Dealing with clingy offspring

[Graphite]

I was designing a simple livestock farm and ran into a bit of an issue with clingy offspring. They all just pack together right beneath one of their parents until they grow up, at which point they just end up stuck between the small ones crowding around.

I noticed that if I give them the illusion of a way out past some vinetraps, they'll instead crowd around the pit there, but at that point they just clog up that edge so well that the mature ones can't get past them and into the loving embrace of my saws. To top it all of, this seems to cause them to phase into the walls upon map load, so I run the risk of losing a lot of potential drops as well.

So how do you guys deal with this?

[SterlingRed]

Well I've always used a water stream between the parents to funnel the babies to a growing room with a lip and vine traps on one end to let the grown cows hit my saws. I usually don't have too much build up very often that causes problems. I've had to clear it out manually now and then but generally don't have problems. If you have this problem a lot, consider providing more area for adults to escape and slow down your breeding rates.

[Graphite]

I was trying to avoid the waterstream-method for once as I was trying to make it look "natural" and low-tech for a change. Unfortunately I have now found out that when they mature, half the time they seem to somehow end up inside the wooden supports and suffocate... this farm is proving quite a bother.

[SterlingRed]

Yeah I went through several redesigns until I got the quirks worked out. A general rule for builds like this is to make it twice as big as you think you need. Especially with animals that clip through things.