Stardew Valley Dinosaur Egg: Where to Find One and How to Hatch It

The Dinosaur Egg in Stardew Valley is exactly what it sounds like: an egg that hatches into a small, perfectly functional dinosaur. Place it in the right coop and you eventually have a livestock animal that lays more Dinosaur Eggs on a schedule. The catch is finding the first one, since every method involves a coin flip with the game's RNG.

Every Way to Get a Dinosaur Egg

There are five known sources for that first egg, and none of them are guaranteed. Going in expecting one on the first try is a fast way to feel personally targeted by Pelican Town.

• Artifact Spots in the Mountains or the Quarry. Dig those worm-marked tiles whenever you walk past them.
• Fishing Treasure Chests at Fishing Level 2 or higher. The chest has to drop while you reel something in.
• Pepper Rex kills in the Skull Cavern out in the Calico Desert. These small T-Rex enemies have the highest drop rate of any source.
• Foraging on the Prehistoric Floors of the Skull Cavern. The egg can spawn directly on the ground.
• Crane Game prizes in the Movie Theater. The hidden reward includes a chance at an egg.

Of these, hunting Pepper Rex is the most reliable. The tradeoff is that a Pepper Rex can flatten unprepared players, so it pays to upgrade your sword or grab an enchantment before going dinosaur shopping. Charging into Skull Cavern with a starter weapon is a quick way to wake up in bed missing half your money.

Hatching the Egg

Once you have a Dinosaur Egg, drop it into an incubator inside a Big Coop or Deluxe Coop. The standard hatch time is 12 in-game days, or roughly 6 in-game days if your farmer has the Coopmaster Profession from the Animal Husbandry tree.

One quirk worth knowing: dinosaurs are born fully grown. Unlike chickens or ducks, they skip the baby stage entirely.

Selling vs Keeping

Once the egg hatches, you have two options.

Sell the dinosaur outright. This pays between 315 and 1,300 gold, depending on its friendship level at sale time.

Keep it as livestock. Each dinosaur produces one Dinosaur Egg every 7 days. Those eggs sell for 350 to 700 gold each, scaling with quality.

A small group of dinosaurs ends up being a steady passive income with minimal upkeep, since they eat standard hay like every other coop animal.

Worth Knowing

A long-running bug used to stop dinosaurs with high happiness from producing eggs, which is exactly the opposite of what you would expect. That was patched out in version 1.2.26, so happy dinosaurs now lay eggs the way they always should have.