The best way to earn conservation credits, better guest ratings, or more cash in Planet Zoo, is to breed perfect animals. These animals are wanted for their superior breeding, and it is also a way to gain color variations as you find those with the right genetics. There are some things every player should keep in mind when starting their own breeding programs to help save themselves some heartache.
It can be hard to figure out what method to use when deciding how to breed genetically pure animals. Luckily, breeding perfect animals is easier than you think in Planet Zoo as long as you put in the work and follow these tips and tricks.
Updated April 30th, 2021 by Rebecca O’Neill: Planet Zoo has seen quite a few changes since its release, with slight adjustments made to its breeding features. The biggest change was the addition of color and pattern genetics, which adds another layer to the breeding process. Several DLC packs with new animals and cosmetic items have also been released with the most recent of them being the Southeast Asia Animal Pack.
If you want to breed animals with amazing stats then it takes time and patience, as well as a thought-out plan. However, there are a few things you can do to get yourself started in Planet Zoo if this is your primary focus.
15 Keep Their Welfare High
A happy animal is prepared to mate with other animals, and this is just one reason to keep your animal’s welfare as high as it can possibly go. This means buying better food, keeping them well fed, adding new toys into their enclosures, and creating a habitat they enjoy.
Even when they are first starting out, beginners can make their animals decently happy with the items that are given to them.
14 Research Breeding
A vet can perform research on a specific animal, which in turn can increase their breeding statistics. It will not only raise their overall welfare, but it will also help their fertility numbers to make it easier to breed them.
This will also help you to raise their overall stats as well as you continue to work to create the perfect specimen.
13 Maximize The Number Of Potential Offspring
You can maximize the number of potential offspring by pairing a male with as many females as he can handle. Some species have one mate, while others can impregnate multiple females at once.
Look at the Zoopedia and study the animal to see how you can adjust your current animals to give yourself a chance at the largest number of offspring possible.
12 Your Primary Focus Should Be On Size And Longevity
There are four main aspects to their genetics, not including color and pattern, and they are size, longevity, immunity, and fertility. The ones that you can easily change are size and longevity, which is why this should be your first focus.
Once you have managed to max out the size and longevity of a few animals, then you can begin to look at the other stats.
11 Utilize The Trade Center As Storage
The Trade Center is where all the animals you purchase are sent, but it is also a great place to store those animals that you plan to use for breeding. Once you begin to have animals that are genetically great, they can then be transferred to this building until you are ready to use them.
It is also a way to save money as both their needs and age will be frozen, so you don’t have to worry about them aging out of their breeding window too quickly.
10 Inbreeding Will Decrease Your Stats
The best way to ruin your chances of breeding genetically perfect animals is to inbreed them. This means that your parent animals have offspring with their children, which never ends well, and it is why the Indian Peafowl is not one of the best to start off with.
It can lead to future offspring with poor genetics, even if the child has amazing genetics of its own. The most often outcome is a lack of fertility, which will decrease your conservation credits and sale price when you decide to move the animal out of your zoo.
9 Apply Contraception To Any Offspring
One pro tip to preventing this inbreeding from happening is to apply contraception to any of the parent's offspring. This will prevent any accidents from happening as you decide what direction to take with your breeding program. The contraception can be found in your zoo's animal management page on the right side of the screen.
It looks like a pill, and players can tell when it is applied because the bar turns red. Players might not think they need it, but after your turtles have thousands of offspring in mere minutes, they tend to change their stance on the topic.
8 Keep The Best Offspring
The goal when breeding better animals is not to keep every single baby that your animal has. You should aim to keep the animal with the best genetics, or even one with a gold, silver, or bronze ribbon. It is easy to figure out which is the best by clicking on each offspring and looking at their genetics chart.
The more green that the animal has on their chart, the better its genetics. Players can be tempted to sell off these amazing animals for extra cash or conservation credits, but this tends to work negatively against them once the parents die off and they are left with nothing.
7 Create Several Enclosures
Some players like to breed multiple pairs of animals in the same zoo, so they create numerous enclosures for the same species, and many are based on existing zoos. This way they can continue to breed their original pair, as well as the offspring, to try and create the best animal possible through multiple pairs.
Other players even start with two pairs of a species and then breed their best offspring once they have matured. It opens more doors and it is often the best option for those who want to focus on this aspect of the game.
6 Compare Their Genetics
If you are unsure if one of your animals is the offspring of another, you can always compare them using the genetics chart. It even allows you to switch out the parent animals so you can find the best pair to breed.
If you have multiple great animals, this chart will help you decide which one to consider for a parent as you see the gene potential of the offspring they could have. This is the most useful tool the game gives you in regards to this area, so any breeder should be ready to pull this up regularly.
5 Create Family Charts
If you want to go all out and are determined to make the best breeding program possible, then you should make a chart outside of the game.
A genealogy chart was added to the game for players to use, but some still find it easier to make their own in order to create a breeding plan.
You could use a spreadsheet, paper, or even post-it notes to create the perfect species. Players use multiple different tells within their charts to indicate life, death, and generation.
4 Choose The Alpha
Some species in the game have an alpha male, female, or both, and they are the only ones of that gender who breed. It is usually the female with better genetics who wins this prestigious status, but not always.
If you find the wrong animal is your alpha, then you can trade them out of the zoo to keep the right animal in charge. The alpha status is shown in the individual animal menu. It is located at the top on the first page with their overall stats next to the gender symbol.
3 Sell Or Release Male Offspring
Many animals in the game are in promiscuous relationships, which means they aren't monogamous with a single mate and it is something beginners often don't realize. It is easier in these situations to trade or release the males to the wild, as there is usually only one in these types of enclosures.
This system works because it decreases the number of great animals you need to find on the market as you only have to find one, rather than five. If your female ends up being better than your male offspring, it can be a difficult decision, but it is best to stick with the female.
2 Know Which Gender Is On The Market
It is not uncommon for certain genders to be more plentiful on the marketplace due to one being worth more than the other. This problem is prominent in franchise mode, as people hope to gain more conservation credits from their sale.
Many times the males are the more expensive animal to purchase, so this could alter your breeding plans. If it is too hard to find one gender of an animal, then consider keeping the other.
1 Use Letters To Label New Generations
A pro tip that many players have found useful is to start labeling their offspring with letters. The parents are usually given an 'A' and then their offspring are given a 'B' and so on.
It helps players keep track of whose offspring is whose based on their generation within the game so they can put more focus into their custom creations.
If you want more help with your zoo planning make sure to check out our other Planet Zoo articles.