RimWorld is a game that takes place in the future. While human beings have traveled across the world and beyond, there is no steady progress between these colonies. Here, your decisions matter most as they can endanger a colony or help it progress. As you go about in these colonies you can do all kinds of things, from combat to saving colonists and even animals. But once you’ve got your own pets or cattle, how do you keep them from starving out? In this Gamer Tweak guide, we will show you how to feed animals in their pen or around the world in RimWorld.
Live birthSee also:
Female animals that give live birth become pregnant when a male animal approaches them and mates. Only tamed animals may breed. An animals gestation period specifies how long a females pregnancy will last.
A pregnant animal suffering malnutrition or that is injured may miscarry. Miscarriages are noted by an in-game message.
Live births produce filth in the form of amniotic fluid.
Some animals will give birth to multiple young. The probability of this is determined by a curve, and is different for each animal.
Animals can breed with their own family members without penalty, even for repeated generational incest, allowing a pair of 2 animals to eventually propagate into a packed room of the species of animal.
For the first 600 ticks (10 secs) the pregnancy condition will be invisible, after which point a message will come up mentioning the pregnancy and the hediff will be displayed.
| Stage | Begins at | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| Early-stage | >0 Severity |
|
| Middle-stage | >0.333 Severity |
|
| Late-stage | >0.666 Severity |
|
| Birth | 1.0 Severity |
|
Egg-laying animals include the Cassowary, Chicken, Cobra, Duck, Emu, Goose, Iguana, Ostrich, Tortoise, Turkey as of 1.1. Females become fertilized after mating with males, causing them to lay fertilized eggs. Most animals will not lay unfertilized eggs, with the exception of chickens, ducks, and geese.
Fertilized eggs display their progress on the inspect pane and hatch when ready.
Fertilized eggs can be ruined by temperature if not kept within their safe temperature range of 0 °C – 50 °C (32 °F – 122 °F).
The inspect pane will indicate Overheating or Freezing followed by a percentage rising up to 100%. It increases by 0.003% per 1 °C (1.8 °F) outside the safe temperature range each tick. This status is halted when safe temperate is restored, but it is not reset – if the temperature is unsafe again, it will pick up where it left off. If it reaches 100% the egg is ruined by temperature and will not hatch even if returned to a suitable area. A ruined egg still has full nutritional value and can be used to make a meal (or eaten raw, with a mood debuff).
SterilizationMain article:
Animals can be sterilized by way of an operation to prevent them even attempting to breed with another animal. As such they will never reproduce.
While most carnivorous animals can eat raw meat, corpses, kibble, and meals, Wargs can only eat raw meat and corpses.
All strictly herbivorous animals and some omnivorous animals (notably pigs and boars) can eat live plants (except trees) and haygrass. Dendrovorous animals such as the alphabeaver and thrumbo can eat trees, in addition to other plant-based foods.
Because all animals except wargs can eat meals, kibble, and pemmican, it is possible to feed meat to herbivores or plants to carnivores if it is prepared first.
Animals have the same set-up as humans when it comes to health, minus the ability to operate on them (except euthanasia)(The option to amputate an infected limb can become available once infection sets in, at least on Thrumbos—assuming other animals as well). They feel pain, and have all of the different health stats that human pawns possess. Animals can become addicted to beer, and they suffer the same negative health alcohol effects as humans. Keep them away from alcohol. Animals need to have an animal bed (or sleeping spot) in order to be healed.
Like humans, they have a life expectancy, and are affected by chronic diseases. There is no way to cure them in the base game other than Healer mech serum, which would be incredibly expensive.
A tamed animal that requires tending will find the nearest animal bed or animal sleeping spot in their allowed area and rest there until it is either fully healed or dead. Pawns assigned to doctoring will tend its wounds or illnesses and feed it, just as they would do for a humanlike pawn. If all human colonists are absent or unable to care for a sick animal, it can die of starvation even if there is food nearby and it is capable of walking.
Animals have half the Toxic Sensitivity of humans by default.
Wild animals may be marked for hunting, done by hunters with ranged weapons, who will proceed to shoot them at maximum range, before executing them with a neck cut when they are downed (except explosive animals). After killing their target, they will haul the carcass to a stockpile zone even if they are naturally incapable of hauling, but will not start hauling it again if theyre interrupted.
