FarmVille Animal Guide; Strategy and Tips

In addition to planting crops and trees, farmers in FarmVille have the option to raise animals. Each animal produces something you can collect and sell from them. Animals do not need to be fed and do not disappear after you harvest from them.

Another thing to note is that some animals (read: cows and horses) take up a lot more space than other animals. In each square of land (a square is the size of land it takes to plant a crop) there are 16 smaller squares (4x4) in which you can place multiple smaller objects like animals and trees. Horses and Cows take 4 squares total (2x2) while all the other animals only take up 1 small square (1x1). As a result, you can have 4 rabbits, ducks, goats, or sheep in the same space that 1 cow or horse would fill up.

In the following list, you will find the animal, its product, how much its product sells for, its size, and its profitability (calculated by (Coins / Hours) / Size), or coins per hour per square). I know some people don't care about math how much money each animal is worth, but on my farm, you have to earn your keep. I'm a hard but fair master.

With that said, here are the different animals, how long they take to produce, how much their product is worth, how much you can sell the animal for, and how you can get one:


Cow:

Produce milk once per day (23 hours)
Milk sells for 6 coins
Size: 2x2 small squares (4 total)
Profitability: .065 coins per square per hour
Cow sale price: Permanently sell a cow for 15 coins
How to get: purchase for 300 coins in the marketplace


Chicken:

Produce eggs once per day (23 hours)
Eggs sell for 8 coins
Size: 1 small square
Profitability: .348 coins per square per hour
Chicken sale price: Permanently sell a chicken for 20 coins
How to get: Purchase for 400 coins in the marketplace


Sheep:

Produces wool once every 3 days (69 hours)
Wool sells for 28 coins
Size: 1 small square
Profitability: .406 coins per square per hour
Sheep sale price: Permanently sell a chicken for 35 coins
How to get: Purchase for 700 coins in the marketplace


Pig:

Produces truffles every 2 days (46 hours)
Truffles sell for 30 coins
Size: 1 small square
Profitability: .65 coins per hour
Pig sale price: Permanently sell a pig for 50 coins


Rabbit:

Produces Angora Wool every 4 days (92 hours)
Angora wool sells for 60 coins
Size: 1 small square
Profitability: .65 coins per square per hour
Rabbit sale price: Permanently sell a rabbit for 60 coins
How to get: Gift only (from friends)


Duck:

Produces down feathers every 2 days (46 hours)
Down feathers sell for 45 coins
Size: 1 small square
Profitability: .98 coins per square per hour
Duck sale price: Permanently sell a duck for 75 coins
How to get: Gift only (from friends)


Goat:

Produce milk every 2 days (46 hours)
Goat milk sells for 54 coins
Size: 1 small square
Profitability: 1.17 coins per square per hour
Goat sale price: Permanently sell a goat for 90 coins
How to get: Gift only (from friends)


Horse:

Produce horse hair every 3 days (69 hours)
Horse hair sells for 84 coins
Size: 1 small square
Profitability: .304 coins per square per hour
Horse sale price: Permanently sell a horse for 105 coins
How to get: Gift only (from friends)


So, as you can see, some animals are a lot better than others. Horses and cows are pretty useless unless you are trying to make your farm look cool. Otherwise, they are too big and take up way too much space to be useful.

Also, note that the "coins per square per hour" is referring to small squares. You can fit 16 small squares into 1 plot of land (that could grow 1 crop at a time). In one big square, you could fit 16 goats, which would produce a combined 18.72 coins per hour. This is double what the best producing crop is valued at.

Two things before you run off and replace all your crops with goats:

1. The Olive Tree produces coins at 1.21 coins per hour, which is slightly better than the goat. Additionally, the olive tree only needs to be harvested once every 4 days.

2. Animals offer no experience points. When you buy an animal (and all the bought animals do not produce very much $$), you get experience points for planting it. However, after the initial placing, there is no experience points reward for raising animals (aside from working on the ribbons). As a result, you will still need to plant crops in order to level up.


Note: This list does not include any of the special and/or limited edition animals.


Conclusion

Goats and ducks are the only two animals that will produce a consistent, noticeable profit for your farm. Other than that, animals currently are only useful for making your farm look good. I will be posting a tree guide tomorrow and a final comparison (trees versus animals) shortly, so keep an eye on the FarmVille Strategy home page for updates!