okay! im on break so i just wanted to get it done.

It isn't just me who says that these can be metaphysical or psychosomatic. Shifters: A Guide takes from a bunch of resources around shifter spaces and places them together in one location (and is still growing!)

Harloqui actually mentions the different types of shifting and how it would appear, most likely from reading different shapeshifting sources.

And in most cases, pshifting has always meant shapeshifting - but because of the community it was tied to (therianthropy), it was always assumed to be animal shapeshifting and therefore about kintypes. So in historical contexts, shapeshifting includes physical experiences that may not always appear visually. It could be a psychosomatic change or a metaphysical change.

Pshifting is a different language that just means shapeshifting, but it evolved differently due to where and how it was being used. There are shifters who only shift on the inside (like me!) because we just can't physically shift on the outside. We still experience nagging shifting urges and pflares, just on the inside, just about our organs and our behaviors.

“watch out for people who claim to be authority or experts on this they are cultists” say the self appointed authority figures and experts

Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex), male., family Bovidae, found in Alps of Europe

photograph by Claude Gurzeler

staring at the "p-shifters are evil and p-shifter is a bad term and p-shifters are always ableist against CLCZs (and are also encouraging CLCZs' delusions which is always and forever bad no matter what, don't listen to the person with CLCZ about their own experiences and what is good for them)" discourse as a clinical lycanthrope who used to call itself a p-shifter. sigh.

(the main reasons we don't continue calling ourselves one are (A) we've ended up finding way more community in CLCZ spaces than in p-shifter spaces and (B) this shit)

like. does p-shifter have an extremely shady history as a term? yes, there is no denying that, and no modern p-shifters will deny that unless they're extremely new to the community, because p-shifters are constantly talking about that shitty history, and specifically talking about rectifying it in whatever ways they can (in our experience). are some p-shifters shitty towards CLCZs? no doubt about it, but so is the alterhuman community at large. that's not a problem that's unique to p-shifters in the slightest, and if you can't see that, i'd be willing to assume you yourself are one of the shitty ones. pot, meet kettle.

you can be uncomfortable with the term. you can choose not to interact with p-shifters, you can choose to avoid them. but unless you yourself have been in p-shifter communities within the past few years, if you try to tell us that p-shifter is an inherently ableist term and people who use it are automatically bad (or should be automatically assumed to be so) and they always engage in x, y, z negative behaviors, i'm going to assume you're: (A) full of shit; (B) working off of old and (atp) outdated information; and/or (C) working off of word of mouth from people who already hate p-shifters and are biased against them.

and if your hatred of p-shifters stems from them believing they can physically shift into other animals and expressing that they have that ability, but you say you're accepting of CLCZs? i'm going to assume you're only "accepting" of CLCZs because we "recognize it's a delusion". i'm going to assume that you will be just as shitty to CLCZs who don't believe it to be a delusion, who only use the term to appease humans or because it's the only term that was given to us to describe what we are.

P-shifters: why the term needs to die

I welcome the growing acceptance of "weird" or "scary" folk in the nonhuman and alterhuman communities: the factkin, the object- and conceptkin and of course, physical nonhumans. I myself am a werewolf holothere, most of our system are holotheres and I interact with other physical nonhumans on a regular basis.

But recently, I have been observing a push towards the acceptance and "reclaim" of the word p-shifter/p-shifting - and this is worrying me. I want to write an elaborate post, shedding light on the roots and origins of this term and why I think it isn't a good choice to label yourself this way. I will back my claims up as good as I can, but there are quite obviously no studies on this and the general amount of archived sources is also quite low, because it is in the nature of toxic and manipulative behaviour to happen in the privacy of (long gone) servers or in DMs. So, I will have to resort to use personal experiences and anecdotes as my main sources - that's not ideal, I am aware.

Also, two things before you reblog, comment or otherwise agree/disagree with me: 1) none of this is at all about the validity and subjective realness of individual experiences, only about this specific term being used; and 2) please make sure you read this carefully and wholly. If I find you just try to twist my words, I will just ignore and block you. I also mean exactly what I say, there is no need to look for an "undertone" or "hidden opinions".

