This game hass been trolling me big time.
I am aware (now...) that I could have given him one of the Alphas instead of a "regular" big Buizel, but it irked me that I just could not find ANY regular Buizels over 2'7'' in over 4 weeks. After a hundred Buizels in a row, all of which have been too small, it honestly felt like a glitch / bug so I checked online and saw people complaining about how they had to "catch over 40 of them" ...
I kept on catching more, because at this point I had already wasted enough time that it didn't matter whether I wasted even more. I wanted to know how long it would take.
The answer is seven and a half weeks, 182 Buizels, and approximately fourthousandandeight choice words directed towards two-tailed water weasels.
So ... how long did it take y'all on average?
I just kept exploring keeping in the back of my mind that I'd need an alpha. Once I found one, I caught it and finished the quest.