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Reading the [breeding page on
Bulbapedia](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_breeding), I
found that Ditto can be used as a substitute during breeding. So, for example
if a trainer only has 1 male Pikachu, he can breed Pikachu with a Ditto rather
than having to look for a female Pikachu. The result would be a male or a
female Pikachu.

Ditto, however, can't breed with other Ditto as said in the same page. Thus,
my question is, if Ditto can't breed with other Ditto, then how do Ditto
breed, since when paired with non-Ditto Pokemon it resulted in the non-Ditto
Pokemon's species?


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2016-09-18T18:42:44.857
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pokemon
How do Ditto breed?


There is no official information about how new Ditto are born. Looking at this
from the perspective of the video games, Ditto is not the only Pokémon that
cannot be hatched from an egg. Most legendary Pokémon, including Mewtwo, Mew,
and Shaymin, are unable to breed and cannot be hatched from eggs. There is a
noticeable exception: Manaphy, which can breed with a Ditto. The resulting
offspring is a Phione, however, which does not evolve into Manaphy. Ditto can
also breed with genderless Pokémon such as Metagross.

Now, if we look at the anime, there are some discrepancies in this
information. Unfortunately, there still isn't any information on how Ditto
reproduces, but if we look at examples of Latios, Latias, and Lugia in the
anime, it appears that these legendary Pokémon can reproduce somehow. In the
[fifth movie](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/M05), for instance, it is
mentioned that the Soul Dew is the soul of an ancestor of Latios and Latias. A
[baby Lugia named
Silver](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Silver_\(Johto\)) also appeared
in the anime alongside its parent.

Concerning Ditto, nothing can be concluded from this discrepancy without
conjecture. If I were to draw a conjecture, it would be that the game
mechanics are not directly related to the lore, and two Dittos may be able to
breed. Although Senshin's theory that Ditto breed by binary fission also makes
some sense.

In case you are interested in theories, you can read about the one that [Ditto
is a failed Mew clone](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/2555/is-
ditto-a-failed-mew-clone?rq=1). In this case, it could be that Dittos are made
in a lab and don't need to reproduce.


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