All of my sources will be linked at the end in chronological order of usage. Footnotes are numbered in [brackets], scroll to the end to find them.

1) Roots, original usage and meaning

Pinpointing the exact time at which the term was coined is pretty much impossible, but the earliest mentions I found go back to the early 2000s - namely, there is Swiftpaws Real guide to P-shifting from 2004 which mentions the term p-shifting in a way that suggests it has been more or less widely known at that time. Acoording to the alterhuman wiki, the term originated alongside the therian-community in the early 2000s, even on the same website as they did (but it doesn't mention which website that was). Based on what I've observed with my own eyes on this website [1] and backed up by various forum posts I found, the term p-shifting always referred to those who claimed the following things: 1) They have literal, tangible, objectively Real [2] physical shapeshifting abilities, 2) they do not experience delusions at all [3]. Finding old posts by p-shifters is almost impossible, I know a lot of blogs no longer exist, so I have to go off my memory here and also what @a-dragons-journal (hope you don't mind the ping!) has talked about on their blog many times, but I also know that a lot of them claimed to be able to teach others how to shift [4], which usually resulted in pack-like structures, with a few elite leaders who also functioned as "teachers". Another claim I have seen many times is how they had to prepare for a "war" or straight-up "the end of the world", but I have to admit, the last few points are not something every p-shifter I've seen talks about.

To hopefully provide some solid proof, have qoutes from a few self-proclaimed p-shifters:

by @/thefirstfamilypack: "We are not people with lycanthropy [CLCZ], we are actual physical shifters. This is a totally different community than those who have clinical lycanthropy or mentally "identify" with someone that's not "human" such as otherkins. We never claimed to be that, that's a whole different thing." "If you don't have the genes for it then sorry you're not a shifter."

by @/h-micideinthemirror (apparently deactivated, found a reblog of a post by them): "I'm so fucking tired of seeing therians talk shit about actual nonhumans [...] I'm not delusional [...] I'm just a person, who happens to be a wolf."

by @/harloqui: "However, I 100% agree with the message towards delusional alterhumans. [...] What shifters can do you cannot [...]"

by @/stonedlycanthrope (as a reply to an ask about how they knew they aren't experiencing delsusions): "I had 2 friends tell me the exact same thing [...] I had shifted in my sleep and [...] she stepped on my tail trying to get over me is what she told me." -> this is exactly what I mean when I say they make claims their shifting is Real.

There are so so many more, just go to thefirstfamilypack's blog and dive deeper from there. What you will find is the exact same rethoric I talked about, over and over again: "We are ACTUAL nonhumans, we are NOT delusional, we can ACTUALLY shift, etc etc" - I hope you also noticed the casual arrogancy towards otherkin and therians.

In conclusion: p-shifting originally referred to tangible, Real physical shifting, while vocally, aggressively excluding delusional folk and looking down on them (and otherkin as well).

I might add more on how exactly folk were hurt in these packs later on, but currently don't have the energy for that. I believe outlining the inherently probelmatic stances of the og shifter communities should be enough to support my point for the time being.

2) Why you can't reclaim the term

Now let's get to the actual point of this post - the push towards reclaiming the term p-shifter. By definition, reclaiming a term describes "a word that was at one time pejorative but has been brought back into acceptable usage, usually starting within its original target, i.e. the communities that were pejoratively described by that word [...]" - in simpler terms, the community that was originally negatively targeted by the term in question can reclaim it by using it in positive way to describe themselves. This is by definition not possible with the term p-shifter: in order for delusional folk to reclaim this term, it would have had to be a deragatory word to describe delusional folk, which it never was. Yes, the community looked down on delusional people, but the term itself actively excluded CLCZ and similar beings. Generally speaking, the term was never a slur used for anyone, it was always a positive and self-choosen term, created by the community for themselves. You cannot reclaim this term by definition.

