What's the point of the animal box and bed?

[CucumberedPickle]

Animals don't have a comfort need, and it's not like where you can assign an animal to one so you can have a bonded animal sleep with their human, so what's the point? Selling for economical gain? Wasting resources? For now, I'll have my animals packed like sardines in a barn where they sleep on the GROUND

[B@R5uk]

Every type of sleeping spot (including that for humans) have there modifiers for rest gain, immunity gain and surgery success. You want your dogs haul more and sleep less? Give them better bed with rest buff. You want your muffalos heal the plague faster and not to die? Give them better bed with heal and treatment buffs.

Also be wary: sleeping boxes do not admit large animals like muffalos and dromedaries, but they easer and cheaper to build. Also calves of said animals can still sleep in them until they grow up.

[Canute]

And your Animals need to move at home at night for social interaction with your pawn's.
And a hauling animal on a good animal bed can rest up faster and be able to haul a few more things, then when sleeping on the ground.

[Scavenger]

More importantly though... I found when my cougar got its ear bitten off and otherwise generally mauled by a bear, it only had 4 hours left before bleeding out, and I couldnt operate on it... Until i made a animal sleeping spot for it. It just kept wandering around without one, but sprinted to it when i placed it and lay down for me to operate.

Also, sleeping spots let you pick where they sleep, instead of just dropping into sleep wherever within their allowed zone. Which is nice, when under attack. You can make em always sleep somewhere more protected.

[B@R5uk]

...it only had 4 hours left before bleeding out, and I couldnt operate on it... It just kept wandering around without one...

For emergency purposes sleeping spot will work just fine.

[CucumberedPickle]

Also, sleeping spots let you pick where they sleep,

Not necessarily. You can't assign animals to spots or beds, they sleep on whatever spot they FEEL like.

[Scavenger]

It's still in a spot you designate, if not one exact square. But there is at least one mod that allows you to assign specific animals to specific best just like colonists.

Also, I would recommend putting them somewhere other than a wouldn't Barn, especially if you have boomaopes, as any kind of fire from an attack or event will rather quickly wipe out all of your animals. Or at the least, leave the majority of them with bad Burns. I generally try to give them a cave, less likely they will be focused during a raid, failing that, I stonewalled and closure.

[b0rsuk]

I wonder if wool and eggs only grow in Rimworld while the animal is awake...

[5thHorseman]

Also, sleeping spots let you pick where they sleep,

Not necessarily. You can't assign animals to spots or beds, they sleep on whatever spot they FEEL like.

While it is true that you can't use them to assign what room each animal sleeps in, you can still use sleeping spots to choose what room ALL animals sleep in.

[Shurp]

Hmmm, this conversation may have just solved my monkey problem.  Sometimes my starting colonists will have a monkey for a pet.  I will usually allow him to run into the freezer to eat meals there.  Sometimes he decides he's going to take a nap there, and then promptly dies of hypothermia.

If I give him a sleeping spot he'll sleep there instead of in my freezer, right?

[Scavenger]

Yup! As long as he has access to it, pets will always sleep in a sleeping spot over the floor.

[b0rsuk]

A minor problem with sleeping boxes and animal beds is that you can't "deconstruct" them under the bleeding animal to take them somewhere safer, cleaner etc. You must treat them there until they heal or they die. Another minor problem is I can't figure out a way to make small animals prefer boxes. If you have 2 camels and 4 hens, you can't make the hens always take the boxes instead of hogging camels' animal beds. Hmm I haven't tried putting the animal boxes closer to barn entrance.

[Shurp]

You can create separate animal zones for the hens and camels, overlapping where you want them both to be but excluding the respective beds.

(But yeah, it'd be nice if you could set the beds directly)

[Alenerel]

animal beds also increase the effectiveness of the tending.