Grow a Garden: Best Pets for Egg Hatching and Egg Speed Farming

In Grow a Garden, pets play a massive role in long-term progression, especially when it comes to egg hatching and egg production efficiency. With recent balance changes—most notably the seal and koi nerfs and the introduction of a new bird pet that speeds up eggage time—the egg meta has shifted in important ways. Players who want to maximize efficiency now need to rethink which pets they use, when they use them, and how they combine abilities.

This guide breaks down the best pets for every stage of the egg process, from hatching eggs to speeding up egg timers and selling pets afterward. Whether you're a newer player relying on chickens and roosters or a high-end player considering bald eagles, burps, or even rainbow variants, this article will help you make the right choices.

Understanding the Egg Process in Grow a Garden

Before diving into individual pets, it's important to separate the egg system into two distinct phases:

Hatching Eggs – Pets that improve what happens when an egg hatches, such as increasing size, weight, mutations, or refund chances.

Egg Speed (Eggage Time) – Pets that reduce the time it takes for eggs to hatch in the first place.

Some pets are amazing in one category but useless in the other. Using the right pets at the right stage is what separates casual players from efficient, high-level farmers.

Best Pets for Hatching Eggs (Not Speeding Them Up)

These pets activate when eggs hatch, not while eggs are incubating. Their purpose is to improve value, weight, mutations, or refund chances.

Ostrich vs Black Bird – Size and Hatch Value Bonuses

The ostrich has long been a staple hatching pet. At 1 kg base weight, an ostrich at age 100 can pass on a bonus hatch value ranging from +1 to +9.5, scaling with age and weight.

Recently, a new pet—the black bird—was introduced with a similar concept. However, when comparing base stats directly, the black bird performs worse than ostrich at the same base weight. While it technically fills the same role, it is not a true replacement.

Verdict:

If your goal is to increase passage or hatch value, ostrich is still better than black bird.

Brontosaurus – The Weight Multiplier Meta

Instead of focusing on direct hatch bonuses, many high-level players now use brontosaurus for one key reason: weight scaling.

Brontosaurus provides approximately a 5.35% increase in base size and weight. Since many pet abilities scale with weight, this indirectly boosts almost every other pet's effectiveness.

While elephants can also increase weight, they take significantly longer unless you own a rainbow variant, making brontosaurus the more practical choice.

Why brontosaurus is meta:

Heavier pets = stronger abilities

Synergizes with koi, seals, and speed pets

Scales extremely well in late game

Koi – Still the King of Egg Refunds

Even after being nerfed, koi remains one of the strongest pets in Grow a Garden.

When hatching eggs, koi provides a chance to receive the egg back. At base levels, this chance is modest, but with proper investment, it becomes absurdly strong.

Base chance: 1.22%

At 60 kg with Nightmare mutation: 14.42%

With enough optimization, you can keep this chance capped at 50%

Most high-level players use:

4–5 koi

3–4 brontosaurus

This setup balances refund chance and weight scaling, creating an extremely efficient hatch loop.

Verdict:

Despite the nerf, everyone should still be using koi while hatching eggs.

Additional Hatch Boosts (Non-Pet Options)

Not everything comes from pets. You can further enhance hatching results by using:

Peppermint Wine

Other plants that grant mutations on hatch

These stack with pet effects and should always be used during serious hatching sessions.

Selling Pets and the Seal Nerf

Seals are not hatching pets—they activate when selling pets.

Seal Changes Explained

Before the nerf:

A 2 kg base seal could reach the 50% refund cap

After the nerf:

An 82 kg seal only provides about 16% refund chance

This is a massive reduction, but seals are still essential.

Why seals are still mandatory:

They provide a chance to get eggs back when selling pets

Eggs are the most valuable resource in the game

Even a lower percentage adds up over time

Conclusion:

Seals are weaker, but still insanely valuable and non-negotiable.

Boosting Egg Refund Chance Further

If your koi setup can't maintain the 50% cap, you can supplement it using:

Small Toy

Medium Toy

Large Toy

Grandmaster Sprinkler

These provide small but meaningful boosts that help maintain efficiency.

Pets That Speed Up Egg Hatching Time

Now let's move on to the eggage process—pets that reduce how long eggs take to hatch.

Entry-Level Options: Chicken and Rooster

If you're early game or low on tokens:

Chicken: 10% eggage speed bonus

Rooster (Rare Egg): 20% eggage speed bonus

These are easy to obtain and far better than nothing.

Bald Eagle – The Best Value Speed Pet

The bald eagle is widely considered the best cost-to-performance pet for speeding up eggs.

Ability:

Every 7 minutes, all eggs advance 70 seconds

70% chance to multiply that advance by 1.98x

This effect applies to all eggs, making it far more powerful than single-target abilities.

With a full setup of 8 bald eagles, plus support pets like:

15-second Peacock

15-second Mimic

Players can hatch 4-hour eggs in as little as 10–20 minutes.

Why bald eagle is meta:

Cheap (7–20 tokens average)

Scales well with weight and mutations

Affects all eggs at once

Why Other Speed Pets Fall Short

Hydra

Hatches one egg instantly

Activates every 20–40 minutes

Ages itself and applies term mutation

Verdict: Not efficient compared to bald eagle.

Rhino

Every 7–14 minutes rams a random egg or fruit

Only affects one egg

Halves hatch time

Verdict: Too inconsistent and single-target.

Burp – The Premium Egg Speed Monster

Burp is essentially a better bald eagle, but at a massive cost.

Base Burp Ability

Activates every 5 minutes

Advances all eggs by 150 seconds

30% chance to multiply by 4x

Even at 1 kg, burp outperforms bald eagle.

Mutated Burp at 60 kg (Hyperang)

With proper investment:

Multiplier increases to 12x

Egg speed increases by approximately 233%

Eight burps stack into absurd speed values

Comparison at 160 kg:

Bald Eagle: ~170% speed increase

Burp: ~233% speed increase

Clearly superior, but…

The Cost Problem

Bald Eagle: ~7–20 tokens

Burp: 500+ tokens

This makes burp inaccessible for most players.

Verdict:

If you're extremely wealthy, burp is the best. Otherwise, bald eagles are more than enough.

Rainbow Burp – Completely Broken

A 60 kg mutated Rainbow Burp is on another level entirely.

According to calculations:

A single rainbow burp can boost eggage speed by over 2350%

This means eggs that normally take hours can hatch in minutes.

Reality check:

This pet is absurdly rare and expensive, but if you have one, it completely trivializes egg timers.

Final Recommendations

For most players:

Hatching Eggs: Koi + Brontosaurus

Selling Pets: Seal (even after nerf)

Egg Speed: Bald Eagles

For rich or endgame players:

Burps > Bald Eagles

Rainbow Burp if you're insanely lucky or wealthy

If you can't afford high-end pets:

Chickens and roosters still provide real value

Final Thoughts

Despite recent nerfs, the egg meta in Grow a Garden is still incredibly rewarding for players who optimize correctly. Players will therefore accumulate more Grow a Garden Items and Grow a Garden Sheckles. Kois and bald eagles remain the backbone of efficient egg farming, while brontosaurus quietly powers everything through weight scaling. High-end pets like burp and rainbow burp push things to absurd extremes, but they are luxury tools—not requirements.

In the end, eggs are everything, and the right pets ensure you never stop farming them efficiently.

MMOexp Grow a Garden Team