"But what if we just change the definition to something positive, so anyone can use it?"

That is not a good idea for several reasons. I want to specifically quote @/a-dragons-journal and @who-is-page (hope you don't mind the ping!) for this one:

a-dragons-journal: "[...]using the word is still making it sound like you're making a physical claim. [...] This is admittedly not the best parallel [...] but it's a little like trying to "reclaim" the word TERF by changing it to mean something somehwat similar but ultimately different, and then being surprised people assume you're a transphobe and treat you as such."

who-is-page: "[...] You can't erase the history of the term [...] and the ways in which it's been used (and, most importantly, continues to be used!) to hurt others. [...] You can't reclaim [...] the terms "anti-otherkin", or the zeta symbol [...] because they're still being used by the cummunities who originally coined them to mean what they were intended to mean. [...] There is no way to seperate the people who are 'reclaiming' it and those who are just... Using it. [...] Also, thinking more on it, it's kind of fucked up for someone to try and steal another communitie's terms and forcibly redefine them? Like, we critcize that all the time in the otherkin and therian communities, and that's not exactly a one-way street. [...]"

Please take the time to fully read both of the posts, I have linked them below with everything else!

But they both really get the point accross in my opinion.

I hope now anyone can see why anyone should be wary of those who use p-shifter as a term: either they are completely unaware of the terms history and thus, should really do more research before advocating for the usage of a term they know nothing about. Or, and that's the worse option, they are aware of everything I listed above and either secretly agree with it, or just don't care. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be associated with beings who advocate for a term that has an inherently harmful, ableist history and is STILL actively used in that way.

Calling me ableist for refusing to accept the usage of this term is absolutely pathetic.

P-shifters have harmed and continue to harm delusional folk, spit down on them, disrespect them and put themselves above them. Why on EARTH would advocating for the usage and acceptance of this term be a positive thing? How would that help?

It won't.

------------------------------------

Footnotes

[1] I joined the community roughly in 2016, most of the posts I saw back then on p-shifters and by p-shifters were from around that or a few years older.

[2] When I write "Real" or "Reality" with a capital R, I am referring to the shared reality all people experience. Unlike subjective reality, you (technically) need to provide proof to claims you make that refer to Reality.

[3] Moreso, they often held very ableistic beliefs, spitting down on "the crazy ones", aka. folk with delusions. They put themselves above them, claiming they were "actually shapeshifting" and not "just delusional".

[4] The rest usually claimed it was based on DNA. I don't know percantages on this, but from what I have seen, I would say at least half of them claimed to be able to teach (or claimed they learned from someone, which supports the same stance from a different pov).

Sources

As I said in a post before this, we usually have this conversation over shifters every 4 months and it gets tiring to see the same rhetoric. Usually, I just block, but right now I'd like to talk - no fighting because I'm too old for that. Okay? Okay ...

Let's start with this. I took all three quotes, why not, you quoted one of my friends and I think that's silly but it's okay, because you left out the multiple times shifters and CLCZs themselves have spoken about the correlation.

Harloqui, P-shifting vs. Delusions

Harloqui, On the whole debacle, since it's revving up

Bearwithme, Answering an Anon

Minkewhale, Ahoj Aethetikins

Minkewhale, CLCZ and P-shifters

Endelculture, Those who physically shift

Evrymori, What is a p-shifter, and whats the difference?

Bubblerings, Part of my identity

Whenever this correlation is brought up (delusions and shifters), there is a 100% chance that everyone immediately says "we are not the same," not because they see delusions are inherently bad or lesser or weaker but because it is a reactionary response to what otherkin and therians have been saying for the past decade; "if they're claiming it, they're either delusional or lying." (will find this message to back it up later.)

The reactionary response of "we are not delusional" is a fear response to how delusional oftentimes means "not real" in alterhuman communities, not set up by pshifters (because you claim we're basically out of the picture by being deactivated on most of our accounts (unless we're pulling strings??)) but by alterhumans themselves against endels. In the time I've been in shifter circles (2019-present), I have not seen any shifter actively disregard CLCZs and if they had done so, I'm pretty fast to speak up about it, and so are others to correct bad behavior.

