The big Chocobo researchFollow

Earlier I posted from memory an article I remembered. I found the article in the "June 19th POL update" and would like to share it.
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Chocobo Breeds:
{Destrier}
These knightly mounts were bred in San d'Oria. They underwent training that allowed them to bear the weight of heavy armor and withstand the shock of cavalry charges. Destriers were characterized by their large, jet-black bodies and thick, powerful legs. With the decline of lance combat and improvements to ranged weaponry, destriers lost their place in battle to the faster coursers. These days, there are no remaining purebred destriers, but it is possible to see their proud bloodlines occasionally reemerge in the birth of rare, black chocobos.
{Courser}
The courser is a larger-than-average chocobo and is the most common breed found in the Kingdom of San d'Oria. They are characterized by their streamlined bodies, and long, graceful legs. They were originally bred for scouting duties, but their adoption into the military was accompanied by a general acceptance of the courser as an everyday mount. On extremely rare occasions, a red-colored courser will be born.
{Palfrey}
The mid-sized palfreys were bred to withstand the searing air and blazing heat of the desert. They are mainly raised in the Republic of Bastok and on Zepwell Island. With a relatively gentle demeanor, these chocobos are suited for those with who lack advanced riding skills. Palfreys are known to come in both blue and yellow.
{Jennet}
This breed of chocobo has been magically reduced in size to provide mounts for the diminutive Tarutaru. They have short legs when compared to other breeds, but like the Tarutaru themselves, jennets are capable of maintaining a rapid pace. Due to a request from the southern Mithra wishing to blend into the jungle, there are some jennets that can be found in a shade of green.
{Rounsey}
With its huge population of adventurers, Jeuno boasts more frequent use of chocobos than any other nation. The main type of chocobo to be found in the duchy is the mid-sized rounsey. The pride of the famous trainer Brutus and his family, the rounsey is the result of a lengthy breeding program involving wild chocobos. This program has produced a robust mount of somewhat unpredictable temperament that is suited for long, punishing treks.
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This is from POL and one of the FFXI updates so it is accurate and dependable (hopefully lol). Make of it what you like :-)

can the ability Gallop make the chocobo go faster then then the rentals?

Well, my bird grew up yesterday...and now it looks like this.

IT'S GREEN!! ^___^

And at Day 19, it has A bit deficient STR and END. Can hardly wait to see what it'll look like on Day 29.

STR= Sturdier legs with bigger claws
END= Thicker tail feathers
DIC= Larger beak

I don't know if REC effects any physical features.

I believe that to get any of these extra features you have to have the matching stat at Average or more by day 29 when they become an adult. My female black was raised for physical stats and she had both the strong legs and thick tail feathers when she grew up.

Yes, if both strenth & endurance are average or better by day29 your bird will have both attributes, xtra tail feathers & larger legs/feet.

To restate colors on chicks.

Colors of tips at adolescense are the color of the Adult choco except for yellow. If you have white tips it will be yellow.

White by the way is usually a muddy white but not dark like the race choco. If you have doubts about it being yellow or black compare your chick, critically, with the race chick who is black.

The chances of getting a different colored chick than yellow from a bought or quested egg is pretty much nil. Sure you can but do you want to raise that many chicks on the off chance of getting a colored chick?

Ask your friends for cards from colored chicks or buy them from bazaars if you don't want yellow over and over. You will save yourself a lot of grief and time.

Can somebody who has lots of experience with breeding do a little guide write up for this (who to go to? What kind of plans there are and what they do, etc, etc).

I will @ this write up in the OP (ofcourse you be credited for your work ^^)

Yes! Bird hit Average END yesterday, so when she grows up tomorrow she'll have the junk in the trunk plumage. ^^

I'm surprised at how quickly her stats are going up. At this rate, I'll be at first class probably before Day 45 since I seem to be getting 1-2 skill ups a week.

So Celeste will be an ugly green bird with big claws and big feathers. Will post screenshots once I have some.

Interesting. I didn't know that. I just figured that the STR/END stats were going up faster since both parents were at First Class STR/Outstanding END when I got cards from them.

I'll probably keep raising those stats on this bird through its rapid-growing phase. I made the mistake of switching over to Digging for Treasure on my last bird so I could get the two abilities I wanted. That wound up bringing its STR down to Average (I think it was at Outstanding before it started going down. :/), which really sucked. I raised it until around day 120 or so (had about a week left before auto-retirement), but from Day 60 onwards even though my bird was at max affection, and I was feeding it Vomp carrots, and had it on the Deliver Messages plan, its stats never increased. ;_;

You can't get more negative than 'poor'. But since 'poor' consists of a range of scores, if you keep doing plans that reduce an attribute, you will likely reduce it all the way to zero.

