Nap time, Mr. Odo

[Captain McBain]

Do all changelings have to 'sleep' after 16 or 18 hours, or only Odo?

Would changelings dislike non-humanoid solids (i.e., Gomtuu, Crystalline Entity, etc.), and energy beings, or do they basically hate all non-changelings?

 

[Rush Limborg]

To your first question:

I believe it's strongly implied that, once the Female Changeling mentors Odo in taking pleasure in "being" different forms...he no longer needs to "regenerate", as such. At least, he has no further need of the bucket--as we see him put Kira's plant in it. Perhaps the regeneration was a kind of thing a changeling "grows out" of, or something.

As to the second, the Founders hate/"distrust" all solids, as the FC made clear....

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I thought he still regenerated, but didn't feel the need to confine himself to the bucket--more like, he went around his quarters in gelatinous form, just enjoying being in his natural state.

 

[od0_ital]

^

Exactly - when Kira came to visit him in his quarters, he told her he didn't use the bucket anymore, not that he didn't need to revert to his liquid form.

 

[Tosk]

Didn't the Changeling in The Ship die due to holding the one shape/not regenrating for too long?

 

[Timo]

More probably, it died of having been crushed by deceleration forces when the ship hit the planet. It just held on for a while after the crash.

We have seen many situations where a Changeling just plain couldn't get regular "sleep" in the glowing goo form. It wouldn't be possible for a Founder to impersonate Admiral Leyton or General Martok or Colonel Lovok that way - especially the latter two would live in a society without privacy, and with irregular hours and surprise calls and visits of all sorts depriving them of "sleep". If adult Changelings were subject to the same sort of molting we saw on Odo in "The Die is Cast", their cover would be quickly blown. Indeed, we see the Female Founder hold one shape supposedly for months before the molting sets in.

Timo Saloniemi