Untrue, given what I showed and what I said but okay. Please go back to 2017 and before in the tumblr search or of multiple prolific alterhuman accounts and you'll find talk about endelity and how most of the skepticals were not shifters. This is a collective effort and everyone is at fault for being ableist, but by far, alterhumans have dominance and have spoken their peace about how they feel about CLCZs and endels.

In smaller cases the term pshifter has been used against endels and CLCZs, you just didn't account for that. So yes, many do reclaim the term but know the muddled history. Also, we aren't reclaiming the term, we are using it as it was intended; meta/physical shapeshifting. No additional definitions or restrictions needed.

As Harloqui says, "Reclaiming a term: if by "reclaiming" you mean "using it in a way that isn't abusive" then actually yeah, I don't have an issue with that. Which is what I've seen most who want to reclaim the term want to do so for."

First sentence, no they haven't, it was a reactionary response to many alterhumans calling shifters delusional, whic becomes "I'm not delusional!" Second sentence, it isn't a slur so why are trying to "let it die"? Third sentence, no one is reclaiming it nor have they said they are..? Okay.

Because we are. Shifters are meta/physically shifting. They have been doing it for centuries, this not anything new ever. It is a physical claim because it is a tangible, physical experience due to subjective beliefs and identity. It is crafted, it is perfected, it is executed, and then displayed as being shapeshifting. It is a craft, it is an art form - shifting is not required as a shifter but as an identity one must feel that physical urge beyond species dysphoria and beyond pre-established ideals.

Silly. No one is doing this nor has any shifter ever said "this term has no bad blood." But okay, I guess. We're saying that our identity can be shaped and changed regardless of terminology, but this terminology has been so deeply engraved that we can't do anything. Hey! Shifters have even used shiftomorph and etc.

Hi, Holothere was made in conjunction with multiple shifters in court. The holothere symbol was made by two shifters. The physical nonhuman community was shaped around the influence of shifters and the perception of their existence - even their name has been used to bash endels and CLCZs on a scale far greater than the identity itself - please do not tell anyone ever for the rest of your existence that shifters are "spitting down on them" when half of the hate had bloomed from the refusal to accept delusional identity in the form of shapeshifting. Shapeshifting claims that began with shifters. Shapeshifting is a common experience in endels and CLCZs. The claim of shapeshifting is the reason most alterhumans had gotten on endelity and CLCZs. That's what you may not understand that beneath the surface, it isn't black and white as they may make you seem. Everyone is at fault.

Sorry, I believe you also took the approach of seeing pshifters as those claiming an objective reality and not a subjective one. Which.. isn't what you're supposed to do when analyzing the differences between old vs new in relation to reclaiming terminology and the usage of it. Shifters have explained this and here is the Shifters: A Guide document I made that goes deeper into what shifters are. p.s, shifters don't even use "pshifter" unless they're making you upset, wink wink.

Funny. This is just in time I get to pull the harloqui card just as you have and link to this post where they talk about the mathematics of shapeshifting regarding pshifters. While not "proven science", it's one of the many types of way shifters have gotten out of their way to discuss scientifically how their shifting may work.

Now, let's look at your sources!

Swiftpaws

Physical Shifters wiki page

As for everything else, it's where you got the quotes from and I've already talked about that, haven't I? No need to drag it on.

Want to know what I think? It's in this post, it's in previous posts, it's in the way I hold myself and talk about my identity. Shifting is in my blood, in my ability, etc. No one is going to take away my ability to speak about it. No one is going to tell me that my terms need to "die". I didn't write and I didn't make art and start a convention, etc to bring together a community just to be told that we don't deserve terminology.

