Uses for cats

[thewraithplayer]

In my current game, a random event spawned ten friendly cats on the map that joined my five person colony. With the one I already had, I now have eleven cats. I'm not entirely sure what to do with them. If I let them have free range they eat a lot of my food, if I don't they starve. I'm thinking of either selling them or starting a cat farm and selling some of them as they make kittens. Any advice would be appreciated. As always, thanks for reading.

[Albion]

Well if you are in a forest biome you could create an animal zone that includes everything but your food (and drug) stockpile. This way the cats (at least the adult ones) will hunt their own food. There should be enough rats and rabbits around.
They can also eat raider corpses so you won't have to burn/bury them.

Regarding the cats themselves: their main "use" is to annoy you and eat your stuff 
Apart from that they also make great hats, armchairs or pants. Or as you already mentioned you can sell their cute kittens to a passing trader.

[Dashthechinchilla]

Sell them, use them for fur and meat. They are also a handy predator shield with the small body size. The only downside is pawns bonding to them.

[KozmoD]

Animals in this game are so useless that colonists bonding to them is actually a bad thing. This is sad.

[Albion]

Animals in this game are so useless that colonists bonding to them is actually a bad thing. This is sad.

I would highly disagree with that statement. Cats and other small animals are indeed quite useless.
Dogs and boars on the other hand? Highly usefull. You can train them to haul shit around, decreasing the workload for your other colonists.
You can sell off or butcher unwante offspring -> meat or silver source.
And if you train them to release they act as an effective bulletsponge soaking up a lot of damage that would otherwise be directed towards your favorite colonists. If they die you can even butcher them for meat.

They are also a good source of non-vegetarian food meaning you can cook fine or lavish meals more easily without having to rely on hunting.
Especially cows and chickens are usefull in that regard.

Additionally animals (or just dogs?) can nuzzle colonists giving them a mood boost. Being the master of a bonded animal also gives a mood boost.
However if you have a bonded animal you should protect it and maybe don't send it to the frontline anymore because the mood debuff due to a dead bonded animal is indeed quite severe.

[jamaicancastle]

Even for useful animals, bonds are often more trouble than they're worth. Animals with any kind of combat utility rarely end up bonded to the person it's actually valuable for them to be assigned to, which creates mood hits and more micro, and the mood penalty on animal death and the berserk chance on pawn death is just too punishing. And on the flip side, there's only a marginal benefit to the animal being bonded in the first place.

[KozmoD]

I use animals for hauling in almost every colony, for that they are kinda useful. But sometimes the micro gets really annoying. Mood penalty and beserk chance are horrible, chickens are just a nightmare, and the extra work you need to put on for hay/kibble adds to the micro. A single Cold Snap and boom, every animal starves. Ive lost the count of times I used dev mode to explode a random dog that didnt move to the safe zone when raiders came, and was slowing down the game cause of shooting.
I wish they were a little more controlable and things like A Dog Said and Animal Armor were vanilla.

[Dashthechinchilla]

Bonded animals and dogs assigned (since they nuzzle often) can be handy for more unstable pawns that have trouble staying happy. Cats won't work in that situation since they don't have obedience. Well, without a mod.

[Toast]

Cats and yorkies nuzzle more often than larger pets. Some people make "cuddle rooms" for all the small pets live in and send depressed colonists in there to cheer up by being nuzzled by cuties.

Otherwise cats are completely useless. Just like real life!

[greggbert]

In the real world you can't really sell cats, they're free.  But in this game you can make a bit of silver off them!

[Dashthechinchilla]

Cats and yorkies nuzzle more often than larger pets. Some people make "cuddle rooms" for all the small pets live in and send depressed colonists in there to cheer up by being nuzzled by cuties.

Otherwise cats are completely useless. Just like real life!

I think the barking would make me suicidal in that room. I always feel bad for my pawns when I get dozens of dogs. I imagine that many cats would smell...

[Syrchalis]

I think the barking would make me suicidal in that room. I always feel bad for my pawns when I get dozens of dogs. I imagine that many cats would smell...

The woman I am getting my Maine Coons from (a cat breed) has 48 cats in her house and the smell isn't actually that bad. I guess it depends on how clean you keep your house. (She has an official permit from the veterinary office to keep up to 50 cats in her house and they check up on her regularly, so don't worry about anything bad going on there).

Then again, colonists keeping clean is of course the other thing...

[hunter2012]

Food

[ReZpawner]

Didn't you ever watch 101 dalmatians? It's good inspiration for what to do with them.

[Teleblaster18]

My uses for cats?

1. Sell them, immediately.
2. See #1