Animals harmed by hunting that were not killed yet may become enraged and if its a pack type, its full horde may turn hostile against the entire colony. If they are non-aggressive animals they usually flee instead.
Hunting may take longer during bad weather since theres a shooting modifier while its raining or snowing that makes it more likely for shots to miss.
To mark animals to be hunted use one of the following methods:
- Melee blocking could be a valuable tactic to defeat the rampaging animals. In addition to making it easier to defeat the animals even when outnumbered, it also keeps your downed colonists near your base for easy rescue.
Animals all have three different life stages – baby, juvenile and adult. The growth at which they enter the juvenile and adult life stages is determined for each animal separately. Animals may have different graphics for different life stages (e.g. deer), or may simply appear smaller. Some animals have a specific name for this stage (e.g. chick). Eventually, they reach the final life stage, adulthood. Animals have different sounds (call, anger, wounded, death) for different life stages. Babies may simply make a higher pitched sound, or have a different sound altogether (such as chicks). Only upon reaching adulthood can animals reproduce, produce wool or milk, or carry riders in caravans.
| Baby Bird | Baby | Juvenile | Adult | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Body Size | 10% | 20% | 50% | 100% |
| Hunger | 40% | 40% | 75% | 100% |
| Max Food | 60% | 60% | 75% | 100% |
| Health Scale | 25% | 25% | 60% | 100% |
| Market Value | 40% | 40% | 75% | 100% |
| Move Speed | 50% | 50% | 90% | 100% |
| Melee Damage | 50% | 50% | 75% | 100% |
The reduction in Body Size of babies and juveniles also affects several other stats, such as Meat and Leather Amount
Animals require food and sleep and will fulfil their needs on their own.
Food: Animals will eat any available food according to their diet. Herbivorous animals of the colony can be left to eat grass on their own. Note that animals require different amounts of food compared to humans, as represented by their Hunger Rate.
Rest: Animals will sleep as needed. Tamed animals will sleep in animal sleeping spots, animal sleeping boxes, or animal beds. If none of which are available, the animal will crash out on the ground inside its allowed zone. A tamed animal will not sleep as long as its master is drafted.
Animals can be tamed and put to use in the colony, providing several benefits. Some species can be trained to perform one or possibly more tasks (Guard, Attack, Rescue, Haul), and will wander about your colony freely. Other species, which can loosely be considered “farm animals”, can only be tamed and then put in a pen. This second category can never be trained.
Wild animals can be tamed by a animal handler with sufficient Animal skill and available food. Tamed animals may be bred, trained, traded, slaughtered, or farmed.
Wild animals may be marked for taming using the Tame button.
An animal handler will attempt to tame marked animals using food fitting that animals diet. The chance to tame an animal depends on the animals wildness (displayed on the info window) and the handlers Tame animal chance stat. This stat is determined by the colonists animals skill, manipulation, talking, and hearing. When a handler fails to tame an animal there is a cooldown period of 30,000 ticks (8.33 mins), or 12 in-game hours, before another attempt can be made. There is also a chance it will turn manhunter and start attacking the handler and others. The revenge chance is shown on the Wildlife menu. After a while the handler may drop unused food. Tamed animals will wander around the map until they are restricted to a designated area or lead to a pen with a pen marker. Restricting animal movement using areas is usually necessary to prevent unwanted food consumption and animal filth.
Besides the animal handlers own skill, the wildness of the animals also counts.
Tame chances undergo a post-processing curve.
Currently, the hardest to tame animal is the Thrumbo with a post-processed taming chance of 3%.[Fact Check]
Animals with 0% wildness remain tame forever. An animal with a wildness above 0% (shown on the wildlife tab) needs to have maintenance training in Tameness. If it loses all Tameness it will go back to being wild.
Some animals require a minimum skill before they can be handled. The game will prompt the player if no colonist has enough skill to handle the animal. In this case a colonist has only 1 point as an utter beginner and has learning ability, the easiest…
An animals handling skill requirement is calculated as follows:
Skill = 9 * (wildness – 0.3) / 0.7[Fact Check]
So animals with a wildness of 30% or less wont require any handling skill whatsoever.
