How the hell do you feed animals in this game?!?!?

[sharkbyte1500]

Every


Single

Time

My animals die from malnutrition because they always eat all their grass in their pen and it doesn't grow back fast enough also to my knowledge the colonists don't feed the animals so what AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!?!?

[ODevil]

Put a stockpile with food (e.g. hay, kibble or whatever you have lying around) in their pen and they'll eat it.

[Astasia]

Look at the pen marker, it will tell you how much nutrition is being generated in the pen, look at your number of animals and set a cap so it doesn't go above your pen capacity, or make a bigger pen.

To feed animals you make a stockpile or shelf in the pen that allows hay or whatever you want to feed the animals. Colonists only hand feed starving animals that are in an animal bed, so if you want to try to "spot feed" during shortages without using the much more efficient stockpile/shelf, then make sure you have animal sleeping spots or beds for your animals. Once they are downed from starvation a colonist should rescue them to their bed and feed them. You may not be happy with the results of this, they might feed them lavish meals or whatever, and they wait until the animal is seriously unhealthy to do this, so you really shouldn't rely on it.

[Zep Tepi]

Make the stock pile high priority so it actually gets filled. One or two squares will do if you don't want all of your hay or whatever in there.

Or if you have farmers with enough time on their hands you can plant dandelions inside the pen. Turn sowing on and off so no one tries to jump in there every time an animal eats. It's faster than grass.

And watch your population. It can get out of control quickly.

[brian_va]

fewer animals or a larger pen. as mentioned, a stockpile of hay or kibble, that will supplement a pen that cant provide for your animals. if it gets to where the pawns are directly feeding animals, they are in starvation and mistakes have been made. they aren't supposed to directly feed animals, in case that is what you were actually after. maybe a screenshot showing how many animals you are looking to feed with the pen marker highlighted showing nutrition production/consumption would be helpful.

[The Yeen Queen]

Additionally, during growing season, make a growing zone in your pen and plant dandelions. They're an excellent grazing food source for pen animals. Grow haygrass OUTSIDE the pen to stockpile winter food, though.

[Jimothy]

genuinely dont understand how people don't figure out these basic mechanics, or just simply google things.

[Lou]

Originally posted by Walter is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ legend:

genuinely dont understand how people don't figure out these basic mechanics, or just simply google things.

Me neither, but i guess everybody is different, i also feel stupid sometimes because i missed the obvious solution of a problem.
A little bit of "Havik" is everywhere and in all of us. (i really hope he is playable in the next MK)

[LookToWindward]

Well, I've found out something new! I didn't realise that you could plant dandelions inside the pen and have the animals feed from it. I've always just given them hay from a stockpile

I'm guessing the best thing to do would be two have two pens and rotate growing/eating

[whatamidoing]

Harvesting hay is still more nutrition/tile than dandelions.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Walter is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ legend:

genuinely dont understand how people don't figure out these basic mechanics, or just simply google things.

What, you mean beef doesn't just come from the supermarket?

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by whatamidoing:

Harvesting hay is still more nutrition/tile than dandelions.

Yes, which is why you plant it OUTSIDE the pen. Because animals grazing on it is LESS than dandelions. But dandelions are better nutrition than the usual "wild" grass and such and can be actively replanted as they graze it. If you have a year round growing season, you don't even have to worry about the haygrass. It's good for making a stockpile of winter feed, though. I guess if you're worried about having a lot of animals and a relatively compact pen you can keep the haygrass going even in year round growing climates.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Night Foxx:

Yes, which is why you plant it OUTSIDE the pen. Because animals grazing on it is LESS than dandelions. But dandelions are better nutrition than the usual "wild" grass and such and can be actively replanted as they graze it. If you have a year round growing season, you don't even have to worry about the haygrass. It's good for making a stockpile of winter feed, though. I guess if you're worried about having a lot of animals and a relatively compact pen you can keep the haygrass going even in year round growing climates.

