Couple chocobo raising questions

[Waku]

So far I've taken the ISNM egg, watched it 100+ times each RL day til he hatched:


Do I always want to just feed the chocobo single items at a time, and stop when he's full? Or still give him a full 3 items a day even if he's forcing himself to finish eating them?

Each "day" we are talking about when feeding or doing all the active care stuff, I assume we mean a RL 24 hour day? Or could I be returning once an hour/ Vanadeil day?

If I understand correctly, for the speed/ racing choco I want to raise, Each RL stop by stables, check condition, (still a chick atm) take him on short walks til energy depleted, then feed him till full, then wait 24 hours?

Better to feed & then active care, or active care then feed (assuming nothing wrong like sickness etc)

Only bother with affection food if I see his affection drop below "regards as parent" or better to go ahead and feed him affection food abut every 3rd feeding to be safe?

Is there any negative side effect of repeatedly using "Watch over the chocobo" after it's hatched? I tried it a few times in a row but wasnt sure if he lost energy or not.

Can you use your chocobo in races after he's retired? I assume so, you just can continue raising it's stats after a certain day?

[Lexa]

This is the advice I got from my ls's resident choco expert, when I wanted to race a choco for STR/END:

Feed 1 Azouph Green and 1 Vomp Carrot every day.

In chick phase, walk 3-ish times every day, the watch over until health bar is down. Mix up the order sometimes. Walk, watch, walk, watch, watch, walk, etc... Maintain parent status.

Care plans were set to talk a walk in town, then when it was available (teen phase I believe), carry packages. I had it on deliver messages for a little bit ponce it reached adulthood, but switched back to carrying packages, since messages didn't raise END, and was way too harsh on the affection. If your affection drops significantly and you can't get it back to parent status, feed 2x Greens instead of Green + Carrot that day.

My chocobo is currently on Day 45 (reached First-Class STR yesterday) but still has a bit to go on END due to the message care plan. D:

[Kohan]

So far I've taken the ISNM egg, watched it 100+ times each RL day til he hatched:

Do I always want to just feed the chocobo single items at a time, and stop when he's full? Or still give him a full 3 items a day even if he's forcing himself to finish eating them?

This will depend. Ordinarily, you'll feed your Chocobo a certain amount of items, but it will not always necessarily be in threes. If you're feeding them Vomp Carrots (which you should be if you're going for Speed/Racing), then you'll feed them three daily, unless they're sick.

When your Chocobo is sick, you should first trade the Choco NPC one piece of wildgrass. If they feed it to your bird and say "I hope it gets well soon," it'll be healed as of the next day. If they don't say those magic words, continue feeding it wildgrass until they do.

Once you receive the "I hope it gets well" notice, check your Chocobo's overall condition again. If they say it's full, don't feed it anything else (but with wildgrass remedies, that's not going to happen anyway). If it's a little full, feed it one carrot, then check it again. Once you read its condition and they say it's "completely full," don't feed it anything else. Force-feeding doesn't raise stats and can in fact make your bird sick the next day. It's harmful in every way.

Each "day" we are talking about when feeding or doing all the active care stuff, I assume we mean a RL 24 hour day?

Yup, one real day.

If I understand correctly, for the speed/ racing choco I want to raise, Each RL stop by stables, check condition, (still a chick atm) take him on short walks til energy depleted, then feed him till full, then wait 24 hours?

Not exactly, because you'll have some energy left over after you walk it a couple times. Once you've taken it on enough short walks, watch over it until you've depleted the rest of its energy to keep its affection up.

Also, make sure you've set the Care Plan for taking a walk in the town every day. Set up each one for something like Walk in Town, 4 Days. Don't worry about rest or any of the other plans.

Better to feed & then active care, or active care then feed (assuming nothing wrong like sickness etc)

I always take care of feed (including wildgrass treatment for sickness) first.

Only bother with affection food if I see his affection drop below "regards as parent" or better to go ahead and feed him affection food abut every 3rd feeding to be safe?

You should never, ever have to worry about affection dropping till adulthood, honestly. If you walk it a couple times and expend the rest of its energy by watching over it repeatedly, it will stay at "regards you as its parent".

Is there any negative side effect of repeatedly using "Watch over the chocobo" after it's hatched? I tried it a few times in a row but wasnt sure if he lost energy or not.

