The Best Animal?

[The early worm deserves the bird]

I know they all have their strengths but what's the best all rounder? Or what do you think the strengths of each animal are?

[Vintorez]

Cows because you can turn milk into butter to keep calories up easily.

[Dr.Chazzzzz]

I think sheep give milk too so I would say cows or sheep

[Xenomorph]

Cows do cow things and sheep also give milk, plus whool (need shears to get it). You can turn whool into thread or twine for tailoring, very nice.

Wabbits multiply like a virus, low maintenance, good for a bit of protein. Hard to catch the initial couple if they're adults, buggers are fast, but you can catch babies easy. Then it's a matter of getting lucky to get a male and watch the world burn under wabbit dominance. Not joking 😅

Chickens like to die in their hutches and make an absolute mess, they need some extra work done. But you can make omeletes with eggs and a pan!!! Like wabbits, they do tend to get out of control pretty quick if you dont keep the cockrel in a separate area.

[Buscemi]

Rabbits for meat go crazy, I butchered 2 rabbits with 0 butchering and got 15 poor cuts á 600-700 calories, seems a bit crazy compared to cows or pigs.

[Xenomorph]

Forgot about pigs. Apparently they go berzerk under certain circumstamces and will eat all your walls and boxes and cars and stuff, but you can get bacon.

Something i wanna try is hauling a pig to a pile of zed and just leave it there for a while, see what happens.

[drogodependiente]

I have a Friesian sheep that gives me about 15 or 16 liters of milk in addition to wool. They're easier to move than cows, and they give enough milk to match a young Simmental sheep. I think they also have a somewhat faster reproductive cycle, so that would be my best option for butter. The chickens in the trailer give me eggs anyway, and so far they've never disappeared (on the ground, they disappear no matter what I do). Although they require hand-watering every 2 or 3 days (and having food in the trailer), they're a good source of food to stave off hunger. And for low maintenance, I suppose rats and rabbits are the easiest to handle.
I suppose you need some cows because of the larger hides for some recipes, but most are medium-sized hides. Deer and sheep are enough.

By the way, I have a rabbit whose genetic disorder is "i-d-i-o-t." Does anyone know what that means for its behavior?

[The early worm deserves the bird]

I haven't had the chance to play around with animals to much, just a little here and there in debug mode. Is it possible to house multiple animals on the same piece of land or is it better/do they require their own bits of land?

[Xenomorph]

Originally posted by The early worm deserves the bird:

I haven't had the chance to play around with animals to much, just a little here and there in debug mode. Is it possible to house multiple animals on the same piece of land or is it better/do they require their own bits of land?

You can do that, yes. They will coexist peacefully.
Having them in separate areas will give you a better overview of what's going on, and makes it easier to clean up the mess critters make. It will just take more resources and time.

One recommendation is to keep males separated from the rest, if you have babies running around. We dont know if it's a male or a female until they mature. Males of the same species will fight with each other, which may cause both to die and leave you in a tough situation.

That way you can also control breeding, if you have breeding seasons turned off. Else, with the likes of chickens and wabbits, you will quickly have to deal with apocalyptic population explosions very quick and lots of literal ♥♥♥♥ to clean up.

Edit: there might be hidden requirements for critter numbers and designated area size. If someone knows by testing or snooping in the game files, please share 🙂

Critters living in abandoned farms will drink rain water and graze. They may not be able to maintain or grow their numbers, but they'll be fine on their own for a while, months.

I was looking for random critters to get some medium leather yesterday, passed by an old pig farm just west of echo creek. There used to be quite a decent number of pigs in there, even after 6 months, but 2 patches ago they got annihilated with the world conversion. Thought to myself that they have no chance, so might as well give them a good, quick ending.
A male and a female. The female is gestating. They were both way far out to the south of the farm area, just close to each other. Roped them both and made the long walk back up to the barn. I'm definitely going back there and see if the piglet is born, make sure they're ok 🙂 Can't afford to bring them to my farm and risk them eating my house, but heh, who knows? Might even find a few more stray pigs elsewhere and bring them over.

[DrLamp]

For overall utility, I think maybe sheep if you have several. They give milk, wool (slowly) but they also breed faster than cows so provide meat and leather more regularly. If you're just concerned about a food source, it's hard to beat rabbits. They're super low maintenance and well, they breed like rabbits.

[Benjamin Magnus]

My vote is for sheep. Milk, Wool, Meat.

[Huge Beard Guy]

Originally posted by The early worm deserves the bird:

The Best Animal?

Hamsters coz they make my daughter laugh.

[LockLuck]