Matt
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This will hopefully evolve to become an extensive guide on how to breed your dinosaurs on ARK : Survival Evolved.
Initial Steps
Mammals (viviparous)
Non-Mammals (Oviparous)
Initial Steps
- You'll need to opposite gender Dinosaurs of the same species, EG. A male and a female raptor
- Set both of the dinosaurs to "Enable Wandering", make sure you're in an enclosed area when you do this as your dinosaurs can run away and the mating process will stop
- You'll know that you've done this right if you see "thumping" hearts above the dinosaurs head's
- Once the mating session is over, for non-mammals, and egg will be dropped on to the floor. For mammals, the female will enter a gestation period.
- If the egg is on the ground, pick it up and store it somewhere safe for now, eg. a Freezer.
Mammals (viviparous)
Breeding mammals is much easier than breeding Oviparous dinosaurs. This is because mammals do not lay any eggs. Instead, the female enters a period of Gestation; Gestation is ARK's equivalent to pregnancy. The female will become more demanding (wanting more food) and will be able to carry slightly less. If you get close to the female during her Gestation period you'll notice a small bar below her status bar, this bar will say "Gestion Process" - Once this bar reaches the end, you'll get a baby Dinosaur
During Gestation, you'll have to feed your female up to 4x more her normal food intake. I recommend that before you breed your dinosaurs, you get up to 400 RAW meat - this will stop your female dying from starvation. If the food level reaches 0, your female and her baby will die.
During Gestation, you'll have to feed your female up to 4x more her normal food intake. I recommend that before you breed your dinosaurs, you get up to 400 RAW meat - this will stop your female dying from starvation. If the food level reaches 0, your female and her baby will die.
Non-Mammals (Oviparous)
After your two dinosaurs have mated, a fertilized egg will be dropped on to the ground (if you have a tamed Oviraptor, he/she will take the egg and store it in his/her inventory). If you leave the egg on the ground there is a high chance that it will receive health damage from the elements. If you live in the south, you're most likely too-hot to hatch any of the **rarer** dinosaur eggs and vice-versa for the north.
When you're ready to hatch your egg, you must first find an area with suitable conditions. This can be a tedious task, so I recommend that you build yourself up to 6 Air-conditioning units so that you can change the temperature yourself. When the temperature is right, you'll see an "incubating" bar below their status bar - this means that your egg is incubating.
Depending on the species of the dinosaur will determine the time for the egg to hatch. For example, Quetzals are usually take around 2 hours to hatch. Be patient, it'll hatch in time
Baby DinosaursWhen you're ready to hatch your egg, you must first find an area with suitable conditions. This can be a tedious task, so I recommend that you build yourself up to 6 Air-conditioning units so that you can change the temperature yourself. When the temperature is right, you'll see an "incubating" bar below their status bar - this means that your egg is incubating.
Depending on the species of the dinosaur will determine the time for the egg to hatch. For example, Quetzals are usually take around 2 hours to hatch. Be patient, it'll hatch in time
When your dinosaur is born/hatched it will be in the "spoonfeeding" state. By this I mean that you'll have to remotely-use food on it to make sure that it doesn't die of starvation. You'll see that it won't have a very high weight, nor will it eat out of a feeding trough, so you're going to have to remotely use food in it for a while.
You'll be able to notice that the "Weight" attribute does not match how much the baby can actually hold, this is because the stats show it's final variant, not it's current. The baby will be born with about 1% of it's max stat, and will slowly rise (0.5% every 20 seconds) to it's max. Once it reaches 10% of it's max stat, it will become Juvenile.
Juvenile DinosaursYou'll be able to notice that the "Weight" attribute does not match how much the baby can actually hold, this is because the stats show it's final variant, not it's current. The baby will be born with about 1% of it's max stat, and will slowly rise (0.5% every 20 seconds) to it's max. Once it reaches 10% of it's max stat, it will become Juvenile.
Juvenile Dinosaurs are not much different to their baby-counterpart, they don't have their max stats yet and they are very weak - however they are now able to eat from the feeding trough. For you this means that you can finally AFK the aging process, but be aware; food spoils 20% faster in the feeding trough, so you'll have to top it up a few times otherwise your Dinosaur will starve!
Mature Dinosaurs
When your Juvenile Dinosaur reaches 100% of it's max stat (Eg. 901/901) it will finally become mature. When it becomes mature you're finally able to equip it with a saddle and you'll notice that it's much stronger than before. Maturity is the final stage of Dino breeding - if you got this far, congrats
I thought it was IRL...