The point is having your colonists plant dandelions is a waste of effort compared having them plant hay. Not only because dandelions are less nutrition, but because colonists need to replant them as animals eat them which often pulls them away from other tasks. The point of grazing is it's free and zero effort, if your pen isn't large enough to feed animals through natural grass growth then you supplement it with a bit of extra hay for the most efficiency. Planting dandelions in a pen basically defeats the point of grazing and just adds more work for your colonists, you are both taking away from the free natural plant growth happening in the pen and using a less efficient source of nutrition.

There are reasons you might want to use dandelions, like on a permanent summer arid shrubland when you simply don't want to deal with hay stockpiles/storage. But you are trading pawn efficiency for player convenience in that case.

[Jimothy]

Originally posted by Lou Zephyr:

Originally posted by Walter is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ legend:

genuinely dont understand how people don't figure out these basic mechanics, or just simply google things.

Me neither, but i guess everybody is different, i also feel stupid sometimes because i missed the obvious solution of a problem.
A little bit of "Havik" is everywhere and in all of us. (i really hope he is playable in the next MK)

Same, dude, same.

I really hate the way they trimmed down the rosters in the game.

From a pro-scene, it makes sense. You won't have 80 characters in the game.

But I'd really just love a remake of Deadly Alliance and Armageddon so I can play my favorite characters.

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Originally posted by Night Foxx:

Yes, which is why you plant it OUTSIDE the pen. Because animals grazing on it is LESS than dandelions. But dandelions are better nutrition than the usual "wild" grass and such and can be actively replanted as they graze it. If you have a year round growing season, you don't even have to worry about the haygrass. It's good for making a stockpile of winter feed, though. I guess if you're worried about having a lot of animals and a relatively compact pen you can keep the haygrass going even in year round growing climates.

The point is having your colonists plant dandelions is a waste of effort compared having them plant hay. Not only because dandelions are less nutrition, but because colonists need to replant them as animals eat them which often pulls them away from other tasks. The point of grazing is it's free and zero effort, if your pen isn't large enough to feed animals through natural grass growth then you supplement it with a bit of extra hay for the most efficiency. Planting dandelions in a pen basically defeats the point of grazing and just adds more work for your colonists, you are both taking away from the free natural plant growth happening in the pen and using a less efficient source of nutrition.

There are reasons you might want to use dandelions, like on a permanent summer arid shrubland when you simply don't want to deal with hay stockpiles/storage. But you are trading pawn efficiency for player convenience in that case.

Natural plant growth in the pen provides FAR less nutrition and doesn't regrow fast enough to replenish the nutrition as quickly as planting dandelions. Unlike haygrass, dandelions don't need to be harvested and carried to a stockpile. They're quick to plant, too.

Ultimately there's no "right" answer, but you're seriously downplaying the advantages of dandelions and overplaying the effectiveness of "natural" growth grazing.

[marcusaddamsson]

Astasia's observations are spot on, per usual. However, I'm still a proponent of the dandelions. Mind you, one of my favorite mods is the Priorities for Growing Zones (or whatever it's called officially)... so I'll just flip it up/down depending on how much time I can steal from my grower at that moment in time.

One of the really nice aspects of dandelions (esp early/mid-game) is you can keep your footprint smaller, *and* give you grower even more practice... since it seems like I'm always in a footrace to get 'em to lvl 8 or 10... and having your grower in the 15+'s is even better. They can knock out stuff really fast at that point.

I look at the dandelions in my pastures as a resource just like any other. I would prefer it gets utilized efficiently, but animals graze where they wish, kinda. Cuz with a bit of tweaking here and there over time, you can actually get pretty decent efficiency from dandelions. Planting the larger portion of the field at once helps, especially if your animal beds are all clustered somewhere.. you can see the line they've been grazing up to, etc.

That said... um... I've been wrestling with the idea that almost any animals are too much animals, unless it's a few horses. Especially once you go back to Astasia's original premise: too much effort/time, not enough gain. Just hunt 'em, skin 'em, eat 'em and be done with it. Yum!