Hello interwebs,
One of my minions was recently possesed(my luck). He needs bones, and I just bought an insanely large amount of turtles from the dwarven caravan. Unfortunately I also have an absurd amount of shrooms. Is there any way to prioritize one kind of food over another so i can get at the turtle bones? Or should I wall off my craftsdwarf bench now?
Even though it doesn't really apply in this situation, here's how to make them eat turtles.
z->stocks->mass forbid.
Just forbid all other foods until such time as a few turtles have been eaten. Remember to unforbid afterwards, or FUN will ensue!
Alternately, make a separate stockpile for just turtles (and other shelled foods) somewhere else, make a take-from order, wait for some turtles to be moved, and then lock the door to your food stockpile until turtles are eaten. Again, remember to unlock the door afterward!
However, I've found that the easiest way is to make a fishery and refuse stockpile (that only accepts shells, bones, ect) early on, and another refuse stockpile above ground for the other refuse. Heck, I usually do this before I even have my farms up and running! The fisherdwarves will catch tons of turtles while you're getting your initial fort dug out, and you'll have very little food variety while this is happening, which means dwarves will eat turtles, and the dwarves will save the shells.
But, as mentioned, bones aren't shells. Mark a cat for butchering.