Where runaway animals go

For a missing animal, begin with the farm-animal markers added to the 1.0 map. A Steam thread from 2025 describes a Runaway state that shows up beside Hungry, Thirsty, and Cramped. Players looked around the base for a day or two and still could not find the animal. One workaround in that thread was to hand the animal to Diane's sanctuary and take it back. Another poster saw a runaway near Diane's house. A third reported about twenty animals leaving even when food and water looked fine.

That thread is player reports, nine posts, not a developer formula. The trigger for cramped conditions is not defined in an official note I could quote.

What 1.0 actually changed

The 1.0 notes say farm animals now show on the map, care takes less fuss, and eggs are easier to find. Lola's Retrieval Service is in the same notes and it names trailers and caches. It does not name animals.

If an animal is gone after 1.0, look at the map markers first, then food, water, and space, then Diane's sanctuary as the player-reported bypass. The animal list is where products and habitats sit. This page is only the disappearance.