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[WCG]

I figured that rabbits would be an easy source of food, since they'd probably breed very quickly. Well, that last part was certainly true. I've got bunnies like you wouldn't believe.

But when I started slaughtering the adults, I discovered a problem. Yeah, you're probably laughing already, but I didn't realize that you don't get meat from rabbits!

So my cooks have run out of raw materials, while my butcher is slaughtering every rabbit and bunny he can find, trying to get rid of them - and getting just a skull from each (well, a skull from the adults; I don't know if bunnies give anything at all).

Luckily, my egg production has been more successful. I've got not just chicken, goose, duck, turkey, and peafowl eggs, but a few alligator eggs (caught and tamed the adult) and giant raven and giant echidna eggs (thanks to elven traders). But I don't have a male of any of those last three (this is a jungle setting, but I've seen only female alligators, so far), so I can't breed up a larger population.

[Thorik]

Look on df wiki before you start any animal breeding.  It taught me that pigs for instance aren't grazers so don't need pasture and that turkeys are the most efficient kind of poultry.

edit: yeah and I was laughing 

[Rakushun]

Non-pet rabbits will require a Pasture to survive.

^Wiki says this. Implies that animals that require pastures can survive without them if they're made pets.

Is this true in all cases?

Wouldn't be useful for animals you want to butcher, but if you can make war elephants, war rhinoceroses, and war giant pandas, then make them pets so they don't starve to death, it would be very useful.

[Morpha]

I made a helmet snake ranch once before I found out they didn't breed without modding. Made an excellent source of eggs (survived off egg and booze biscuits as only food source), and I had my base entrance go through their enclosure so any thieves lasted about the time it takes for 15 helmet snakes to turn around so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

[Sphalerite]

Grazing animals need pastures if tame.  Wild grazers do not need to eat.  It does not matter if the animal is a pet, only if it is tame.

[Loud Whispers]

Stop slaughtering those rabbits. Dump them into the scary unexplored cavern layers.

They will never die.

[Rakushun]

Grazing animals need pastures if tame.  Wild grazers do not need to eat.  It does not matter if the animal is a pet, only if it is tame.

If this is true, then the wiki entry for rabbits is wrong. Verification needed.

[Callista]

Yeah, pets need pastures too. I used to lock away annoying grazer pets and let them starve to get them out of my hair. Nowadays I just kill them with spikes, but I can verify that they do indeed need to graze.

[NecroRebel]

Sometimes, but very inconsistently, dwarves will feed their hungry pets. You cannot rely on this, however. Rabbits may be the only creature that can survive if made a pet without a pasture because they take a long time to go from hungry to dead from starvation, giving their dwarf a long time to get to caring for them. Anything with a grazer value less than 10000 will surely die if not pastured. It may depend on the owner's personality traits, too, though which traits, exactly, would affect it I don't know.

Also, pets will only be fed with raw, edible food, not cooked meals, so if you don't have any meat or plump helmets around, they're dead anyway.

[Viking]

I have a fort in an older version: 0.31.25 where I used to have a ton of rabbits that seemed to quite along quite well without a pasture. I ended up butchering all of them but that's because they were so numerous and I wanted my FPS to be consumed by more useful creatures like the black bears that now wander around my fort.

[slink]

I've never lost a pet grazer to starvation.  Their offspring, however, are stray and will starve unless you constantly watch for their births.

[WealthyRadish]

I get the feeling that having a large number of rabbits would attract mentally disabled migrants and one-handed geezers, but I could be wrong.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Grazing animals need pastures if tame.  Wild grazers do not need to eat.  It does not matter if the animal is a pet, only if it is tame.

I think dwarves will feed grazing pets. Not sure, though.

If this is true, then the wiki entry for rabbits is wrong. Verification needed.

[slink]

Grazing animals need pastures if tame.  Wild grazers do not need to eat.  It does not matter if the animal is a pet, only if it is tame.

I think dwarves will feed grazing pets. Not sure, though.

If this is true, then the wiki entry for rabbits is wrong. Verification needed.

Sometimes, but very inconsistently, dwarves will feed their hungry pets. You cannot rely on this, however. Rabbits may be the only creature that can survive if made a pet without a pasture because they take a long time to go from hungry to dead from starvation, giving their dwarf a long time to get to caring for them. Anything with a grazer value less than 10000 will surely die if not pastured. It may depend on the owner's personality traits, too, though which traits, exactly, would affect it I don't know.

Also, pets will only be fed with raw, edible food, not cooked meals, so if you don't have any meat or plump helmets around, they're dead anyway.

I've never lost a pet grazer to starvation.  Their offspring, however, are stray and will starve unless you constantly watch for their births.

[CodexDraco]

I don't bother with pastures anymore, what I do is designate a meeting area or statue garden somewhere where grass grow and grazers will eat any grass they find on their way. I would assume this is what happens with pets.