Nope. As aforementioned, you'll be using it a lot.

Can you use your chocobo in races after he's retired? I assume so, you just can continue raising it's stats after a certain day?

You can keep racing it, and no, you can't raise its stats anymore after it is retired. There is a certain point during adulthood where the NPC will say something that means care plans won't raise its stats anymore (check FFXIclopedia's "Chocobo Raising Guide" entry to find the exact terminology), but you can continue to raise it with food and Chocobucks after that.

Also, I highly suggest you read this thread:

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63591

It's one I started not too long ago about the same exact thing (raising a speed-oriented Chocobo). It should be useful to you.

Here's a picture of my bird now:

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/6...choco01ow5.jpg

[Frenzy]

And now, for the cheap, brainless method. Feed Gysahl Greens (cheap at NPCs in stables), the first few days mine only take two to be full, after that feed three.

Set your Care plan to Walk in Town during Chick phase, Carry Packages from teen phase till max out (max out is a few days after the highest skill is reached, got to max out that level).

Do the short, mid, long walks when available (highest one first), watch over the Chocobo when your Chocobo found something on a walk.

Ignore status ailments, unless it's the handkerchief quest (about day 4 or 5) or an ailment you can cure via active care (Chocobo bored -> race, Chocobo bad-> scold; one of each is enough).

Can you use your chocobo in races after he's retired? I assume so, you just can continue raising it's stats after a certain day?

Yes, and yes.
Starting with adulthood and during retirement you can race your Chocobo (so the care plans would be a bit different, since SS/SS/F/F Str, End, Dis, Rec is not a really good combo for raising and misses the abilities.
Stats can be raised via care plans till day 64, after that the best method is training tokens from Chocobo racing (cheapest when the Chocobo is still being raised, although possible while in retirement).
Auto-Retirement is day 129 or so.

My suggestion for a racer would be:
Walk in Town during Chick Phase,
Carry Packages till max out,
Dig for Treasure till Dis average, spam stories Gallop and Canter while raising Dis, make sure to use the corresponding walks to learn these, ignore End dropping.
Once Dis is average (should be before the magical day 64), use Basic Care, continue with story spamming till they are learned.
Train your Chocobo via Chocobuck from Free Races to reach the desired final stats.

[Frenzy]

I gained stats past day 64, fyi, and training from chocobuck takes a really damn long time.

Yes, one can raise stats past day 64. It's just generally not very efficient, and despite taking so long, Racing is faster and doesn't drop other stats.

[Waku]

Thanks for all the replies, this helps a lot!

[Waku]

It's getting closer to the time when my chocobo will reach adolescence now.

Should I just alternate between medium & long walks until I get the two stories, then stick with long walks for active care?

From what day should I start consider raising discernment to have a chance to learn canter and gallop?

I haven't messed with using chocolixirs yet. Can one be used if your chocobo is already completely full, or should I feed like 2 vomps, deplete energy bar, feed chocolixir, then deplete energy again?

I think at this point my goal is to raise the best racing bird I can, and see how it goes. As long as I learn canter & gallop I guess I can always breed a new chick and not have to worry about discernment at all on offspring... or is there good reason to have other stats besides str & end high for races?

[Frenzy]

Should I just alternate between medium & long walks until I get the two stories, then stick with long walks for active care?

Sure

From what day should I start consider raising discernment to have a chance to learn canter and gallop?

When Str and End are Max, should be around day 40.

I haven't messed with using chocolixirs yet. Can one be used if your chocobo is already completely full, or should I feed like 2 vomps, deplete energy bar, feed chocolixir, then deplete energy again?

No clue, never use them, are worth more at the NPC, imho.

As long as I learn canter & gallop I guess I can always breed a new chick and not have to worry about discernment at all on offspring...

I have only ever heard one person (on KI) claiming that a Chocobo inherited more than one story (on multiple Chocobo to boot).
So, in my experience, you will have to worry about Dis, if you want the second story, and if you want a racer.

or is there good reason to have other stats besides str & end high for races?

High End isn't needed for the races, but balanced Dis and Rec are a definite plus. There is no one true stat combination that beats all others. In general go for balance, some prefer maxed out Str and balanced other stat. Some prefer balance on all stat. Some prefer low End various combination on other stats.
Choose item and saddle to enhance your combination and hope you get lucky. The stats of your rivals play a big role, too.