Tame animals refuse to breed

[Nehpets]

I'm going out of my mind. I've already pulled out all my hair. You are my last hope forums.

Simply put, the animals I tame or buy from a trader won't breed. I put them in the same animal area. I make sure they have food according to their diet. I build animals beds (not just sleeping spots) for them. And then I hold onto them for 3 years watching them do nothing (alpacas in particular). I have *never* seen an animal pregnancy.

Side note: While playing in a tropical rain forest, a breeding pair of cobras I bought actually did end up laying fertilized eggs with absolutely no issues, which I was ecstatic about. However, I'm currently in a temperate forest, once again bought a pair of cobras, and now they can't get fertilized eggs. Is this a coincidence? Do animals only breed in certain biomes they are related to? Do they need to be warmer, or colder? Do I need to grow a certain type of food?

I've spent so much time switching up the variables trying and trying to get a pregnancy, but nothing works and due to the nature of the alpha, there is extremely little information online to help me. After at least 1 year of being guests in my colony, I end up either selling or slaughtering my alpacas out of spite. All they do is stare at each other like confused virgins, I swear.

[LordUbik]

I've had the same problem. My muffalos are breeding without any problem, but my labradors are simply refusing to do anything. They're a 3 years old female and a 4 y.o. male, so I don't think it has something to do with age.

In Dwarf Fortress animals, like dwarves, can be homosexual or simply uninterested in mating, but i don't think there is anything similar in rimworld.

[xrumblingcdsx]

I played an ice sheet map for 6 years. I had 4 Labradors purchased from a trader, placed in a small room and not once in those 6 years did one of the females get pregnant. By year #2 I purchased 2 muffalos. And again not a single pregancy.

Animals are sooo broken it's ridiculous.

[Coenmcj]

That's wierd...
I'm running a colder boreal forest, roughly 2 years and a half in, Muffalo's and Thrumbo's won't breed but my pets, (Dogs, cats) are all running rampant, every single one of the females are pregnant.

[Regret]

RNG strikes again! I think it's just bad luck.
Also, thrumbos take forever, 2.5 years is not enough time to even get in the double digit probabilities.

It can be annoying as hell though.

[skullywag]

For anyone with dogs refusing to breed, are any of them your starting dog by any chance?

[cultist]

Wargs also don't appear to breed, but I guess they are genetically modified killing machines, so at least there's an explanation of sorts?

[LouisTBR]

Yeah, I have found this. I had a ridiculous amount (20+) labs in one game so I got on just fine with babies! This is a weird problem, because Megascarabs are the only animals that cannot technically 'breed' aside from humanoids.

[TLHeart]

I ind it hilarious that people expect animals to just breed. A 5% chance is small.  Even in real life, animals don't always breed. Age has a lot to do with if they can even breed. Also you are not notified until the 2nd trimester that an animal is pregnant... you are also not notified when a miscarriage happens in the first trimester, due to malnutrition, or being to cold, or being to hot, or being injured. Yes animals are affected by temperature, and that information is available on the "I" tab for the animal.

Have to turn on the dev tools to see what is happening in the first trimester, and that means playing slow, and checking on the animals a lot.

[Nehpets]

I ind it hilarious that people expect animals to just breed. A 5% chance is small.

Without going into real life because, well, because this is a video game (giant centipedes using rocket launchers, anyone?). I don't expect animals to 'just' breed. I fully understand and accept that not only will we be required to care for these animals directly in relation to temperature and diet, but that it isn't a guaranteed process.

I do, however, expect that since this is a video game with balance in the design mindset, that players will at the very least be able to take advantage of this new resource and function, in a timely manner. It's so great and exciting to wonder about the possibilities of alpaca farms or the like, only to find by the time they finally start breeding (because RNG), you've already set up the foundations of your colony on some other resource, and the concept of an alpaca farm is now bitter.

I stand by my initial statement. I tame all the starting alpacas on the map each time I start a new colony and hold onto them for at least a year while I harvest their wool, on average about three years. I am not yet convinced this is merely a case of 'bad RNG'. This, along with some odd things I've seen in egg-laying species, only puts further doubt on the mechanic.

Thanks for confirming the information about miscarriages though, that's precisely the kind of information I'm after in creating this thread.

[TLHeart]

There is also another hidden part to the pregnancy mechanic, called breeding season.

So with your alpaca colony, which I do also, the first year you may not get any offspring, as wild animals do not breed. They only have the chance to breed, after being tamed, and if you miss the window, you will have to wait until the next window of fertility comes around.

[Regret]

There is also another hidden part to the pregnancy mechanic, called breeding season.

So with your alpaca colony, which I do also, the first year you may not get any offspring, as wild animals do not breed. They only have the chance to breed, after being tamed, and if you miss the window, you will have to wait until the next window of fertility comes around.

:0 this game has breeding seasons?!
Oh delicious little detail!
Be still my heart and let us this mystery explore!

[Shurp]

And does the game tell you anywhere when the breeding seasons are?  This would be a helpful thing to know...

Also this might explain why animals aren't breeding in certain biome.  If an animal only breeds in cold winter and you're in a jungle...

But I don't see anything in C:\Rimworld\RimWorld914Win\Mods\Core\Defs\ThingDefs\Races_Animal_Farm.xml suggesting the existence of a breeding season.  Just a gestation period of 90 days and an adult age of 0.8 years (?)

[TLHeart]

not everything is in the xml files... only things tynan wants us to be able to change are there.

[heroboy1010]

I figured it out i think, you have to have a light source for them to breed and you animal cant be above half the max age or they wont breed