Animals / taming / death

[Maejohl]

At the moment I am finding animals a lot of hassle.

Two chickens show up - neither can lay eggs. That tells me that they can't have kids, either (and they don't produce new chickens as the game goes on). No one is selling animals either.

My dog (as a lone settler starter) dies a year in, just randomly - he was fed and healthy otherwise. That is gimping me now.

My cow (the only one that arrived) is male (well, it gives no milk). I can train it to carry stuff, but I want milk. So, where is that going to come from?

Animals are a great idea but we need to have better access to them AND be able to stop them from dying so randomly/early.

[galadon3]

1. well check the chickens sex and age, suprisingly males don't produce eggs, and afaik they need also to be "mature" to start laying eggs

2. Again basic biology or well knowledge of farms, milk comes from female bovines (cows), also goats and sheep (female in both cases) also give milk

The problem right now is that the animals you get are purely RNG wandering onto your map, a single male cow for example is basically only good to keep it and hope for a female one so you can start breeding them.
I feel you I had one female cow (at least I got milk) but never got a mate for her till she died from old age, later I had two male cows wandering onto the map, those now eat up hay and work time and unless some female mate for them shows up will be pretty much useless (save for some meat and leather when they keel over)

Animals also have a certain usefullness problem, for example
-Chicken
They need Animal Fodder, wich means I need vegetables and hay plus the worktime of a settler to make it AND ofc the hauling capacity to keep their troughs filled, in exchange I get eggs, wich decay pretty fast and give as a dish stuffed eggs wich also decay very fast.
And I kinda wonder if I wasnt better off using the work-time needed for that to just grow barley or in fact use the vegetables I grow for the animal fodder directly.
-Goats
Give Milk at least they eat hay wich is a natural by-product of producing barley so all worktime goats need is the worktime of settlers caring for them and their trough
BUT there are
-Sheep
wich in comparison give milk AND wool and also eat hay, since wool can fill the same need as flax fields, sheep might actually have a better end cost/use-ratio then using worktime for the fields instead
-Cows
basically have the same issue as goats they at least have the small benefit of providing more meat and leather when their time comes.
-Any other wildlife you might tame is just a source for meat and a way to use up hay.

Looking at that I don't really see any reason to keep anything but (maybe) sheep, besides wanting to have a farm with animals.
Well pets can be usefull in certain numbers if they can haul since they don't only free up workers work-time but also they don't ignore hauling tasks just because some big other task is on (like harvest), wich can lead to some problems if you have only settlers and don't leave them some breathing space to clear hauling tasks.

[NiceGuy]

Also animals like settlers can activate traps when running across them which will hurt them. But unlike settlers, animals can not be wound treated and will most likely bleed out and die. Happened to my first 3 dogs until I realized this "issue". But it's no bug it's intended by the def with a 1% activation chance on traps "friendly fire".

I read somewhere that sex had no influence on breeding. Two males can have a child may be even a single animal can give birth no matter what sex it has.

[galadon3]

I'd like to have an option added to the pen-marker, defining a maximum of animals in the pen and the rest getting slaughtered, just fear that the genius-settlers might kill all animals of one sex, basically killing any chance to breed any further animals.

[Maejohl]

Thanks for the replies - my reference to the chickens not being able to have kids meant I knew their sex.... ;)