Animal Care Skill

Animal Care

Class	Skills
Type	Skill
Skill Group	Farming
Max Level	10
Total XP	32,775
Skill Books	Animal Care Skill Books
Best Occupation	Rancher (+4)

The Animal Care Skill governs looking after farm animals. It reveals more information about each animal and increases the resources harvested from it. It belongs to the Farming group.

Livestock give eggs, milk, wool and meat for as long as they are kept healthy. A skilled keeper learns when an animal is pregnant, how big a clutch will be and when the mating season comes. That knowledge makes a herd or flock grow steadily. The skill also helps with stressed animals during milking and shearing. The Rancher starts with the most Animal Care skill, and the Farmer starts with a small head start.

How to Level Animal Care

Animal Care experience comes from tending animals. Giving water directly to an animal gives experience for every small amount poured. A full drink therefore gives a good total.

Collecting eggs from a hutch gives experience for each egg. A busy chicken coop gives steady training.

Other animal tasks may also give experience. Milking cows and shearing sheep at the base both count.

A daily routine works best. Check the water and food troughs each morning. Collect eggs from the hutch, then milk or shear the animals that are ready. Each task trains the skill and brings in food or materials at the same time.

Livestock first have to be found. Barns and fields in the countryside are the usual places. Chickens and other small animals can be carried. Larger animals can be led on a rope, and an animal trailer moves them over long distances. Build fences and troughs before bringing animals home.

The tapes A Day on the Farm and The Petting Zoo each give a good boost. Watching only pays off in the first three levels, unless experience spills over from a level-up.

The Fast Learner trait raises the experience rate. The Slow Learner trait lowers it.

The XP each Animal Care level asks for, with the running total from level 0.

Level	XP Needed	Total XP
1	75	75
2	150	225
3	300	525
4	750	1,275
5	1,500	2,775
6	3,000	5,775
7	4,500	10,275
8	6,000	16,275
9	7,500	23,775
10	9,000	32,775

Animal Care Level Effects

Each level reveals more on the animal inspection panel. Level 3 shows whether a mammal is pregnant or an egg-layer's eggs are fertilised. Level 4 adds clutch size and egg-laying period, plus a male's last mating when known. Level 5 shows weight and mating season, and it spots pregnancy earlier and tracks it more closely.

Higher levels also raise the resources taken from each animal.

Stressed animals can interrupt milking or shearing. Higher skill lowers the chance of an interruption while shearing. From level 8, stress never interrupts milking or shearing at all.

The skill reveals stress and helps work around it, while keeping animals calm is up to the keeper. Zombies, engines, gunfire and crowding all stress animals. A stressed herd produces less. Walking slowly through the pen and keeping noise away helps the animals settle.

Shelter and space matter too. A roofed shelter, full water troughs and enough room keep animals healthy. Overcrowding raises stress and cuts production. Feeding troughs from Carpentry hold hay, grass clippings or crop waste.

Eggs, milk and wool are the main products of a healthy herd. Higher Animal Care levels raise the amount taken from each animal. A skilled keeper gets more from the same animals every day.

Animal Care Skill Books

The Animal Care Skill Books come in five volumes. Each volume speeds up experience for two levels. Animal Care I: "A Tale of St. Francis" covers the first two levels. Animal Care V: "Wilds Tamed: An In-Depth Comparative" covers the last two. Reading each volume just before its levels gives the most benefit.

The five volumes, the levels each one speeds up, the XP bonus while those levels are trained, and how long each takes to read. Reading times are game time at the default two minutes a page. Sitting down and wearing Reading Glasses each cut the time by a tenth, the Fast Reader trait cuts it by about a third, and Slow Reader adds a third.

Volume	Levels	XP Bonus	Pages	Read Time	Spawn ID
Animal Care I: "A Tale of St. Francis"	1 to 2	x3	220	7 h 20 min	`/additem Base.BookHusbandry1`
Animal Care II: "Animal Welfare Basics"	3 to 4	x5	260	8 h 40 min	`/additem Base.BookHusbandry2`
Animal Care III: "How Animals Think: A Helpful Guide"	5 to 6	x8	300	10 h	`/additem Base.BookHusbandry3`
Animal Care IV: "The Wants and Needs of Diverse Fauna"	7 to 8	x12	340	11 h 20 min	`/additem Base.BookHusbandry4`
Animal Care V: "Wilds Tamed: An In-Depth Comparative"	9 to 10	x16	380	12 h 40 min	`/additem Base.BookHusbandry5`

Set of Animal Care Books bundles all five volumes in one item and unpacks into them.

Item	Image	Spawn ID
Set of Animal Care Books		`/additem Base.BookHusbandrySet`

Animal Care Starting Levels

The Rancher begins with four levels of Animal Care. That start already shows pregnancy, fertilisation, clutch size and laying period. The Farmer begins with one level.

A Rancher can plan breeding from the first animals found.

The Rancher also brings Butchering and Fitness levels. That mix fits a farm life well, from raising animals to processing them. A Farmer adds a small Animal Care start to strong Agriculture, which suits a mixed farm with crops and a few chickens.

These occupations and traits start a character with levels in Animal Care.