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[martinuzz]

I am just barely managing to keep my water buffaloes fed, by rotating them around pastures.
Now, one of my dwarves really likes water buffaloes.

If I unpasture one, and let him have it as a pet, will it feed itself from anywhere it can walk to freely, or is a pasture specifically required to graze?

[therahedwig]

It still needs to be pastured.
Untill we get feed, large grazers just a drag.

[martinuzz]

Think I'm getting rid of the water buffaloes in that case. They're amongst the top ranking heavy eaters. Such a drag indeed, to keep them from starving.

[Deboche]

Yaks are also crap. You can have a whole leather, cheese and meat industry on goats because they breed a lot and eat barely anything

[greycat]

If I unpasture one, and let him have it as a pet, will it feed itself from anywhere it can walk to freely

Sadly, the only thing more stupid than a Dwarf is an animal.  Un-pastured animals will congregate at your meeting zones, sculpture gardens, etc.  Anywhere that idle dwarves will go, that's where free-range animals will go.  This happens even if the sculpture garden has no grass (or even soil or mud) in it.  The animals will hang out there, getting hungrier and hungrier, until they die.  They literally won't go to where they've eaten grass in the past to save their own lives.

[Niddhoger]

No, pet owners take care of feeding their pets.  However a water buffalo will not eat meat-based foods, so you'll need some plants around to feed the water buffalo.  This is the only way to keep the extreme grazers alive, actually.  Elephants actually require more grass than they have time to eat to stay alive.  If they are adopted as pets, the owner will feed them enough.  The ones that migrant onto your map are either not bound by these rules, or move off the map before starving.