Most tamed animals are garbage

[FridayBiology]

+1 Boars for early human disposal and hauling.
Also set a Animal zone for your freezer and then invert it, then set a low food storage location outside your freezer for your animals to haul to, then once in awhile manually haul in the raw food.

[LouisTBR]

I agree. The boar is the best animal. The best way to use a boar effectively is to allow it to go everywhere but food stockpiles and haul, and when a raid comes just release them all and allow snipers to back them up from a safe distance.

Losses:
A couple of useful haulers

Gains:
Dead Raiders
Healthy Colonists
Boar and Human Meat
Lots of weapons and clothes
Easy kills
Downed raiders ready for capture

[8roads]

I agree. The boar is the best animal. The best way to use a boar effectively is to allow it to go everywhere but food stockpiles and haul, and when a raid comes just release them all and allow snipers to back them up from a safe distance.

Losses:
A couple of useful haulers

Gains:
Dead Raiders
Healthy Colonists
Boar and Human Meat
Lots of weapons and clothes
Easy kills
Downed raiders ready for capture

Should we just give up on wargs and focus on breeding and training boars?
Wargs are such picky eaters...
Thanks in advance!

[eadras]

I prefer wolves (huskies are even better if you can get them).  They have a good balance of reproductive speed, training speed, and functionality.  Boars are slower and weaker in combat, create more filth, and ... they're pigs.  But to each his own.  Bears are awesome in combat, but take a lot longer to train, and reproduce much slower.

[SpaceDorf]

I prefer wolves (huskies are even better if you can get them).  They have a good balance of reproductive speed, training speed, and functionality.  Boars are slower and weaker in combat, create more filth, and ... they're pigs.  But to each his own.  Bears are awesome in combat, but take a lot longer to train, and reproduce much slower.

I love Bears
The lower production rate is offset by their high survival rate.
Also the cubs are big enough to train them in hauling right after birth.
I use Grizzly Bears to do all my outside Hauling and Huskies and Retrievers for Indoors.
I am a bit biased because I only got one Retriever Female, and none for the Huskies

Also nobody wants to sell me Chicken or Eggs. Whats the best bird after chicken ? Do they even compare ?

[8roads]

I prefer wolves (huskies are even better if you can get them).  They have a good balance of reproductive speed, training speed, and functionality.  Boars are slower and weaker in combat, create more filth, and ... they're pigs.  But to each his own.  Bears are awesome in combat, but take a lot longer to train, and reproduce much slower.

But boars feed on grass as well as corpses.
so cheap, so sustainble.
Just raise legions of boars
and swarm raiders with tusks.

[8roads]

I prefer wolves (huskies are even better if you can get them).  They have a good balance of reproductive speed, training speed, and functionality.  Boars are slower and weaker in combat, create more filth, and ... they're pigs.  But to each his own.  Bears are awesome in combat, but take a lot longer to train, and reproduce much slower.

I love Bears
The lower production rate is offset by their high survival rate.
Also the cubs are big enough to train them in hauling right after birth.
I use Grizzly Bears to do all my outside Hauling and Huskies and Retrievers for Indoors.
I am a bit biased because I only got one Retriever Female, and none for the Huskies

Also nobody wants to sell me Chicken or Eggs. Whats the best bird after chicken ? Do they even compare ?

IMO, other birds suck.
the maturity age of turkey is 2+ compare to chicken's 0.3+.
Cassowary, ostrich and emu are no better.
you simply can't farm them on a large scale.
it's wiser to butcher baby turkey/ostrich as soon as it hatches.

[Nomad22]

With the exception of cows and chickens, most tame animals are utter garbage.

Unless you micromanage their allowed zones down to a single tile, and make sure you always have a sufficient amount of kibble, they will simply wander around and eat your food storage, bond with a pawn and then rush to the frontlines during a raid and die horrifically, leaving you with a mood debuff that lasts for weeks.

And don't tell me to tame them, which also takes FOREVER to do unless you have a 15+ Animals pawn, and even then it takes a horrible long time. Rescue and haul? Useless when you can't command them.

