How do I get my animial to eat things like hay and grasses?

[Granite]

The fourlegged fellows just go right in and eat my simple meals and jerked meat.
I grew some grasses, and they were never eatten...

[ZugZug]

Make sure they don't have access to it. For instance if you're making them assigned to home only or unrestricted they'll roam all over eating whatever has the.. Highest nutrition I believe. So set aside a zone for them to roam around in with plenty of grass. As a side note make sure to check that they are capable of eating that. Some things are picky eaters like worgs.

[Granite]

My peeps had made hay bales which were next to the regular human food. Maybe a special zone for dropping these bales that the animals can go in to while banning them from the main store?

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by christopherkeveny:

The fourlegged fellows just go right in and eat my simple meals and jerked meat.
I grew some grasses, and they were never eatten...

Just create an animal zone and restrict them to it, then place a small stockpile set for preferred hay/kibble only within that animal zone.

[BrowneHawk]

Yeah you need to get used to setting zones for animals. Also set a zone for colonists that is only inside your contained area(roofed). It will come in handy when you get nuclear fallout or a manhunter pack. I also suggest letting the animals do a bit of grazing in different areas. If you want to be safe wall it with a cheap resource so random predators don't get livestock.

[Malthusians]

You kind of want most animals in their own zone anyway, and definitely out of your kitchen and other areas you're trying to keep reasonbably clean. Animals not listed as "clean" make a LOT of mess. One or 2 is livable, but much more than that and your guys will spend huge amounts of time cleaning after them, or your base will get dirtier and dirtier.

[Zourin]

The fastest way to allow animals to roam/forage freely while keeping them out of your larders is to create an animal area in your food storage areas, then punch the 'invert' option that's somewhere.

That way, the entire map EXCEPT those initially identified are available for grazing.

[jie]

Alsof make sure your animals do eat hay. Otherwise they starve in the special zone