[SPOILER] Help with sustainable food

[Destinu]

I ve start i new gameplay with 3 others friends, the first one after the food changes (vegetables and meat), we got or way till the crucible, but always with hunt and fishing. now we are trying to keep a cow alive, but i dont know if i ve miss something on the changes...but the cow keep starving till die.
Do i need to feed the cow every day, even if it got a large grass place?
Its better to keep the animals on the spawn chunk, or at somewhere unloaded?
Has someone figure out how to automatize the feeding process for any animal at all?
Do u guys ve any tip for sustainable food that i ve miss out?
(p.s sorry for my poor english)

[Mason11987]

I ve start i new gameplay with 3 others friends, the first one after the food changes (vegetables and meat), we got or way till the crucible, but always with hunt and fishing. now we are trying to keep a cow alive, but i dont know if i ve miss something on the changes...but the cow keep starving till die.
Do i need to feed the cow every day, even if it got a large grass place?
Its better to keep the animals on the spawn chunk, or at somewhere unloaded?
Has someone figure out how to automatize the feeding process for any animal at all?
Do u guys ve any tip for sustainable food that i ve miss out?
(p.s sorry for my poor english)

If your cow is starving you need to cage it in a much larger area with grass it can eat, open to the sky.

I think 8x8 at least, probably more, per cow.

About 1/4 the space is needed to keep chickens alive, who give you eggs, which can be mixed with milk (from the cow) to get a sustainable decent food. Mushrooms are also useful for that. Chickens meat too isn't too bad to get, as chicken feed is pretty easy to get.

I haven't gotten to the point where I can reliably produce cow/sheep/pig meat. Although trading gets you a ton of it when you get to that point.

[Destinu]

I think 8x8 at least, probably more, per cow.

thats the problem...my cow has a 15x9 area...and still starving =s

[dawnraider]

From what I've heard from people doing some testing on the discord, cows require about a chunk each.

You can also use a grass conveyor. Pushing grass in a circle under a stationary cow held in place by glass and optionally a breeding harness for automated breeding. I've found that a conveyor as short as 24 blocks is enough to sustain a milked cow.

The conveyor uses a turntable timer activating pistons every 4 seconds alternating corners, meaning that each grass slab moves 1 block every 8 seconds.

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Each slab has access to 7 grass blocks. The extra glass in the top image was to allow light to the center grass blocks when these are stacked vertically, and to allow grass slabs to move on top of the glass on higher stacks.

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[gaga654]

thats the problem...my cow has a 15x9 area...and still starving =s

Does the area have grass in it still? If so, the cow isn't starving to death - must be getting killed by zombies. If not, then it just needs to be bigger. Also keep in mind that

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milking the cow makes it need to eat more, so whether the cow can survive or not depends on how much you milk it.

[jakerman999]

I think I remember something about animals not eating if they are panicking. Make sure there's no contraption around that is placing/breaking blocks and sending the cow into a frenzy. Although such a thing would not likely go unnoticed

[dawnraider]

I think that's related to a more general case where they won't eat while pathing somewhere. If almost the entire pen is dirt then that means the cow starved from lack of food, if it still has a decent amount of grass then something else killed the cow (zombies, not eating because pathing, etc).