What do YOU do with the new taming mechanic

[TimTumm]

I -think- I understand the new taming mechanic.  You can mark an animal for taming, then it belongs to a colonist, at which time, it can be trained/reproduce. What I don't get:

1) Why are my cows not eating the hay? Instead my colonist feeds them potatoes and meat (I have hay).  I wish I could leave the hay somewhere and have the cows go self-serve.
2) Will they continue to eat my stuff after they are trained?
3) Is having an animal more useful than not having one.
4) Do you use some kind of a pen?  Details on the pen?

I ask these because I don't get it (I do get that in alpha things may not be final).  But what happens in my games is, I tame a couple of dogs, and a couple of cows.  They run around my base (until I learned the "area thing" and made them run around outside).  Then they follow my colonist to a fight and die, or I forget about them, and they die in toxic ash.  At no time have they given me any use, but still cost resources and time (opportunity cost).  So I assume "I am doing it wrong!"

So, please help me out.  How are YOU using animals?

[skullywag]

Animals will eat from stockpiles within their allowed areas.

[JimmyAgnt007]

1) They dont seem to use hay for training them (maybe only training works with the good stuff) but once they are tamed and need to eat because they are hungry then they do eat the hay.
2) yes, they will eat whatever is laying around in their allowed zone except for foods they produce or cant eat, muffalo wont eat meat.
3) depends, some make fur, milk, eggs, offspring, other are good in a fight like wargs

Personally I cant ever get any decent use out of them.  I tried to train boars to haul things but never once saw them actually do it even after being trained and their master hauling things.  So i dont bother taming anything anymore and just stuff their carcasses in the freezer. 

[TLHeart]

animals will also graze any growing plants they have access too.

Training requires treat food, ie potatoes. Yes cows will eat hay, just have a stockpile they have access to.

Animals have their uses, depends on the animal, and your game. Some can be trained to haul items, some provide milk, others provide wool, some reproduce like crazy, others provide eggs...

You can unassign the animals from the master so they don't die in the fights, or you can train them to fight.  Need to allow your animals to feed themselves, by making their zone include grazing areas, natural food, grass, weeds.