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[NoirRaven]

I just had my water buffalo in my pasture effectively go insane, kill everything in it then starve to death.

What the hell happened? did it go insane because it was starving or something?

[Sphalerite]

It didn't go insane, assuming it was actually a tame creature of yours.  The only animals which go insane are caravan draft animals which you prevent from leaving the map.  What happened was that you gave it too small and crowded of a pasture.  When animals are too crowded, they start fighting each other.  And then it starved, because water buffalos need huge pastures and you didn't give it large enough of one.

[Mickey Blue]

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

[NoirRaven]

Ah, ok. The pasture was 8x8 and had a yak, the water buffalo, 3 hens, a rooster, a drake and a duck. So i think then it was overcrowded . I built it small so i could put it within the walls and fortifications i built around the entrance of my fort, since i am in a savage biome.

It was a very entertaining happening though, i had a good laugh at it.

[proxn_punkd]

Yeah, water buffalo and yaks both need lots and lots of grazing area. Larger grazers than them are actually impossible to keep alive at present because they literally can't eat/move fast enough to keep from starving.

[jjcarver]

Whenever I get a tame grazer that requires more than its own 5x5 pasture, I butcher it immediately.  There is no real benefit to keeping it.

[Nidokoenig]

For water buffalo, I usually set aside around 320 squares of pasture, though that's probably overkill. Yes, that's an utterly obnoxious amount of land just to get some milk and meat, so I don't usually bother with them unless migrants bring them. Only dralthas, rhinos and elephants are truly impossible, and pandas if you don't have bamboo, anything else you just need to assign them a big enough pasture and only have one or two grazers per pasture. I usually stick a couple of dogs/honey badgers in there, too, to slow down thieves and what-not.

[Mickey Blue]

Indeed I don't bother with any creatures that require a huge pasture size.. Actually for food I generally use birds, pigs and sheep, depending on my mood.

[Talvieno]

Yep, it happens tons. First time I had it happen I had no clue what was going on, though I thought it was entertaining. Now I don't usually bother giving them pastures, I just head them over to the butcher.

[Aspgren]

I haven't actually had any real problems with this. I give the grazers HUUUUUGE pastures and they seem to do fine...  They survive and they make babies.

The problem is that they still fight. They bump into eachother and they get angry and fight. A smaller pasture means they fight a lot, a larger pasture means they just fight from time to time. Which is fine.... except that bulls gore their children and tear off hoofs or break spines and stuff.

I keep a separate pasture for baby animals and smaller animals. This is something I've learned to be quite important. (50-50 survival rate because of abusive parents is not good for business)

I also don't pasture wolves with the other animals. At one time I didn't think it was a big deal because the wolves don't need to eat and won't cut in on the grazing. Turns out ... wolves are unreliable assholes and while other animals often cause bruises with headbutts and kicks... The wolves lashed out at and tore chunks from the tame animals and then skipped around pretending they hadn't done sh*t.
I couldn't help but NOTICE that my muscular breeding horse was pale and unable to stand. Do you have anything to say for yourself, wolf??

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Dorfs R Fun]

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

I just spent an hour on that site. Thanks, that was great.

[Garath]

i usually butcher big animals. I keep goats, sheep, alpaca, small things like that. As an extra plus, sheep are very relaxed and almost never start a fight

chickens and other birds dont need to graze. I usually coop up the males and put the hens somewhere inside, again caging any hatchlings. One time i accidently had 32 hatchlings at one time and they started fighting almost immediately, pulling a tooth out of the person who came to seperate them. How a chick (the small fluffy yellow thing) can pull out a tooth is a mystery. Anyway, eggs are ideal to supply food to a starting expedition when farming isnt fully developed but a mason or carpenter can make a nestbox

[MarcAFK]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

.... I just can't kill wolves for meat and leather anymore, thanks alot

[evillevi]

Well that's weird current fort has no such problem. 20 by 5 with 3 yaks, 4 horses,6goats, 7 chicken plus some others like donkey. It may have been the fact that they were eating cave moss every step they take or my pen was too large

[Garath]

it could be that grazers prefer to go from east to west, or west to east to graze, and start fighting if they cant find grass quickly in those directions. I do know that the top part of any pasture is always well graze, but lower areas seem to be relatively untouched. Lazy bastards dont want to walk too far for food