Animals - how to get resource and not breed?

[Mr B.]

Since they have produced no wool/milk, I assume they need food to do that.

Which is fine, but then they reproduce.

Not something I want.

Is there any way to keep them giving resource but not breed?

[AlPhi]

AFAIK, if there is no bed for an extra animal then they will not breed. I had two tamed goats which had one filled goat feed bowl and two goat beds plus were suitably sheltered, and they produced milk just fine. They only produced a kid when I put a third goat bed in.

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by AlPhi:

AFAIK, if there is no bed for an extra animal then they will not breed. I had two tamed goats which had one filled goat feed bowl and two goat beds plus were suitably sheltered, and they produced milk just fine. They only produced a kid when I put a third goat bed in.

Ah, makes sense. Thankyou!

[yamioni]

Originally posted by AlPhi:

AFAIK, if there is no bed for an extra animal then they will not breed. I had two tamed goats which had one filled goat feed bowl and two goat beds plus were suitably sheltered, and they produced milk just fine. They only produced a kid when I put a third goat bed in.

I started off with two goats and three beds. Produced a kid. Upgraded kid to adult, and a day or two later, I had a another kid, making four goats, for only three beds. I took the one complaining about not having a bed out back and shot it. :(

They definitely still breed if there aren't enough beds, and I really wish they wouldn't.

[Lailantie]

It seems random if and when they breed. My husband had so much offspring even though there weren't enough beds, I rarely get offspring. And if I do, I just take them into inventory. They get a nice storage box, and if we should find out that our tamed animals die of old age, I still have a young one in my boxes.

[AlPhi]

One of the bed to animal ratio issues is that (even after the last patch that supposedly addressed it) tamed animals in completely fenced enclosures can still escape through/over the fence (and predators can still get in too). When one of the flock 'escapes' and shows a 'no bed' warning because there's now a fence between it and its bed (and food), then any pair left in the enclosure can breed because there's a 'spare' bed.

I completely double fence my enclosures and when I'm away and later return, I often find one of my flock or a predator stuck in the gap between the two fences despite there being no gaps in the fences themselves. Oh, and I've even found some of my wandering base NPCs stuck between the fences too. I'm not sure what they were thinking, unless they fancied a fresh cut of goat meat!

[Mr B.]

I don't fence, I built a pit with walls. Not high, but it was a depression rather than fences which seems to have worked well (having much experience with escaping critters in others games).