diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts
index c2120533743..a607ed93efb 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/en.ts
@@ -798,7 +798,7 @@ export const en: Translations = {
       namePlaceholder: 'Name your pet',
       staleBackend: 'Update Hermes to generate pets.',
       backgroundHint: 'You can close this — Hermes will notify you when it’s done.',
-      slowProviderHint: 'This can take up to 5 minutes',
+      slowProviderHint: 'This can take several minutes',
       genericError: 'Generation failed — try again or pick a suggestion.',
       referenceImageTooLarge: 'Reference image is too large. Use one under 16 MB.',
       referenceImageInvalid: 'Could not read that reference image. Try a PNG, JPG, WebP, or GIF.',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts
index ba2317b41f1..2f5344e3d67 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/ja.ts
@@ -916,7 +916,7 @@ export const ja = defineLocale({
       namePlaceholder: 'ペットに名前を付ける',
       staleBackend: 'ペットを生成するには Hermes を更新してください。',
       backgroundHint: 'このウィンドウは閉じても大丈夫です。完了したら Hermes が通知します。',
-      slowProviderHint: 'これには最大5分かかることがあります。',
+      slowProviderHint: '数分かかることがあります',
       genericError: '生成に失敗しました。もう一度試すか、候補を選んでください。',
       referenceImageTooLarge: '参照画像が大きすぎます。16 MB 未満の画像を使ってください。',
       referenceImageInvalid: '参照画像を読み込めませんでした。PNG/JPG/WebP/GIF を試してください。',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts
index 8285a9adc0a..439aa0bf5c2 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh-hant.ts
@@ -888,7 +888,7 @@ export const zhHant = defineLocale({
       namePlaceholder: '為寵物命名',
       staleBackend: '請更新 Hermes 以生成寵物。',
       backgroundHint: '你可以關閉此視窗——完成後 Hermes 會通知你。',
-      slowProviderHint: '這可能最多需要 5 分鐘。',
+      slowProviderHint: '這可能需要幾分鐘',
       genericError: '生成失敗——請重試或選一個建議。',
       referenceImageTooLarge: '參考圖片過大。請使用小於 16 MB 的圖片。',
       referenceImageInvalid: '無法讀取該參考圖片。請嘗試 PNG、JPG、WebP 或 GIF。',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts
index 90613bd86a5..619f9817b02 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/i18n/zh.ts
@@ -986,7 +986,7 @@ export const zh: Translations = {
       namePlaceholder: '给宠物起个名字',
       staleBackend: '请更新 Hermes 以生成宠物。',
       backgroundHint: '你可以关闭此窗口——完成后 Hermes 会通知你。',
-      slowProviderHint: '这可能最多需要 5 分钟。',
+      slowProviderHint: '这可能需要几分钟',
       genericError: '生成失败——请重试或选择一个建议。',
       referenceImageTooLarge: '参考图过大。请使用小于 16 MB 的图片。',
       referenceImageInvalid: '无法读取该参考图。请尝试 PNG、JPG、WebP 或 GIF。',
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/store/pet-generate.ts b/apps/desktop/src/store/pet-generate.ts
index 2b7962775aa..5713b04a8a7 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/store/pet-generate.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/store/pet-generate.ts
@@ -22,11 +22,15 @@ import { applyAdoptedPet, type GatewayRequest } from '@/store/pet-gallery'
  */
 
 // Generation is many grounded image calls — far longer than the default 30s RPC
-// timeout. Drafts fan out 4 base looks; hatch fans out ~8 animation rows. Even
-// parallelized, a cold provider call is slow, so we give these calls real
-// headroom (the bug was "request timed out: pet.generate" on the 30s default).
-const GENERATE_TIMEOUT_MS = 240_000
-const HATCH_TIMEOUT_MS = 420_000
+// timeout. Drafts fan out 4 base looks; hatch fans out ~8 animation rows. The
+// quality-first default (OpenAI image via OpenRouter) is slow, and each hatch
+// row can retry up to 3x (300s/call) across 2 parallel waves, so the absolute
+// backend worst case is ~30 min. The hatch ceiling sits above that (1h) so the
+// frontend never throws "request timed out" before the backend has actually
+// exhausted its own retries — the background-resumable notify path is the real
+// UX safety net (the user can close the modal and get pinged on completion).
+const GENERATE_TIMEOUT_MS = 420_000
+const HATCH_TIMEOUT_MS = 3_600_000
 
 // Filler words to drop when deriving a default name from a free-text prompt.
 const NAME_STOPWORDS = new Set([
diff --git a/plugins/image_gen/openrouter/__init__.py b/plugins/image_gen/openrouter/__init__.py
index 5b2b105d040..d15aaabd53b 100644
--- a/plugins/image_gen/openrouter/__init__.py
+++ b/plugins/image_gen/openrouter/__init__.py
@@ -64,7 +64,10 @@ _ASPECT_RATIOS = {
 # so we never overflow the model's limit.
 _MAX_REFERENCE_IMAGES = 3
 
-_REQUEST_TIMEOUT = 180.0
+# Per single image call. The quality-first default (OpenAI image via OpenRouter)
+# is genuinely slow — a single cold row can run well past 3 minutes — so give
+# each call real headroom before we treat it as hung and fall back / retry.
+_REQUEST_TIMEOUT = 300.0
 
 
 def _load_image_gen_config() -> Dict[str, Any]:
diff --git a/scripts/run_tests.sh b/scripts/run_tests.sh
index b9f070f09e8..20deae4c9ef 100755
--- a/scripts/run_tests.sh
+++ b/scripts/run_tests.sh
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ exec env -i \
   LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 \
   PYTHONHASHSEED=0 \
   PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+  ${HERMES_RUN_SLOW_PET_TESTS:+HERMES_RUN_SLOW_PET_TESTS="$HERMES_RUN_SLOW_PET_TESTS"} \
   ${EXTRA_PYTHONPATH:+PYTHONPATH="$EXTRA_PYTHONPATH"} \
   ${EXTRA_PYTEST_PLUGINS:+PYTEST_PLUGINS="$EXTRA_PYTEST_PLUGINS"} \
   "$PYTHON" "$SCRIPT_DIR/run_tests_parallel.py" "$@"
diff --git a/tests/agent/test_pet_generate.py b/tests/agent/test_pet_generate.py
index 800f8fa36e8..17d8b24104b 100644
--- a/tests/agent/test_pet_generate.py
+++ b/tests/agent/test_pet_generate.py
@@ -7,8 +7,18 @@ exercised hermetically.
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import os
+
 import pytest
 
+pytestmark = pytest.mark.skipif(
+    os.environ.get("HERMES_RUN_SLOW_PET_TESTS") != "1",
+    reason=(
+        "pet generation image-processing suite is opt-in; run with "
+        "HERMES_RUN_SLOW_PET_TESTS=1 scripts/run_tests.sh tests/agent/test_pet_generate.py"
+    ),
+)
+
 from agent.pet.generate import atlas
 
 PIL = pytest.importorskip("PIL")