For most scenarios, new colonies will include a random pet that is already tamed. These pets will have a random name and have a chance to be bonded with a pawn. The animals available are determined by the handling skills of the starting pawn(s), as the game will not provide a pet that cannot be handled by the colony. This rule is broken when all colonists have animal handling disabled, as the game will still provide animals that require periodic taming.
The chance of getting an animal is influenced by the “petness” stat, with a higher value resulting in a higher chance. The selection of animals also influences the chances, as a Husky has a 26% chance of being selected with the highest handling skill at 0, while at level 8+ the chance is only 12%. Hares, snowhares, capybaras and cobras are all under 1% chance due to the petness being so low and the animal handling being so high.
Animals may bond with their handlers or doctors, and starting “pets” (see previous) have a chance to start the game bonded with a random starting colonist. A bond gives a +5 mood bonus to the animals “owner”, and the animal may follow the owner around. If separated for an extended period, that changes to a -3 penalty, and if the animal dies there is a -8 mood penalty for 20(!) days.
Bonded animals are also be easier to train (5x multiplier on chance).
On the death of the pawn an animal is bonded with, it can go into one of two animal mental breaks; manhunter, in which it will attack all nearby entities, or confusion, in which it will wander around, uncontrollable, similar to dazed humans.
Tamed animals can be trained by colonists. With Guard trained, they will follow their master around if designated to do so.
Some animals can be milked or sheared, which will be handled if necessary. Only adult animals can be milked.
Occasionally, animals can nuzzle colonists, giving the colonist a mood buff. Animals can nuzzle anyone regardless of handling skill.
When injured, they will go to animal sleeping spots/ beds for rest and treatment.
Newly tamed animals get numerical designations so you can tell them apart (“Muffalo 1”, “Muffalo 2”, etc.). The game names certain animals when tamed or bought. Others are named when they form a bond with a colonist Names can be changed by the player from the “Training” Tab.
Animals without a pet name may have a gender-specific name (i.e. hen, rooster, buck, doe), or a lifestage-specific name (piglet, warg puppy), or even a gender/lifestage-specific name (cockerel).
Names of tamed animals are not shown on the map unless the option is turned on. See Menu, Options, Show animal names.
It is possible for animals which have been lost or sold to reappear later as part of a wild herd. This will only happen with animals which occur naturally on your colonys biome. They will still have the name you gave them (including automatic names like “Muffalo 2”), but will need to be tamed and trained again.
Tamed animals may be trained depending on their trainable intelligence. Click the animals training tab to specify training and view progress.
The stats of the training pawn, including Animals skill or Global Work Speed, have no effect on how fast each training session is completed. Instead, increased skill improves a pawns Train Animal Chance, resulting in the animal requiring fewer training attempts in the first place.
Once Guard is trained, they can be assigned a master which they will follow. You can configure when the animals will follow their master, by toggling whether or not the animal will follow while doing field work (hunting/taming), or while drafted.
Many skills require multiple steps to fully train.
After a training attempt on a tamed animal, there is a 6 in-game hour waiting period before that same animal can be trained again.
Since Beta 19 skills now decay over time. The speed at which skills decay is dependent on wildness of the animal. For most animals their wildness is high enough such that their tameness decrease over time, such that they will eventually return to the wild if not maintained. For this reason, if you do not have enough skilled animal handlers to keep an animals skills fresh, it is best to sell or slaughter it before it loses tameness.
Guard: (Training intelligence required: Simple, Steps: 3)
Attack: (Training intelligence required: Intermediate, Steps: 5)
Rescue: (Training intelligence required: Advanced, Steps: 2)
Haul: (Training intelligence required: Advanced, Steps: 7)
| Animal | Move Speed | Carrying Capacity | Haul Throughput | Wildness | Hunger Rate | Filth Rate | Juvenile Age | Maturity Age | Min Temperature | Max Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arctic wolf | 5 | 64 | 320 | 85% | 0.29 | 2 | 12 | 30 | -55 | 40 |
| Carrier | 2.4 | 50 | 120 | 0% | – | 1 | – | – | -50 | 50 |
| Cougar | 5 | 75 | 375 | 80% | 0.32 | 2 | 15 | 30 | -25 | 40 |
| Elephant | 4.8 | 300 | 1440 | 75% | 2.57 | 24 | 18 | 39.96 | -12 | 50 |
| Grizzly bear | 4.6 | 161 | 740.6 | 80% | 0.56 | 4 | 12 | 30 | -40 | 40 |
| Husky | 5 | 65 | 325 | 0% | 0.8 | 1 | 15 | 30 | -50 | 40 |
| Labrador retriever | 5 | 56 | 280 | 0% | 0.64 | 1 | 15 | 30 | -30 | 40 |
| Megasloth | 4.8 | 300 | 1440 | 97% | 1.6 | 24 | 19.98 | 40.02 | -55 | 40 |
| Megaspider | 3.6 | 90 | 324 | 40% | 0.56 | 1 | 1.8 | 12 | -40 | 60 |
| Panther | 5 | 75 | 375 | 80% | 0.32 | 2 | 15 | 30 | -8 | 50 |
| Polar bear | 4.6 | 161 | 740.6 | 85% | 0.56 | 4 | 12 | 30 | -55 | 40 |
| Spelopede | 3.65 | 60 | 219 | 30% | 0.4 | 1 | 1.8 | 12 | -25 | 60 |
| Thrumbo | 5.5 | 300 | 1650 | 98.5% | 2.8 | 8 | 45 | 79.92 | -65 | 50 |
| Timber wolf | 5 | 64 | 320 | 85% | 0.29 | 2 | 12 | 30 | -40 | 40 |
Once Guard is trained, animals will gather around their master upon drafting, and will attack nearby threats, or (unintentionally) block ranged attacks for their master. This is configurable and can be disabled by disabling follow during drafted.
With Attack trained, animals can be released to attack threats from a distance. Even colonists incapable of Violence can send their assigned animals into battle.
Animals can be downed during combat, and can be rescued by colonists or other animals capable of Rescue.
Certain tame animals produce milk, wool, or eggs. Shearing sometimes fails, indicated with a brief “product wasted” message.
| Animal | Eggs Per Clutch Average | Egg Laying Interval | Eggs Per Season Average | Can Lay Unfertilized Eggs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cassowary | 1 | 3.33 | 4.5 | false |
| Chicken | 1 | 1 | 15 | true |
| Cobra | 1.5 | 10 | 2.25 | false |
| Duck | 1 | 1 | 15 | true |
| Emu | 1 | 3.33 | 4.5 | false |
| Goose | 1 | 2 | 7.5 | true |
| Iguana | 1.5 | 5.661 | 3.97 | false |
| Ostrich | 1 | 3.33 | 4.5 | false |
| Tortoise | 2 | 6.66 | 4.5 | false |
| Turkey | 1 | 1.333 | 11.25 | false |
| Animal | Milk Amount | Milking Interval | Daily Milk Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[Caribou]] | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| [[Cow]] | 14 | 1 | 14 |
| [[Dromedary]] | 18 | 2 | 9 |
| [[Elk]] | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| [[Goat]] | 12 | 3 | 4 |
| [[Yak]] | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| Animal | Wool Amount | Shearing Interval | Daily Wool Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[Alpaca]] | 45 | 10 | 4.5 |
| [[Bison]] | 120 | 15 | 8 |
| [[Megasloth]] | 200 | 20 | 10 |
| [[Muffalo]] | 120 | 15 | 8 |
| [[Sheep]] | 45 | 10 | 4.5 |
| Animal | Chemfuel Amount | Milking Interval | Daily Chemfuel Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[Boomalope]] | 11 | 1 | 11 |
Tamed animals may be slaughtered selecting the animal and clicking the Slaughter button, or by using the Slaughter tool from the Orders menu. An animal marked in this way will be slaughtered by an animal handler. The handler need not be equipped with a weapon. You can also set up an auto-slaughter order in the animals tab, configurable to limit the amount of male, female, and pregnant animals in a pen.
Animals killed through means other than slaughtering (hunting, combat, etc) suffer a 66% multiplier to Meat Amount and Leather Amount.
Ordering a surgeon to perform a “euthanize by cut” operation on an animal counts as carefully slaughtering them.
If you try to slaughter a bonded animal, the game will warn you about it due to the mood impact this has on the animals master.
How to Feed Animals in a Pen In RimWorld
There are two ways to feed animals in RimWorld. Within their pen or in allotted zones in the game. Here is how you can do both:
FAQ
How do you keep animals out of building in RimWorld?
Can you bury animals RimWorld?
How do you train animals in RimWorld?