Shifters and CLCZs and Endels don't deserve to be harassed because anti-shifters are targeting groups that like to understand others. There's understanding. Can you learn this too?

https://www.tumblr.com/a-minke-whales-tale/764242117170167808/clcz-and-p-shifters?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/bearwithmeshifting/697488181905473536/skeptic-here-much-of-the-explained-process-for?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/clowncaraz-journal/777434480816308224/no-hate-to-the-original-commenter-asking-me-this?source=share

I think some of yall should just say “hate the sin love the sinner” about physical shifters and be done. Yeah it’s condescending, but at least then you’d be rhetorically honest.

Mask your reactionary language all you’d like, you are still using your personal distaste to justify moral condemnation.

I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with larger, well established accounts platforming this line of thinking uncritically. You are letting a knee-jerk repulsion guide your moral judgement on something you don’t want to/can’t understand or you otherwise dislike. At best you are “thinking of the children” and somehow don’t hear how conservative you sound.

Now we’re playing this disingenuous game where we pretend our issue is really with the term “p-shifter” when everything described applies to physical shifters broadly.

I don’t know how to break this to you all, but individuals interested in doing harmful things are not going to stay in the box you’ve pre established for them. And when you make a box in the interest of identifying harm, label it “the evil box” knowing full well some of the individuals in the box are in fact not evil, you are ostracizing them and making them unwelcome in the community. Those you don’t consider evil you infantilize, insisting their finding themselves in “the evil box” is because of their inability to protect themselves—something you are all too happy to do in their stead. If you are really truly interested in keeping abuse and cult behavior out of the community and you’re not just concern trolling (search within yourself), you should be invested in doing the opposite.

Small, walled-off and isolated communities make it easier for abuse to go unseen and unpunished. In ostracizing p-shifters/physical shifters/any other flavor of nonhuman your nose crinkles up at, you force us into increasingly narrow communities and in so doing create the very conditions you accuse us of fostering.

Educate the community on the warning signs of abuse, sure. Please do, in fact! But those warning signs should be actual behavior someone carries out, not gestures at “the bad group who are abusive by nature of existing and discussing their experiences openly.”

hello kinblr. i think. perhaps! we should be kinder to pshifters!

some of y'all talk about pshifters the way kintok talks about physical therians and it's kind of disgusting.

some of you will say "not all physical therians are delusional! and even if they are, they're just as valid as anycreature who isn't" in the same breath as "physical shifters are delusional. you cannot physically become an animal :/ you have clinical lycanthropy PLEASE seek help and stop getting ur delusion everywhere i just had the floors waxed"

you swear you can experience therianthropy on all levels including physical, but call p-shifters crazy for experiencing physical shifting. you cannot say you love physical therians and then exclude therians who physically shift! you are just as bad as anyone who denies or invalidates p-therians because "you can't have wolf dna"

these communities were created by and for the therians you want to throw under the bus. they created these spaces for us, and you need to act like it

I might write a longer reply when I am less tired, but: for me (and I am pretty sure, at least some others too) it is not about them claiming to actually physically shift, but the terminology they are using.

If you (figurative you) experience physical shifts, cool, who am I to doubt your experiences?

but if you call yourself a p-shifter? I am instantly not a fan. p-shifting/p-shifter ALWAYS was a term used by and heavily tied to cult-like structures and abusive infividuals. In its original usage, the term inherently spat down on delusional individuals, which is why it for one, can't be reclaimed by delusional folk (the term actively and aggressively excluded them) and secondly, it also can't really be seperated from its roots. because the whole thing of the og p-shifters was: "we are better than those other delusional folk, we are actual nonhumans, we know the truth (and also have to prepare for some kinda war or whatever, typical cult-ish stuff, end of the world, etc)".

I do not trust and will never trust anyone who calls themself a p-shifter, because it just shows that either the person doesn't know of the terms harmful roots and should really REALLY do much more research (cause you more or less can't avoid this topic if you dig into physical nonhumanity a bit) or they are aware of the origin and just... don't care and decide to use an inherently ableistic term?? which, no??

