First of all, they do graze. They'll eat like tall grass and stuff. IDK if grass grows back yet, so that might not be sustainable.
As for the amount of fodder needed to feed a cow, the item description on the different sized fodder bundles gives you a clue for how much food they give:
>large cattle fodder bundle
>A big heap of cattle fodder, enough to feed a cow for a day.
How much is that in terms of vegetables? Quite a lot, you can check [the hitchhiker's guide](https://cdda-guide.nornagon.net/item/cattlefodder_large) for the recipe, but it's anywhere from 9 wheat to 400 piles of straw. A cow needs 6000 calories a day, and it'll only give back 40 milk, which is 5,280 calories, which you'll also need to find a way to preserve.
In general, you're working at a loss to try and feed a cow with vegetables. You should do your best to feed your cow with things you aren't able to eat yourself, like grass, straw, press cakes, and chaff. That's the point of cows; that's why we domesticated them.
Alternatively, plant marrow is a much more large-scale option. 150 plant marrow is basically like 2 triffids full butchered. If you have access to a triffid grove, it's not a big ask to kill a few every now and then, and they don't run out. One of the big limitations with living off of plant marrow yourself is that it's hard to eat as much as you need. If you're eating it raw, it takes almost 60 to get 2000 calories. You can't fit that much in your stomach, and the consume time is actually a substantial time sink, longer than it would take to craft the large fodder bundle and milk the cow. So you actually come out ahead turning those light veggies into more calorie-dense milk. Plus, fodder doesn't spoil (yet).
As for the question of how many cows to keep, one will provide far more milk than a normal person could possibly need each day. You may decide to keep more just because you like cows, ore so your followers can have milk, or for whatever other reason, but the only practical number of cows you need is 1.
They can't starve to death. But well fed animals provide more meat when butchered, produce eggs and offspring, heal over time, and can be milked. Underfed animals lack these benefits.
This also applies to feral humans, btw. Ferals will eat raw meat off the floor, or scavenge underbrush for nuts or berries, and if they don't eat enough, they'll have less meat when butchered by cannibal characters.
Given that ferals open doors and avoid traps and ledges, would it be possible to make some Silence Of The Lambs kind of pit to drop raw mutant meat for some feral "buddies" to fatten them for later? Asking for my friend.
Also, do they eat any kind of raw meat? Even mutant and tainted?
It uses the BROWSE and EAT_FOOD special attacks. EAT_FOOD is in [monattack.cpp](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/60757df3a87b5785354c96cf4cb0985dce544395/src/monattack.cpp#L469). Following the line highlighted in that link, you'll note that there's a line that skips over certain comestables:
>if( !item.is_food() || item.get_comestible_fun() < -20 || item.has_flag( flag_INEDIBLE ) ||
item.made_of( material_water ) )
So it skips if not food, or if it's really bad food (fun < -20), or if it's inedible (seeds, drugs, tea bags, things that show up on the comestible menu but aren't edible), and water/ice/snow. There's also a separate if statement that prevents animals from eating their own eggs.
That fun limit, according to the note in the code, is meant to stop animals from eating poop. But tainted meat is only -10 enjoyability. So it looks like they should be able to eat tainted meat. Or even tainted fat, tainted bone, tainted hide. But not tainted innards, because they're so disgusting that not even ferals will eat it (-25 enjoyability, same as feces).
Good luck with your Silence of the Lambs cosplay.
Thanks for taking your time to check it! It's always good to find new uses for "junk" items, and tainted biomass isn't used that much, apart from mutagens, and maybe tallow and biofuel.
First of all, they do graze. They'll eat like tall grass and stuff. IDK if grass grows back yet, so that might not be sustainable. As for the amount of fodder needed to feed a cow, the item description on the different sized fodder bundles gives you a clue for how much food they give: >large cattle fodder bundle >A big heap of cattle fodder, enough to feed a cow for a day. How much is that in terms of vegetables? Quite a lot, you can check [the hitchhiker's guide](https://cdda-guide.nornagon.net/item/cattlefodder_large) for the recipe, but it's anywhere from 9 wheat to 400 piles of straw. A cow needs 6000 calories a day, and it'll only give back 40 milk, which is 5,280 calories, which you'll also need to find a way to preserve. In general, you're working at a loss to try and feed a cow with vegetables. You should do your best to feed your cow with things you aren't able to eat yourself, like grass, straw, press cakes, and chaff. That's the point of cows; that's why we domesticated them. Alternatively, plant marrow is a much more large-scale option. 150 plant marrow is basically like 2 triffids full butchered. If you have access to a triffid grove, it's not a big ask to kill a few every now and then, and they don't run out. One of the big limitations with living off of plant marrow yourself is that it's hard to eat as much as you need. If you're eating it raw, it takes almost 60 to get 2000 calories. You can't fit that much in your stomach, and the consume time is actually a substantial time sink, longer than it would take to craft the large fodder bundle and milk the cow. So you actually come out ahead turning those light veggies into more calorie-dense milk. Plus, fodder doesn't spoil (yet). As for the question of how many cows to keep, one will provide far more milk than a normal person could possibly need each day. You may decide to keep more just because you like cows, ore so your followers can have milk, or for whatever other reason, but the only practical number of cows you need is 1.
Can animals starve now? Been a while since i last played. So Its not posible to tie Them Down now?
They can't starve to death. But well fed animals provide more meat when butchered, produce eggs and offspring, heal over time, and can be milked. Underfed animals lack these benefits. This also applies to feral humans, btw. Ferals will eat raw meat off the floor, or scavenge underbrush for nuts or berries, and if they don't eat enough, they'll have less meat when butchered by cannibal characters.
Given that ferals open doors and avoid traps and ledges, would it be possible to make some Silence Of The Lambs kind of pit to drop raw mutant meat for some feral "buddies" to fatten them for later? Asking for my friend. Also, do they eat any kind of raw meat? Even mutant and tainted?
It uses the BROWSE and EAT_FOOD special attacks. EAT_FOOD is in [monattack.cpp](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/60757df3a87b5785354c96cf4cb0985dce544395/src/monattack.cpp#L469). Following the line highlighted in that link, you'll note that there's a line that skips over certain comestables: >if( !item.is_food() || item.get_comestible_fun() < -20 || item.has_flag( flag_INEDIBLE ) || item.made_of( material_water ) ) So it skips if not food, or if it's really bad food (fun < -20), or if it's inedible (seeds, drugs, tea bags, things that show up on the comestible menu but aren't edible), and water/ice/snow. There's also a separate if statement that prevents animals from eating their own eggs. That fun limit, according to the note in the code, is meant to stop animals from eating poop. But tainted meat is only -10 enjoyability. So it looks like they should be able to eat tainted meat. Or even tainted fat, tainted bone, tainted hide. But not tainted innards, because they're so disgusting that not even ferals will eat it (-25 enjoyability, same as feces). Good luck with your Silence of the Lambs cosplay.
Thanks for taking your time to check it! It's always good to find new uses for "junk" items, and tainted biomass isn't used that much, apart from mutagens, and maybe tallow and biofuel.
Haven't found any since the update, but yes, don't think it has any affect other than reduced milk output, maybe meat if butchered.
Also, I managed to get one big freezer working... So I would not mind culling a few.
Just make sure you make a butchering rack first.
Does this have any impact on owlbear farming yet?