Daily Newb Question - Animals

[king.steve1]

Sorry for starting a thread a day here as I learn the game...

What do I do with animals? Finally got a good run of migrants that nearly doubled my population from 21 to 39 along with a horde of animals (some of which are pets). Do you guys keep them outside at first? I assumed I had to to have food for them to eat.

1) Should similar animals be in the same pasture. I've had a sheep give birth already, so that was nice.

2) Cats - free roaming? How many is too many? Do they take care of feeding themselves?

3) Dogs - I've seen some people tie them up in small pastures (2-3 squares) outside entrances. I've got a lot of dogs. Should I train some of them?

4) Roofs over pastures - does that mess up grass growth?

[Fel]

Originally posted by king.steve1:

Sorry for starting a thread a day here as I learn the game...

What do I do with animals? Finally got a good run of migrants that nearly doubled my population from 21 to 39 along with a horde of animals (some of which are pets). Do you guys keep them outside at first? I assumed I had to to have food for them to eat.

Grazers (animals that need to eat grass/moss) are the only ones that need food among the animals.
They only eat when pastured (EDIT: apparently not, as long as they are on grass/moss they eat it but a pasture is a simple way to make sure they are there), so usually you would use a portion of the above-ground area for that, potentially securing that area or moving it to an indoor area with enough moss growing later.

1) Should similar animals be in the same pasture. I've had a sheep give birth already, so that was nice.

I'm not sure if they fixed animal breeding, it used to be fine no matter the distance.
That being said, it is easier to have a pasture per grazer race (you can more easily see if you missed some and asign them) and it looks less messy that way.

2) Cats - free roaming? How many is too many? Do they take care of feeding themselves?

Cats are not grazers so they don't need food (the idea being that non-grazers eat vermins but the reality is that they don't eat at all).
Cats adopt dwarves on their own, meaning that the dwarves in question will get bad thoughts when the cats die.
You don't really need more than a few cats anyway (if at all really) and your best bet is to have only males or only females so they don't breed.
Alternatively, cage the newborn cats quickly after they are born.
Some people like to keep males free to roam and a few females in a cage to be able to breed more when needed (animals don't breed when in a cage).

3) Dogs - I've seen some people tie them up in small pastures (2-3 squares) outside entrances. I've got a lot of dogs. Should I train some of them?

Small pastures or rope/chain for the entrance is a good way to prevent enemies from sneaking it, revealing them before they get into your fort.

Training dogs for war makes them unable to breed, so only train a portion and give them as escorts to dwarves that might be going outside every now and then.
The war dog would serve as a meat shield while the dwarf flees.
Large animals can work as proper militatry forces but dogs are too small and end up dying too easily even to basic goblins.

4) Roofs over pastures - does that mess up grass growth?

It doesn't, as long as the tile was exposed to the sky once and it can grow grass, it will continue to grow it.
A roof takes some efforts to build though so it is better to only start it when you have a good amount of dwarves that are not needed for the current operation of the fort (for a season or two at least).

[king.steve1]

Thanks Fel, I appreciate all the good info you've been handing me.

[Fel]

Just a correction from another thread, they eat even when not in a pasture as long as they are on grass/moss.
Much easier to handle through pastures but not a strict necessity apparently.

[AlP]

A good place to put cats is a pasture over your food stockpile. They will hunt any vermin that tries to get to the food.