So, can we please stop trying to normalize p-shifters?

folk who physically shift, yes, cool, totally fine! but this term just needs to finally die.

do you have any sources? by sources i mean genuine sources, not a carrd/rentry or anything like that. not doubting you whatsoever, but i'd like to do my own research, and i have seen literally NONE of this in any of the research i've done.

to clarify. by pshifter i mean physical shifter. not whatever you're talking about.

I know an issue is when it comes to groups like that a lot of the controlling and manipulative behaviors didn't happen publicly and thus aren't archived, and so there's not much outside of anecdotes/observations/accounts. If anyone knows of more resources that comprehensively documents p-shifting groups, we'd appreciate that. Admittedly most of this we also heard in passing and forgot to save links.

That aside it's also mentioned a few times we could easily find like this 2008 forum post, 2017 Tumblr post, another 2017 Tumblr post, and 2018 forum post. I found a callout for a specific group from 2021. I also found someone who documented the history of p-shfting and even though it is a p-shifter site, it still highlights most of these issues.

When you look at it, a lot of nonhumans have species dysphoria in some form. A lot of them end up being desperate to physically shift. That desperation leads for them to be willing to do dangerous things or falling into dangerous groups that promise them the ability to physically shift. It's the same reason people fall into cults, though I wouldn't say p-shifting is inherently a cult, just that it plays into a bad mindset a lot of nonhumans can get into.

The way p-shifting is presented can also be dangerous to those with psychosis or other disorders that cause issues with unreality. This discussion here puts it into words better than I could.

As far as I've been able to tell, this modern iteration of the p-shifting doesn't really do anything about this and it's the same shit it's always been.

I think discussions about physical nonhumanity are a good way going forward, but in general I also think people should be careful and aware of how loaded an issue this can be. I am also extremely wary of anyone who's a self-identified p-shifter.

We're actually in a position ourselves where we'd probably benefit from a decent, safe physical nonhuman space, but so far we haven't really found it. At this point we're a bit tempted to just try to make it ourselves with what we're looking for.

I think as well a good way to minimize the harm that these groups do would be to give more resources towards species dysphoria as well as approach people who believe in it a bit more gently.

Terminology and the way it is used can always ve changed to better fit or to adapt to the current times. Right now, if I had to count, out of the 40 members in a shifting server i used to run - nearly half of them experience disability and a few experience psychosis/are CLCZ. The community has and will always change, not to "rope" people in, but because our experiences are always exceedingly vast and "pshifting" doesn't mean what you think it means nowadays. It's just physical shapeshifting in any form, psychosomatic or metaphysically - it's still PHYSICAL.

Our community and our identity is nothing compared to what happened before, and we have denounced and have shut down cult behavior in our servers and safe spaces. Our terminology is not YOURS to remove from US. We don't need your trust, we need basic personhood and respect.

"The modern iteration" hasnt been exclusively singling out those who are CLCZ or endels because delusions and psychosis do not function in a "if we experience it, they'll think so too" way nor does any shifter think that these things are inherently harmful. We don't teach those things.

It's interpersonal and those subjective beliefs in CLCZ are always influenced by the person themselves before anything else. There is no way a pshifter can make someone believe they are a fox just because they are publicly sharing their identity and their feelings. Shifters have had a long history in physical nonhuman spaces, to the point of literally being at the forefront and supporting holotheres in their community building. We are inseparable from the physical nonhumanity movement because we are not dangerous - we are just shapeshifters.

I'm truly sorry you have horrible experiences but that doesn't give you the right to denounce our experiences and our community and say that we are abusing our friends with our ideology and identity. I have friends who are CLCZ, who have psychosis, and who have other semblances of physical nonhumanity that varies from somatic to metaphysical and not once have I ever intentionally hurt them by explaining my identity. Not once. It is not my responsibility as a person to shield them away from content they don't want to see, but it is never on purpose that they may see it at all. That is never a shifter's fault that they share their experiences.

