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[felixnothus]

Hey guys, just been getting into DF and it's huge learning curve, I got most things sorted now for the most part but something is still confusing/bugging me...
I know I have to put animals out to farm in pastures where grass is if I don't want them to starve to death.

Problem is, while most of them are fine, theres usually a rogue animal or two that refuses to eat and just starves to death in the pastures.
What am I doing wrong? Is there a way to manually feed an animal, or should I just butcher it before it dies?

Also, is there a way to butcher a corpse that's died in the pastures? Going to the "butcher a dead animal" option in the butchers doesn't seem to get it...

[BoogieMan]

It's happened to me a few times too. I noticed that after awhile they seem to eat all the grass leaving just dirt. Sometimes if there aren't enough patches of grass left they don't seem to eat well enough. I've had better luck since making a very large pasture area and moving it entirely if a good amount of the grass is gone. After some time it seems to regrow.

[Reelyanoob]

I had some success with channelling a hilly area flat for a pasture, if it's dirt underneath then grass will grow there. And rotate pastures / limit # animals in each one. Take care not to put non-grazers in the grass pastures. Don't want them trampling the grass (does this still happen?).

You could also wall up a large area with a pasture in it. When the animals are loaded in and the gate locked, delete the pasture. Presumably the animals will wander around the whole enclosure eating all the grass. Ore maybe make several smaller pastures to spread the animals out, and stop them clumping in one corner and starving.

[Starver]

If I've got enough soil layers, and not so many ponds digging themselves into that, I tend to make at least one underground array of fields as well as the area I enclose at ground level.  Animals seem to live Ok in them (once the subterranean plants grow) and as long as I keep an eye on both them and the overground pastures (usually 10x10 blocks, with no more than a couple of same-species adult creatures on them, plus their immature young... and that's really only for aesthetic/organisational purposes) and rotate the worst eaters into ungrazed pastures (in my current fort, that's the Yaks and Water Buffalos, with reindee, llamas, alpacas and goats seeming to be very sparing in their grazing, maybe it works on creature size) before they start to quarrel.

However, the original question was about a grazer that refused to eat.  I had one which I accidentally assigned to a too-small strip of farmland, the first time I played on a version with grazing behaviours, and even when I spotted he was starving and relocated him to another pasture, he seemingly refused to eat and died.  I was fairly new to the idea, so maybe I was assigning him to an over-grazed plot where he never quite got to the few patches of grass.

So.... if you've had a starving creature who expired despite access (possibly sole, maybe he wasn't competitive enough with other creatures if he was sharing), that might be a problem I had, but I'm not too sure.  I've not had the problem since and have tended to managed it better since then.

And ISTR I also had difficulty butchering the corpse.  Did all the usual things, by getting the corpse assigned to a stockpile very close to the butchers shop, etc, but I can't remember that ever being resolved.  But I'd need to dig up that old fort to make sure.

[greycat]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Pasture lists the amount of grass consumed by species.  Water Buffalo and Yaks are indeed the worst, among the "domesticated" animals.

Stray and Pet corpses cannot be butchered.  If a tamed animal starves to death, you cannot butcher its corpse, period.  No, it doesn't make any sense... it just is.  Nor can you break up the corpse for bones.  The corpse will eventually rot down to a skeleton if you let it, but even then, you can't butcher or break up the skeleton in any way.  Use the atom smasher.

[felixnothus]

Thanks for your insights guys, much appreciated

[felixnothus]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Pasture lists the amount of grass consumed by species.  Water Buffalo and Yaks are indeed the worst, among the "domesticated" animals.

Stray and Pet corpses cannot be butchered.  If a tamed animal starves to death, you cannot butcher its corpse, period.  No, it doesn't make any sense... it just is.  Nor can you break up the corpse for bones.  The corpse will eventually rot down to a skeleton if you let it, but even then, you can't butcher or break up the skeleton in any way.  Use the atom smasher.

Yeah, looking at this, it all makes sense now.
The last few were all water buffalo... wow, why have animals that literally can't eat fast enough to keep themselves fed?

[JAFANZ]

My guess is that Toady intends to implement differing nutrional values for the various "grasses" at some point.

[BigD145]

My guess is that Toady intends to implement differing nutrional values for the various "grasses" at some point.

Tree and shrub grazing has not been implemented.

[EmperorJon]

Yaks and WB can eat fast enough.

Rhinos and Elephants, however...

[Steefjes]

(my first official post, long time listener and mute)

In my recent experiences the reindeer and water buffalo bull's really starved fastest.
That was in a fortress with about 200 animals (not counting dogs/cats).
Really all the animals would survive, except for the panda's and having more than 1 bull of those 2 types.

As an advice, just butcher all male animals, except for 1 each.

And this was after the update, which fixed the animals' grazing. (forgot which one .20?)

[Hyndis]

Oh wait, this thread just made me realize that poultry doesn't have the grazer tag.

I don't need pastures in my fort at all.


Its all about the eggs. Its a free, endlessly renewing food source. I had my poultry on a pasture zone with a bunch of nest boxes, and when I need more birds I'd just lock the doors for a while so eggs cannot be collected.

[Aravin]

Lol. New challenge game mode - build a zoo. With pandas. 

[Dekon]

Yaks and WB can eat fast enough.

Rhinos and Elephants, however...

Wrong.  The wiki is incorrect here.  Yaks and WB will eventually die.  It takes a long time, but they canNOT feed themselves quick enough to survive.  I've heard Cows are the smallest animal that can.

[Sphalerite]

I have successfully kept Yaks alive for many years, and even bred them, and never once seen one even hungry.  It takes a huge pasture, moving them to a new pasture every year or so, keeping their numbers below half a dozen adults, and probably a site with unusually fast-growing grass, but it is possible.