Okay here’s a little micro-guide to answer a very specific question(s) regarding – What’s the best animal feed to use? This pertains to, of course, your Island Sanctuary on FFXIV. There’s also a rundown and a basic guide / FAQ on animal feeding way down there.
TLDR: To get animals TO and KEEP them Gleeful – Premium Greenfeed is the way to go. The other feed types only serves as “saving on produce” which is irrelevant later on.
TLDR II: There’s no downside to using a “stronger food” (wasting an irrelevantly tiny amount of resources… sure), but there is definitely a downside to using a “weaker food” when your animal is very happy.
Obviously this is heavily related to Island Sanctuary Farming.
Island Sanctuary | Pasture – What’s the best feed to use?
Each type of food can only raise animal happiness by both a certain amount, and up to a certain level. Note that all food equally fills up your pasture animals for the purposes of satiating their daily hunger. They aren’t picky eaters, apparently.
Also, animals which are very happy can “downgrade” their happiness if you feed them something subpar.
Feeding animals in your sanctuary only increases mood by “a little” each time, the RATE they gain happiness can’t be increased by using better food.
Here’s a more straightforward explanation for each:
Island Sweetfeed (Tier I, or basic food) – Improves mood up to CONTENT, and can maintain mood up to content only. If you feed an animal that has mood higher than content with this, it will LOWER their happiness up to content max.
Island Greenfeed (Tier II, or middle food) – Improves mood up to CHIPPER, and can maintain mood up to chipper only. If you feed an animal that has mood higher than chipper with this, it will LOWER their happiness up to chipper max.
Premium Island Greenfeed (Tier III, or best food) – Improves mood up to GLEEFUL, maintains gleeful mood if you keep feeding this.
FOR ALL FEED TYPES: You cannot “jump past” being miserable to gleeful by feeding them a single Tier III food. Animals mood improve over time by feeding continuously, so only use the most suitable food type each time – OR, of course, use a food that’s “better than necessary”. Yeah, some happiness is “wasted” but who cares.
If you don’t want to think (that’s me), feeding them all Tier III food all day erryday isn’t a bad idea – you’ll have more than enough produce in time.
Otherwise if you want to be super efficient about it, only feed Sweetfeed to animals lower than content. Greenfeed to animals lower than chipper, and finally Premium Greenfeed to get to and MAINTAIN Gleeful.
Animal Caretakers – what feed do they use?
Sadly, they seem to only ever use the specified feed. Which isn’t that big of a deal. So yeah, for the most part, you’re gonna wanna stock a ton of Premium Island Greenfeed if your goal is to reach and keep your animals Gleeful.
You select what feed they use per animal at the moment you leave them in your care, and they seem to tunnel on that. If you want to change it simply
For some reason I used to think they would downgrade feed type if the animals somehow got to a lower mood (or for new animals), I’ll have to look into it again – I don’t know why I ever got this notion.
Island Sanctuary Feed – FAQ and Basics
How do I make animal feed? Craft it from your Island actions… Here’s the recipes
| Food Type | Mood to and Maintain | Qty Made | Recipe Needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Island Sweetfeed | Content | 3 | 3 Island Apple |
| Island Greenfeed | Chipper | 3 | 2 of any Island Produce |
| Premium Island Greenfeed | Gleeful | 3 | 2 of any PAIR (4 total) of any Island Produce |
How often do I feed animals? Once a human day is just fine. (There are niche cases where you can multi-feed to improve mood faster, but that’s the only reason you’d do it)
How much should I feed animals? Once you feed them once a day, they will provide leavings depending on their mood.
How does mood affect animal leavings? The better their mood, the higher chance for them to leave their “bonus” type of leaving. Even the most miserable animals will still leave their “normal” drop as long as they’re fed.
My animals are unhappy! How can I get them happier faster? Well, you really can’t. They become more and more happy the better food and the longer you feed them (to put it really simply).
How many animals can I have? Out of topic for this guide, but you’ll get 5/10/20 of ‘em in due time.
Produce is hard! Don’t worry, in time once you get, again 5/10/20 plots – you’ll be swimming in Island Produce.
Summary and Outro
Well, that’s about it! It’s a little longer than I intended but yeah, TLDR, Premium Island Greenfeed is THE FEED for animals in your Island Sanctuary (presuming you want them to reach and keep their Gleeful status). Anything else is simply for “saving resources” during the moody early phase – or if you ever forget to feed ’em. But Premium Island Greenfeed will get the job done anyway if you don’t mind wasting a little more produce.
Remember, check the Island “wiki” in-game if you’re confused. It’s pretty legit!
Welp, that’s it! If you’re here you might want to check out other things I have to say about FFXIV Island Sanctuary.