Breeding is an animal care mechanic in ZAWA: Evolved.

Unlike in ZAWA: Rebuilt, animals are bred with specific food items, as seen in their animal data book profile. To breed two animals, they must be tamed and happy! This means full health, hunger, thirst, and enrichment.

Animals can be put "in the mood" by hand feeding them their breeding item. They have to be hand-fed by a player, specifically the player who tamed them. If animals eat these items off of the ground, or out of a feeder, they will not attempt to breed.

Two animals tamed by different players can breed, each must be put "in the mood" by their own zookeeper.

Whether or not a breeding is successful, dependent upon their fertility, there will be a cooldown time until both parent animals are able to breed again. An unsuccessful breeding leaves a default 5 minute cooldown, however a successfully bred female will not breed again until their baby or litter is full grown. Males and ambient animals will always have a 5 minute cooldown.

All animals have a fertility range defined per species, and a fertility stat for individuals within their species' range. This is meant to simulate challenges of breeding animals in captivity, such as limited gene pools, intra-animal conflict, and preference for conditions that are hard to replicate.

Rarity and fertility don't always coincide, so it's always a good idea to double check.

Species fertility has three ranges: Low, medium, and high.

• High fertility species can have individuals ranging from 2-4; producing fair, good, and prolific breeders. Animals like big cats and large primates, who breed well in captivity with little effort (or often have unwanted pregnancies and eggs) are considered high in fertility. Most large hoofstock, or reptiles who rely on good temperature and nest conditions, can also have high fertility.
• Medium fertility species can have individuals ranging from 1-3; producing poor, fair, and good breeders. Species that face more challenges in captive breeding, such as mate selection (most birds who mate for life are considered fair), as well as animals with a very high age of sexual maturity would be considered to have medium fertility.
• Low fertility species can have individuals ranging from 1-2; producing poor, and fair breeders. Animals with significant challenges, or with major inbreeding depression, extremely high husbandry and enrichment needs, and high ages of sexual maturity are considered low in fertility.

Individual fertility comes in four stats: Prolific, good, fair, and poor, and is the number seen in the animal data book.

• Prolific (4) breeders have a 100% success rate on every breeding attempt. They are easy to breed for beginner zookeepers, provided their basic needs are met.
• Good (3) breeders have a 75% success rate on breeding attempts. Good breeders are generally successful, but can have some challenges. Good is considered average for animals, and shouldn't be too much of a challenge.
• Fair (2) breeders have a 50% success rate on each breeding attempt. Fair breeders are a challenge to breed successfully.
• Poor (1) breeders have a 25% success rate on each breeding attempt. Regularly breeding poor fertility animals, especially those with high gestation times, is an incredibly difficult task.

All live-bearing animals, excluding ambient which breed instantly, have a waiting period between a successful breeding and a birth called gestation. If an animal is pregnant, there will be an icon indicating this on their animal data book page.

The length of an animal's gestation time is defined by its size.

• Tiny: 1 day (24000 ticks, 20 minutes)
• Small: 1 2/3 days (40000 ticks, ~34 minutes)
• Medium: 2 1/3 days (56000 ticks, ~47 minutes)
• Large: 3 days (72000 ticks, 60 minutes)
• Giant: 3 2/3 days (88000 ticks, ~74 minutes)

All oviparous animals, excluding ambient, will drop fertilized egg items a few seconds after a successful breeding. These animals have the same breeding cooldown as their live-bearing counterparts.

Baby growth times are scaled to the species' size, and are in minecraft days.

• Tiny: 2 days (48000 ticks, 40 minutes)
• Small: 3 1/3 days (80000 ticks, ~67 minutes)
• Medium: 4 2/3 days (112000 ticks, ~94 minutes)
• Large: 6 days (144000 ticks, 120 minutes)
• Giant: 7 1/3 days (176000 ticks, ~147 minutes)

*It is important to note that the animal must be loaded for the timers to countdown! If you are off exploring, mining, etc. far enough away that the chunk unloads, it would basically be like hitting a pause button.