What are special release pets?

[haili]

Hi... I was wondering what special release pets are and how to get them. I'd also like information on anything that could relate to them. Anything would be appreciated. Thank you!

[Nolan]

I'm going to assume you mean unreleased pets, also known as URs.

In the big box on December 18th, along with a bunch of old and rare pets, there are a few (usually two) new pets that are thrown in. These pets are called unreleased pets as they've never been released before, and are only obtainable through the box. Since a small percentage of users get their hands on them, when rarities are updated, they tend to sport OMG So Rare tags.

[haili]

I'm going to assume you mean unreleased pets, also known as URs.

In the big box on December 18th, along with a bunch of old and rare pets, there are a few (usually two) new pets that are thrown in. These pets are called unreleased pets as they've never been released before, and are only obtainable through the box. Since a small percentage of users get their hands on them, when rarities are updated, they tend to sport OMG So Rare tags.

Oh... Thank you!!

[FreddyCenobite]

To add to above: there's also zebras from I think it was 2009 that get thrown into horse and pony adoption limits every month, meaning every month you have a very slime chance at adopting one of these three zebras from regular adoptions of horse and ponies.

And also, in the same year there was a white malk dragon that is also not ur but was a special release (I was not around then so I don't know much facts about this).

[arabella !!]

Here's the Rares List if you want to look at the ones from a few years back: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=112366&hilit

[Shinryu]

As FreddyCenobite already explained, the Zebras are a type of Special release that's different from the UR pets of December 18th.
They have an extremely small chance of being adopted in the place of a regular equine newborn when you pick up those monthly litters. They were also retired for a few years between 2010 and 2013, during which time they couldn't be gotten from monthlies.

The white Malk Dragon was given out in the same way - when adopting monthly Malk pets, there was a chance to get a dragon egg instead, though they were not as rare as the zebras.
The red and blue dragons were given out the same way, but are sorted into their release months in the archives - February 2010 for red, April 2010 for blue. The blue dragon was only available in April, whereas the white and red were available during more than their release month.

There are pets placed as a special release in 2008, too: The Tess and Lexi birthday pets. They're technically the same as the "Staff birthday" pets in 2009 and 2010, and were adoptable as freebies in September 2008. You just went to the page, picked the boxes up, and waited for them to grow.

That said, while none of these were released as December 18th pets, each of them can be adopted from the re-release box, too.