Live Stock

[cmitc1]

recently,  on my best world, I had a bull, and a cow join my colony.

I have never been one to raise animals, because I have just considered it extra mouths that dont do enough, but, I kinda wanted to get some thoughts/help with this?  Are they worth holding on too?

[Canute]

Depend on the biome.
The cow can give milk, with this and veggies you can cook fine meals. When you are low on animals at your map, this can be an solution to expand your meals.

On very cold biomes, it can be useful to develop a small herd of animals that give wool. Muffalos can give additional milk.

A few animals with adv. inteligence can be useful to be trained as hauler. But better let them stay out of fights.

But overall, animals arn't very useful at all, but can be an extra gimmick.

[ArguedPiano]

As Canute said it depends on the Biome. Temperate Forest or Jungle is probably the easiest as you can let them graze on wild grass around the map. No hay growing necessary unless winter is a thing there.

[Serenity]

Most animals I keep are dogs, wolves and maybe bears to haul stuff. Some haulers definitely help.
And wool animals like muffalos, alpacas or dromedaries.

[Lizardo]

The mufallow and alpaca seem to be the best values.  You milk and shear the Muf, you shear the alpaca.  They seem to give the best value material for making clothing.   Pigs or wild boars are good as a meat shield and meat, and they can be trained to haul.   Squirrels and wabbits are fun to watch the population explode but that really, really, slows down processing of the program.

The animals also clear out grass around your compound so fires are less of a problem.

The game lacks management tools to deal with large numbers of critters.

[SymbolicFrank]

In a single winter they tend to eat multiple times their weight in kibble. So it takes much more meat than you get when slaughtering them. So it wasn't a very good idea to use them as food for the winter.

[Mutineer]

Well with meat/hide producing animals you should follow historical procedures. Grow them in summer, when food in abundant and kill them for meat in autumn.

[Zhentar]

In a single winter they tend to eat multiple times their weight in kibble. So it takes much more meat than you get when slaughtering them. So it wasn't a very good idea to use them as food for the winter.

What's not a good idea, ironically, is feeding them kibble. It has fairly poor resource efficiency. For vegetarians/omnivores, use simple meals or raw hay. Kibble is only good for carnivores, or using up insect meat.

[cmitc1]

well, Im in a volcanic winter currently (winter just ended) so letting them eat grass isnt really an option... I have been feeding them kibble made from insect meat.

[Lizardo]

I don't produce any feed for the animals at all, well except for my special pets, they either eat grass or eat each other.   I use the reverse area to keep them out of most places and in time they just fill the entire map area.  Their nutritional value is the same whether you slaughter them or they starve to death.  The only real problem is keeping colonist from 'saving' them.

If you have a map with no grass, you can plant hay. but it's probably not a good scenario for lots of animals. 

Their real value is in diverting attacks.

[cmitc1]

I don't produce any feed for the animals at all, well except for my special pets, they either eat grass or eat each other.   I use the reverse area to keep them out of most places and in time they just fill the entire map area.  Their nutritional value is the same whether you slaughter them or they starve to death.  The only real problem is keeping colonist from 'saving' them.

If you have a map with no grass, you can plant hay. but it's probably not a good scenario for lots of animals. 

Their real value is in diverting attacks.

thats the problem, usually, when winter ends, I shut down my inside farms to save some power and plant large fields outside, but this volcanic winter is changing everything. I am kinda forced to keep my inside farms making potatoes, feeding (twelves i believe) mouths take a lot ;-;.


I guess I will wait for the cow to get pregnant, do something with the bull, and keep/sell the babies based on where I am at.

[Alenerel]

I don't produce any feed for the animals at all, well except for my special pets, they either eat grass or eat each other.   I use the reverse area to keep them out of most places and in time they just fill the entire map area.  Their nutritional value is the same whether you slaughter them or they starve to death.  The only real problem is keeping colonist from 'saving' them.

If you have a map with no grass, you can plant hay. but it's probably not a good scenario for lots of animals. 

Their real value is in diverting attacks.

The problem with letting them going around the map is that raiders will keel them. Also other animals like bears. In my base yesterday a hustky had just given birth, then a lynx immediately ate him. I was both loling and sad XD Also bears ate a lot of my chickens.

What i found interesting about chickens is that I let them die in the winter of cold, but all the eggs hatched after winter, so I didnt lose a thing, not even wasting time killing them. This is very interesting.

[Bozobub]

I raise dogs of w/e sort and bears.  Both can haul and are useful in defense, and also give the "master of a bonded animal" mood bonus.  My food "machine" is efficient enough to pump out plenty of surplus meals (I keep a base of 300 simple meals on hand at all times, no matter what, then hoard from there) so it's not (yet) an issue re: resource drain.

And what's cooler than a large, well-armed art colony, with guard bears?

I'd use ALL bears but unlike bears, dogs will work with any colonist as the master, skilled or not.

[Shurp]

Does anyone know what the ratio is of chicken feed to eggs popped out?  I have a theory that chickens might be worth keeping around if you have a shortage of meat to make fine meals with.  But they eat half a colonist's rations worth of potatoes every day.  An egg is also half a ration, so they would have to pump out an egg a day to be breakeven in terms of food.  Less could be worthwhile if you need to keep colonists happy.

[Zhentar]

0.4 nutrition per day to produce 0.25 egg nutrition. If you feed them hay, which IIRC is roughly 50% more productive than corn, you effectively get 1:1 vegetable to animal nutrition conversion for the vegetable plots you give up.