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[HellTiger]

Hello,

could i simply keep all my animals in cages so they wont get killed at siege?
i wonder which penalty (if any) you have if you just keep them caged.

[Grim Portent]

Grazing animals starve to death in cages, non-grazers can be kept in cages just fine though.

[HellTiger]

ah yes. there where somthing.
so which animal is the most worth to cage? in matters of afterward use, like: milk, wool, eggs, horns, maybe it should even give honey!
hm looks like only cat dog and pig, and some Goose :|

[Grim Portent]

Usually caging should only be used to help deal with overpopulation since caged animals wont breed and can't be sheared or milked. It can be useful to haul animals in for safekeeping or to set up dog bombs.

[Kirkegaard]

Usually caging should only be used to help deal with overpopulation since caged animals wont breed and can't be sheared or milked. It can be useful to haul animals in for safekeeping or to set up dog bombs.

Sure about this? I think I have some mole dogs that have breed in cages.

[Garath]

animals can give birth in cages, but can't conceive. Pretty much all animals that can be milked or sheared are also grazers. You should try walling in and roofing over an outside area, or make an underground area with cavern moss.

[PaleBlueHammer]

animals can give birth in cages, but can't conceive. Pretty much all animals that can be milked or sheared are also grazers. You should try walling in and roofing over an outside area, or make an underground area with cavern moss.

This is why I like to use pigs.  Decent meat, decent bone resources, leather, can be milked (and the milk made into cheese), and they don't need a pasture at all.  Can be stored on one tile, caged later to curb piglets if necessary.

Actually now that I think about it, dogs might be even better as a food resource because you can also train dogs for war or hunting.  But I don't want to eat my dogs. 

[HellTiger]

i think dog milk is awful.

[Garath]

how about dog cheese?

[Duuvian]

I use my grazers as a distraction. I put them outside the walls or whatnot, and goblin ambushes reveal themselves and chase animals around while I assemble a poorly armored and likely soon to be tantruming militia.

The downside is all the animal hauling to be done by the survivors. It's quite a few jobs if you have a large amount of animals and with a low population cap it's especially frustrating.

On the fort I have now, I just got sick of it and caged all my grazers and let them starve to death because it was less disruptive than my 35 adult dwarves having to re-pasture my huge grazer herds every time something forced them out of pasture. I have invaders off for now, I'll probably move some grazers out to defensive pastures once I turn invaders back on after my dwarves make enough new dwarves for the Queen to arrive.

[Garath]

I use flying critters for that. Tey tend to give the goblins a much longer chase as long as they don't get shot, and are less likely to be shot in the first place, can be pastured on a tiny spot, unlike grazers who need more space, and they're easier to replace since most birds hatch 5 or more together while grazers only pop out one or two at a time.

[HellTiger]

oke some watch goose then!

[Garath]

one problem with them though. They're so attractive to goblins that sometimes they get chased all over the map and the goblins never get close to your defences. I usually make an above ground enclosure just to give the flying distraction a place to hide and the goblins time to refocus