accounts where that's the case, thinking that I do clearly have my favorite and that maybe she should be an only child. But there are a few others that I'm way too attached to to ever even attempt downsizing to just one. May I ask what motivated you to adopt out all of your pets?

Wow, that was unexpected, thank you so, so much! <3 If you ever need anything, just let me know, I would gladly help out in return! Look who's a pretty boy now:

I think I'll just go slow about adopting out. I don't want to pound anyone, so they either find homes or they'll stay with me. Regarding the feeling of wanting a pet purge, I don't think that sounds cruel at all. You're absolutely right, it is great that nothing here has real life consequences. When I recently adopted out ten of my pets, I felt quite great afterwards which is probably why I'd like to give away even more. Too many pixels also seem to overwhelm me a bit and I don't want Subeta to be too time consuming, especially with the RL changes ahead. This is actually my second attempt at university, so I really need to make it count.

I thought I was leaving the site for good (HAHAHAHAHHAHAAAA) so I wanted them all to go to good homes. I should have known I'm way too addicted to ever actually leave. I was off for a few months and then I came back when the damn quarantine hit and BAM I'm addicted all over again. smh

O no, so you actually planned on quitting and then returned to only one pet? I can imagine that that isn't exactly a great experience. I really hope you're happy with the pets you have now and that the others at least did end up going to good homes!

No worries, it was a gift and he's absolutely adorable! <3

I totally understand that having too many pets can be overwhelming >< but sounds like you have a plan c:

I wish the best for you this time around! Whatever you're studying, it sounds like you've got the motivation and mindset to succeed ^^

SPOILER (click to toggle)

I'm happy with what I have now, especially because I finally finished profiles and stories and such for all of them! dies

Oh gosh, yes. I downsized years ago and managed to get back to gluttony in the end /dead

I miss a lot of the pets I adopted out during that time.

But... I did / do find working on a few pets at a time makes it so much less stressful to play Subeta omg. Want CSS to hide the pets for a while, while you decide? I'm dead on my feet tonight, but I can work it out tomorrow / Sunday, and post it here for anyone who just wants to escape the surplus for a while.

Like Fletch, I downsized several times, but ended up going to absurd levels - I'm over 100 pets and while I know there is no way I can spoil them all equally, it doesn't mean I can't try, right?

I never really had a big downsize but I know if I ever would do it I would really regret it. I would miss a lot of my pets especially a bunch of them have a really high personal value for me (cause of their stories, characters and development and the time they are with me). The biggest "downsize" I ever had was 4-5 pets and here and there 2-3 pets and I still regret giving away some of them.

I allways try to work on them but cause I am like Sopheroo on 100+ pets now it takes ages but for e working on pet profiles, doing art for them or writing for them relaxes me and helps me to forget all the shit going on in my life.

Also nice how you have sorted your pets on your profile. Looks great ^^

i went from 50+ to currently 40 and honestly looking at my pet list i can see another 10 or so i could yeet without feeling particularly bad about it lmao

my reasoning honestly was that for a lot of the pets i abandoned/adopted out i can still write/draw them? it's not like i got rid of the character, just their subeta representation c: plus now with non-unique names even if you regret giving a pet away you can always make it again! before downsizing i screenshotted some of my favourite tc's exactly so that if i regret it i can recreate the tc in the future

also before non-unique names i would keep pets for YEARS without doing anything with them out of fear that if i adopted them out i could never have that name again and that was really stressful tbh haha

I've never done a huge amount of downsizing - I think the last time I went on hiatus I wound up keeping 4 pets? Don't remember for sure. But I have gone on a long hiatus from Subeta a couple of times over the years and have given away items as well as pets. With maybe only a couple of exceptions, I don't regret it at all. (I gave away a Malignant Rift Staff because I was so sure I wasn't coming back, and don't have enough plot points left to buy another ;_; Oh well)

