ELI5 - How to breed properly, with making CC in mind? No puppy farming.

[RLD]

I don't quite understand how to go about it. I do not want inbreeding.
Something about contraceptives on offspring and introducing a new mate after a generation.
Do I make separate enclosures for offspring or anything else?
I just need a detailed breakdown of what to do.
I'm thoroughly confused over something so simple.

I have 2 male and 2 female red pandas to start my foray. I assume these will need to be 1 habitat per pair right? According to zoopedia it's 1male 1 female.

 

[eliselove]

It depends what kind of animal it is to how you manage it.
With my bears who only allow a breeding pair, I let them breed and live in the zoo till they die. I'll pick the best stats from one of their cubs, and once matured, I keep that one in the trade centre. Once the parents have died, the bear from the trade centre gets put in the habitat, and I'll go buy the opposite sex.
Lions (or anything that has one male and more than one female) I keep hold of the female cubs/babies once matured in the trade centre. Once all the parents have died, all the females go back in and I buy a new male.
Some of them I don't really care about - like peafowl. Half the time, I dont even add them to my zoos.

You're more than able to have more than one habitat of the same species

 

[Forever_Lona]

The main thing I am having issues with in the above strategy is the size of the trade centre being restrictive. 30 animals just isnt enough to sustain my larger zoo and still have a few animals tucked away for my other franchises. I wish there was a way to increase it, even if its just for the current zoo you are in. Something like a "zoo storage" that is separate to the global trade storage.

 

[Dr4gon]

Ethically you should just place one good pair together and let them do their thing. Once the young become adults, pick the best out and sell all others in the habitat. Than buy a matching mate from the market place, and you can be proud of yourself. You did the right thing. Even better would be if you release them into the wild instead of selling them, but you want the best CC right? Some animals can be just released into the wild, because they are worth less on the market.

 

[Arletario]

I highly recommend using the "Compare Mates" feature for successful breeding. Just looking at the genetic stats and putting the best two animals together in one habitat may not work so well.

For example, breeding with two golden rated animals may result in lower-ranked offspring, as the genetics of these animals are "too good". You can get better genetic results if you breed with a golden and a silver animal (or even a bronze one).
When you have an animal with a low size-gene e.g., try to get a breeding partner with a high size-gene to overcome it.
On the animal market, you can (almost) completely ignore the immunity gene. It's just an offspring of inbreeding, but you have a different bloodline in your zoo, or you'll be adding another animal from the market anyway. Diseases shouln't be a problem in your zoo, and it may happen that even an animal with 0% immunity will already have offspring with 100% immunity in the next generation. But animals with a red immunity bar are often underprized because people think: oh no, that's a bad animal - No, it's not ! just get the right breeding partner for that animal. Pay more attention to the infertility warning when comparing mates. There are many animals on the market that are already infertile.

Yes, you need at least two habitats for your pandas. You may want to add another one for the offspring in the future, depending on how much you want to breed. Then you have two breeding pairs in their own habitats and if you are lucky, you will get a highly rated male and female from each of the pairs to breed a third bloodline in this enclosure. From now on you can sell the next offsprings for CCs. Once your parents get older, you can move three (preferably golden rated) young animals to your Trade Center, depending on which gender is cheaper to buy. Mostly the males are much cheaper so you want to keep the females, but that can vary. If the parents have become infertile or have died, you can put your own offspring in each habitat again and add three new (silver rated) males, for example. Still, use the "Compare Mates" feature to sort the best pairs out - the differences can be huge.

 

[Dr4gon]

Yes, always breed up. With two perfects you can only go down. Fertility can suddenly be 0% in one or two offspring.

 

[Kitherit]

Does anyone know how many generations you need to produce before you stop getting inbreeding notifications?

I'm trying an experiment with cheetahs right now, based on a comment I saw from someone on Reddit. I am making 5 identical enclosures, named A, B, C, etc. 1 Male and 1 Female in each enclosure, all with "01" added to their names, as well as the enclosure they come from. All of their babies will have "02" added to their names, as well as the letter of their enclosure.

