Animal Feeding in Stardew Valley
Growing your farm does not only equate to you expanding the land and constructing several infrastructures that will show proof of your farm’s growth. Instead, growing your farm means taking care of and letting all the living things on your farm grow as well. This includes the various types of crops and livestock on your farm. But how can you make them grow healthily if your animals are thin and angry?
In playing Stardew Valley, your animals are one of the most important components of your farm. Not only it will increase the population on your farm, but you can also collect high-quality products and resources that can be used for quests and gifts to other villagers.
To make sure that animals will give you a good quality item, you must maintain your livestock’s mood and condition, while also increasing your friendship with them. You can do all these by petting and feeding them daily.
Ways to Feed Animals
If you are a newbie, feeding your animals should be one of the first things you should know. In fact, customizing your character is a lot more difficult than this.
All you have to do is grab one hay per animal, then place it on the feeding bench inside the barn or coop. Hays are collected by cutting grass using a scythe and placing them in your silo. Take note that cutting up grasses using a scythe without putting them in the silo will not produce any hay. So, it is important to prioritize building a silo before starting to add animals to your farm.
Upon upgrading your buildings to their deluxe version, the barn, and the coop will cut you slack in feeding your animals as they both come with a hay hopper that is directly connected to the silo and will automatically refill the hays on the bench feeder. This makes sure that all animals are guaranteed to receive hay each day. The only thing you have to concern yourself with is refilling the hay from your silo.
Other than these, you can just simply open the small door of the barn or coop to allow the animals to go out and graze. Compared to hay, animals love eating fresh grass more than hay.
Why Are My Animals Thin and Angry?
Despite all your efforts in making sure that all animals are healthy and in optimal condition, there are just some times when things do not go your way.
You might encounter some days wherein the animals have this gibberish symbol on top of their heads and there is a prompt saying that the animal is grumpy and looking thin. This happens when an animal has not been petted by the player for consecutive days. Plus, it can also mean that the animal is angry because it has not eaten hay for a day or two.
Why Aren’t My Animals Eating
Now, here comes the real issue: there are times when animals refrain to not eating despite the presence of hay and grass around them. Many players experience this not knowing the real reason why. In fact, there are several factors that may be the reason for the animal to not eat.
Here are the possible reasons why your animals are not eating making them grumpy and looking thin.
The Day After Festivals
This occurrence wherein some animals do not want to eat usually happens a day after any festival such as the Night Market. Although the reason behind this is still unknown to this day, everything will go back to normal a few days later. The player just has to make sure that hay is readily available around the area or on the feeding bench to allow the animal to eat right away as soon as it goes back to normal.
Farm and Landscape Management
One of the previously mentioned possible ways of feeding your animals is by opening the small gate and allowing them to wander on your farm to graze outside. However, this does not guarantee that your animals will be able to locate the grass outside.
In some cases, animals are not able to graze because the grass is too far from the barn or from the coop. Plus, another possible reason for this is that the amount of grass on your farm is not enough to accommodate and feed all of your animals.
Silo Balance
Some players who have already upgraded their barns and coops to the deluxe version can now enjoy the benefit of the auto-feeder called the Hay Hopper which comes together with the upgrade. This mechanism is directly connected to the silo of your farm and regardless of the distance between each other, the feeding bench will still be automatically refilled.
Despite this, some animals are still not fed well because of the insufficient amount of hay inside the silo. One silo can hold up to 240 units of hay. Sometimes, the player totally forgets about refilling the silo due to being too complacent that their animals will still have something to eat which is not always the case for everyone.
No Hay on Bench
Opposite to the previous one, this problem usually occurs to players with no Hay Hopper. Sometimes, players are too focused on starting the day with the adventure and often forget about the livestock they are growing on their farm. Without the hay hopper and when the doors of both barns and coops are closed, there is no other way that the animals could eat.
Without the Hay Hopper, the player is obliged to manually place hays on the feeding bench for the animals to enjoy their meal of the day.
Possible Solutions
These problems are common to all players, especially to the newbies. With that, we also wanted to give you some of the possible solutions that you can do to prevent your animals from getting grumpy and thin, while also making sure that they are happily having their meal every single day.
Grass Starters near the Barn or Coop 
Regarding landscape management, some players think that simply opening the doors and allowing the animals to wander around will already guarantee their eating. As mentioned, the possible issues here are the distance of the grass and the availability of the grass for all the animals.
With these problems, the best thing for you to do is to put up fences enough to cater to the animals per building. This way, they will not fight over the space where they can graze. Plus, make sure to place a Grass Starter near or beside a fence. This allows the player to grow a patch of grass that can freely grow and spread around the area.
Stock Hay for Grass Alternative
It is true that having a silo and a hay hopper will greatly increase your quality of life as it will make the feeding of animals way easier. But if the weather is good and not rainy, it is better for you to just open the doors and let the animals enjoy the outside grazing. This is especially true when the fall season is nearing to end. The reason for this is that all grass will die and stop spreading at the start of the winter season. It is also important to know that you can place a grass starter during the winter season but it will not grow and spread.
But if you enjoy using the hay hopper too much, it is suggested to construct several silos for you to store hay. The good thing here is that there is no limit to the number of silos you can build. As long as you have a space to place your silo, it will be good for both of you and your animals.
To build a silo, you just have to collect 100x stone, 10x clay, and 5x copper bar. Purchasing the building from Robin will only cost 100 gold.
Always Close the Doors During Winter
By this time, you may have probably known already that animals will not go outside of their shelters if it is snowing or raining. Similar to this concept, the temperature can also affect the mood of your animals.
During winter, make sure to always close the doors to prevent your animals from getting cold and irritated. Sometimes, animals get grumpy and refuse to eat if they feel uncomfortable with the temperature.
Additionally, you can also purchase a heater from Marnie which costs 2,000 gold. You can place it inside the barn or coop to keep your animals warm and comfortable during winter.
