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[Ruttiger]

How long generally does it take for animals to reproduce?  I've made some breeding pens, and I've had alligators in one for quite some time now and I haven't seen any children.

Also, what would produce more bones, a bear, an alligator, or an ox 

[Dame de la Licorne]

Animals in cages don't breed, it's a reported bug.  You can chain them up or lock them in a room/pit.  Generally adult females will produce offspring every spring and fall, so long as there was a male somewhere on the map (not in a cage)  the previous fall/spring.

I think all three produce similar numbers of bones, but I haven't compared them, so I can't be sure.

[Aqizzar]

It's easy enough to know how many bones you'll get.  Just find the creatures' entries in the raws.  Dead creatures produce a stack of bones (and meat and chucks) equal to their SIZE tag.

As for breeding, just wait a while.  I've got some muskoxen locked in a closet that stubbornly refuse to get it on.

[PTTG??]

All beings reproduce via spores in DF. Don't worry about it... just wait.

[coldstone]

true or false, i only need one male version of the animal on the map for females to be preggo?

how many animals should i be holding on to if im starting to lag?

[Jude]

As many as you think you need

I generally keep a couple female cows and a bull, a female and male horse, and then let their babies grow up and then slaughter them for meat. I also have a pair of dogs to make more war puppies.

If you want to cut down you could just have a male and female of each kind I guess and kill the babies as soon as they're born, but you get less food that way.

[MuonDecay]

Generally I just leave one breeding pair of an animal free roaming, and instantly cage any offspring to allow them to mature without starting to breed without me noticing... to prevent population explosions.

It works well on the small scale livestock operations that I do.

[pushy]

true or false, i only need one male version of the animal on the map for females to be preggo?

True...but in my experience it's best to keep two just in case one dies somehow (whether caught out in a siege/ambush, accidentally walking into a flooding chamber, or whatever)

how many animals should i be holding on to if im starting to lag?

As many as you need/want.
I don't actually mind lag all that much, but with my rather intensive puppy-farming facility, I tend to kill all male puppies once they're born (unless I know the adult males are getting on a bit, then I keep a male puppy alive as a replacement for the soon-to-be-dead-of-old-age adult). If lag starts to become a problem, I'll cage all female puppies (this cuts down on CPU cycles being used up for pet AI, helping lag...and puppies can't breed so keeping them locked up isn't doing the breeding system any harm). If there are still problems with lag, I'll kill off the adult females one by one starting with the eldest until I'm happy with the framerate again

[Ruttiger]

I've finally had a bit of success.   I've now got a black bear cub.   Still waiting on the alligators. 

I wonder if alligators can live in water.  It would be neat to get 15 or so tame ones, put them in a trench around my fort, and then flood it. 

[pushy]

I wonder if alligators can live in water.  It would be neat to get 15 or so tame ones, put them in a trench around my fort, and then flood it. 

They're amphibious, so yes, they can live underwater.

[coldstone]

i dunno rutti.. theyd get shot by archers.. itd be hard to get the babies out to go into cages... dont know whether or not theyd attack gobs.. probably make good leather though eh?

[pushy]

itd be hard to get the babies out to go into cages...

True (without a bit of forward planning), but unless you're getting lagged to hell, what'd be the point in that?