Animal Petting and full hearts

[Dgo]

1) If I get full hearts in my animals and I stop petting them, will their love decrease? Even if they are well fed and allowed to wander around the farm?

I'm asking cuz currently I have 3 DX coops and 3 DX barns and most of my animals are at 3,5 or 4 hearts. I thought that once they get full 5 hearts their love wouldn't decrease and so I pet them everyday. However if their love decreases I may sell animals and demolish buildings because petting them every freaking day takes too much time.

2) Also how many coops, barns do you have? Is there an ideal comp for them? I mean like barn: 3/3/3/3 (3 of each) or maybe more cows and less goats, etc. Same with coops.

I'd appreciate ppl who read the question and answer what I'm asking cuz already asked this b4 w/o a proper answer.

[Automaton Spy]

I think letting them outside without them getting fed / getting them LOCKED outside DOES decrease their love, but it doesn't decrease naturally.

[I Kinda Fail]

I think in terms of how many animals you should have is dependent on the player.

For example, someone who likes ranching would have a lot, but someone who just wants to own them and forget about them might be better with just 1 or do.

Typical rule of thumb for each animal:

Cows: More profit per day than goats, but more work. I would only go above 1 barn of these if I had an auto-collector, and even then only if I just had leftover farming space or was going down the ranching path. Milking is annoying.

Goats: Slightly less money than cows, but only need to be checked every 2 days - good for busier players who don't want to focus too much on their animals.

Sheep: The next step up from goats, you can check them less often for slightly less profit per day, I think. Still, they're one of the best animals for a dedicated rancher, since they give wool daily.

Pigs: Great animal for every style of player. Gives decent money to the lazy farmer, gives more truffles to a dedicated rancher. Downside is that it's useless in Winter, and needs to be let outside. The other animals can be kept locked up.

I personally prefer to keep my animals separate: cows in one barn, sheep in another. But I would combine cows and goats if you had an auto-milker, but cows are better money, so there's not much reason to have goats at that point unless it's for gifting or personal preference.


Basically, if you plan to have 500+ crops, I personally wouldn't recommend having more than 2 barns. I also don't bother petting all my animals, though, as it typically isn't worth the time taken unless I've got one of the Rancher perks. (Faster friendship)

Not 100% sure about coops. I assume the same formula. Chickens are better money than ducks, but ducks need to be checked only every 2 days. Ducks are really only viable for the rare drops, like the universally loved duck feather and the duck mayo for that one Easter egg. They are cute, though. :P Same with rabbits, they're typically worse than sheep in every way, and as far as I can tell there's no set amount of time for them to produce wool... and rabbits don't benefit from the Rancher perks at all as far as I can tell, except maybe giving rabbit feet, which is also universally loved.

TL;DR version:

Barns: Cows and pigs are best, don't go above 2 barns, get an auto-grabbed from Marnie at level 10 Farming, sheep only good if you take the Shepherd perks.

Coops: Chickens #1. Dinosaurs and rabbits trash. Ducks are cute.

[Dgo]

I want to say that I have auto collectors.

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

I also don't bother petting all my animals, though, as it typically isn't worth the time taken

So how about their hearts? Aren't they decreasing because you don't even care to pet them? Aren't their products becoming worse every time?

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by Daegoth Vilfariel:

I want to say that I have auto collectors.

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

I also don't bother petting all my animals, though, as it typically isn't worth the time taken

So how about their hearts? Aren't they decreasing because you don't even care to pet them? Aren't their products becoming worse every time?

No, lol. I'm fine with making 150g per day instead of 200g, though, if it means less work and time. You still raise their hearts a tiny bit if you manually milk them, but if you have auto-collectors you may as well pet whoever's closest to the door. I don't usually bother with animals though.