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[Thk13421]

I grabbed a trio of dralthas in cage traps, and I've already tamed one, seemingly successfully. Is it worth trying to establish a breeding heard and using them to supplement my food/leather/bone stocks?

Also: Two of them (the undomesticated ones) both had offspring while in separate cages in my animal stockpile. Will these younger ones be easier to tame/need less space to pasture?

[Shininglight]

Draltha's are useless except for hunting, even with huge pastures they starve to death because they can't eat enough when you have them tamed.

[Loud Whispers]

So breeding wild Dralthas is a profitable venture?

[Wrex]

If you remove [Grazer]

[Thk13421]

Well, so far I've noticed that, yes I can train dralthas, and they appear to be munching happily on the cavern cud. Also: While the adult dralthas I captured were only partially tamed (Probably due to the fact that I only have a novice animal trainer), the Dralthas born in captivity to untamed parents could be fully domesticated. It's weird that they could reproduce in cages.

It's entirely possible that the best system would be to have a bunch of wild ones in cages, wait for them to breed inside the cages (Spores FTW), then train them and immediately butcher them.

[AutomataKittay]

So breeding wild Dralthas is a profitable venture?

With bonus of training military?

It'd certainly make for a killing on the market just with the bones, much less prepared meal made out of it, judging from the magmawiki entry on it.

Though it takes 5 years to get into adulthood, which's as long as it takes to be full-sized.

If you remove [Grazer]

I assume wild meant untamed, and non-tame critters don't grazes

[AutomataKittay]

Well, so far I've noticed that, yes I can train dralthas, and they appear to be munching happily on the cavern cud. Also: While the adult dralthas I captured were only partially tamed (Probably due to the fact that I only have a novice animal trainer), the Dralthas born in captivity to untamed parents could be fully domesticated. It's weird that they could reproduce in cages.

It's entirely possible that the best system would be to have a bunch of wild ones in cages, wait for them to breed inside the cages (Spores FTW), then train them and immediately butcher them.

I'd assume it'd be easier to just kill them if you already have the military and let them breed wild in a locker rooms ( They also don't get spored up in cage, only males can spore OUT of it... Unless that's changed again? ) and cage them up so you don't lose all of your breeding stock while dumping the rest on the military.

[Sutremaine]

I lowered their grazing requirements to that of cows and kept them for a bit. Even with that reduced load it's not worth it because of the odd way in which size determines butchery returns. You're better off trying for some other cavern dweller. Elk birds are alright to have and easy to get hold of but you really do have to watch them when you breed them -- the time it takes for a grazer to starve is only slightly longer than the time it takes for a clutch of eggs to hatch.

[Thk13421]

I keep elk birds in mind if the dralthas don't work out. BTW: are any catchable cavern dwellers trainable into war animals?

[AutomataKittay]

I keep elk birds in mind if the dralthas don't work out. BTW: are any catchable cavern dwellers trainable into war animals?

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Animal_trainer partial list of trainable animals here, I see Jabbers and cave dragons. I think there're more but it'd take time to check them out

[Captain Willy]

Dralthas give tons of meat.

[Eric Blank]

Running a wild draltha breeding program would definitely be worth it. Wild animals don't graze, and you can hold a "running of the dralthas" every year where you sic the militia on a few you let out into a very large pen.

[AutomataKittay]

Running a wild draltha breeding program would definitely be worth it. Wild animals don't graze, and you can hold a "running of the dralthas" every year where you sic the militia on a few you let out into a very large pen.

On top of that, non-tame corpses are usable, while tame creature won't be salvaged even when skeleton.

[Eric Blank]

Undead pets can be butchered, though. Loud Whispers did some work with a necromancer-based zombie pig program or something, and it actually produces more edibles than the creatures themselves would if butchered alive, apparently because of the physical attribute bonuses the undead get to strength and toughness. So, after your running of the dralthas, maybe leave the corpses forbidden and let a necromancer rummage through the place before they start rotting and run 'em again!

Note that the undead can be scary because many of the things that weaken the living in combat like pain and fatigue don't occur to the undead, putting even highly-trained soldiers at a moderate disadvantage, especially when outnumbered.

[thrush_titan]

I think my main objection to this plan would be that eating rotten zombie meat is disgusting and it probably wiggles around in your stomach.