Creatures Caves

Hello!

I'm sure a lot of newbies are invading all of these creature-spaces lately, and I apologize in advance for all the silly questions I might ask! I grew up in the internet wild-west, but I was pretty young at the time, so I might not have great forum/creatures social etiquette, lol. I've also lost a lot of my Computer Mojo so things that came naturally 10-15 years ago to me no longer do. I figure other people who are getting into the franchise for the first time could ask their questions here if they feel like it, but I will probably populate this thread with a bunch of silly questions. Thankfully, I've recently been able to re-implement the Help files (.HLP files) on my computer, if anyone needs help, lmk!

here are some of my silly questions:
1. do i really HAVE to teach every individual baby on the computer? like, ofc i need to if i want them to listen to my hand, but I'm sure there are some great .cobs for this. Encyclopedia Nornica SEEMS to do what i want, but I'm just not certain because I've had to do a lot of internet archaeology to find even the most basic creatures info! from what i understand, norns can pick it up and read it and learn a bunch of words. Are the original computer commands included in this? Can Norns learn concepts other than the ones listed in the guide?

2. are "feral runs" a specific Thing or are they just describing leaving your Norns to their own devices? i am very into the breeding and genetic aspect of norns, i love that they can learn commands and language, but my adhd hyperfixates upon them. i feel as if i can't leave them for a second, when ideally, i'd like to teach a few norns a full vocabulary and see how it spreads to the other norns.

2b. if "feral runs" simply describe leaving your norns to their own devices, I'd love to hear of any .cobs that are advised for feral runs!

3. C1 vs C2 vs C3+docking station. C1 is already a bit... hmm complicated for me, i suppose? maybe because i'm sort of neurotic, but i see a lot of people describe C1 as charmingly simple. i perhaps need some Advice as far as how much i'm overthinking the care of my norns (micromanaging them potentially, getting frustrated with them too easily) vs the results i'd like to get from the game. i specifically LOVE the genetic mutations aspect of the game, but i struggle to understand a lot of the gene preview extentions and what they're trying to tell me. if i had something where i could compare a parent/child genome, that would be awesome. i also really love breeding mechanics where you can get unique visual differences (usually colorations) between offspring, but i struggle to understand the Newly Discovered stuff about color bleeding bc i'm very new to all of this!

4. when people talk about breeds, how can i tell the difference between breeds that have sprite modifications vs breeds that people made organically through generations of norns in an unmodded playthrough? ik this is probably a silly question but i was mostly playing unmodded and only recently started adding official .cobs, i'm worried about making the game too easy but also admittedly feeling a little overwhelmed with babysitting my norns, lol. i also am very curious to see what i can make with the official/original norm genome without doing too much to it with mods, if that makes sense?

sorry if this post is a bit scattered! i might end up editing it to articulate myself better.