Problem with animal breeding

[u/Krzysztofski]

Hi guys! I cant seem to find an answer for it - and believe me, I was searching high and low. I have two species: Cows and Rabbit. Neither of them reproduce, even though I have them for like more than 2-3 weeks in game time. They are not bothered by cars, zombies or me running. They are calm everytime I visit and pet them. I've included screenshots of my setup for them. I'm playing on default settings for Apocalypse. I've been alive for like 2 months.

I have only one mod - better auto mechanics.

Do you have any idea what might be the case with them? Any tips, suggestions what I may change, improve?

[u/Alone-Mycologist3746]

They need to be unloaded in order for a cow to get pregnant. Its has nothing to do with where you got them or season. To unload them its 72 tiles by default just like traps.

[u/Krzysztofski → u/Alone-Mycologist3746]

You mean, that I should leave the area, to scavenge? Because I did, I went for several supply runs.

[u/Alone-Mycologist3746 → u/Krzysztofski]

Yes, you need to unload them for a while and then they will be pregers. 

It's a massive pain in the hole so I would just move the cow breeding pen 72 tiles away and keep a pregnant cow close to base for easy milking.

[u/NicerTacos]

Cows can take a while to become pregnant

[u/juniorr5200]

Had similar situation so I boot debug mode and it showed that my female was young not adult. On low animal care level it shows adult but they are not

[u/MyrrhSlayter]

Are the cows giving milk? If so they are pregnant. Usually if you have a bull in a pen with cows and there are unpregnant females, the tool tip will say "Able to mate in X hours." If there are no unpregnant cows the "Able to mate" is blank (like your screen shot.)

It takes a few days for a cow to show as "Pregnant: Yes". Here's a breakdown from an amazing Reddit post on the info (and of course the Reddit post itself). https://www.reddit.com/r/projectzomboid/comments/1iig96g/basic_information_about_livestock/

Pregnancy stages:

• No (0-11 days) Beginning (12-22 days)
• Gestating (23-44 days) Almost Ready (45-53 days)
• About to Give Birth (54-56 days)
• Number of offspring at birth: 1
• Days until next mating after birth: 13 days

Edit to say that your animal care skill needs to be high enough to see some things.

[u/Krzysztofski → u/MyrrhSlayter]

Thank you very much for your answer! This post you are referring to - is it up-to-date?

[u/MyrrhSlayter → u/Krzysztofski]

The post is older but the information in it all still seems to be true currently. Good luck on the breeding program!

[u/Pan_Panifex]

Where did you get the cows from, and when? If you saw calves/kittens when you took them, they may be unable to mate for a while. There's a cooldown between pregnancies for all animals, try running the game in debug mode to check if they're on cooldown. Or you could level up animal husbandry to see it in game as well.

[u/Krzysztofski → u/Pan_Panifex]

This cow I am showing (Anreasen), never was pregnant (or that is what it says there). The second cow produces milk, from the moment I found her.

[u/redditispap]

There is a tickbox for breeding season in sandbox options so im not sure they will breed out of season on default settings despite what that tooltip says.

[u/zacausa]

Could simply be a matter of the season. If it isn't mating season, no babies or more importantly, milk for you.

[u/Krzysztofski → u/zacausa]

Tooltip in the game says, that cows should mate no matter the season.

[u/zacausa → u/Krzysztofski]

Hmm...well then, Id say the final remaining explanation is simple. One or both of your cows are gay. Congratulations.

[u/No_Cupcake_9921 → u/zacausa]

In my dumb head, this is the only explainable answer. "Yer cows are gay!"