I hear this "I'm wary of pshifters" stuff all the time from those who used to be in those spaces because they haven't actually ever tried to deep dive on the newer blossoms of the community, focusing on past experiences from others we physically cannot stop or change. All pshifters can do now is change, denounce, and build our community to be better than it once was. We are not here to do anything you claim we want or wanted to do in the past.

They are not like us, and using trauma or the same rhetoric that our identity is "unsafe" for another group when the history is inherently muddied behind context is, imo, a mockery of analyzing a new community.

You aren't going to find a physical nonhuman space free of pshifters because we built those spaces.

American elk Cervus canadensis canadensis

Observed by chartreuse, CC BY-NC

Mesola red deer Cervus elaphus italicus

Observed by waldier, CC BY-NC

Horse figure of the day: Lladro Percheron

To all of the transspecies creatures mentioning growing out their claws: taking biotin will make them stronger and less likely to break. I am not sure if it makes them grow faster or if that is my imagination. I have been filing them carefully into points, and while they do break, it is not constant.

Do be careful, though. Whenever you scratch an itch, you have to remember that your claws are sharp and will cause real damage if you do not pay attention. I am making this post because I did not pay enough attention to the sharpness of my claws, and the pain reminded me that others may make this mistake as well.

If you do end up getting cut, please be sure to wash with soap and water, and keep an eye on it in case of infection. If there is an infection, tell a parent and/or go to a doctor.

And one more thing: long claws mean that things can get caught on them or stuck under them more easily. So if you are like me and enjoy sewing, be careful, because needles hurt when they get under your nails. (I will be fine, do not worry)

Also also, if you’re like me and took biotin and/or collagen, and it wasn’t working, there might be something else going on with your nails/claws.

My family could grow gorgeous long nails like it was breathing but mine would flake apart and crack as soon as they grew past the nail bed until I started putting jojoba oil on them. Turns out there wasn’t a deficiency going on, my nails were just dehydrated, which wasn’t something I was aware could happen.

Jojoba oil once a day. Right on the cuticles. I got a decent sized bottle for around ten bucks and I’ve been using it for about a year and I’m not even half way through.

Some more advice on growth and maintenance:

Take care of your claws! I don’t mean never use them (I am very rough on mine) but maintenance every few days will help with splitting and cracking. Always file in one direction, and try to file nails down rather than clip them. Be mindful opening things with pull tabs, and be especially careful after a bath/shower/swim because your claws will be very weak from absorbing water.

Those nail strengthening polishes do work but in my experience, as soon as you discontinue use, your claws revert to their original state (if not worse) pretty immediately. Also, you generally want some give to your claws rather than iron hardness. The little bit of bend will help mitigate breaks when you inevitably slam your claws into walls or countertops on accident.

Wash under your claws. It’s pretty much always going to be gross under there from like a germ standpoint, but you should try to clean any gunk out that accumulates under them anyways. It’ll help reduce the possibility of infection if/when you scratch yourself or someone else. Toothpicks work pretty well to fish out stubborn bits of dirt or whatever, but you might have nail beds that are way more sensitive than mine so be careful.

it’ll be fine I just have to be a shaking terrified animal about it

hello kinblr. i think. perhaps! we should be kinder to pshifters!

some of y'all talk about pshifters the way kintok talks about physical therians and it's kind of disgusting.

some of you will say "not all physical therians are delusional! and even if they are, they're just as valid as anycreature who isn't" in the same breath as "physical shifters are delusional. you cannot physically become an animal :/ you have clinical lycanthropy PLEASE seek help and stop getting ur delusion everywhere i just had the floors waxed"

you swear you can experience therianthropy on all levels including physical, but call p-shifters crazy for experiencing physical shifting. you cannot say you love physical therians and then exclude therians who physically shift! you are just as bad as anyone who denies or invalidates p-therians because "you can't have wolf dna"

these communities were created by and for the therians you want to throw under the bus. they created these spaces for us, and you need to act like it

just to clarify species transition =/= buy a bunch of stuff off etsy or amazon.