As of the 19th of December, some new changes and restrictions have been added to the pound. The pound now states the following:

WARNING!!! Pets that are above level 2, are limited-edition species, or that have been painted with certain rare or expensive paintbrushes, CANNOT be adopted by any account younger than four months. So be careful when abandoning a pet, if you're planning on trying to re-adopt it!

This change was implemented to "prevent these pets from ending up in accounts that are abandoned shortly after creation, and instead help them find homes in established accounts."

Just what does this change mean? Which pets can and cannot be adopted by accounts under four months? We'd like to help simplify the matter by providing a list of what an account younger than four months can and can't adopt.

Levels
No neopet, regardless of color or species, can be adopted by an account under four months if it's level is higher than 2. Only pets with levels 1 and 2 can be adopted by these accounts. Pets with level 3 and above cannot.

Species
A young account cannot adopt a limited edition Neopet species regardless of the color or level of the pet. These species that cannot be adopted are as follows:

• Chomby
• Cybunny
• Draik
• Hissi
• Jetsam
• Kiko
• Koi
• Krawk
• Poogle
• Tonu

Colors
The vaguest statement of the new rule claims that "rare and expensive" paintbrush colors cannot be adopted. Here's what that means.

The following colors can be adopted by a young account if the pet has a level 2 or 1 and is not a limited edition. (see above)

• Checkered
• Blue
• Brown
• Glowing
• Green
• Invisible
• Orange
• Pink
• Purple
• Red
• Shadow
• Silver
• Skunk
• Speckled
• Split
• White
• Yellow

All other Neopets colors cannot be adopted by an account younger than four months as they are considered "rare or expensive." These include lab only colors such as MSP, ice and jelly as well as rarer paintbrushes such as darigan, faerie, royal and desert.

If the account is too young to adopt a certain pet, the following error message will be displayed:

ERROR : Your account is not old enough to adopt this pet!

Remember that level, species, and color influence whether or not each individual pet can or cannot be adopted.