You have to get someone else to trade you one.
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zygloman
Trade a Chikorita if you have 2 copies of Heart Gold or Soul silver and if u have a game link cable thingy then gold and silver.
In the Hoenn Region, not only in Sapphire, you get those three Johto starters by getting a Hoenn Pokedex of 202. When you do, Professor Birch will call you with a Pokenav and you can choose either Cyndaquil (who I chose), Chikorita, or Totodile.
It depends if you chose Chikorita then your rival will have a Cyndaquil. If you chose Totodile then no, sorry, I have the same problem and I've been looking for a Cyndaquil
Only by trading.
go to professor birch and you will be able to chose from chikorita, totodile, or cyndaquil a.k.a the three johoto starter pokemon.
I chose Cyndaquil so then my enemy chose Totodile,that means I needed Chickorita on my pokedex but i traded it and it evolved into Bayleef. But I want a Feraligatar along with my Lv 100 Typlosion.
You simply cant
Trading.
If you pick Totodile, your rival has Chikorita and there is no way to see Cyndaquil. If you can get a Chikorita I will gladly trade you a cyndaquil. All we need to do is swap friend codes and pick a time to do it. Other Pokemon in the Johto Regional Pokedex that you can't see are Politoed, Scizor, Mew, and Celebi. These must be traded for with a friend, and can't be requested or searched for via GTS. Correction- I haven't done it yet, but if you obtain Bugsy's phone # and rematch them, their improved team will have Scizor.
I myself chose a cyndaquil, judging by type advantage a cyndaquil would defeat a Chikorita and if you are chosing a starter Pokemon for Heartgold Soulsilver or any other game then Cyndaquil is a better choice too, it is only affected by Rock, ground, and water moves while Chikorita is affected by poison, fire, ice, and flying. Typhlosion the evolved form of Cyndaquil has a high special attck and speed and can learn eruption which is the strongest fire move compared to its eefects and that it doen't need recharging for a turn (in games).
Trade with a friend who has chikorit.
You could choose Chikorita as a starter Pokemon at the beginning of the game. If you didn't choose Chikorita, then you could either trade it from another game or migrate it from Pokemon Emerald, as in that game, at the end of it, you can get one of the Johto starters.