Everything you want to know about...
WIBBLES!
General Information:
Pronunciation: “Wib-bull”
Plural: Wibbles
Baby Wibble: Wiblet
A bunch of Wibbles: A cloud
Introduction:
Wibbles are relatively common flyers that have risen in popularity as city pets and mail-carriers! They are known for their ability to float in the air like kites, collecting flying insects on their sticky webbing which they pick off and eat with their thin forked tongues. Wyngrew use them as a sort of ‘carrier pigeon’, and they can be trained to fly towards specific individuals and destinations. Although, if you use them, be prepared to have your mail covered in dead bugs and slime.
Anatomy
Wibbles sport a very aerodynamic head shape, and large wings for gliding. The underside of their wings (and the toes of their feet) naturally excrete a mucus that allowed them to stick to most surfaces.
Instead of having solid bones, wibbles have more flexible cartilage making up the base of their body structure. This allows them to happily smack body-first into vertical objects and stick securely without risk of breaking fragile hollow bones.
Wibbles are extremely durable little critters, and squishy, making their thin wings and tail the most fragile part of them.
A wibble sports a long tongue to lick the bugs off of their underwing. The natural properties of their saliva help loosen up the mucus so they can gently slide their delicious bounty into their mouths. Vigorous tongue-grooming is also very important to help keep the mucus from drying out (especially in more arid climates).
Sexual Dimorphism
Wibbles, due to their variety of colors and lack of sexual dimorphism, are extremely hard for most wyngrew to accurately sex. Typically it takes an expert to tell whether a wiblet is male or female (and even they only get it right about 75% of the time). The easiest way to be sure is to take it to a vet and have their blood tested. This is usually done for breeders, as common pet owners don’t care and just guess a gender and go with that.
Flight
Wibbles are unique flying creatures in that they don't stay in flight by actually flapping. They float in the sky rather lazily, using the wind currents to stay afloat. Due to their sticky mucus, they need to keep a good distance away from one another, lest they stick together and fall to their doom! Wyngrew believe that they use some sort of dormant wind magic in order to stay balanced in the air.
That being said, they're not able to take off straight from the ground. Most Wibbles climb up tall surfaces by sticking their wings to it and slowly working their way up, then launching themselves off into the sky. When a wibble mail carrier arrives to present a letter to a Wyngro, there are many different methods that towns use to get them back in flight.
Last Notch has a system of gro-made air geysers spread around town, and Wibbles there are trained to stand on them and wait for them to go off so that they can blast off high into the air!
Wynsiph installs tall, flat and smooth boards that Wibbles slowly climb up without having to worry about getting stuck on them. This allows them to safely climb high enough to get airborne!
Desperate Measures: Sometimes, there's nothing around for a wibble to climb on to get airborne, and the gro has to make due with helping it out. Enter: Tossing the wibble as high as you can into the air like a football so that it catches air and is able to fly off! Please make sure your Wibble's wings are flush to its body when you throw it, so that it doesn't stick to your hands as you chuck it!
Diet
Wibbles love chowing down on small flying insects! Using the sticky flaps of their wings and tail while they fly, they capture bugs to later lick-off and eat with their long tongues when comfortably perched.
Zipslimers seem to be a particular treat to wibbles, as they particularly love to smear their webs all over their sticky membranes. The webbing appears to be beneficial to keeping their wings extra-sticky and flexible. Many wibbles can be seen reaching for zipslimer webs on rocks and corners of buildings, plucking the insects from their webs and then rolling around in the webs.
Some bigger insects have been known to cause damage to wibbles, and even cause dangerous tearing in their wings. While most wild wibbles learn what is safe to eat thanks to their parents, domestic wibbles will always accept treats from their owners expecting it to be safe. Gnaws, punch buggys, pyrites, and zings are all potentially dangerous to wibbles. Avoid anything that can bite back!
Babies
Wibbles tend to give birth to batches of 1-3 wiblets each spring. The mothers make a sling out of their long tail so the young ones are safely nestled when roosting, and during short flights/glides. While the mother is hampered with her young, her male partner (and oftentimes other wiblet-less members of the cloud) will provide her with extra insects.
The young are fed regurgitated insect matter from their mother until they are roughly a month old and begin taking their first flights. The wiblets remain with their mother and generally under her close care until the first year when they are near adult size. While no longer sticking to their mother (literally), young adults tend to stay close and often assist in the raising of their mother’s next litter, before growing more independent and sexually mature themselves.
