Is it worth it to farm animals?

[Jacbo]

I'm trying my first time at farming animals for food. I have turkeys and chickens (I have a male and female megasloth but I can't figure out how to get them to breed) but it seems like they eat more food than they produce. I'm not using the eggs but am just slaughter excess livestock when that gender goes over 5. Are there other animals that are better for this?

[TSense]

Muffalo Master Race
- Milk
- very good wool
- perfekt meattanks for battle
- one has so much meat that one guy can survive half a year
- live everywhere
- come in herds, no worry about male/female shortages

Bow to your fluffy blue gods.
There is a reason why most tribals and some advanced cultures build religions around these creatures

[M.K.]

Originally posted by jacob123456798:

... they eat more food than they produce...

This is true of all animals, that you actually feed yourself.
Get something that can graze on natural land, or at most on a field of hay.
Use zoning to limit their movement.

[RemingtonRyder]

Farming animals produces a steady amount of meat, and it's very safe compared to hunting. Meat is essential if you want to make pemmican or packaged survival meals.

[Jacbo]

Is there something I have to do to get animals who don't lay eggs to breed? I have had a male and female megasloth for at least an in-game year and they haven't bred.

[Elementium]

Depend of what you want:

1st advice, pet and farm animals have reduced maintenance cost. If you don't mass produce or don't have huge stockspile, don't try wilder animals.

2nd advice: as Tsense said, you can go with versatile animals like Muffalos or Dromaderies, but you can also go to specialised ones like chickens or cow. All depen what you want to produce, food, cloth components, extra hauler, battle beasts, profitable products

last advice, look at this : https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Animals

For breeding, restrict them to smaller area, make them a bed next to each other, and they may reproduce at some point

[Vats]

Dromedaries are decent tanks and produce both wool and milk, which replaces any meat used for fine meals. They can also be used for caravans and resist heat very well (I've only played extreme desert so far).

My official Thrumbo hunter has a pack of 8-10 camels, which makes hunting them very easy by swarming the Thrumbo while the handler blasts them with a charge rifle. They are also decent fodder against melee rushers if you don't have a dedicated melee brawler to buy time.

Do note that dromedaries cannot be released, but they do not bond either, so they can be thrown against the enemy without your handler getting miserable. When they do die, they get you some good heat insulating (and tough) camelhide and 2.5 stacks of meat.

The costs: one or two part-time grower planting a quite large field of dandelions for them to graze and a patch of hay as a reserve to survive toxic fallout/sieges. They are big eaters too, so nutrition from nutrient paste or simple meals made of human meat are not wasted on them (in contrast with chickens).

EDIT: another intereting point is that they are not farm animals, so you can actually find them on shrublands or deserts, even on enemy outpost maps instead of your usual iguana.

[AlexMBrennan]

but it seems like they eat more food than they produce

Yes, that's how things work and why vegetarians are trying to convert everyone to save the planet. If you find this difficult to believe then look at how much food you eat every day, and how much weight you gain every day.

I have a male and female megasloth

That's a very expensive animal to maintain (high wildness = lots of training is needed to prevent them from going wild) so I wouldn't bother until you desperately need megasloth wool to survive in the most extreme cold.

I'm not using the eggs but am just slaughter excess livestock when that gender goes over 5. Are there other animals that are better for this?

Well obviously anything else would be better if you are just going to throw the eggs away because chickens are balanced to produce a reasonable amount of food in the form of eggs from the food they eat.

Personally, I'd prefer eating eggs over meat because it eliminates the herd micromanagment - set appropriate zones once to prevent population explosion, and the cooks will automatically use the eggs.

[xicewindex]

I like to have 2 - 4 huskies as haulers. extra puppies just get butchered or sold

Muffalo's, as many as my map can substain . They have a barn to sleep and roam outside my base for food. just make sure to kill predators on your map or the baby muffalo's get eaten.
As others said, milk, wool, packanimals and good meatshields on caravans/quests

If i can get my hands on a breeding pair of (polar)bears I take them aswell. A seperat freezer at the barn for human raiders feeds them.

I'm not fussed for other animals

[kevinshow]

Eggs can be used in place of meat for food recipes, so by throwing away eggs, you are losing out. You can also let the eggs hatch and immediately kill baby chicks for meat, if you prefer. I think that would give you a little bit of leather also.

I used to not let my animals graze on grass because I was always worried that they would get attacked by raiders or predators. However, once I began to actively take out predators, I realized that I have been missing out on a lot of free grass food for my animals. So I would heartily recommend any animal that graze on grass, if you wan to do some meat farms. Usually you can also combine it with animals that give you 2 or 3 other products also, such as wool and milk.

[Jacbo]

I never said I was throwing away eggs... I just let them hatch and wait for the chicks to grow up and then slaughter them for food.

[Vats]

About eggs: in 1.0, if you freeze a fertilized egg, it can still be used like a normal unfertilized egg, while having a longer shelf life and saving you the butcher effort.