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Why clean your animals
After their first day in an enclosure, your animals will show a brush icon above their heads. Cleaning them raises their Happiness, and happier animals produce better goods. Keeping animals fed and clean also matters for breeding animals will not breed unless they are fed, clean, and happy.
How to get the Brush
The Ranching profession tutorial with Pastelle does not teach you about cleaning. You need to discover it on your own.
Go to Green Pasture Ranch (open 06:00 to 22:00).
Interact with the cash register in the first room.
Buy the Brush Blueprint for 150 Coins.
Craft the Brush at any worktable: 2× Softwood + 2× Wool.
If you do not have Wool yet, wait a day or two. Your Rabbit Hutch automatically collects fluff from your rabbits and converts it to Wool.
How to use the Brush
Walk up to any animal with the brush icon above its head.
Look for the "Clean" option, it appears above "Examine".
On keyboard and mouse, use left click. On controller, use the right trigger.
Your character crouches and brushes the animal. Each cleaning adds a few Happiness points.
The Clean option only appears when the animal needs cleaning. Not every animal needs it every day.
Happiness and production
Happiness affects the quality and quantity of goods your animals produce. Animals with higher Happiness are more productive and produce higher-quality items. The two main factors that affect Happiness are:
Feeding Each animal type requires specific feed. Feed is crafted at Feeder stations (Feeder I through Feeder IV), which unlock as you progress through Rancher certification tiers.
Cleaning Regular brushing keeps Happiness from dropping.
Animals with the Optimism DNA trait have a 50% chance for their Happiness points to double when they increase. Animals with the Bloom trait lose one point from each Happiness boost. See animal breeding for a full list of DNA traits.
Feeding basics
Animals need to be fed daily. Each species eats a different type of feed crafted at Feeder stations:
Feeder I Basic feed for Rabbits, Chickens, and Ducks.
Feeder II Feed for Pigs, Cows, and Sheep.
Feeder III Feed for Bumblebees.
Feeder IV Feed for Senior/Expert-tier animals (Horses, Deer, Alpacas, Ostriches).
Place the Feeder next to your animal enclosure. Fill it with the required ingredients, and it will produce feed over time. Animals eat automatically once feed is available in the enclosure.
Tips
Make cleaning part of your daily routine, check all enclosures each morning.
Keep Feeders stocked and running overnight so animals are fed when you wake up.
If an animal will not breed, check both Happiness and feeding status.
Animals with the Pride DNA trait cannot be petted, but they can still be brushed.