Feeding Wargs

[マルコ]

Should I give them human corpses or butchered human meat?
Maybe there is some mechanic I don't know about, like maybe if you let them devour a corpse they will waste a lot and get less nutrition while butchering first would yeld more.
Any mechanic like that? Or is exactly the same thing?

[Kittenpox]

If you have a Psychopath/Cannibal to do the butchering, then I'd go with meat (in part for the Cooking skill gain from raider-recycling).
But if not, then they should be able to eat the corpses as they are.

As for nutrition values, I'd have to check in-game (but hopefully someone else knows) though I suspect that the state of the corpse - such as if you shot their legs off - might contribute to how much is still left for eating.

It was only today that I found out about this page, but people have yet to add that info here: https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Human_resources

[Dracupuncture]

well, there are a few avenues to feeding them (or any other carnivore/omnivore) mind you this knowledge is pre 1.3.

1. let them eat the corpses;; make a small room, keep it cool and chuck your dead enemies in there they will eat as you have described, not sure of numbers regarding efficiency though.
   
2. make kibble, stick it next to their beds (it doesn't expire and thus is quite handy but does require both meat and veg)
   
3. if you have surplus food (which you should after your base is well established) just let them eat the meals. this is awfully inefficient but I am lazy and can cope with such wastefulness
   
4. don't let them eat anything of yours and let them wander freely, they will attack local fauna for food without your input. (you just gotta hope they will win the fight) beware this may result in unexpected deaths due to rng or modded creatures that your pets don't realise will wreck them.

hope this helps.

Edit: just to clarify you can certainly butcher for human meat and then turn that into kibble or leave as meat, but like the other gentleman said; have a psycho or cannibal do the butchering otherwise your colonist will get a big mood debuff

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Kittenpox:

If you have a Psychopath/Cannibal to do the butchering

Or Bloodlust.

As for nutrition values, I'd have to check in-game (but hopefully someone else knows) though I suspect that the state of the corpse - such as if you shot their legs off - might contribute to how much is still left for eating.

When animals eat a corpse they chew off body parts, until they eventually eat the torso and the corpse disappears. If it's missing body parts there will be less to eat (but it will also reduce the meat and leather yield from butchering).

Originally posted by Dracupuncture:

make kibble, stick it next to their beds (it doesn't expire and thus is quite handy but does require both meat and veg)

if you have surplus food (which you should after your base is well established) just let them eat the meals. this is awfully inefficient but I am lazy and can cope with such wastefulness

Wargs, unlike every other creature in the game, can't eat meals or kibble. They can only eat raw meat or corpses.


Another important thing to note in the comparison between the two options is that you don't get human leather if you let them eat the corpses. Human leather is good money, and Cannibals and Bloodlusters can get a mood bonus from wearing it.

[Dracupuncture]

huh, never knew that till now regarding wargs, my apologies.

[Grundlator]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

When animals eat a corpse they chew off body parts, until they eventually eat the torso and the corpse disappears. If it's missing body parts there will be less to eat (but it will also reduce the meat and leather yield from butchering).

So is the total nutritional value of the corpse equal to or less than what you'd get if you butchered it?

[Astasia]

Butchering (at a butcher table with full butchering efficiency) always gives much more nutritional value than the corpse.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Having a pawn with the right traits to do human butchering certainly helps, but don't forget you also get a colony wide penalty (for those without such traits) as well.

It isn't such a huge penalty that it can't be overcome via other buffs, just be aware of it!

[Caz]

I just leave the corpses out for my pet wargs. I usually kill things as far from my base as I'm able to, so it just means Floofy and Snarls have to get some exercise in when they wanna eat.

[Tidal Resonance]

As others noted, butchering the corpse yields a higher nutrition output (and gets you human leather and equipment on the corpse), however it will cause a non-stacking modest colony wide mood debuff for some time.

I would say that if you have a pawn with Psychopath, Cannibal, or Bloodust to handle the butchering then butcher, however if you lack a pawn with one of those traits, just have the wargs haul the corpses into the freezer and let them eat the bodies.

[TwoTonGamer]

I've always liked wargs as they will not eat prepared meals, so I don't have to worry about them eating the 'people' food. (Oh, they eat a different 'people' food...made from people...haha.)

There are usually so many raider corpses that, in most cases, butchering for more meat is not really necessary. Butchering takes time from a colonist and also gives a colony wide mood penalty, so I skip that step.

Pro tip, place your warg kennel (sleeping spots) next to the corpse freezer so that the corpses are the closest food when the wargs wake up. Also, make the corpse freezer a dead end so that you get no colonist foot traffic casually strolling through.

[マルコ]

thanks for the answers :)
Kind of unrelated but doesn't deserve it's own topic: Can I mod my War(do)g into a bionic Warg?

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Tidal Resonance:

As others noted, butchering the corpse yields a higher nutrition output (and gets you human leather and equipment on the corpse)

You don't need to butcher a corpse to get its equipment. Stripping it will do exactly that. You can even strip them out in the wilderness and just let the garbage you don't want deteriorate rather than actively dealing with it.

Originally posted by TwoTonGamer:

Also, make the corpse freezer a dead end so that you get no colonist foot traffic casually strolling through.

If you store them on shelves then you don't need to worry about pawns seeing the bodies and complaining about it.

[SoaringMule967]

Dunno how viable wargs will be with this coming patch/dlc though. I've been playing on the beta and wargs seemed to have been nerfed to hell. They can only attack now, no hauling or rescuing. Which makes sense, they have been horrifically busted for a while now and were always my go to pets but still my sweet little hell hounds are basically useless to me now. Outside of freeing up a colonist when it comes to hunting I suppose.

[RCMidas]

Useful if you plan on assaulting enemy bases though. Very specialised, as they ought to be.

[Astasia]

Wargs don't do well on caravans. Unless you have an objective less than 2 days away, or it's deep winter, you can't really bring them anywhere without them starving to death on the way. This is one of the main reasons I never use them.

Sounds like another case of the popular option being nerfed even though it wasn't very good, like boars.