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[Dr.Propz]

The title is the question

I'm curious, as I'm locking away all the puppies and kittens away until they grow into adults

[geail]

Yes, and grazers still need to feed.  Luckily, both cats and dogs are carnivores so they can survive from birth to death of old age in a cage.

[Dr.Propz]

Do they eat each other? Or can they go on forever without eating? Also, how long does the average dog/cat take to grow up?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm still rather new to this game

[ayoriceball]

I don't think they eat anything but I'm also unsure. I have yet to see a dog on a chain die of hunger.

Cats take less than 2 years to become an adult, same with dogs, but to reach a larger size you need to let them grow for a bit longer. That is true with all animals. Kill a turkey as soon as it becomes an adult, you won't get much. Wait for a year and it gets some meat on its bones.

[Callista]

They take a year or less to grow to adult. Though, I think if you wait another year you get more meat off 'em. And animals in cages can also die of old age.

Animals in cages don't fight; animals in pastures do, if they're crowded too close.

Grazing animals are the only ones that you need to worry about feeding, by assigning them to a pasture zone with cave moss or grass in it. If caged, they cannot graze and will eventually starve. All others can stay in cages forever without being fed. You can cage grazers in order to sell them or temporarily restrain them; just make sure they get out quickly enough to get back to grazing.

[Girlinhat]

Animals in cages become immune to temperature and oxygen (or lack thereof) so they will not drown if their cage is tossed into water, nor will they burn if their cage is dropped into magma - assuming the cage is magma-safe as well (they also won't drown in magma, which HAS happened before).

They become immune to external influences, but maintain their internal.  Animals that need to eat will still need to eat, they can give birth if they were already pregnant while being dragged to the cage, and dwarves will suffer mood and skill decay while caged.  However, animals in a cage may not become pregnant, only carry out existing pregnancies.  Apparently the spores can penetrate 23 layers of solid granite and the adamantine greaves your militia captain wears, but cannot penetrate a wooden cage.

[Vharuck]

However, animals in a cage may not become pregnant, only carry out existing pregnancies.  Apparently the spores can penetrate 23 layers of solid granite and the adamantine greaves your militia captain wears, but cannot penetrate a wooden cage.

I heard that a male in a cage can still impregnate females.

Also, I know that cats eat vermin (technically, they don't eat anything and reduce the number of vermin, but I like to believe they eat them).  I wonder if they still do this while caged.

[Dr.Propz]

I  see, thanks for the help. Now I have yet another question to ask
How does breeding even work? I read that they do not have to be close to each other, so is it alright to lock down all the females in a room and kill all the males except one? Or does the number of males mean that there is a higher birth rate?

[ayoriceball]

Since you need a male and female to produce babies, I would assume they need to be somewhere near each other sometime. I just throw my male and female cat in the same pasture and kittens pop out.

With poultry, make sure you manage to leave some eggs in a nest box. Then the male birds fertilize them.

[Marshall Burns]

Distance doesn't matter. I don't know if the number of males does, though. I've never experimented with it.

[Di]

I read that they do not have to be close to each other, so is it alright to lock down all the females in a room and kill all the males except one? Or does the number of males mean that there is a higher birth rate?

I you're trying to breed animals, that wild do, you may even not need males if there are wild ones wandering around. I doubt that amount of begetters matters a lot, they still pop out babies approximately once per year.
If you want more dwarves, that's not the way