Rust Animal Renaming and New Phone Calls: What the Commits Show

2026-11-04

A brown cow and two sheep in a fenced farm pen beside a wooden shack with an old wall phone

Update (Nov 5): confirmed in the November update. Livestock and horse renaming and four NPC phone conversations shipped. See the patch notes.

Two small but fun changes are on the way in Rust. Commits from the last week of October let players rename their animals, starting with cows and sheep and then horses and chickens, and add new phone calls for the weather forecast, the traveling vendor, the power grid and free apartment rooms. Both were merged into Facepunch's main branch, the renaming on October 30.

There is no release date, and details can still change. Here is what the commits show.

Rename your cows and sheep

Martyn Chapman's first commit on October 26 adds renaming for cows and sheep. Livestock already get names from the game, and those names follow family lines that the code calls a "name dynasty". When a player renames an animal, it starts a new name dynasty. Our guess is that calves and lambs from that animal will carry on the new family name, since that is how the existing dynasty system works, but the commit does not spell it out.

There is one limit. Animals that spawn with rare special names or genes cannot be renamed. Those names now show in gold with a star, so a rare animal is easy to spot at a glance. If you breed livestock, that makes the rare ones stand out at the vendor and in your pen.

A follow-up makes sure the change does not break existing server saves for livestock, so servers with animals already on them should be fine.

Horses and chickens need a tool cupboard

On October 30 renaming was extended with a rule: horses and chickens need an authorized tool cupboard nearby to be renamed. The commit says this stops them being renamed by anyone when there is no tool cupboard around. In plain words, you can only rename horses and chickens at a base you are authorized on, so a stranger cannot rename the horse you left at the gate. If you need a refresher on cupboards, see our tool cupboard and upkeep guide.

Streamer mode hides custom names

Streamers get some care too. You can rename animals while in streamer mode. With streamer mode on, animals renamed by other players are hidden and shown with a random name instead, so a rude name will not show up on stream. Another fix covered several places that were not filtering names.

A survivor standing at an old wall phone inside a concrete shack with rain outside the window

New phone calls

Rust's phones get new things to say. On October 29 Martyn Chapman added phone conversations for:

Weather forecast. The commit says the forecast is "not always reliable by design", so do not bet your farm on it.
Traveling vendor. How long until it arrives, or how much time it has left.
Power grid status. Useful if you run off the grid we covered in our heavy fuses and power grid guide.
Apartment rooms available. How many rooms are free.

The branch was merged into main the same day. A later commit on October 31 fixed time phrases that repeated and stopped the apartment clerk from saying a phone line. The commits do not list the phone numbers or how you reach each call.

What it means for players

Renaming is a small quality of life change, but it adds a lot for farmers. Naming your best breeding cow, seeing rare animals in gold, and keeping strangers from renaming your horse all make livestock feel more like yours. The phone calls make it easier to plan a vendor trip or check the grid without leaving base. See our livestock commits post for the other animal changes on the way.

When will this come out?

No date yet. Both changes are in main, and the next monthly update is the first Thursday of November (see how Rust updates work). Facepunch has not confirmed which update they ship in.

FAQ

Can you rename animals in Rust? Soon. The commits add renaming for cows, sheep, horses and chickens. It is not on live servers yet.

Why can't I rename some animals? Animals with rare special names or genes cannot be renamed. Their names show in gold with a star.

Do I need a tool cupboard to rename a horse? Yes, the commits say horses and chickens need an authorized tool cupboard nearby.

What can you ask the phone now? The weather forecast, the traveling vendor timer, power grid status and free apartment rooms.

Sanguine Rust

Sanguine Rust is a PVE server with zombies, bosses and skill levels, and farming plays a big part on our islands. We test every Rust build on a test island before moving our islands over. See what Sanguine Rust is about.

Source: Facepunch commits