I don't regret giving away any of my pets, because I tend to get colors that look cool and names I like first, then come up with the actual character later. So a lot of them I wasn't super attached to, and it was fun to see what their new owners came up with. But the ones I did invest time and love into, I just was a little more careful about who I adopted them out to. (No applications or anything, I'm not that picky.) For the most part, it turned out fine. I kind of...forgot the names of a lot of the pets I adopted out XD but the ones I remembered and looked up, were still on the same accounts that originally asked for them, had nice things in their TCs, profiles with actual work put into them, etc. In other words, they were being well cared for. Which makes me happy :)

As someone else mentioned, now that non-unique names are a thing, you can always recreate a pet if you change your mind later. I've done that in a few cases! It's easier to do once you know the ropes on Subeta; I can train up a pet and spoil it much faster now than I could when I first started.

As far as worrying about no one wanting them, you might be surprised. I've adopted a few pets just because the name seemed perfect for a color/species combo I wanted (Genevive, Erelin) or simply because I liked the name itself (Hercule, Klare) - either way, it was inspiring. There's also other aspects of pets that people value: a specific birthday, a unique zap color, any stat training. My point is, you just never know. Sometimes pets just "speak" to people for whatever reason XD

Good luck with your pet goals, whatever they turn out to be. And best of luck outside Subeta as well!

My big advantage was I never adopted a pet for the name alone. If I did I allways had an idea or existing character for it so I never had to stress with the "keeping only cause the name is good" aspect.

Also it is true you can drraw/write/develope the character even without Subeta representation and recreate the pet again if you like but only if you don't care for ID/birthday.

I think also I have this big addiction with pets/characters and even I have a toyhou.se, tumblr and several galleries accounts I keep more characters on here than there.

I downsized years ago thinking it was for the best due to illness. But Im still here and regret giving them away, I check on them some are not active anymore. A lot of my pets now are from adoption at least they get a forever home now,,,

I tried to downsize years ago, it didn't last and I have regrets. a lot of them went to now frozen or just abandoned accounts. :/

I've downsized multiple times, usually thinking I would be going on a hiatus and wouldn't be coming back. Each time I was wrong.

Of all the pets I've let go over the years, there's only four that I still regret, and they're ones I was very attached to:

• My first pet on Subeta ever, who I had trained to level 11 or 12, I believe. I don't regret her as a character (she didn't really have one) so much as having such a well trained pet around when battle things come up and having a pet that showed I'd owned her for so long.

• I let go of my RL cat's namesake twice; I don't remember why the first time, but the second time was when I thought I was quitting for good. Fortunately, I got it back shortly before non-unique names were implemented, so it's one of the few legacy names I'm happy to never delete.

• A pair of characters that have been with me for a long time and through several iterations/websites. Like my cat's name the second time, I only gave them up because I thought I was quitting for good, and I felt like keeping them around would stop me from doing so. I'm happy with their current owner (in fact, I recently gave her another pet!) but I miss them terribly. I'm in the process of incorporating another iteration of their characters into my current set of pets.

But all my other pets? I don't regret them as much. I miss some of them, but it doesn't hurt as much as the ones I just listed.

If you are still considering downsizing and you have any that you have worked on a ton or whose characters are very close to your heart, I would hold off on those. Make sure you're really sure you want to let them go.

But for the rest... the great thing about Subeta is that it's not hard to begin again and even do the same things again! When the non-unique name change happened, I let go of many pets and designed a whole different setup of my account around the month of October. I wiped almost everyone's names and started with some blank slates to figure out what I wanted to do. In the process I've found that the stories that I really liked previously have wormed their way back in, and it hasn't been difficult to reincorporate them into my pet headcanons. (Whether they'll actually ever end up on their pet profiles is another story.)

P.S. Coming from someone who has adopted out pets several times: adopting out pets is usually stressful. You never really know if you're choosing someone who will stick around for a long time afterward or who will live up to their promises. Some pets are really popular, and it's hard to choose which owner is the best out of several good candidates. Some aren't popular at all, and it's sad to see that no one wants them. Since you've adopted out before, you probably know what I mean. So that's another aspect to consider when downsizing.

ah yeah that's valid! tbh i usually just adopted pets for the name and then figured out something for them. except it took years sometimes 😂