My pets are eating my crops...

[Crossbow]

My pets are eating my crops! How can you make them not do it?

[Crossbow]

Originally posted by Morbious:

if its a couple of pets then use berry bushes as a shield (set to no harvest) put hay floor storage piles around the settlement (hay has hitpoints requires a tile over and under it)

animals have a set path they walk alot you can find where they eat on that route by planting the bushes and seeing which ones need replacing lots then plonk the hay pile there

plant more crops (view it as payment for there hard work)

thin the pets (slaughter) if you went nuts you really don't need 10-30 pets hauling
keep them at domesticated in future

Thanks for the advice. But they don't seem to help me much. I have 8 cows that eat half of the crop. I do not want to reduce their number, as they cope well with transportation.

If the developers set the pets to eat only straw and a mixture of straw and vegetables, then the problem would be solved. Or make it possible to set a flag in the fields - you can not eat it with pets. It will be great!

[michbret123]

To solve this problem I just put many trough filled mostly with hay accross my land (roof protected). Also put also trough inside your rooms since pets like to go inside.

Also don't forget that wild animal can go through fences (foxes and polecat for sure). So wall a wall around your land is very useful and will also protect your domestic animals from wolf attacks.

[michbret123]

Hi Jimb66. If you have home pets (cats, dogs, ...) you should know than they steal food when available (and they can be clever in this) ....

So admit that they can do the same in the game. My solution is not 100% efficient but it works enough to mitigate the problem.

[michbret123]

As anybody knows, we cannot have our cake and eat it too.

So make your strategic choice :
- Train them and benefit from the hauling but loose some crop
- Don't train them, loose hauling services and benefit from full crop production (assuming you have a pen)

[Crossbow]

Tell me, please, what kind of food do donkeys, dogs and cats consume? Do dogs and cats eat animal carcasses in the warehouse? What do donkeys eat? I didn't notice the donkeys eating the crops. So they're eating something in the warehouse

[Storm]

I use dogs, they eat meat, so I raise more cows. I keep a population of 5 mating pairs of each animal. There is enormous meat always in the kitchen shelf waiting for someone to cook it, let them have it. I don't keep domesticated dogs, sell them off to a merchant.

[Crossbow]

Morbious, Thank you!

Originally posted by Storm:

I use dogs, they eat meat, so I raise more cows. I keep a population of 5 mating pairs of each animal. There is enormous meat always in the kitchen shelf waiting for someone to cook it, let them have it. I don't keep domesticated dogs, sell them off to a merchant.

Fully agree! Now only dogs carry loads. Cows now only go to caravans. Now my harvest is saved)