Is there a safer method for taming dangerous animals?

[zathura]

In my current playthrough I'm raising an army of huskies and muffalo, but pretty early on I had a rhinocerous self-tame, and ol' Humphrey is worth his weight in gold. (In fact I would be glad to spend a ton of silver and gold if a trader would ever offer me one.)

Every time I have a female show up on the map, I consider trying to tame her (and have 3-4 colonists with 12-13 Animals skill), but it's always a 1.5% chance or something, with a 10% chance of being attacked. Needless to say, I haven't been able to tame one yet, and micromanaging the taming process by drafting a couple extra colonists to follow the trainer out every day is really tiring, especially since my attention also needs to be in several other places.

I can send the trainer out with a retinue of huskies for protection, but against a rhino, things will simply go badly no matter what.

I was hoping there was maybe a way to sedate the animal or even lure it into an enclosed space...maybe set up a couple turrets in-case feces hits the fan.

I read in a reddit thread (though I'm not sure which version they were playing) that doctoring a downed animal has a chance to form a bond, wild or not, but after accidentally marking a rhino to be hunted instead of tamed, I couldn't find any way to treat it, and it ended up bleeding out. (Good for the meat and leather stockpiles, bad for my future rhino army, and females are relatively rare as it is.)

[fritzgryphon]

What I do is, hit the animal with a molotov (to make it defenseless), beat it up with guns or blunt weapons, and "rescue" it when downed.  You can treat the animal once it has been taken to an animal bed.  Put the bed in a small room near your colonists and try to tame it there (you might have to temporarily uninstall other animal beds so it's taken to the correct one).  If it manhunters, repeat.

[zathura]

So wild animals can be rescued if "downed" (writhing on the ground in extreme pain bleeding exclamation marks out of their heads)?

The rhino I accidentally shot simply bled to death while sleeping, so I guess that's why I had no option to rescue or tend it.

Thanks for the info. I'll try setting them on fire until they obey me.

[Scavenger]

You have a lot better luck taming them if you feed them the right kind of pokeblocks first.

[b0rsuk]

This is a cynical way, but it should work:
Just beat the animal senseless with whatever means you can muster. Preferably something that has low chance of leaving scars or outright killing. Then, no don't really rescue it, but treat its wounds and then proceed to tame. Even if it doesn't self-tame "out of gratitude", a barely walking animal should be much safer to tame than a healthy one. And it will eventually fully heal anyway.

Another - it's inspired by your initial post. Put walls around it, put heaters in, make it pass out from heatstroke. Last time I checked heatstroke is like hypothermia, but with no chance of frostbite. Then proceed to tame the weakened animal.

Safer and more humane? Purchase one from a trader.

[zathura]

This is a cynical way, but it should work:
Just beat the animal senseless with whatever means you can muster. Preferably something that has low chance of leaving scars or outright killing. Then, no don't really rescue it, but treat its wounds and then proceed to tame. Even if it doesn't self-tame "out of gratitude", a barely walking animal should be much safer to tame than a healthy one. And it will eventually fully heal anyway.

Another - it's inspired by your initial post. Put walls around it, put heaters in, make it pass out from heatstroke. Last time I checked heatstroke is like hypothermia, but with no chance of frostbite. Then proceed to tame the weakened animal.

Safer and more humane? Purchase one from a trader.

I think I'm going to definitely try walling it in...just not sure how I'm going to go about it. (I could wait until it falls asleep near my base, but that could take ages. I'd much rather tempt it into a room with food, but I'd probably get tons of other animals as well.)

Any idea if wild animals will go after certain foods (like kibble/hay) over foraging? I know I've had several wild animals wander into my walled-off farming area (dodging my killbox traps, of course).

[cyberian]

Smarter Food selection mod helps wih that

[zathura]

Smarter Food selection mod helps wih that

I'm running a couple mods, but I'd prefer a more creative answer for vanilla than "download a mod". Previous posters have provided a couple ideas to that effect. Thanks for your input.

[jamaicancastle]

Walling in will partially work, but if the animal needs to leave (wrong temperature, or no food available in its pen) it will start digging through walls far faster than they can be repaired.

[Shurp]

Build a pen, leave some food inside (as bait) and a lot of beer (for it to drink after you finish walling it in).  keep it drunk so it's not too hard to handle.

I have no idea if it can be tamed when it's passed out but when it recovers it should at least not maul your colonists too badly.

[cultist]

It's also worth nothing that already trained animals will follow tamers if toggled to do so in the animals menu (it's considered "dangerous work").

[Kirby23590]

Muffalos & huskies are very okay. But rhinos if you want to tame more of them without injuries, i recommend giving your guy power armor or otherwise known as marine armor along with a power armor/marine helmet or plate armor instead to avoid loosing a limb.

It may sound crazy but, try getting a lone rhino or dangerous animal alone and get it to become a manhunter with a ranged weapon. (Good weapons would be machine pistols & assault rifles.) And try getting it down with any means as necessarily even shooting it with your firing team with charge rifles & assault rifles should help, but after it falls down unconscious rescue the poor rhino or animal to your nearest place in your colony mostly a enclosed room for animal that you just attacked and heal him up with your good doctor, ( i recommend using herbal medicine mostly! ) before it bleeds out to death...

It's a old trick in the book in older alphas, but not as viable as before but the weakened animal is easier to put down if you tamer failed and you can easily put it down with clubs or even with barehands, still use plate armor or full marine armor, as long as it doesn't die if you it to get tamed!

Also if you get a male & female, you should get a female rhino or a male rhino and let them have babies, so you don't need to tame another one. Baby rhinos or any other dangerous animal are easier they are already tamed and need to stay tamed by your tamers, good to increase their animal handling skill!

Maybe it's better to get them from exotic traders or pirate traders if they sell em' with silver instead...