Animal Care

Give animals food, water, a roof and enough room. They handle everyday care themselves; brushing and treats are optional bonuses.

Start with a small herd you can get to know, then improve their home and choose promising breeding stock.

Open /hl → Animal Care for the short in-game guide.

Your first farm

1. Choose a group from the table below. Leave room for each animal to move and rest.
2. Add its forage and bedding. Keep them nearby with clear paths.
3. Provide drinking water. Use still water or a water-filled cauldron. Leave a clear standing place right beside it.
4. Build a roof. Give the barn an open entrance, enough headroom and space inside.
5. Hold a brush. Item bubbles show what managed animals are doing. Sneak-brush one for details and a useful tip.

Animal	Group	Food in the habitat	Bedding	Products
Cow	2 or more	Grass blocks	Hay or moss	Milk, meat, leather
Goat	2 or more	Grass blocks	Hay or moss	Milk, meat
Sheep	3 or more	Grass blocks	Hay or moss	Milk, meat, wool
Pig	2 or more	Mud or muddy mangrove roots	Hay or moss	Meat
Chicken	3 or more	Planted crops on farmland	Hay or moss	Eggs, meat
Frog	2 or more	Firefly bushes	Moss blocks or moss carpet	Meat

Crowding counts all six livestock species together, including wild animals. Same-species companions satisfy company.

Dropped food does not replace these habitat blocks. Dairy animals also graze grass to refill milk, so leave grass available to regrow. No special trough or registered pen is needed.

Keep forage and bedding within sixteen horizontal blocks of where animals spend their time, with a clear route. They remember successful feeding spots, but still need to be able to reach them. Eating and drinking have quiet nearby sounds.

Wild animals use ordinary vanilla behaviour by default. Breed supported livestock with their usual food to get a managed youngster with a farm name. Name tags override that name. Frogspawn and thrown eggs do not track ancestry; server owners can change enrollment in the settings.

Read the brush display

Brush normally to give an eligible bonus and show a short status display. Sneak-brush for the animal's name, mood and activity, five need bars, Yield / Quality, and known parents.

Beside the mood, look for what they are doing or want: Drinking, Looking for forage, or Would like brushing. Taking it easy means no care task is active. Hover that phrase for a short explanation; brushing and treat wishes are optional extra attention.

Each need uses an item icon and four coloured squares. Hover a bar for its percentage and one line of help. Food, water, rest and comfort fill as they improve. Company is green in the middle, red when lonely or crowded. A mixed crowd can be overcrowded and still lack companions of the same species. Crowding starts above ten other livestock within four blocks and builds gradually. Even at maximum density, crowding alone will not make a healthy animal distressed; spreading out helps it reach its best moods.

The product row shows an item and a yield multiplier. Food products also show quality dice; wool and leather use yield only. Hover a product for its permanent traits and any birth-quality bonus. Adult pigs also show one Pig Casing, a fixed Normal-quality drop without inherited traits. Comparisons use only the immediately previous inspection: a different animal of the same species, within 60 seconds.

A Barrier on a bubble means a resource or path is blocked. Hearts mean care finished. A tip appears when there is something useful to fix; an animal already drinking does not need another water reminder.

Get to know the herd

Some animals love brushing; others prefer a treat. Offering their favourite food or preferred care reveals a little more about them. Hover their name in sneak-brush inspection to remember what they like. Pigs favour one of their usual vegetables, and chickens one of the common seeds; wheat-fed animals and frogs keep their familiar foods.

A wish is an optional invitation to spend a moment together. Brushing or giving a treat can fulfil it with a short happy reaction. A wish stays until fulfilled, even through sleep or a restart. There is no reaction deadline, and another wish waits at least one active day after completion. Wishes use the existing attention bonus and daily limits, and skipping one adds no penalty. Your habitat still handles everyday care.

Give pigs a patch of mud or muddy mangrove roots. When happy and relaxed, they can pause to play, kicking up little mud sprays with quiet squelches. They stop when they need care or sleep. The blocks stay intact.

First birth → first harvest

1. Breed a pair and keep the youngster near companions. It prefers a reachable mother but can use other animals of its species.
2. Sneak-brush different animals to compare product traits. Offspring inherit around the parental average, with some variation. Keep promising animals and compare several births.
3. Let the youngster grow with good care. Genes set potential; care helps it produce better items.
4. Milk adults, collect eggs or shear sheep. Turn the food into cheese, meat dishes or egg recipes.

Click Mother or Father to highlight a loaded, visible parent privately for ten seconds, within 64 blocks in the same world. An unavailable parent keeps its place in the ancestry.

x 1.50 means an average of one and a half items across repeated harvests: small bonuses carry forward. Dice show food quality. Wool and leather have no quality grade. Ordinary eggs with the same material, grade and metadata stack together; different colours, grades, names or food history can keep stacks separate.

If something looks wrong

What you see	What to change
Looking for water	Give the animal a clear standing place beside still water or a filled cauldron. Open gates and remove barriers at the edge.
Looking for forage	Use its habitat block from the table, with an open route. A pig needs mud; a chicken needs planted crops.
Looking for shelter indoors	Check the overhead roof, headroom and usable floor. Leave space beyond the entrance for animals to settle.
Red company bar	Add same-species companions if lonely; spread the herd out if crowded. More bedding cannot fix crowding.
Good traits, poor products	Check the need bars. Hitting causes temporary stress; it does not change genes.

At night animals rest until dawn. While sleeping, their needs do not fall and they stay quiet. A critically hungry or thirsty animal may need care first. Animals also seek cover in rain. Unloaded animals do not accumulate neglect.

For breeding details, livestock sales and server settings, see the Pasture overview.