To make pets viable, you need to at least be able to control them after they've learned obedience. Having a dog wander around your base the entire day, maybe hauling a random item here and there, and then eat 30 of your food supply in return is the worst tradeoff of the game.

You can set an animal area and just remove part of the animal area from your food supply. I have a bunch of wolves and I have them eat from another supply full of raw meat that's easy to get because you don't have to hunt that much to get over 1k food for them, and then train the wolves to haul (which makes things a-lot easier). Since my supply is always full with potatoes or other foods, I don't need to butcher raw food. So I hunt and easily get a-lot of raw food, freeze them in a separate room for all the wolves and bam, they're good for months until I hunt again for them. You can easily set a animal area so that they don't even go close to your food storage the colonists eat (which you should have been doing in the first place?..)

[SpaceDorf]

But boars feed on grass as well as corpses.
so cheap, so sustainble.
Just raise legions of boars
and swarm raiders with tusks.

So do bears, bigger tusks, more meat

IMO, other birds suck.
the maturity age of turkey is 2+ compare to chicken's 0.3+.
Cassowary, ostrich and emu are no better.
you simply can't farm them on a large scale.
it's wiser to butcher baby turkey/ostrich as soon as it hatches.

Nice to know, what about eggs ?

[eadras]

I'm fairly certain that chickens are the only animals that lay unfertilized eggs, which can be used in place of meat for fine meals.  This alone makes them worth buying if you have the opportunity - they can be quite rare, though.

[8roads]

So do bears, bigger tusks, more meat

really bears eat grass?
that would be beautiful!

Nice to know, what about eggs ?

according to wiki, a turkey lay 2.73 eggs per season (15days)
a chicken 2.14 eggs per season.
but turkeys can't lay unfert. egg, so you need a couple.

nutrition per egg, no matter which kind, is 0.25.
and a baby turkey provides, as far as i remember, 22-23 meat and some leather.
23×0.05=1.15 nutrition
as to the nutrition of a baby chick, i guess amounts to roughly 0.3(?), still beats egg.
So let the fert. egg hatch.

[SpaceDorf]

really bears eat grass?
that would be beautiful!

I checked, bears don't eat live plants, but everything else.
I have thirteen at the moment and no problems with feeding them.
( + 15 various other big game, and two thrumbos now )

according to wiki, a turkey lay 2.73 eggs per season (15days)
a chicken 2.14 eggs per season.
but turkeys can't lay unfert. egg, so you need a couple.

nutrition per egg, no matter which kind, is 0.25.
and a baby turkey provides, as far as i remember, 22-23 meat and some leather.
23×0.05=1.15 nutrition
as to the nutrition of a baby chick, i guess amounts to roughly 0.3(?), still beats egg.
So let the fert. egg hatch.

And thanks you very much for this useful calculation

[PotatoeTater]

One of the big things I do is, I will keep chickens for eggs only, then set the eggs to be used to make kibble. A little hay and some eggs, with 10 chickens you will have a never ending supply of kibble that be more productive than what they can eat. I had 6 huskies, 12 muffalo, and 12 chickens eating off kibble made by eggs and hay only and I always had the limit i set on kibble. I only ran low when the hay supply ran low lol.

[8roads]

I checked, bears don't eat live plants, but everything else.
I have thirteen at the moment and no problems with feeding them.
( + 15 various other big game, and two thrumbos now )

And thanks you very much for this useful calculation

Glad to be of help！

Talking of thrumbos, maybe we can try some other "Dendrovores", like alphabeavers.
Their gestation period is mere 14 days and they've got high heat/cold tolerance.

[genericoverusedname]

I checked, bears don't eat live plants, but everything else.
I have thirteen at the moment and no problems with feeding them.
( + 15 various other big game, and two thrumbos now )

And thanks you very much for this useful calculation

Glad to be of help！

Talking of thrumbos, maybe we can try some other "Dendrovores", like alphabeavers.
Their gestation period is mere 14 days and they've got high heat/cold tolerance.

Their hunger rate is so HIGH though, I have no idea how you'd manage to keep fed.