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[Girlinhat]

Well it was on page 7 or something.  It's not like I pay attention to dates?  What's an August?  It's Malachite of 112 here.  You're weird.

[Noodz]

This thread is extremely relevant to my interests. I will try this in my fortress once children start popping out, except i will make their cells in the former location of a completely mined out adamantine spire, smoothed and engraved by a legendary. That should keep the babbies happy.

I will also try to use ducks. They are the smallest domestic animal available, and they tend to produce a lot of eggs.

[Yag Alone]

Ducks may be a bit too wimpy... I'll try with crundles

[Broseph Stalin]

Has anyone tried gnomes yet? The community NEEDS these scientific results, I've been working my dorfs to death but eventually they will start breeding and if there isn't a hole filled with wild animals I can throw them in I have failed as an overseer.

[Eddren]

It's advisable to use one of the tested and tried setups put down, already.
As for me, if you're going to use mine, I think it might be wise to have the bed, wait until the kid's standing on it, then construct a statue where the entrance used to be.
THEN close the bridge.

[ISGC]

I think the biggest factor we need to iron out is the animal
two or three dogs, I think, might be the best option

[K17U]

Has anybody tried Turkeys in place of chickens yet? They lay the most eggs of all domestic birds and are almost twice as big as chicken (Meaning they punch harder?). Should hopefully increase training speed with minimal increase of lethality.

[Broseph Stalin]

I think the biggest factor we need to iron out is the animal
two or three dogs, I think, might be the best option

Dogs were the starting point, they can kill a dwarf with a little doing so it's not likely they'll make it to adulthood.

[A Spoony Bard]

For optimum preformance, couldn't the pod be roughly 2x2?
It uses one tile for a quantum dump of food and booze, another for a bed, another for a statue (should probably be gold!) to keep the child happy, also one tile for whatever you wish, most likely a lever to lure the child in. Or, you could use two tiles, one for the quantum dump and another for the bed, and then block the child in with the statue, making it possible for a 2x1 setup, which is even better, considering the creature has a higher chance of attacking the child.

[JoshBrickstien]

There must be a way to get the animals out, while still leaving the kid inside. That way (s)he can get some sleep before dying. I have no Idea how this would be done, however. Perhaps burrows?

[Eddren]

Two years straight of having children pecked has taught me that that won't be an issue.

[Girlinhat]

I think I've come to a conclusion about casual child-napping.  1: Build a bed in a hole.  2: Manually assign that bed to the child.  3: wait for the child to sleep, then lock the door.  Untested, but should work.  A pit to dump animals in or a pasture zone stocked before-hand should solve the animals as well.  I'm currently thinking of a 1x2 setup, with a bed and a food stockpile.  The stockpile will also be declared a meeting zone, so that the child will leave the zone to sleep, while the dogs (mostly) stay on the other side of the cage.  When the child wakes up, he walks back to the dogs.  A 1x3 would allow for a nest box as well, and a 2x2 would allow for a grate for drinking.

Of the vanilla animals, I'm in favor of dogs or turkey right now.  Turkey are small, but the largest domestic bird, and dogs are dogs.  Cats are good too, but they claim owners in vanilla, so they causes trouble.  The main thing is to make this work IN VANILLA.  Ten thousand things could be modded in to make this easier, but that's simply cheating.  Where's your dwarven spirit?

Also, my scheme was put slightly on hold.  Construction of the tower has become a work of art and the materials are taking some time.  But I need to stabilize a tantrum spiral before continuing.  Turns out dwarves don't have national pride.  They don't care if you're building the most amazing thing ever, they just want their chairs.

[monk12]

This is relevant to my interests. I may start a similar program.

I am assuming that large animals are the best, common domestic animals are easily obtainable, and that rapidly reproducing animals are ideal. According to the wiki, a fully grown dog is size 30k and a cat is 5k- smaller animals than that are grazers, and thus unsuitable. Cat's are unsuitable for their peculiar adoption habits, as GIH already pointed out. None of the larger domestic animals give me reason to think they would be less deadly than the dogs have proven to be.

A fully grown turkey, on the other hand, is also size 5k and lays 10-14 eggs a go. They take 2 years to mature, however, the next runners up are Geese and Peafowl, which have much smaller clutch sizes. The key here is how important clutch size is- if the breeding rate rate for a given bird is higher than the counterattack-mortality rate, the project can be self-sustaining.

Semi-related, do foxes brought by the elves breed? I already have a few kicking around, and they are body size 6k when mature, which makes them a potential alternative to dogs. I believe we have established the proof-of-concept; now we need to refine the project until the stat gain is worth the effort of building the Chamber. I would like to try turkeys and foxes

[Girlinhat]

Can we at least agree that if the child comes out with 1 level, it's a success?  Not of practically, but a success of depravity?

That said, any animal that can be tamed will breed.  I've bred wolves bought from elves, bears, others have bred giant eagles, etc.  Foxes should do nicely.  Macaque might be an interesting choice as well, if you go with the almost-vanilla mod of removing _EXOTIC.  I think most of us can agree that's a change you can make and still be vanilla, because DMs are bugged.

That said, with birds, birthrate can play a significant roll.  Not only will the child occasionally counterattack and kill, but they also hurt each other, and kill their siblings.  This lends itself to two things.  1: The animals in the cage will stabilize itself by virtue of infighting, but multiple cages may hit the animal cap.  2: As the animals kill each other, the child will stop caring, and this can stabilize the mood issue, if it happens quickly enough.  Extra entry trauma such as a dozen dropped goblins may be needed to provoke a faster psyche shattering and increase long-term health.  Bonus points if you drop the child's siblings, not for science, for sheer terror.

It seems that, ultimately, we have two problems.  The child dies by injury, in which case the animal is too severe, or the child dies by insanity, in which case the waterfall wasn't working.  While an ecstatic test subject doesn't sound very dorfy, it may be needed to have a super-elevated mood simply to ensure survival.  Replace walls with platinum masterwork statues, and allow for a mist generator.  Lavish meals and an opulent bed.  Obsidian cast and then engrave the room.  Perhaps give the child another room that he never uses, a private royal dining hall, he may get good thoughts from owning it even if never using it.  Maybe.  Do everything possible without expanding the room or allowing others in.

[Eddren]

Don't worry about that.
From the lowest tier of training(Normal Animals,) The child stays at around 166-250, keeping them at a constant of ecstatic.
I'm assuming that from Fox to Dog, a Waterfall going through a portion of the room will allow him to be much happier.
However, I recommend the waterfall should have a wall-grate, and NOT a floor-grate, to avoid giving them more room.

So, here's what I'll list having:
Masterwork bed
7 Platinum Statues
1 Waterfall
1 Wall-Grate(Platinum would be best.)
2-3 Cat-Dog Tier animals.