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[dakenho]

I tried to search for this but came up empty handed
I like keeping all my cows, dogs, and other critters in cages by species.  I read in the wiki that caging can prevent breeding.  So my question is if I keep all my cows/dogs in one cage with they still breed?  If caging does prevent breeding what is the best way to keep tamed animals in safe areas (and preventing them from going outside (pet passable doors do not work as dwarfs tend to let them out)) while still allowing them to breed?

[Hyndis]

Animals will give birth in cages, but cannot get pregnant in cages.

If you want to breed animals I recommend either chain them up, or simply dump them into a small pit. Have it walled off because they will try to path through locked doors and that will kill your FPS.

A small, 1 Z level pit with solid walls is quite sufficient. You can dump all of your animals in there and they will happily breed while being contained and with almost no FPS impact.

[dakenho]

Thanks, how can I “dump” them in said pit, the only thing I can think of is retractable bridge

[guale]

Designate the empty space over the hole as a pit zone {i->p I believe} and use the zone menu to assign animals to it.

[Quietust]

Have it walled off because they will try to path through locked doors and that will kill your FPS.

Animals will not attempt to path through locked doors - they will, however, attempt to path through pet-impassable doors.

[dakenho]

What is the best animal for breeding purposes.  I hear that a crock grow up fast and make for great breeding but cows seem to take too long and cats/dogs don’t seem to give enough meet.

[qoonpooka]

Have it walled off because they will try to path through locked doors and that will kill your FPS.

Animals will not attempt to path through locked doors - they will, however, attempt to path through pet-impassable doors.

What about lever-sealed doors?  It seems reasonable that you'd want to airlock some animals out for butchery purposes...

[silhouette]

yeah they should work, as long as other things cant path through it, mainly dwarfs.

[darthbob88]

I usually just let my animals wander freely, except when I lock them all up to try and stop their breeding. I used a pit at one point, but I couldn't see any way to get the animals out to butcher them.

[dakenho]

that is a problem, though I suppose you could design it like this

down stair way, door, butcher, non passable pet door
upstair way, flood gate, pit

[HammerHand]

I've started several breeding programs over several fortresses, albeit with very little experimentation.  Still, the way I do it is to set up two rooms near my butcher/tanner room:  one leads to the "breeding pen" and the other to a refuse stockpile (with two rows of adjacent doors to keep miasma from leaking out).  I make about 4-6 chains (usually out of plant fiber, as I can get pig tail faster than I can usually get metal bars) or bring them on embark, and tie up ONE male of each species I'm breeding (usually a dog and a bull), and fill the rest with female versions of same.  Cage the new births as soon as they arrive, or tie up more females to increase production (not that I've ever REALLY needed that much meat).  Caging works better than pitting, I think, because it's just as easy to get them into the cage as it is to get them out, and the only thing you can't seem to do to a caged animal is train it - you'll have to manually free your prospective war/hunting dogs before they'll be considered for training.

I use cows just because you can see which is male when you tie them up, but they do seem to take a bit to get started.

In a year or two, you'll have more calves and puppies than you'll know what to do with, and you'll be fighting to trade away all your  *Dog Meat Roasts* and *Cow Meet Roasts*.  Remember, you don't get THAT much more meat and bones from an adult animal than from a young animal, so you might as well eat puppies and calves if you're worried about short-term speed.

[assimilateur]

(...) or simply dump them into a small pit. Have it walled off because they will try to path through locked doors and that will kill your FPS.

If you keep them in your meeting hall (where they normally go unless you chain, cage, or pit them), will this still be detrimental to your FPS? I mean, they don't do anything. The most they do is move to an adjacent tile once in a while, so seeing how idle dwarfs don't seem to generate lag, I don't see how animals would.

so you might as well eat puppies and calves if you're worried about short-term speed.

I usually used to butcher the young because I figured it was less micromanagement. Now that I think of it, you get a message when they grow up as well, don't you? Means there's little reason to process calves instead of cows, other than reducing the number of critters you got milling about, I guess.

[Raphite1]

What is the best animal for breeding purposes.  I hear that a crock grow up fast and make for great breeding but cows seem to take too long and cats/dogs don’t seem to give enough meet.

If by "crock" you mean crocodiles, then yes, they would make excellent farm animals since their products are very valuable and they are large. Cows are a good choice for starting because they are more valuable than horses/donkeys/dogs/cats, and they reproduce just as quickly as most other animals.

When choosing farm animals, try to get creatures that have both a large size and a high modvalue. Modvalues can be found here: http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Modvalue

[Tirin]

Why choose just one animal? According to the wiki:

"Do note that once a certain number of animals of a particular type are present in your fortress (currently observed to be around 50), that type of animal will cease to become pregnant"

I just breed everything.
Kitten mittens, puppy slippers, and a nice horse head hood. Dwarves would laugh at PETA.

[Sphalerite]

Cave crocodiles reproduce quickly, grow fast, and produce lots of high-value meat and leather.  They also destroy furniture and kill diplomats and traders.  Crocodile breeding is a lucrative yet dangerous endeavor.