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[Sadrice]

Rabbits and cavies are, sadly, pointless.  They are small enough that they have no butchering returns but a skull, despite cats only being a little bigger IRL and providing modest returns in dwarf fortress.  Relative animal size in dwarf fortress is weird. Have you noticed how large the echidnas are?

[utunnels]

Rabbits and cavies are, sadly, pointless.  They are small enough that they have no butchering returns but a skull, despite cats only being a little bigger IRL and providing modest returns in dwarf fortress.  Relative animal size in dwarf fortress is weird. Have you noticed how large the echidnas are?

Oddly enough I saw several times butchering an echidna gave me a spine (and other parts as well).

[Arcvasti]

Rabbits and cavies are, sadly, pointless.  They are small enough that they have no butchering returns but a skull, despite cats only being a little bigger IRL and providing modest returns in dwarf fortress.  Relative animal size in dwarf fortress is weird. Have you noticed how large the echidnas are?

They are also, however, adorable. Checkmate. Plus you can use them to train your Gelder{s} to ungodly high levels.

[Badger Storm]

The really weird thing is that guinea pigs are actually a delicacy in parts of South America.

[§k]

Even crab gifs 8 meat!

[Ancalagon_TB]

  Relative animal size in dwarf fortress is weird. Have you noticed how large the echidnas are?

Ooh yes - you can get more meat out of a wombat than a cow... I mean I know they are dense, but come on!

[fourpotatoes]

In an unmodded game I embark with geese and I try to build herds of horses & sheep. I prefer them because they don't need as much pasture space. Horses are easy to get, but it tends to take longer to get a breeding pair of sheep.

What I want is irrelevant, though, because if I don't stay on top of things I end up with packs of dogs roaming the halls, pigs rooting in the dining room, flocks of birds crammed into closets and herds of grazers denuding the surface & caverns. Even without modded creatures and exotics, I've got more meat than I know what to do with. The end of spore breeding might ameliorate this a bit, but I haven't spent enough time in newer versions to know for sure.

As an aside, DFHack's ability to rename animals is essential for managing livestock. I rename them to reflect their sex, quality and anything special they're earmarked for (typically breeding or slaughter). It takes more work but lets me assess herd state at a glance and move particular animals between pastures.

[Voidlord]

I prefer pigs and turkeys or ducks. I generally capture anything else on the map if I can, in my current fort, Syrupbraid, I have 3 Grey Langurs, one male 2 females, once I get a decent amount of Grey Langurs, Monkeys for my Dorfs!!

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Unmodded game? I like wombats, because I can make hundreds of horrible puns if they get into a fight. Immortal Wombat and all that. I use dogs for pets, though, so I can't butcher them, but I like using whatever animal groups I find rather than buying them from the caravan or bringing them along with me.

Modded? I'm thinking of making shear-able anurognathids (pterosaurs). Pycnofibre clothes sound scratchy, but awesome.

[Porpoisepower]

Alpacas are the best. Because, well, you know, they are fluffy and stuff.

And hypoallergenic!

[Itnetlolor]

I never really understood the shearing or milking part, and how to work it (or at least, efficiently); however, I generally use turkeys for butchering, primarily because of the # of eggs they lay, the time it takes to grow into adulthood, and the abundance of materials they leave behind (plenty of bones, meat, and tallow); not to mention, I don't need to worry about pasturing as much, if at least to keep nest boxes full.

Nowadays, in my forts, we have craploads of eggs, dozens of female turkeys laying them, and more than enough turkey meat to make my lazy dwarves even lazier thanks to all the tryptophan they ingest in their meals.

[Thisfox]

Nowadays, in my forts, we have craploads of eggs, dozens of female turkeys laying them, and more than enough turkey meat to make my lazy dwarves even lazier thanks to all the tryptophan they ingest in their meals.

There's an excuse I haven't used yet.

...Seriously, though, if they're getting somnambulant, you might want to check on and increase their booze stocks, not their food stocks.

[Lytha]

I very much prefer alpacas for milking and shearing. Peafowls for eggs. Dogs for leather industry.

As gray langurs love to invade my fortress, I prefer them for gelding and for leather industry now too.

[Naryar]

Pigs and dogs for leather and food industry. And if I actually want to make cheese. Shearing ? Bah.

Although I'll be more of a giant cave spider silk cloth man (better than leather, high silk production) but I've never set up a silk farm yet. Considering I tend to tame everything and anything from the caverns...

[Karnewarrior]

DF is easy enough as it is,  so I try to RP and have Cows for milk & meat, Sheep for wool, meat, and occasional milking if we're short on Cow Milk, Pigs are solely for meat, and Chickens for eggs and meat.

I also keep animals in a aboveground pasture, and try to toss prepared weird shit.