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[nonobots]

I've been putting random cage traps all around the map and I am capturing loads of camels and buzzard. After a while there's a buildup of seeds in the cages in my animal stockpile. What gives? Is it the captured animal dumping them there or is it some kind of bug? To get back the seeds I need to (b)uild the cages and dump their content. It's kind of a hassle, especially since it's hard to make sure you're building the right cage. And it seems the mechanics don't recognize those cages as empty so you really have to clean it up. I've had that happen in my last two maps, but it's the first time in recent versions that I try and capture the wildlife.

In brief: seeds in cages, bug or feature? How to minimize the hassle?

Edit: found out it's the taming of the camels that requires food and produces a seed.

[Sphalerite]

Seeds in cages is a result of taming animals.  The animal trainer takes a piece of plant or meat to the cage and feeds it to the caged creature to tame it.  If a plant is used, this leaves a seed in the cage.  Back when turtles actually dropped shell and bone when eaten, this would leave shell and bone in the cage if a turtle was used.

[ledgekindred]

I've been able to dump the seeds just fine by 'k', viewing the cage description and selecting 'd'ump on the contents of the cage while it's in the stockpile.  A dwarf will come by, haul the cage out of the stockpile, dump the contents, then put the cage back.

[Quietust]

A dwarf will come by, haul the cage out of the stockpile, dump the contents, then put the cage back.

That seems a bit odd - in older versions (40d and even 23a), the dwarf would simply remove the item from the cage without actually picking up the cage itself.

[ledgekindred]

When I ask a dwarf to move something from cage to cage, like an animal or prisoner, they will actually haul a new cage from the stockpile, move the item into that cage, carry the cage to the destination cage, transfer it again, and then put the extra cage back. 

I have a Giantess in a pit that I regularly chuck goblins at for purposes of Fun.  When I ask someone to pit a goblin, sometimes the dorf gets scared of the Giantess and runs away.  As they are running, dragging the gobbo with them, another dwarf will meet them with a cage, grab the gobbo, cage him up, then walk to the pit, take him out of the cage and chuck him in.  Then he'll put the extra cage back in the stockpile.

I've never seen this before 2010 either, but I like it.

[Aspgren]

Why do you need to get the seeds out anyway? .. and won't dwarves just fetch them themselves when/if they're going to be used?

When I ask a dwarf to move something from cage to cage, like an animal or prisoner, they will actually haul a new cage from the stockpile, move the item into that cage, carry the cage to the destination cage, transfer it again, and then put the extra cage back. 

I have a Giantess in a pit that I regularly chuck goblins at for purposes of Fun.  When I ask someone to pit a goblin, sometimes the dorf gets scared of the Giantess and runs away.  As they are running, dragging the gobbo with them, another dwarf will meet them with a cage, grab the gobbo, cage him up, then walk to the pit, take him out of the cage and chuck him in.  Then he'll put the extra cage back in the stockpile.

I've never seen this before 2010 either, but I like it.

For some reasons my dwarves have trouble throwing things into pits. in 40d when I had something dangerous I would construct the cage next to the pit and order the caged creature pitted (if it was dangerous) and they would open the cage and just chuck it in without noticing it's dangerous. Now they drop them immediately and run around screaming as they're being attacked.
 I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but ... what I wanted to say was I also threw things in a pit and dwarves would freak because of the pit inhabitants. A way to solve this was to only have a 1x1 entrance into the pit and put a hatch over it. Dwarves don't see the giant and just chuck the goblin down the hatch and goes about their business.

 ... due to the aforemented problem I'm having I don't know if this works in 31.10. but it's an idea

[ledgekindred]

Why do you need to get the seeds out anyway? .. and won't dwarves just fetch them themselves when/if they're going to be used?

They seem to ignore usable items in cages unless you get them out of the cage.  Plus he probably has a surplus of seeds (I always do) so there's no reason a dwarf needs to go get that specific seed.  And watching a blinking dot in a cage gets on your nerves after a while.

For some reasons my dwarves have trouble throwing things into pits. in 40d when I had something dangerous I would construct the cage next to the pit and order the caged creature pitted (if it was dangerous) and they would open the cage and just chuck it in without noticing it's dangerous. Now they drop them immediately and run around screaming as they're being attacked.

I'm very probably wrong but it probably has to do with the new Observer skill.  The higher the skill, the better they are at noticing enemies further away.  In .40 there were probably different rules on when dwarves noticed enemies.  Now there are more sophisticated stuff to go along with all the different military skills.

I just let 'em keep trying until they get it right.  Someone will come up and take the prisoner away from them and try again.  My pit is pretty big so chances are the giantess is on the other side more often than not and then hoopaa, in he goes.

My biggest problem is the one time I had a marksdwarf take it upon himself to pit a goblin and noticed the Giantess and started shooting at her.  Fortunately he sucked so the only thing he really managed to do was nick her ear.  I need to set something up with burrows or something so that only specific dwarves who will not try to shoot my entertainment ever try to pit creatures.

[Grendus]

You can also mark the cage for dumping via d->b->d, then go manually unmark it for dumping via k. That should set the seeds to be dumped while the cage isn't. Or you could just forget to undump the cage (presuming you aren't doing something like magma-dumping or atom smashing) and unforbid the cage and seeds when they reach the dump site.