By that time, they’ve learned through observation of their parents what insects are good to eat, which areas are the best ‘hunting grounds’ and the general migratory flight pattern of the cloud throughout the year.
Hibernation
Wild Wibbles that live in areas that experience winters cold enough to produce long periods of below-freezing weather and snow have been documented hibernating. The cloud roosts in large huddled groups, usually in tree holes or caves. The wibbles cluster together and wrap up tight to keep out the worst of the chill and going dormant until warmer weather (and the bugs) return.
Unfortunately, their bright colorations make it easy for hungry predators to spot helpless hibernating wibbles. Any low-roosting wibbles tent to become easy snacks. A stray Coatala left to its own devices can wipe out an entire cloud in one winter, leaving some areas where this species has been almost completely wiped out thanks to unmonitored Coatala pets who are hunting for sport.
Lifespan
Wild Wibbles usually live between 6-10 years, though some have been documented to live as long as 20 years of age. It is not uncommon for domesticated wibbles to reach this age. The widely unique patterns of the species make observing the same Wibbles throughout their lifetime quite easy for bird-watching enthusiasts.
Owning a Wibble
Wibbles have become quite the popular pet due to their soft and squishy body, gorgeous patterns, along with being natural pest-eaters. Most larger towns in warm climates bost thriving communities of domesticated wibbles, making them a common sight roosting on buildings or floating high up in the air.
Wibbles require quite a high insect diet, and most choose to let their wibble ‘graze’ outside most of the day. Others choose to feed their wibble more nutritious food they wouldn’t normally be able to catch themselves, like pre-killed punch buggies or even bits of high-protein fish meat.
Wibbles are unable to digest red meat along with most vegetables or fruits. Such food would make them horribly ill.
Wibbles are quite skilled at learning how to differentiate individual Wyngrew. They key into a Wyngro’s color scheme and markings (much like how they identify individuals in their own species), and love to ‘visit’ Wyngrew who they’ve grown close to. So long as you live in the same town and have made friends with a wibble, they will be sure to show up at your window every now and again looking for treats and affection.
Mail Carriers
Many towns utilize a Wibble’s natural tendency to be drawn to familiar colors and identifying Wyngrew to use wibbles as a natural mail-carrying system.
Letters are stuck to a wibble’s webbing, and the little carrier flies off to the appropriate Wyngro. Large clouds are housed in post offices, and new townsfolk are expected to visit at some point if they want their mail delivered in a timely manner, so the wibble carriers can identify them easier.
They are an acceptable use of mail delivery in some towns, but less desired compared to actual Wyngro carriers. They are less reliable, sometimes losing letters if they catch onto something, and peeling off a letter filled with dead bugs and slime is something a lot of gros despise. (The slime they produce does not get the letters wet thanks to wax-paper envelopes, thankfully!) Still, this mail system is the cheapest way to go!
The Wyngrew postal workers are mostly reserved for longer town-to-town mail flights that are too dangerous for small wibbles, larger packages, or letter deliveries for important town officials.
Cities too large for individual Wibble delivery usually have different mail centers throughout the city. Each center sporting a different colored wibble-shaped flag, and holding mail for different centers of the city. This system requires Wyngrew go get their mail themselves, unless they take the time and money to train their own personal wibble to fly to and from their local post office.
It is possible to train a wibble to glide from town to town, but they are slower than a flying Wyngro carrier, and it can be dangerous for the domesticated Wibble, as they sometimes go missing entirely.
Wibble Rarity Traits:
Wibbles come in all different crazy colors, markings, and patterns. There are no limitations on how many markings can be placed on a wibble, although markings found on the webbing seem to be a domestically bred trait.
Wibbles tend to have the same markings as runeboos, overall. Here's a peek on what makes them "Unusual" or "Scarce"!
Unusual Traits:
Scarce Traits:
How to Obtain a Wibble?
So now that you know all about wibbles, how do you go about getting one?
Wibbles can be obtained in many different ways, so let's check them out!
Joining our $5 tier on Patreon will give you early access to Runeboo, Coatala, & Wibble sales! This means that when a new pet goes up, you'll get an email showing it! These pets go fast, so you have to act fast! Typically, Wibbles cost anywhere from $43-100+, depending on the rarity.
This is your best chance to buy pets and get first pick at a new one!
The Trading Post is a place where members may post a pet they bought and couldn't connect with. They may be willing to trade for other items or even art! So this is a great place to stop by and have a look from time to time! Just make sure to read the rules!
The Trading Post can be found HERE!
Art Credits
Thanks you for all of the wonderful art! Images above were drawn by the following artists: