Animal husbandry

Main / Skills / Nature / Animal husbandry

Warning: this article is work in progress. Expect frequent changes.
Due to the animal update this page is undergoing a lot of updates and maybe be incorrect for a bit.

Description

Animal husbandry allows for the production (breeding) of new creatures, sometimes with increased quality, without the need to wait for new spawns.

Grooming

• Grooming is a way to reduce the risk of disease in animals. It gives Animal Husbandry skill.
  • Activate a grooming brush and select groom while right-clicking on a groomable creature. This can be done to each animal once per hour.
  • Grooming can be done while moving (and while mounted), so long as you do not move too far away (two tiles) from the tile you are currently working on.
  • At AH skill level 40, you will be able to see when the animal will be available for grooming again.

Shearing

• Shearing is another activity which gives animal husbandry skill.
  • Activate scissors and select shear from the right-click menu on a sheep.
  • Wool bundles are put directly into your inventory upon shearing.
    • Sheared wool weight seems to vary depending on age: Young 0.1kg, Adolescent 0.2kg, Mature 0.3kg, Aged 0.4kg, Old 0.5kg, Venerable 0.6kg.
  • Shearing can be done while moving, so long as you do not move too far away (two tiles) from the tile you are currently working on.
  • Shearing can not be done while mounted.

Breeding

• To breed, lead one animal with a rope (or any item should it be wearing a bridle) and approach the second. When they are close enough together right click on the second animal and select the "Breed" option.
  • Neither animal should be hungry.
  • Animals do not have to be "fat" to breed, only "no longer interested in food" (when trying to feed them). Grass eaters will typically be in this state after a minute or 2 on grass or crops.
  • If too hungry or low on fat animals can die when giving birth.
  • Animals can have miscarriages which may kill the mother with no offspring spawned. Starvation, being off-deed, or being on a deed with an animal-to-tile ratio of 15 or less (see character > settlement > info to see current deed ratio) are known as the reasons for miscarriages.
  • Tamed animals who are pregnant can lose the baby if they go offline when you do.
  • Both animals should be of the same species, except in the case of horses and donkeys. When breeding a female horse and male donkey, the foal is a mule.
  • Some animals require taming before being led; this does not apply to the second animal.
  • Females will not breed while they are pregnant. Once the female gives birth, she will not be in mood for breeding for 24 real hours.
  • Age is a factor in breeding: Juvenile animal types (calves, foals, lambs, and seal cubs) will not breed, neither will young/early adolescent animals. (Horses will breed at 25 rl days old)
  • Pregnancy times varies from 5-11 Wurm weeks, regardless of species.
    • Examining the animal will show the remaining days left until birth; for example, She will deliver in about 4 days. This is approximately 4 days, or 4 Wurm weeks.
  • Breeding female animals with conditions such as Champion will provide a chance that the offspring will also have that characteristic. This chance is dramatically increased when breeding two animals with the same condition together. (Two Champions for example.)
  • Breeding two animals with the same trait greatly increases the chance that the offspring will have the trait.
  • The horse name is determined at birth, the traits are determined at breeding.
  • The horse's color from birth is determined based on a combination of the mother's color, father's color, and random chance, similarly to traits.
  • Breeding can be done while moving, so long as you do not move too far away (two tiles) from the tile you are currently working on.

Inbreeding

• Inbreeding occurs when an offspring is bred with either of its parents or a sibling. Inbreeding has an increased chance to pass bad traits if the parents have bad traits, but does not inherently create a bigger chance for bad traits in the offspring. Inbreeding may be unavoidable in small herds; it's advised to seek neighbours to begin a herd if one wishes to avoid inbreeding.
• Inbreeding does not occur past 1 generation. You can breed grandchildren of the same grandparents together with no inbreeding penalty.
  • Important note: if an animal's parent is dead, the parent's name will no longer show up on examining the creature. The game, however, still keeps track of who the parent was.

Messages

animal shys away and interrupts the action  

breeding has failed, the male will not breed again for some time.

animal doesn't seem to be in the mood right now  

the male will not breed again for some time.

the animal may be hungry - feeding the animal will put it back in a breeding mood if this is the case

Traits

• Bred animals have a chance of gaining traits, some positive, some negative, some neutral. Animals may have multiple traits as seen in the table below. All traits are put into the gene pool when breeding and those of the parents will increase the chance of the offspring having the same. Should both parents have the same trait the likelihood of the offspring gaining that trait is even higher.
  • The dominant category is picked from either the mother or the father randomly.
  • If neither parent has traits, all categories of traits receive a bonus to seed the initial traits.
• The breeder's animal husbandry skill level affects the number of traits that will appear in a horse. Bred animals can also have no traits.
  • Traits have point values which influence their chance to pass on and how many traits a bred animal recieves.
  • Players are capped at their animal husbandry level's worth of points for creatures they have bred (80AH= 80 points of traits, for example).
  • Inbreeding will now cause the max point value to be divided by 1.5.
  • There is still a cap of 10 traits per creature (this does not include 0 point traits like bred in captivity).
• Animal husbandry is only partially on the Epic curve. The curved value (effective skill) allows you see traits at that level (not true for bred in captivity trait which requires 60 numerical to see even on epic). The actual value (numerical) is used for computing the number of traits you can breed.
• Traits fall into several categories:
  • Speed: These traits will increase the speed of a creature when riding on them. These traits do not affect the speed of hitched animals.
  • Draft: These traits will increase a creature’s carry weight. They will also now act as speed traits when hitched and give a speed bonus similar to having the speed traits.
  • Combat: These traits increase how tough a creature can be and how well it can fight.
  • Negative: These traits all have negative effects that are generally unwanted.
  • Output: These traits increase results from butchering output, shearing, and milking.
  • Miscellaneous: These traits don’t fit any other category. They may be positive or neutral traits.

Inspect Animal

• The ‘Inspect animal’ ability is gained at 10 Animal Husbandry skill.
• Use ‘Inspect animal’ on bred creatures to see traits.
  • This displays all traits of a creature that you can see with your Animal Husbandry skill level. It also displays the categories of the traits you can’t normally see. With higher skill, you’ll be able to see other details in the Inspect animal window, such as time until a creature can be bred again, time until a creature can be groomed again, or whether a creature is hungry, or age of the creature.
  • Players seem to be able to see when the animal is hungry, breedable, and groomable at an AH level below 50.

Category	Trait name	Effect	Base Skill (Epic Curve Skill)	Value
Combat, Rare	It seems extremely tame	Aggressive animals become passive	?	0
Combat	It seems more friendly	Easier to tame	< 38	5
Combat	It will fight fiercely.	Higher fighting skill	20 (10.56)	10
Combat	It looks more friendly than normal	Less likely to be attacked by aggressive creatures when tame	?	15
Combat	It is a tough bugger.	Withstands more damage	22 (11.68)	15
Combat	It seems especially loyal	keeps loyalty to its tamer longer, loses less when taking damage	?	20
Draft, Rare	It seems stronger than normal	Carry weight bonus	< 42	0
Draft, Rare	It seems more nimble than normal	Increased maximum rideable slope	?	0
Draft	It is easy on its gear	Equipped gear takes less damage	40 (22.54)	10
Draft	It has a strong body.	Bonus to hauling weight limit	23 (12.25)	15
Draft	It can carry more than average.	Major bonus to hauling weight limit	25 (13.40)	20
Draft	It has strong legs	Carry weight bonus	< 39	20
Miscellaneous	Bred in captivity.	Informational, will not count toward the max number of traits	< 53 (31.5)	0
Miscellaneous, Rare	It has a chance to produce twins	Chance to birth twins (only present on female creatures)	44 (25.17)	0
Miscellaneous, Rare	It seems immortal	Will never die as if cared for	< 35	0
Miscellaneous	Horse's color is considered a trait.	Does not count against the trait limit	0	0
Miscellaneous	It has been corrupted.	Grazes on mycelium instead of grass	43 (24.50)
Miscellaneous	It looks unusually strong and healthy.	Has a higher resistance to disease	40 (22.54)	10
Miscellaneous	It has a certain spark in its eyes.	Lives 50% longer than normal	41 (23.19)	10
Miscellaneous	It has a slow metabolism	Eats half as much as a normal animal	45 (25.84)	10
Miscellaneous	It seems stationary	It will stay put as if saddled	<50	10
Miscellaneous	It seems to be a graceful eater	Less chance to reduce the growth stage of a tile when eating	39 (21.90)	10
Negative	It looks extremely sick	Has a very slim chance to pass away when it receives a hunger tick	?	5
Negative	It seems shabby and frail	Reduces output of resources such as milk and wool	< 20	5
Negative	It seems to dislike steep terrain	Decreases ridable slope	< 44	5
Negative	It has malformed hindlegs.	Minor speed penalty	28 (15.15)	5
Negative	The legs are of different length.	Major speed penalty	29 (15.74)	5
Negative	It seems overly aggressive.	Random chance to bite	30 (16.33)	5
Negative	It looks very unmotivated.	Major penalty to mounted weight limit	31 (16.93)	5
Negative	It is unusually strong willed.	Will stop being led at random	32 (17.54)	5
Negative	It has some illness.	Body strength will slowly reduce over time eventually making the animal unrideable	33 (18.15)	5
Negative	It looks constantly hungry.	Becomes hungry twice as fast as normal	34 (18.76)	5
Negative	It looks feeble and unhealthy.	Prone to catching a disease	39 (21.90)	5
Output, Rare	It has very good genes	Increased amount and quality of resources like milk and wool	?	0
Output	It seems to pick stuff up	Chance to dig something up when eating, drops items on the ground	< 38	5
Output	It seems vibrant	Increases the output of resources	< 49	5
Output	It seems prize winning	Gives better products when butchered	< 42	10
Output	It gives more resources	Increases output of resources such as wool and milk	< 39	10
Output	It looks plump and ready to butcher	Gives more products when butchered	< 42	20
Speed	It has fleeter movement than normal.	Minor speed boost	21 (11.12)	10
Speed	It has lightning movement.	Major speed boost	24 (12.82)	20
Speed	It has very strong leg muscles.	Movement speed bonus	26 (13.98)	15
Speed	It seems accustomed to water	Moves faster in shallow waters	27 (14.56)	10
Speed, Rare	It is unbelievably fast	Always on speed bonus similar to hell horses	< 51	0

Caring

• To prevent venerable animals from dying of old age they may be cared for. To care for an animal, stand next to it, right click, and select Care for. The animal will then live indefinitely at the "Venerable" stage.
• If you start caring for that animal this message will appear:

You now care specially for Aged fat Tearbabe, to ensure longevity. You may care for x more creatures.

• The number of animals you may care for is determined by your Animal husbandry skill level.
• 1 animal may be cared for plus 1 additional for every 10 skill in Animal husbandry.
• The corpse of a cared-for animal can be hovered over with the mouse to see the animal's cause of death.
• Hostile creatures must be tamed first before they can be cared for.
• The total number of animals which may be cared for is limited by the Animal husbandry skill of the player. If the player is unable to care for more animals this message will appear:

You may not care for any more creatures right now. You are already caring for 1 creatures.

• Non-premium players can only care for 1 animal.
• The chat command /stopcaring will stop the player from caring for all animals. This message will appear:

You no longer care for the one creature you used to.

• To stop caring for a specific animal right click the animal and select 'care for'.
  • You can also stop caring for a specific animal by right clicking on your inventory or body, then Manage>Animals.
  • A list of all the animals cared for may be listed by using the command /caringfor

Skills & Characteristics

• Nature > Animal husbandry
• Soul > Soul strength
• Soul > Soul depth

Titles

• Drover at 50 skill
• Granger at 70 skill
• Rancher at 90 skill
• Zoologist at 100 skill

See Also

• Nature
  • Animal husbandry
  • Animal taming
  • Botanizing
  • Farming
  • Fishing
  • Foraging
  • Forestry
  • Gardening
  • Meditating
  • Milking
  • Papyrusmaking