Just thought I'd mention that you can't rely on the Kamp Kweh mating prediction to tell you ahead of time what color one of your chicks are by looking at what color they look like as parents in the cs (note - I'm not talking about predicting the color of the egg; just the color of your chick as one of the parents). I was hoping my chick was going to be black, but was worried when in the mating cs they show him grown into an adult yellow. But he turned out black after all. Otherwise this would have been a quick way to know colors before they even got to the teen stage.

Interestingly, my yellow male and a friend's black female were shown to have a black egg by the cs when we had done it a while back, but my friend swears his cs showed them having a yellow chick (we both raised eggs from this pairing, and both are now black with a learned ability 'Canter' from the father, and both have the same personality). My original yellow male has also been shown in some pairings to produce a green offspring, as has my current black chick, so it's probably carrying a green gene as well.

Finally, those who've never done Kamp Kweh should give it a try. I don't know if it's because my choco has been 'bright and focused' a lot lately, but every single time its played with another choco this week its gotten an attribute boost. The kind seems pretty random though - rec, dic, str, rec, end

Here's my WinterParfait's family tree :)

Mother: Yellow with empasis on STR & END (bought egg)
Father: Black with empasis on STR & END (Thank you Lilf - not sure if bought or ISNM)

WinterParfait was born with poor in all stats but her STR & END increased quite rapidly as compared to when raising WinterOrchidee (her mom).

WinterParfait was a chilled out chick but a day before she hit her teens, I was told she would be suitable for the military. Also, she likes clear weather.

As a chick, I fed her Vegetable Pastes and threw in an occasional Vomp Carrot when I ran out of pastes w....

Oh yea....since I want to concentrate on STR & END for now, WinterParfaits care schedule has been Walk around Town - Basic Care - Walk around Town - Basic Care on a 7-2-7 care schedule when she was a chick. As a teen, it will be Exercise Alone - Basic Care - Exercise in a Group - Basic Care on another 7-2-7-2 care schedule (do I sound like a terrible parent? w)

*I need to check the stats and some info I noted down, etc and I'll post more when I am back home after work*

I just began chocobo raising a few days ago, on day 6 I believe.

I read the first 5 pages of this thread and the last 2 and did not see any mention of an activity my chocobo has been displaying. During the CS for the short walk outside of town, there is a twinkling spot on the ground, and the next time I watch over my bird, I recieve an item he found (once a pebble, next a Quadav Backplate).

I planned on raising my first bird with emphasis on STR and END, however, I was wondering, is that since finding items is most similar to digging/treasure hunting, should I instead try to center his care around mental attributes to increase results?

From what I have read it seems that I could still train and feed to increase STR/END, but this seems counter-productive if he is more naturally inclined to be a digger. Any comments/suggestions welcome, and thanks to all the people who took the time to give great info in this thread.

Susan, I have heard, like you in this thread, mention of removing an ability with the "Greg. Worm" but haven't seen any proof of it myself or personally know anyone who was able to do this. It would indeed be benificial to be able to remove an ability at times but to the best of my knowledge (and I'm always learning something new) once you get an ability either by learning it or inheriting it you are stuck with it and also are limited to only 2 abilities total. If anyone has FIRST HAND experiance positive of a way to remove an ability please let us know. However, if you know someone who says they did it or if you only think you might have done it please don't foster an unfounded rumor. We really need good solid info that has been tested and proven. With that said everyone please share any ideas or thoughts but be sure they are expressed as being just ideas or thoughts. After all thats how we get to the proof positive of things :-)
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To the person asking about finding things and wondering if his chick may be inclined to DIGGING because of it. Like Susan said, that was added in a receint update and ALL Chocobos now find these things. I personally think FFXI realized that they had made the Chocobo Raising experiance too expensive for New Players (and some long time players) and put this feature in to offset the cost. I don't think there is any more meaning to it than that. I was very surprised after finding a few pebbles which were almost worthless to have my bird present me with an "ADAMAN ORE" (spelling?) which promply sold for 100,000 Gil!!! I see the price has come down on it now to around 20k so I guess mine wasn't the only bird finding this stuff and supply and demand brought the price down. Still a Quadav Backplate or other item that sells for a respectable amount will allow someone on a budget to afford to feed his bird better quality food!