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[kidhedera]

So I've embarked on a untamed wilds/joyous wilds map, and my 'randomly plop cage traps every where and pray for unicorns' plan resulted in capturing a couple of rattlesnakes. I had my animal trainer train them, and then locked them both in 1 tile nestbox/breeding chambers to see if I could raise a collection of delightful venomous pets for my dwarves.

Unfortunately the female reverted to her wild state before laying any eggs. The male has been safely moved back to a cage in the animal training chamber, but I'm unsure what to do about the female.

I've deployed some military dwarves, and they are all standing around staring at the now unlocked door to her chamber in shifts, between snacks and naps.

This is the layout

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

|~~~...
|~~~...
|~~~...
|+|+|+|
|S|N|N|
|||||||

| = Wall
+ = Door
. = floor
N = nestbox
~ = farmplot
S = SNAKE

My poultry share space with a few farm plots and a seed stockpile. (Theoretically to keep vermin numbers under control, regardless of whether or not poultry actually kill vermin)

The dwarves are standing a few tiles from the door to her chamber, or sometimes wandering into the chamber next to hers, but not opening the door or attacking, and she hasn't come out yet.

I had two thoughts.
1. I could get a civilian to remove the door, and hope that leads to bloody death on the part of the snake, but not the civilian.

2. I could cancel the squads kill order, remove the closest farm plot and put a cage trap just outside the door, and then hope the snake leaves of its own accord - into the cage trap, ready for retraining.

Anyway, the lesson I have learned from this is that venomous, potentially dangerous creatures should not be kept in the chicken coop. I should make special trap-laden breeding chambers all special like for them.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any idea why my dwarves wont just open the door and hit the snake on the head with a hammer? I mean, my dwarves aren't usually the holding back type. Most of the civilians have racked up kills from being attacked by wildlife and then retaliating with their axes, picks or fists. My head miner killed an ocelot when it interrupted his trip to the creek for a wash, and my woodcutter killed two honey badgers and a rattlesnake between tree-cutting.

[Just Some Guy]

Wait, you can tame rattlesnakes? Can I turn them into war animals?

[doublestrafe]

Code: [Select]

|~~~...
|~~~...
|~~~...
|+|+|+|
|S|N|N|
|.|||||  3. Remove this wall and run.
|^|      2. Build this cage trap.
|<|      1. Get here somehow.
|||Problem solved.

[kidhedera]

Well, there is now dwarf blood all over my chicken coop, the rattlesnake escaped, and 'Fabulous Leader Rimtar' has lost three teeth and has a bruised hand. (Although, as far as I can tell, she's not poisoned, so thats a win).

All because I didn't think of putting a cage trap on the DIAGONALLY accessible tile.

*sigh*

[Wrex]

Rattlesnakes do not lay eggs, and I don;t know if they even breed in DF.

[Oaktree]

Cage trap might not have helped.  I hear one "feature" of tamed animals going wild is that they are immune to your cage traps at that point, just like your tamed animals are.

[Sus]

Wait, you can tame rattlesnakes? Can I turn them into war animals?

Nah, they lack TRAINABLE and/or TRAINABLE_WAR.
The best you can do is pasture or restrain tame rattlesnakes somewhere the gobbos will be plodding through.

[weenog]

I don't see why you would want to use poison against invaders.  Isn't disabling them quickly more useful than dooming them to surely die, eventually, some time in the future after they've raised merry hell and done a bunch of damage?

[Di]

To poison someone snake must pierce armor and clothing and unless it's gigantic variation they haven't much luck with this.
I've had tame rattlesnake, the best use for it was to pasture it and all pets in a single tile zone.
And yes, dwarves are extremely stupid when they must enter a single tile room. I've lost three haulers that tried to retrieve giant parrot eggs from reverted to wild bird while my military was standing right behind the door.