Once the first generation of adults are infertile, I'll Re-Home them (a discovery I made last night!) to make room for the next generation. The best female will stay in her parent's habitat. The best male will move to the next habitat over. All other babies will be sold or released to the wild. The next generation will be named "03", and I will continue with this pattern.

My hope is that by the time I reach 6th generation, and the ultimate male that originally descended from the first parents in the A habitat will cycle back through into the A habitat again, and enough generations will have passed that it won't be flagged as inbreeding.

We'll see how it actually goes. heh

 

[Dr4gon]

5 enclosures with the same animals will not be very profitable, unless you have a large zoo to make the profit for you. I may be wrong on this, but I believe zoo entrance is calculated after the quality of the animals but also diversity. There are more variables to consider, but a zoo with 5 enclosures with only one species is probably doomed.

 

[Kitherit]

5 enclosures with the same animals will not be very profitable, unless you have a large zoo to make the profit for you. I may be wrong on this, but I believe zoo entrance is calculated after the quality of the animals but also diversity. There are more variables to consider, but a zoo with 5 enclosures with only one species is probably doomed.

The zoo in question is already hovering at or over $1 million. I've got enough other animals (in single exhibits) in the zoo that having 5 enclosures for a single type of animal won't (or shouldn't) impact the zoo overall. And I'm still adding other animals to my zoo, as well.

I'm still struggling somewhat with earning CC, but I'm doing well enough (again) with the other animals that, without the cheetahs, I am starting to overcome that struggle.

 

[Arletario]

That sounds like an interesting experiment, I haven't tried that yet.

And because you mentioned cheetahs ... they are indeed very easy to breed and you can release them to wild for up to 1,200 CC (young, golden rated). That way, you can earn more CCs than sell them on the market. Just saying

 

[Kitherit]

That sounds like an interesting experiment, I haven't tried that yet.

And because you mentioned cheetahs ... they are indeed very easy to breed and you can release them to wild for up to 1,200 CC (young, golden rated). That way, you can earn more CCs than sell them on the market. Just saying

Oh awesome, I'm looking forward to that! I do tend to default to releasing animals to the wild, unless I know an animal can be sold for more than the amount listed, or somehow the "trade" amount is a lot higher than the "release to wild" amount. (Or if I know a particular animal, especially quality and gender, are in demand on the market.) But if the amount I'm going to get is already close to what I'd get by releasing an animal to the wild, I figure the market is flooded enough with animals and I'd rather have the instant reward. heheh

 

[Dr4gon]

Someone is here in the cheetah business

 

[marcnesiumHH]

Someone is here in the cheetah business

who is not since it's only 1.5 hours to go for the next challenge. I'm only waiting for the first upcoming post:" I have released 150 cheetahs in 3 hours, but I haven't received my rewards"

 

[Kitherit]

Someone is here in the cheetah business

At least I'm not planning to flood the market with overpriced cheetahs.

 

[Dr4gon]

I probably will not do this challenge, unless it's an animal I already have. I can't buy animals at the moment, because I closed all my zoos and now I'm just a little bit 7 times over the storage limit

I don't have cheetahs at all, and thus can't buy them.

 

[Kitherit]

I probably will not do this challenge, unless it's an animal I already have. I can't buy animals at the moment, because I closed all my zoos and now I'm just a little bit 7 times over the storage limit

I don't have cheetahs at all, and thus can't buy them.

Oof, I feel ya! I actually just finished doing exactly the same thing. As I was learning the game, I ended up making 3-4 zoos in my franchise, but was seriously struggling with CC. Once I felt like I'd learned enough (and developed a strong strategy to make $$) I made a "main" zoo in my franchise and began closing my other zoos. Then I transferred all of the animals from my first zoos into my main zoo. Once all the animals were removed from my first zoos, and securely in place in the new one, I closed the old ones.

It has been well worth the effort, for me! If this is similar to what you're working on, or whatever your current goal is, good luck!

