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[Rhaken]

As is usual, with the coming of the new dwarven year, a bunch of livestock died of old age. This includes a giant thrips I had laying around in a cage (didn't tame it - didn't even know wild animals could die of old age, as it goes unannounced). All well and good. Set the uncaged corpses for dumping before they stink up the dining hall.

But then I saw this.

Spoiler: You're butchering what? (click to show/hide)

I went and checked the content. It's the giant thrips. He's butchering a dead animal - from inside the cage. Never seen that one before.

Is this documented anywhere? Will it work with tame animals as well? How can we exploit this?

[Snaake]

Giant Thrips, like (most?) other giant insects, only live for 1 year IIRC. And wild animals do die of old age. Think about it, otherwise once you caught e.g. a male cave croc, you could just put it in a restraint or pit somewhere, and half of your breeding pair would be immortal. Could be done with the female as well, maybe*. But since they do age, you can't have immortal breeders.

I think usually when dwarves butcher caged animals, they leave the cage where it was (whether built or in a stockpile, or just lying around if your stockpile is full), then "pull" the animal to the butcher's, like they would when butchering tame animals, pitting creatures, or milking/shearing. And usually creatures that die of old age can't be butchered, which really doesn't make much sense, at least the bones should be fine, even if the meat isn't at it's best anymore... and let's face it, dwarves will eat anything that isn't sentient, so it's kind of odd they get fussy about old animals/animals killed by invaders. But the "wild animals can be butchered if they were caged on death" thing is new.


* I read a claim that while offspring do gain the mother's training quality, the offspring can also be tamed straight from wild to domestic if it's done before adulthood. Or something like that.

[smjjames]

I actually saw a dwarf butcher an animal right in the cage once, the other dwarfs even went to get the stuff out of there. I believe it was an animal that I had set to be trained and also set to be butchered at the same time.

[Drazinononda]

let's face it, dwarves will eat anything that isn't sentient, so it's kind of odd they get fussy about old animals/animals killed by invaders.

That's only tamed animals belonging to your fort. Wild animals or tame creatures belonging to other civs (caravan pullers, for example) will still be butchered on death, regardless of why they died. One exception is that tamed creatures that are flagged for butchering at the time of their death will be butchered, regardless of how they died.

[Button]

In one of my old forts I had a ridiculous number of beak dogs from goblin invasions, and yeah, every time one died in the cage the cage would be dragged to the butcher's shop and the animal would be butchered. NB if you have corpse forbidding on, the corpse will be forbidden inside the cage - you'll need to unforbid it for butchery.

Note also that this is a great way of storing corpses if you lack the processing power to butcher them - they won't rot while they're in cages, even if they stay there for years, and your dwarves won't take them to the refuse pile unless you dump them first.

[Quietust]

I've seen this happen way back in 23a as well - I lined the chasm with cage traps, threw in garbage to trigger attacks, then caught a bunch of naked mole dogs in cages; after 2-3 years (their maximum lifespan), they died in their cages, at which point my dwarves picked up the cages and hauled them to the butcher's shops.

[Merendel]

Note also that this is a great way of storing corpses if you lack the processing power to butcher them - they won't rot while they're in cages, even if they stay there for years, and your dwarves won't take them to the refuse pile unless you dump them first.

They will reanimate though if your in a reanimating biom.  Found this out a couple weeks ago.  Had no anvil(single pick challange) and had a migrant metal worker go moody.  Couldnt give him a workshop so I surounded the meeting hall with cage traps.  He went berserk.  got traped and dumped in a stockpile.  I kinda forgot about him till he died.  Figured no mater he's caged, his reanimated corps will be caged.   Apparently he poped out of the cage when he reanimated cause I had to deal with his corpse... ironically he was the husband of my militia captian who also was first on sceen to deal with him.  lost her later to meloncoly from that event.

[Mohreb el Yasim]

But since they do age, you can't have immortal breeders.

or you could take away maxage tags so you do not need to check on breeder pairs, (and i advice also the use of DFHack to autobutcher the new ones) => no more micromanagement for animal husbandry (you migth say it is cheating, i admit, but hey less micro = more fun)

[Urist Da Vinci]

let's face it, dwarves will eat anything that isn't sentient, so it's kind of odd they get fussy about old animals/animals killed by invaders.

That's only tamed animals belonging to your fort. Wild animals or tame creatures belonging to other civs (caravan pullers, for example) will still be butchered on death, regardless of why they died. One exception is that tamed creatures that are flagged for butchering at the time of their death will be butchered, regardless of how they died.

Wait, what? Are you saying that we could butcher tamed animals that belong to the fort (and die of old age) by locking them in a room where the butcher can't get to them, and then designating them for being butchered? As long as we don't get job cancellation spam, this could be useful.

[Icefire2314]

let's face it, dwarves will eat anything that isn't sentient, so it's kind of odd they get fussy about old animals/animals killed by invaders.

That's only tamed animals belonging to your fort. Wild animals or tame creatures belonging to other civs (caravan pullers, for example) will still be butchered on death, regardless of why they died. One exception is that tamed creatures that are flagged for butchering at the time of their death will be butchered, regardless of how they died.

Wait, what? Are you saying that we could butcher tamed animals that belong to the fort (and die of old age) by locking them in a room where the butcher can't get to them, and then designating them for being butchered? As long as we don't get job cancellation spam, this could be useful.

Yeah but don't animals lose weight if they starve to death and give less when butchered? unless it's a pasture, in which case you'd have to wait till they died of old age, and with animal like cows for example, you might be waiting for a while

[Sutremaine]

Why wait for them to die of old age? Put them in a room with a bridge floor over a long drop and then pull the lever.

What does this get you beyond normal butchering? Um... More leather, and more bone stacks. It's also more efficient for hauling the animals, as you can move a bunch of animals at once instead of being limited by the number of butcheries you have. I vaguely recall an incident in which I wanted to butcher several dozen caged dogs, and upon selecting them for butchery somebody came and let all the dogs out, and some wandered out of the butchery complex despite the no-animal doors set up to keep them in.