Children of Verdimm are a tricky subject. Most often, if a PC has a child during the course of play, they'll want to make the child a PC as well. We've come up with a set of guidelines that should help determine whether it's feasible or not -- these guidelines are a compromise between concept and playability.
Cross-breeding
Firstly, the possibilities of a child resulting from cross-breeding. Cross-breeding is defined as any Verdimm mating with anyone else not of her tribe, including tribe Blessed (note that some tribes can induct Blessed tribemembers into their tribe, changing their tribal affiliation and removing this block). It is very, very rare for a child to be born to a cross- breeding; it has happened in remembered Crinos history so few times as to be very notable. Those few times it has happened, often the resulting child was killed by one or the other of the parents' tribes (this varies between tribes, of course). Successful _intentional_ cross-breedings were accomplished through the judicious and skilled use of sha'crin. In these extremely rare cases, the child(ren) was born belonging to one or the other of the parents' tribes, never both, and never neither. This decision was not made consciously by either child, mother, or father, and was determined before birth. This should, ideally, be the way it works -- if it works at all. It should be obvious by now that Luna does not encourage, ICly or OOCly, cross-breeding between tribes. :)

A Verdimm may sometimes mate with an animal of the same form as her khiulnter form, for sport or amusement. This is hardly ever taken seriously, and while children resulting from such a union are not so rare as with Verdimm cross-breeding, the children born will be only the equivalent of very intelligent and hardy animals, and will not be Verdimm.


Gestation
Gestation varies widely between tribes; check with your OOC tribe leader for the details. However, a general guideline is as follows:

Most Verdimm give birth to litters of children at a time, anywhere from 3-5 on the average. Most of these children will most likely die before reaching adulthood, too, in the natural course of things; Crinos is harsh.

Shapeshifting while pregnant: It is most Verdimm's view that the mother should shapeshift while pregnant (albeit carefully), to encourage the young ones to learn how to shift early.

Since, fundamentally, Verdimm are a mix of human and animal (with that intangible something else), gestation times for children should reflect this, and be an average of the appropriate khiulnter's natural period and a human's. For example, a panther's average gestation period is 3 months. A human's is 8-9. So, assume an average of 4-5 months as a base rate for panthers. Also, for all Verdimm, this holds true: The more time the mother spends in khiulnter form, the quicker the gestation period passes. If she spent all her time in khiulnter, the gestation period might be reduced by a third! Modify this by Crinos' time rate of 6:1, and a pregnant Verdimm spending her entire gestation period in Crinos in khiulnter form might take only a couple of weeks, RL (which is, of course, about as long as anyone in their right mind wants to RP being pregnant:) ).


Child growth & development
Child growth and development varies widely between tribes; check with your OOC tribe leader for details. However, here are a few suggestions.

Shapeshifting: The ability to shift between the three forms is Luna's gift, a Verdimm's inherent talent; shifting is generally reflexive at first, and instinctive. Therefore, the ability to shift need not be taught, but many tribes will teach their young improved methods, and how to shift with a fine degree of control. It's often quite natural for children to begin to shift within the womb, and be comfortable with shifting once they're born. Of course, skill levels with shifting, as with any other talent or skill, vary as widely with the individual as with the tribe.

Generally, Verdimm mature rather quickly compared to either the animal equivalent of their tribe's khiulnter, and humans.

Some tribes encourage fraternization between their own young and the young of the animal equivalent of their tribe's khiulnter, and Verdimm and the animals may be weaned side by side in some cases.