Question about glossy drecko spawn rates

[SKull]

I have serious trouble getting the first one to spawn in my present base. Once it does, everything is fine. But I am at cycle 200+ now and still have neither found one or managed to breed one in my ranches. Someone suggested feeding them mealwood, but they refuse to eat that, at least in captivity. I had three dreckos in a ranch with 7 mealwood plants and five bristle blossoms. It was the one I had built for the glossy dreckos that evidently don't exist anymore. But they all refused to eat either plant and I eventually had to move them when I got starvation warnings for them.
So now they are living in my converted pepper farm and are eating and breeding normally there. But still almost zero chance of spawning a glossy drecko, which is what I'm interested in. And I can't grow mealwood there anyway.

Really sick of this. Apparently you need luck to get one from the wild early, which I have had a few times too. But three times now I have gone past cycle 200 without a single glossy drecko or egg anywhere on the map. Or in my ranches. Any ideas? And please don't say "feed them mealwood". They don't eat mealwood. I've already tried that, several times.

[!?!]

According to the wiki they only give you 2kg of plastic once every 8 cycles but only if they are immersed in hydrogen which mealwood doesn't grow in so that's a bit of a headache.
If that's true, why even bother with the shearing part and not just go with balm lilllies for the phosphorite?

Also them not eating mealwood sounds like a bug.

[SKull]

Yeah, well, they were starving to death in a ranch filled with mealwood, so something is definitely up. Anyway, you don't just have one glossy. 16 in two ranches is a good number for depending on them for all your plastic production. And it's 50 every time, so adds up pretty fast if you have good ranches. Not sure, but I think the pace of scale growth it affected by pressure, because I had a hugely successful ranch, by my standards, in my last base when I built a water lock and docks to keep high pressure gases in. At about 3,5K pressure they began shooting out scales at a rapid clip.
Anyway, I can't find one now and am very annoyed with this issue. It's like I said the third time this has happened to me since they were added to the game. Even if I can't breed one, I usually find one in the wild to get my breeding program off the ground. Or even an egg for my incubator. But when I don't it is just super frustrating.

[Name Lips]

I know you said not to say it, but the wiki says "A Drecko fed primarily Mealwood will have a chance of producing a Glossy Drecko Egg, with a larger chance given a higher volume of Mealwood consumed."

That sentence makes it sound like feeding them mealwood, which you say they won't eat, is the ONLY way to get glossy dreckos.

[Athor]

are you using planter boxes?

[sgargoyle]

the tile planter boxes work the first planters we get dont they grow the plant 1 tile higher then the Decko can get to. they only eat the growing plant not the meal lice themselves so i would set the meal to not auto harvest and they produce 50kg per shearing not 2k

[sgargoyle]

you can build the hydrogen chamber for them above the meal lice farm if it has a path to get there and back. they dont need a stable but using one is handy for taming and breeding rates but once its tame you can heard them from chamber to chamber feeding them then moving them to a hyd room for scale growth. https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/967595538027936869/AF76DFE9548D755A59248A4A3A98EB6983744EAE/ this kind of set up works and lets them wander ino the other room at will

[SKull]

Originally posted by sgargoyle:

you can build the hydrogen chamber for them above the meal lice farm if it has a path to get there and back. they dont need a stable but using one is handy for taming and breeding rates but once its tame you can heard them from chamber to chamber feeding them then moving them to a hyd room for scale growth. https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/967595538027936869/AF76DFE9548D755A59248A4A3A98EB6983744EAE/ this kind of set up works and lets them wander ino the other room at will

I've obviously done that. The problem was that they just crawl over the mealwood all day long while starving to death. It doesn't work. And no, I am not using planter boxes. Never do.