Feeding Guide

Feeding a growing litter in Family Time comes down to one goal: a supply that keeps coming without you running after every meal. Chickens are the quick fix, pigs give more meat, fishing adds variety, and breeding pens turn all of it into a steady stream of food.

When an animal is hunted, it turns into meat, and the children eat it on their own. Your job is making sure there is always more meat than mouths. For the bigger picture of the first nights, start with the beginner guide.

Chickens: The Easiest First Meal

Chickens are slow, easy to catch and quick for the pups to deal with, which makes them the standard food source for the first days. You can carry up to three at a time, so a short trip can bring back a meal for several children.

Hunger and chickens were among the first systems the game was built around, and they remain the backbone of most early setups. If your family is small and the day is ending, a quick chicken run is usually the fastest way to avoid an empty belly.

The weakness is supply. Wild chickens run out near the base, so relying on hunting alone means longer trips every day. That is the moment to think about a pen, because a handful of hens and a rooster on hay will out-produce any amount of wandering once the family passes a few dozen children.

Pigs: More Meat, More Trouble

Pigs give far more meat than chickens, but they fight back. When a pig senses danger it charges, ramming the father and the pups out of the way, and pigs often flee as a group.

The trick is to grab a pig by the tail and steer it into an obstacle such as a tree. The collision knocks it out, and while it is down you can order the children to hunt it or tie it up with cords. Pigs are too heavy for the father to carry alone, so call several pups to haul one back.

Cords come from grass. Leave a handful of grass out overnight and it dries into cord, or boil it in a cauldron for a faster result. Keeping a small stock of cords before a pig hunt saves a lot of chasing.

Fishing for a Third Food Source

Fishing is a later addition and works best once the household is organised. You need fishing rods, buckets and bait, and then you assign children to operate the rods and buckets.

• Fishing rods come four to a plank.
• Buckets cost one plank each and hold the bait.
• Bait can be meat, berries or acorns.

Fishing is slower than livestock, but it gives you a source that does not depend on chasing animals across the map. Families with a lake close to home benefit the most, and pairing a fishing team with a chicken pen spreads the risk so one bad day never leaves every bowl empty.

Breeding Pens That Feed the Family

A pen is how food stops being a daily chore. Build wooden fences and a wooden gate, lay a hay floor inside, and collect hay from almost any green patch on the map.

For chickens, bring hens and a rooster into the pen and feed them pumpkin seeds. On a hay floor they breed and lay eggs, which gives the family a reliable supply for days at a time. Haystacks inside the pen help keep it running.

Pigs and boars can breed too and produce more meat, but they need mud instead of hay and berries instead of pumpkin seeds. They also have to be knocked out and tied before anyone can carry them to the pen, so expect a longer setup.

Water and Why Children Sometimes Do Not Eat

Children need to drink as well as eat. You can lead them to a lake or river, or build a well and set it to overflow so water is available right at home. A well costs one boulder.

A common question is why the pups ignore food that is clearly lying around. Guides point to unlocking: both the children and the Wolf Mama need to be unlocked, otherwise the children will not eat. Right-click them to unlock them when meals go untouched.

Cooking and food variety arrived in later development updates. They matter more as the family grows, but in the first nights any meat and a source of water are enough.

With food covered, the next bottleneck is space. The building and shelter page covers houses, cots and pens, and the wolf pups page explains how the children help with every job.