Tamed Animals Food Consume Ratio

[AlmightyQueen.]

Hello, you guys! I never got a tamed animal and I want to try it but my gamestyle is, I only play with 2 starter villagers and have them had children so I don’t get villagers with bad traits (one with pessimistic and killer trait ruined my previous gameplay, if you know what I mean) so I adjust the farming size according to 2 person+1 baby so I get little amount of food. Do animals eat a lot? I’m considering keeping only 2 pigs, after they breed I’ll constantly slaughter the 3rd one and so on, so I wonder the food ratio of pigs eat everyday, so I can adjust my farm accordingly. For example, how many apples do pigs eat a day? 10? 20? There is no info on FF wiki so I’m just dropping it here.

[roo]

What animals you need can depend on your gaming style but also what your current map contains.

Sheep seem to be very limited on most of my maps, but offer good early returns both in reasonably quick breeding times + wool for cloth.
My current map has little cotton close (nor crystal) so I decided to gather sheep early, with only 5 on the (large) map I now have 10 in my second year. This will hopefully give good supplies of wool and meat in the next (third) year.

Cows breed slower. Luckily I had a herd close by when the game started, so managed to sell 3 cows for a very good $ return in the 2nd year and left 2 for breeding. Now have 3 and sold off the milk to the Trader - more $.

Pigs breed quickest so can be handy if you have them near by. Without wool and milk they are limited in usability, but can return good $ if you have excess. They are my third choice in most games.

Currently keeping 5 Foundies in my village at a stable number for the first few years.
With 9 Goblin villages requiring tribute, keeping my village at a stable number helps with balancing good neighbour points with improving my villagers skills and requirements.

Animal food requirements is not something that has ever bothered me. I try and grow excess food in the first year and keep it up until it becomes stable with the population.
Though only having 2 villagers must be fun :D
I prefer 5-6 Foundies as it gives them time to build up individual professions, especially Doctor and Miner early.

[AlmightyQueen.]

Thank you for answering! I read in a guide that for starters, pigs are the most useful because they are easier to feed and cows are bad cuz they eat the most of food, and sheep are also ok because they give wool. Now, I started a new save while waiting for answer to this topic, I got 2 villagers. One is 1 lv doctor with applying splints skill because hurting or broking leg/arm are so common in my game so I chose it, and one guy with optimist and tireless trait. I made a 2 floor home for them, and currently I have one 3x3 tomato farm, and one 3x3 potato, I got some apple trees with the forester skill and some healing plants. Also I have 2 cotton fields near my home so I can make scholar robes and sell them when necessary. Rn, my doctor is both farmer, scholar, and crafter; and my forester is builder and miner. Because there is only 2 ppl, it is really easy to manage them, they don’t need so much food, etc. and because I don’t keep any gold, I haven’t met pirates and only encountered 2 tiki tributes, and gave them what they want. I’ve already prepared the kids room and they are so close to have a kid, I ignore all of the migrants and traders other than that. It is a different challenge for me to keep only 2 villagers, managing the things and also raising a baby but it is so much fun, I recommend to try it! The biggest positive side for me is that I hate migrants because I don’t want to deal with dumb,xenophobe, pessimistic traits and they require so many life points to erase. So, children will be our future! When I settle down to my taste, I guess I’ll accept 1 more man and woman so they can have a baby to marry my kid. Anyways, I still haven’t got any animals but I guess it is safe to get because only 2 villagers consume really less food. Thank you for you reply, and have a nice day/night! :)

[BioFringe]

This could use some verification from the devs as I could swear that one of them said on Discord that animals eat grass and don't take away from the colonist's food supply.

EDIT: Found this from 12/9/20

do they eat grass or raw food from stockpile?

"Grass. Raw food is only used for taming" Ponzel (Dev)

[AlmightyQueen.]

Yeah, I "kind of" tested it. After being tamed, they don't consume villagers' food such as apples, in the seasons of spring, summer and autumn. Though, in winter, when the ground is fully covered with snow, they eat. After I opened this discussion, I tamed some pigs and didn't see a decrease in told seasons but in winter, I purposely checked the food ratio and saw that even though my villagers didn't eat food (their hunger bar was full), the food numbers drop. The animals eat fast but since seasons change fairly quick, they didn't lead us to starvation. :)

[Dionic Software]

I get that it can be a little confusing, so here are the details:

1. Animals always eat grass, even in winter. Only if locked into tiny spaces they might have trouble to start eating.

2. Vilagers use colony food to tame animals and keep them tame. The larger your herds, the more food will be used for keeping them tame, but you will also get more if you butcher them later.

[AlmightyQueen.]

Oooh, I see! I locked them into tiny spaces so that's why. Thank you for answering! :)