🐄Animals🐓

Taking care of animals can be a lot of work, so the best advice is to ensure you have enough resources to raise them before you start. Animals require food, water, the appropriate feeders, and personal care.

All animals share the same core stats and needs:

• Health: As the name implies, this shows how healthy the animal is. If it drops to 0, the animal dies. Animals lose health when their other needs are neglected.
• Happiness: This is an optional stat. While it isn’t strictly required to keep your animals happy, doing so is highly rewarding, as it doubles the speed of their byproduct production.
• Hunger: This tracks how hungry the animal is. If it drops to 0, the animal will slowly begin to starve.
• Thirst: This tracks how thirsty the animal is. If it drops to 0, the animal will slowly begin to dehydrate.

Each animal requires a specific type of food:

• Chickens can eat Chicken Feed.
• Cows can eat Straw, Hay, and Cow Feed.
• Pigs can eat Straw and Pig Feed.

Tip: It is highly recommended to use the specific feeds (Chicken, Cow, and Pig Feed) rather than raw food. These are specialized, processed foods that replenish hunger much faster. You can make these feeds yourself using the Cooking skill and stations, or find them at the Mainstore.

To feed your animals, you will need a Feeding Trough and a Drinking Trough. Both can be crafted at the Carpentry Workbench or found at the Mainstore.

Once you have your troughs, feed, and water ready, you can begin caring for your animals. Stand close to the animal and click on it to access its main menu. This menu displays the animal’s information and your available options:

• Needs: Opens a submenu where you can manage all of the animal’s needs.
• Set Name: Allows you to give your animal a custom name.
• Slaughter: Butchers the animal for meat.

Note: Adult animals will display an extra button when their byproduct is ready to be collected. For example, when an adult cow produces milk, a new Milk button will appear in its menu.

To feed or care for your animals, click the Needs button. In this submenu, you will see options for Food, Water, and Brush:

• Food: The animal will scan the nearby area (within 3 meters) for a feeding trough containing food. If one is found, you can select it, and the animal will begin eating immediately.
• Water: The animal will scan the nearby area (within 3 meters) for a drinking trough containing water. If one is found, you can select it, and the animal will begin drinking immediately.
• Brush: This is completely optional, but if you are wearing the Brush tool and click this button, you will begin brushing the animal. This increases the animal’s Happiness, which speeds up their byproduct production rate.

• Chickens lay Eggs if they have a Nest (Nests can be crafted).
• Cows produce Milk.
• Pigs (Sows) can drop Manure (Which can be used to make Fertilizer).

To reproduce your animals, you must understand the breeding mechanics (Note: Level 2 Animal Handling is required to breed).

Animals age over time, transitioning from the Young stage to the Adult stage. Adult animals can be bred if you have two of the opposite gender. Click on the male animal and select Breed from its main menu; it will scan the surrounding area for an available adult female.

Once paired, a timer will appear on the female tracking her pregnancy until she is ready to deliver, and the male will enter a cooldown period before he can breed again.

Aging Timers:

• Chickens: Become Adult at Day 1; become Old at Day 6.
• Cows: Become Adult at Day 3; become Old at Day 7.
• Pigs: Become Adult at Day 3; become Old at Day 7.

⚠️ Important Warning: It is crucial to remember that animals in the Old stage can no longer produce byproducts or breed. At this stage, it is highly recommended to Slaughter them for meat.