My research on Baby Eridians!
Hey so yeah for my series on adopting an eridian with Ryland (you can find more about it on my ryland grace masterlist if unfamiliar), I've been doing hella research on Erid, Eridians, and also having to figure out behavior and biology of the pebbles because 1: I like to be accurate, and 2: Its fun :3
The basis for most of this is from the official PHM fandom Wiki, which most of that comes from Andy Weir himself. Additionally, I based a lot of the biology and behaviors on earth animals that primarily use echolocation, with baby bats as a main source of inspiration!
So anyways here is some of my shared research/headcanons/ideas that I'm going to be using for my fics!
The average pebble is around 5 inches in diameter. I did the math and using the ratio of a baby to an adult human (Which may not be the best animal ratio to use, but
Pebble's often get confused on their directions constantly. Eridians canonically are able to sense magnetic fields and inherently know which direction is North. Pebbles aren't the best at this quite yet, so they get confused a lot.
Object permanence is something the pebbles deal with as well. Their range of hearing is much smaller than that of an adult and are practically wandering blind half the time, and I want to think that this also applies to seeing through walls. They can't exactly see through walls just quite yet, as their hearing isn't that adept at doing so, so while you leave behind a wall, it may seem like you genuinely disappeared.
Pebbles cry whenever separated from a parent. Because of their survival instincts of wanting someone to watch them sleep, a pebble with freak out whenever a parent is not near them and will cry out for their parent. These cries get more desperate whenever they get sleepy or have just woken up and they are alone, as they do not feel safe and secure.
Baby food isn't that different from adult food. Adult eridians already have to butcher up a carcass and grind up the food into almost a paste. The main difference is that pebbles need it to be much more ground up, into practically a liquid. Additional nutrients can be given in the foods, such as certain minerals, usually for the carapace health of the pebble.
Pebbles like to babble. Just like almost all babies, they like to repeat back and mimic adults. This is how most babies learn how to speak and learn languages, so it only makes sense for the pebbles to babble too.
Pebbles molt/shed their shells as they grow. These outer layers are high in mineral value (same as their eggshells after they are born), and it is a common practice and encouraged for a pebble to eat their molt while they are still very young, as it is beneficial for their carapace health to maintain these minerals.
Molting/shedding is a difficult process. When the pebble is very, very young, you are able to help keep their skin moist to help gently ease off the outer layer. If these layers come off too early, it can be painful and cause bleeding and possibly cause malformations in future carapace growths. After they shed, their carapace is much softer, as it hasn't yet been exposed to the air. A moist environment is also helpful in this situation to help ease the hardening of the carapace.
Newborn pebbles eat once a day, compared to the adult feeding schedule being around a week or so. They cannot control ejecting the waste from their previous feeding cycle, so it is important to keep an eye on the pebble so that if they eject their waste, they can eat immediately, as their opening needs to seal as soon as possible to lessen any possible infections from the outside air.
Pebbles nap quite often. All eridians will go into a dormancy period after eating, as it conserves energy for digestion. Because of the frequent eating cycles, they will have a quick nap after eating. Because their opening is much smaller than that of an adult, who usually needs a few hours, a baby might only need an hour or so.
Pebbles also sleep for longer than an adult Eridian. Eridians sleep at irregular intervals based on availability on someone being able to watch over them. Since pebbles are almost constantly being monitored and are rarely alone, their intervals of dormancy and in-between dormant states are much shorter. They don't need to prolong the time in-between dormant states, unless prompted by the lack of monitoring. Usually, their dormant states are triggered after physical activity, such as playing.
When a pebble is sick or about to molt, dormant states are longer. This is due to the fact that they are needing to conserve more energy to prepare for a molt. Additionally, they need to be able to conserve energy for recovering from a sickness, so they will sleep for longer and with less time in-between these dormant states right before molting or when they are sick.
If you guys have any input or ideas, I'd love to hear your thoughts!!! I hope you enjoyed my yapping lol. I'll probably post more research into Erid as a planet, as I've done a bit on that too. Love y'all! - Saturn <3
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