 

[Arletario]

Oh awesome, I'm looking forward to that! I do tend to default to releasing animals to the wild, unless I know an animal can be sold for more than the amount listed, or somehow the "trade" amount is a lot higher than the "release to wild" amount. (Or if I know a particular animal, especially quality and gender, are in demand on the market.) But if the amount I'm going to get is already close to what I'd get by releasing an animal to the wild, I figure the market is flooded enough with animals and I'd rather have the instant reward. heheh

Really? My experience is rather the opposite. When I'm searching for new animals (okay, except Warthogs, Peacocks and Ostriches), the market is mostly completely empty. Yesterday I wanted to buy two new Formosan Black Bears, but there were only three on the whole market. Not to mention elephants, rhinos, hippos, or all the different monkey species. And even some of the smaller herbivores, such as Pronghorn's - golden rated females are sold for 500-1,000 CCs on some days. They can be released into the wild for about 50 CCs, but it seems that there is a huge demand, for whatever reason, they are super easy to breed.

 

[Kitherit]

Really? My experience is rather the opposite. When I'm searching for new animals (okay, except Warthogs, Peacocks and Ostriches), the market is mostly completely empty. Yesterday I wanted to buy two new Formosan Black Bears, but there were only three on the whole market. Not to mention elephants, rhinos, hippos, or all the different monkey species. And even some of the smaller herbivores, such as Pronghorn's - golden rated females are sold for 500-1,000 CCs on some days. They can be released into the wild for about 50 CCs, but it seems that there is a huge demand, for whatever reason, they are super easy to breed.

Actually now that you mention it, I have seen that! I think it's more about the animals that I am dealing with, myself. I don't have a huge variety of animals in my zoo yet, and the ones I do have tend to be readily available on the market. But I have definitely noticed that some animals, or genders of an animal, are hard to find with any good quality. But like I said, if I know for sure that an animal IS in demand on the market, I'd rather place it there and get a bit more CC while helping out other players.

 

[Dr4gon]

Oof, I feel ya! I actually just finished doing exactly the same thing. As I was learning the game, I ended up making 3-4 zoos in my franchise, but was seriously struggling with CC. Once I felt like I'd learned enough (and developed a strong strategy to make $$) I made a "main" zoo in my franchise and began closing my other zoos. Then I transferred all of the animals from my first zoos into my main zoo. Once all the animals were removed from my first zoos, and securely in place in the new one, I closed the old ones.

It has been well worth the effort, for me! If this is similar to what you're working on, or whatever your current goal is, good luck!

I believe I'm self sustaining for a very long time.

 

[PeppyPepp]

For example, breeding with two golden rated animals may result in lower-ranked offspring, as the genetics of these animals are "too good". You can get better genetic results if you breed with a golden and a silver animal (or even a bronze one).

Thank you for your explanation although I don't quite understand this bit. I've heard it before but it makes no sense to me. If you put together 2 super parents you should get a super baby!

Really? My experience is rather the opposite. When I'm searching for new animals (okay, except Warthogs, Peacocks and Ostriches), the market is mostly completely empty. Yesterday I wanted to buy two new Formosan Black Bears, but there were only three on the whole market. Not to mention elephants, rhinos, hippos, or all the different monkey species. And even some of the smaller herbivores, such as Pronghorn's - golden rated females are sold for 500-1,000 CCs on some days. They can be released into the wild for about 50 CCs, but it seems that there is a huge demand, for whatever reason, they are super easy to breed.

Actually now that you mention it, I have seen that! I think it's more about the animals that I am dealing with, myself. I don't have a huge variety of animals in my zoo yet, and the ones I do have tend to be readily available on the market. But I have definitely noticed that some animals, or genders of an animal, are hard to find with any good quality. But like I said, if I know for sure that an animal IS in demand on the market, I'd rather place it there and get a bit more CC while helping out other players.

This is my experience as well. Aardvarks and Baird's Tapirs are almost non exsistent on the market. Golden bongos are very rare as well and they sell for crazy high prices.