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[randyshipp]

I've searched the forum and read all the wiki stuff I could find on cages and cage traps, but I didn't find the answer.  I placed a number of cage traps around, mainly to control the wild animals (yaks and mountain goats, mainly) that wander in my front gate and disrupt things.  As I notice the caged wild animals on the {u} screen, I've queued up a Train Large Animal job at the Kennel and, when they've turned into a caged tame animal, I put them out to pasture along with my other livestock.  Here's the problem though:

I know have half a dozen or more cage traps on my map that flash between the cage trap symbol and the cage symbol.  When I look at the square with {k}, I see the cage sitting there.  But for whatever reason, the cage doesn't get hauled to a stockpile or used to stop the annoying spam of "trap arming job cancelled: cage needed."  I've tried forbidding and claiming individually, and I've tried {d}{b}{c}.  No luck. 

Thoughts?

[twwolfe]

your animal stockpile might be full.

[randyshipp]

But at this point there's nothing in the cages.  Would an animal stockpile still be the thing?

[ext0l]

Empty cages go in the animal stockpile unless you specify not to with (u)

[randyshipp]

OK, here's something weird.  There are a few seeds inside a few of them.  Besides being a little weirded out not know how the hell those got in there, I'm also concerned that this is keeping them from being used to re-arm my cage traps.  How can I clean them out?

[TheeBaconman]

Apparently a deer may have eaten a plant or two and natural processes let them out. They should produce extra good plants now.....in theory.

I think if you look at the traps with the k button, looking at their description and inventory, you should be able to press enter and look at the items inside the trap. Then there should be the option to dump the seed. I think this is how I've removed some objects, could be thinking of disarming dwarves.

[NecroRebel]

OK, here's something weird.  There are a few seeds inside a few of them.  Besides being a little weirded out not know how the hell those got in there, I'm also concerned that this is keeping them from being used to re-arm my cage traps.  How can I clean them out?

When you tame an animal, the trainer brings a bit of food to the cage and uses it to tame the animal. If that bit of food is a plant, it leaves behind a seed, just like most other uses of plants, and the seed is dropped inside the cage.

To remove the seeds from the cages, designate the seed for dumping (you can do this by the same method used to disarm prisoners), or construct the cage as a cage building (b-j), link a lever to the cage, and pull the lever. Once the cages are empty, they'll be usable for cage traps again.

[randyshipp]

OK, here's something weird.  There are a few seeds inside a few of them.  Besides being a little weirded out not know how the hell those got in there, I'm also concerned that this is keeping them from being used to re-arm my cage traps.  How can I clean them out?

When you tame an animal, the trainer brings a bit of food to the cage and uses it to tame the animal. If that bit of food is a plant, it leaves behind a seed, just like most other uses of plants, and the seed is dropped inside the cage.

To remove the seeds from the cages, designate the seed for dumping (you can do this by the same method used to disarm prisoners), or construct the cage as a cage building (b-j), link a lever to the cage, and pull the lever. Once the cages are empty, they'll be usable for cage traps again.

Sigh, this is wearing on me.  I found something in the 40d wiki about disarming prisoners.  This is what I did. 

- I have all the cages in an Animal stockpile right in the middle of my camp.
- I did {d}{b}{d} on the entire stockpile to designate it all for dumping.
- I created a garbage dump zone right next to the Animal stockpile.
- I used {k} to look at each square, then used {d} to turn off dumping for the cage only.  I hit {Enter} on each one to verify that the seeds inside are still set for dumping.

And nothing.  Nobody's moving at all to dump the stuff.  Thoughts?

[SirAaronIII]

Is the cage stockpile outside? If so, you may want to change your refuse orders (o, r, o) to accept refuse from outside.
Do your dwarves have Refuse Hauling enabled? If so, are they busy with anything else?

[Reelyanoob]

Is there a seed left in the cage after taming? That happened to me a lot in earlier versions eg 31.18 with taming. It's not counted as empty til the seed is dumped. Oh, and if they're taming animals right on top of the traps, there's a problem with your cage stockpile.

Seed = leftover from taming = useless non-empty cage til cleared out.

EDIT: I read your later post and yes this is the reason. I have ESP it seems today. To re-iterate : seeds appear after the trainer tames the animal with plant food from the stockpile, this is how taming works.

[jappipi]

OK, here's something weird.  There are a few seeds inside a few of them.  Besides being a little weirded out not know how the hell those got in there, I'm also concerned that this is keeping them from being used to re-arm my cage traps.  How can I clean them out?

When you tame an animal, the trainer brings a bit of food to the cage and uses it to tame the animal. If that bit of food is a plant, it leaves behind a seed, just like most other uses of plants, and the seed is dropped inside the cage.

To remove the seeds from the cages, designate the seed for dumping (you can do this by the same method used to disarm prisoners), or construct the cage as a cage building (b-j), link a lever to the cage, and pull the lever. Once the cages are empty, they'll be usable for cage traps again.

Sigh, this is wearing on me.  I found something in the 40d wiki about disarming prisoners.  This is what I did. 

- I have all the cages in an Animal stockpile right in the middle of my camp.
- I did {d}{b}{d} on the entire stockpile to designate it all for dumping.
- I created a garbage dump zone right next to the Animal stockpile.
- I used {k} to look at each square, then used {d} to turn off dumping for the cage only.  I hit {Enter} on each one to verify that the seeds inside are still set for dumping.

And nothing.  Nobody's moving at all to dump the stuff.  Thoughts?

You have to build the cages for this to work.

[Reelyanoob]

I think japappi is correct, this also holds for your dwarves trapped in cages. Though this problem no longer afflicts my fortresses for whatever reason. Are you on a previous DF version?

(EDIT: Actually most of the animals I tamed recently were meat-eaters, maybe that's why).

[randyshipp]

No, .25.  I'll try checking refuse orders (they are above ground) and if that fails, I'll try building them first, though that seems silly, i.e. it ought not take that many (undocumented) steps to do this. :-)

[Reelyanoob]

I've had the seed problem, but never the cage hauling problem, btw, so that's two separate issues, just so you know.

Seriously, there's no way the cages should have still been on top of the traps when they were tamed, unless you have no (or super-busy) haulers, or not a proper cage stockpile to start with, or you ordered training of the caged animals the very second they were trapped, though I think this is very unlikely to happen for > 2 animals in a row.

Try creating a new generic animal stockpile in some spare space. Also, any active burrows or alerts?

[ext0l]

you have to reclaim the items first {d}{b}{c}

also, dwarfs don't dump things that are outside unless you specify {o}{r}{o}