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[w]

I am in somewhat desperate straits regarding my food situation.  I recently got a wave of migrants, one being a trapper, so I figured I'd send him out to trap something so I could butcher it.

He caught a bat.

The wiki says that if you want a specific animal slaughtered, mark it in the "Animals" menu in "z".  I see that that screen has a "b" for "butcher" option, but when I select the bat and press "b", nothing seems to happen.

Do I have to do something else?

Or is it just that bats aren't butcherable?

If the latter, is the bat just going to sit in my trap forever?

[Rondol]

Have you tamed the bat yet?

[w]

No.

Do I understand your implication correctly, that in order to slaughter an animal, I have to first tame it?

[Mad Jackal]

Tame animals can be set to slaughter from the z animal screen.

I believe you'd have to kill the bat and get it as chunks on the refuse stock pile before you could "buther" it.  But I don't know for sure. I've only butchered a few mules and horses so far (and am not 100% sure a butcher command I qued has ever worked for me.)

[w]

OK, that's... um... counterintuitive.

Anyway, I'll give it a shot.  Thanks!

[w]

OK, my bat is now tame.  But the "b" key on the "Animals" screen still seems to do nothing.

Anything else I might have to do?

[NotQuiteSure]

I dont even think bats are butcherable..I think you can only butcher large animals...

[AlStar]

Tiny creatures (bats, rats, roaches, butterflies, etc.) aren’t butcherable.

Best thing to do with them, in my experience, is to tame them, throw them in a cage, put them up for sale (assuming your economy has started up) and wait for a dwarf to have a preference for that critter.

I had three large tame roaches sitting around forever till I got one noble who just loves the things. He picked up all three, so I made him a cage and put it in his room and assigned the roaches to it. Now he just hangs around in his room, ecstatic, his thoughts filled with "was comforted by a beautiful creature lately."

edit: Oh, and it might be worth mentioning that, as far as I know, there is only one critter catchable by the 'trap animal' command that is butcherable - purring maggots - and they only give one unit of meat.

If you need meat, put all your hunters into a military squad, tell it to 'harass wild animals' then have them patrol near some wildlife. Then, after they've shot some stuff, go to 'o'rders, 'r'efuse, 'o'utside, and tell your dwarves to pick up outside refuse. Wait till they've picked up all the corpses, then turn it back off.

[ October 15, 2006: Message edited by: AlStar ]

[Angela Christine]

If you do not tame small animals, just leave them in a trap or assign them to a cage, dwarves will automatically eat them when they run out of all other food.  They will be unhappy about having to eat vermin, but at least they won't have to waste time running around trying to catch the vermin themselves.

Once they have been tamed they will be treated as pets, not vermin, so the dwarves will not eat them at all.

Trapping isn't a very efficient method of obtaining food, but if hunting isn't feasible at least your trappers can build up an emergency food supply this way.