Want to increase the welfare of your Planet Zoo animals? Not to mention managing their stress levels, making sure the Planet Zoo keepers are refilling their food, and making money and creating a superb guest experience in the process. It’s a lot to take on, but at the heart of all the prying eyes from guests, the demand for profits, and making your zoo look like one of the pre-made zoos (seriously, how do they do that) – are the Planet Zoo animals.
Our Planet Zoo review raves about the realistic and adorable animals that constantly have us ignoring the plights from Nancy and our zoo managerial duties to watch them in photo mode. And while it’s a balancing act to keep the powers that be quids in, while making sure guests are happy, it’s way more important to make sure our cute critters are well nourished, loved up, and enjoying their time at the zoo before we release them back into the wild.
If you’re struggling to get your Planet Zoo keepers to refill the food, or if your animals aren’t producing offspring, then our guide to Planet Zoo animals will help you manage their stress levels, get them breeding, and make sure they have full bellies ready for the impending zoo inspection.
Planet Zoo animals breeding
There’s a lot to think about when you’re perusing the animal trade centre in Planet Zoo. Unlike Zoo Tycoon, where animals were either female or male, and there was little else to think about. You’ll now see longevity, fertility, size, and immunity. Animals can even get sick and will need to be quarantined and treated before you can place them in their new habitat. To breed animals in Planet Zoo, you’ll need to keep an eye on fertility, the animal’s social happiness, and the breeding conditions you’ll need to meet in the Zoopedia. Here’s how to increase your chances of breeding animals in Planet Zoo.
- Social happiness – An animal’s social happiness is influenced by the amount of other animals in its habitat, so make sure to check the Zoopedia for social information and the habitat size they need.
- Habitat – All the Planet Zoo animals require different habitats from feed, to terrain, to plant coverage, so you’ll have to make sure the animals are happy in their environment.
- Male to female animal ratio – Planet Zoo introduces alpha males, and some animals will battle it out to be the alpha, so make sure you get the female to male balance right for a healthy habitat.
Planet Zoo animals feeding
If your Planet Zoo keepers aren’t refilling your food, it may not be down to their laziness, as they seem to have a better attitude that most sim AIs – yep, we’re looking at you, Two Point Hospital. As long as keepers have a staff room to keep up their energy, they’re generally a happy bunch. So, why are your Planet Zoo animals starving?
There’s so much to keep on top of in Planet Zoo, so it’s a small ask that you’re not getting constant notifications that your animals are starving and likely to die. It’s also frustrating that you can’t pick up and place keepers quickly in locations to stop this happening, something we’re used to doing in other sim management games for a quick fix. However, there are a couple of ways you can try to prevent your animals for going without food.
- Relocate food and water bowls – Change the location of your food and water bowls around the enclosure, encouraging the keeper to return to the location and feed your animals.
- Keep a staff room and keeper room close to the habitat – Keepers need to prepare food in a keeper room, so it’s worth having one close to your enclosure. They also need staff rooms to take a break in to prevent burnout and make them productive.
- Assign keepers to habitats – You’ll need to keep an eye on work zones, and make sure that every animal habitat has an assigned keeper. This can be a pain to keep on top of, but by making sure there’s a keeper managing your enclosure, they’ll unlikely be forgotten.
- Remove enrichment feeders – It’s tempting to cram your habitat with enrichment feeders when you see that red welfare bar and your animals need for enriched food. But keepers will actually stop filling up normal food, prioritising enrichment feeders.
Planet Zoo animals stress levels
If your Planet Zoo animals are stressed, you’ll soon know about it. You’ll get bombarded with notifications and their welfare bar will be low and in the red. So, here’s a few things you can try to combat your Planet Zoo animals stress levels.
- Add a hard shelter – An animal will become stressed if it’s trying to hide from guests and can’t find any privacy, adding a hard shelter in Planet Zoo, or a shelter at all, can help their stress levels.
- Have one-way looking glass – Guests want to see the animals, fair enough. But the animals don’t want to see them. By adding one-way looking glasses, creating the illusion that the animals have privacy is another way to combat stress levels.
- Expand the habitat – If an animal is feeling cramped in its enclosure, having to share the space with too many other animals, it naturally becomes agitated and needs some room to breath. If you’ve built around the habitat and can’t expand it, think about removing some animals and creating a separate habitat for them.
Hopefully now your animals in Planet Zoo will cheer up a bit, they’ll have some grub in their stomachs, the keepers will be proactive in maintaining their habitat in Planet Zoo, and the notifications telling you your zebra is stressed and trying to hide will slowly dwindle.