Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Tsarwash]

I feel that I may have just witnessed a miracle here. To avoid a catsplosion or the canine equivalent, I have only ever had one cat and dog at a time. The initial dog died many years ago and was replaced. So it came as a surprise to me when it was announced that my lady dog had had puppies. I think that the horny little bitch went romping with a caged dog that the most recent merchents had been trying to flog me.

[Tsarwash]

Dammit, it's just happened to my only cat as well. The Elves didn't even bring a cat along with them. My animals are divine.

[Argembarger]

Dem spores, man. Dem spores.

Actually, can the reproductive spores that animals give off linger after the animal creating them is gone? That could explain it if your original animals were male.

[Sphalerite]

I suspect that while an animal in a cage cannot become pregnant, an uncaged female animal can become pregnant by a caged male animals.  I haven't done any controlled testing, but I have had female animals become pregnant when the only male on the map was a caged male being carried by merchants.

[iceball3]

Correction
-Animals can only get/get others pregnant by being outside a cage.
-Animals cannot get pregnant/get others pregnant while in a cage.
-Animals can be pregnant and give birth in cages.
-All of the above applies to every single animal on the map, wild or not.Wild and tamed mixes are also possible.

[Sphalerite]

-Animals can only get/get others pregnant by being outside a cage.
-Animals cannot get pregnant/get others pregnant while in a cage.

I am not convinced that this is still the case in the current version.  Animals cannot become get pregnant while in a cage, but there is some evidence to suggest that male animals who are in a cage can cause female animals who are not in a cage to become pregnant.  I have seen animals give birth in situations where the only male ever present on the map was in a cage, and I have heard reports of this happening to other people.

[iceball3]

There's still a good possibility of:

-All of the above applies to every single animal on the map, wild or not.Wild and tamed mixes are also possible.

Though it would be kinda hard to explain for domestic animals.

[Tsarwash]

Correction
-Animals can only get/get others pregnant by being outside a cage.
-Animals cannot get pregnant/get others pregnant while in a cage.
-Animals can be pregnant and give birth in cages.
-All of the above applies to every single animal on the map, wild or not.Wild and tamed mixes are also possible.

If this is true then I have no idea how my cat got pregnant, and the units screen shows that there has only ever been the one cat. Merchants may have brought caged cats, but I have never bought one. Do merchants have uncaged cats following them ever ?

[Sphalerite]

There's still a good possibility of:

-All of the above applies to every single animal on the map, wild or not.Wild and tamed mixes are also possible.

Though it would be kinda hard to explain for domestic animals.

The cases I've seen and heard of from others have been with exclusively domestic animals.

Specifically, I had a 0.31.xx fortress in which there was a single female dog chained up in a room.  The only male dog on the map was in a cage.  The edges of the map were sealed with raising bridges, so no traders or wild land creatures could enter the map.  Every year, without fail, for as long as I ran the fortress, she gave birth to puppies, who were immediately butchered.  This is hard to explain without either virgin birth or male dogs actually being able to get female dogs pregnant despite the male being caged.

[Astramancer]

You know what we need to do to test this?

Find two dwarves married to each other.  Knock the male into a cage trap.  Keep him fed and happy (as happy as you can be locked in a cage with hundreds of other animals).  Keep her happy and idle.  See if she gets pregnant.

[Thorzog]

If you moved the male dog into a cage he could have spored in transit.

[Sphalerite]

If you moved the male dog into a cage he could have spored in transit.

I did not.  The male dog was carried by a trader who walked onto a repeating spike trap.  The trader was killed, and the cage that the dog was in was never moved from that spot.  A year later my chained female dog gave birth to puppies.

[drkpaladin]

I bet that it was actually the merchant's mule who got your dog and cat pregnant.  Life found a way... the dwarves should not have played god by cloning only male mules using fossilized kitten and war dog DNA.

Its well known that mules are a failed attempt by dwarves to create war kittens.

[Lord Darkstar]

Dammit, it's just happened to my only cat as well. The Elves didn't even bring a cat along with them. My animals are divine.

The anwser is obvious. The elves impregnated your dog and cat while they were waiting around bored at the trade depot.

[Samuel]

Dammit, it's just happened to my only cat as well. The Elves didn't even bring a cat along with them. My animals are divine.

The anwser is obvious. The elves impregnated your dog and cat while they were waiting around bored at the trade depot.

What? I thought it was only trees that the Elves liked to...

Oh Lord, I gotta go give all the animals I bought a good cleaning.