Neopian Pound

The Neopian Pound is where users can abandon, adopt or transfer Neopets.

Site Description

"This is where kind-hearted souls can find the perfect Neopet for themselves, often far smarter and much better behaved than the younger Neopets. Cruel, irresponsible owners can abandon their unwanted Neopets and hope that someone will eventually come along and care for them. If you have a consenting new owner in mind, you may also transfer one Neopet per month to a new owner
Note: The Neopian Pound is not to be abused for financial gain. Selling Neopets, or profiting from abandoned Neopets is a freezable offence."

Location

It is found via the My Pets drop down list in the mobile-friendly layout's sidebar, the Customise drop down list at the top bar in the classic layout, and the Neopian Plaza in Neopia Central.

Adoption

Adopting is a feature where you can take in pets that were previously abandoned at the Neopian Pound. Owners can adopt as many pets as they can hold (six for normal users, ten for premium users, and 16-20 with the NC Mall pet slot packs).

Pets always cost a little to adopt, with the number increasing depending on how high their stats are/were (particularly its level). Prior to December 2021, accounts under 4 months could only adopt non-limited edition, low-statted, and inexpensively-coloured pets. As well, all pounded pets don't come with paint brush clothing.

If you have enough Neopoints, it's strongly discouraged to create a Neopet from scratch because sometimes you can find nicely-named and painted pets if you look hard enough. Looking through the pound is often called "pound surfing".

There are also adoption agencies that adopt pets, increase their skills, change their colour, and then put them up for adoption again. Sometimes, guilds do this as a project for members or for Neopians at large. It helps if you or a member of the guild doing this have the Lab Ray unlocked.

You cannot pick who can adopt a pet, but you can make it easier for a particular person to get one by arranging to put it up for adoption at a specific time and letting the person know the exact name of the pet.

Abandoning a Pet

Abandoning a Neopet basically involves giving them away to the Pound. This action is permanent, so think carefully before you decide to do this. You can only pound a pet once per day. You also cannot pound a pet that is under 7 days old.

Abandoned pets may be readopted by other users. If the pet has a good name, colour/species or stats, then it will likely be adopted rather quickly. People have done so for financial gain, and (as stated in the Adoption section) have been frozen as a result.

Abandoned Pet Restrictions

• Abandoned Lutaris will run away and become unable to be adopted (even through Lost and Pound, which keeps check on "stuck" pounded pets). That pet's name will not be purged either.
• Abandoned Ice Boris will turn Blue.
• Abandoned Magma pets will turn Red.

Adopting Error and Transferring

Transferring is a feature of the Pound that allows for trading pets between users for a fee of 1000 NP. You cannot adopt a pet while also having a pet in transit to another user.

Warning: Do not try to transfer pets via abandonment/adoption! It is a quick way to get scammed out of permanently losing your pet.

Again, prior to December 2021, the number of transfers allowed also depended on account age.

Pound Shutdowns

• Around Y10 (2008), when the Transfer section of the Pound was being integrated, users were unable to adopt Neopets for a while.
• To prepare for the launch the Styling Studio and NC Pet Styles, from January 18th-26th 2024, all features of the Pound (adopting, abandoning and transferring pets) were disabled to ensure that no pets got lost in transit.