I often see art of Microfluffies living in ant farm like enclosures, so would it be applicable to headcanon them as eusocial colonies with queens, drones, workers, and soldiers out in the wild?
You donât need to ask permission, itâs your headcanon. Answer this question for yourself with some art or writing, my dude. How would it work? Are they physically suited for that? Does it work since fluffies can generally all breed, unlike ants?
Might be difficult. Those habitats are filled with an edible gel that they tunnel through by eating it, which isnât something they can replicate with dirt. It would take a very specific environment out in the wild, maybe a rotting tree?
In theory it is indeed possible.
In practice, like others have pointed out, it depends on how realistic you want it to be.
That can be achieved by either:
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Improving the microsâ physical abilities (have them be somewhat capable of digging soft soil at least, have them be able to grow fungi like ants do, make them at the very least able to fend small critters like ants and wasps off - to a degree)
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Make so that the colony is unaware that they live in a controlled environment, with food and water sources refilled by humans aswell as having predators be inserted to test the microsâ reactions.
Microfluffies are (in my headcanon) not different from regular fluffies, reproduction-wise. They form families and larger herds, may have a higher metabolism and faster reproduction cycle, but do not produce different castes like ants, because they are still mammals, and Iâve never heard of mammals producing different offspring or having just a single (or multiple) âbreeder/sâ per colony.
But thatâs just my unimaginative headcanon. I find the idea very intriguing, since Iâm keeping ants as a hobby. Why not have a single queen fluffy (âmummah fwuffyâ), who can produce different fluffies based on hormonal factors, like workers (âdiggy fwuffyâ, ânummy finda fwuffyâ, âbabbeh cawe fwuffyâ) and soldiers (âtoughie fwendsâ)?
There is a comic by Muffin, where she follows the life of a ant microfluffy, might be an inspiration (if you havenât read it already):
It would deviate from typical micro fluffies, but who cares? Write it if you like. Iâm sure people will like it if its well written and makes sense.
I would also posit the idea that feral fluffies already have a caste system of sorts: Smarty, toughie, explorer, nummie-finder, poopy (untouchables) etc.
Me, I envision micros more as âdwarfâ fluffies. Just smaller versions of the normal ones, living in correspondingly smaller cages/pens/shoeboxes.
Honestly, I think micros of this type would be more popular than ânormalâ sized ones, since they never stop being the size of foals, and are easier to keep (less space, food etc)
TL;DR: do it, sounds fine to me.
My opinion: Microfluffies, being a genetically modified creature and unaccustomed to the wild world, would have exactly zero chance of surviving in the wild long-term.
But it would be interesting to see them fail try.
For me they act as social groups. Smarty friends are leader who rule with an iron hoof for better or worse. Toughies to enforce martial law and defend from outside threats. A few job castes depending on what theyâre good at food finder scouts lookouts censers or ânursesâ for what care a fluffy can give etc.