Grazer

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v50.15 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

The grass tastes exactly like ramen to them.

Tame grazing animals (those with the [STANDARD_GRAZER] token) require a constant source of grass or cave moss to survive. Pastures are currently the easiest such source, however care must be taken to ensure that the pasture is large enough to provide food for all the assigned animals (and any auto-assigned babies). Other sources are animal caretakers feeding chained/caged creatures, and dwarves feeding their pets.

Grazing animals and pasture size

Grazing animals use the [STANDARD_GRAZER] which calculates a value from this formula:

GRAZER = 20000 × G × (max size)-3/4

G can be set in d_init or the game tab in settings, listed as Grazing Coefficient (100 by default)

max size is the maximum size a creature can reach, divided by 10.

The minimum resulting GRAZER value is capped at 150, the maximum at 3 million.

For custom creatures, you could also set the value directly with the [GRAZER:<value>] token. In either case, this is an inverse number - the GRAZER value signifies how much hunger is reduced when eating a unit of grass. (Hunger increases every tick; a creature dies when it reaches 100,000). A creature with ten times the grazer value needs one tenth the amount of grass (and hence, pasture land) as a creature with a small grazer value. Because of this, it may be wise to give larger animals grazing areas separate from other animals, as the larger animals are likely to not leave enough grass for other animals, which can lead to them starving. If you started your fortress in an undead biome, you may need to assign more space for a pasture, as much of the grass is dead - animals will not eat dead grass and will only eat the still-living patches.

Animals which graze are typically good livestock candidates, as many of them can be milked and three also can be sheared for wool. Creatures with larger sizes consume more grass, but also produce more meat when butchered. Grazing animals who are pets will occasionally be fed by their owners, allowing them to roam free without the need of a pasture, however this is unreliable due to pet feeding being a very low-priority job, often leading to these pets starving and possibly dying if not supervised. If grazing animals consume all the grass on a tile, the tile will be reverted to the base layer material, which may be sand, clay or soil. In this way, you receive a visual clue as to the size of the pasture required.

List of grazing animals

Take the following numbers with a grain of salt; they ignore the differing abilities of various biomes to replenish grass and are instead based on a rule of thumb that 20000=Grazer*Required_tiles. Usually you can get along with way smaller pastures. Nevertheless, a fairly large herd can cause overgrazing fast, so keep an eye out for hungry animals and desolate grassless pastures.

Animal	Grazer value	Creature Size	Milkable	Shearable	Recommended Pasture Size per individual	Needed Tiles (per rule-of-thumb)	Sqrt of Needed Tiles
Elephant	106.366	5,000,000			19 × 10	188.03	13.7
Giant bull moose	119.990	4,257,750			14 × 12	166.68	12.9
Rhinoceros	156.023	3,000,000			13 × 10	128.19	11.3
Giant moose cow	176.008	2,554,650			13 × 9	113.63	10.7
Draltha	178.885	2,500,000			14 × 8	111.80	10.6
Gigantic panda	318.005	1,160,900			9 × 7 ♠	62.89 ♠	7.9 ♠
Water buffalo	355.656	1,000,000	Yes		10 × 6	56.23	7.5
Giraffe	355.656	1,000,000			10 × 6	56.23	7.5
Yak	464.736	700,000	Yes		9 × 5	43.04	6.6
Cow	521.695	600,000	Yes		8 × 5	38.34	6.2
Unicorn	521.695	600,000			8 × 5	38.34	6.2
Bull moose	576.648	525,000			7 × 5	34.68	5.9
Giant capybara	578.011	523,350			7 × 5	34.60	5.9
Horse	598.140	500,000	Yes		7 × 5	33.44	5.8
Camel (both)	598.140	500,000	Yes		7 × 5	33.44	5.8
Mule	707.107	400,000			6 × 5	28.28	5.3
Cow moose	845.857	315,000			5 × 5	23.64	4.9
Donkey	877.383	300,000	Yes		5 × 5	22.80	4.8
Elk	877.383	300,000			5 × 5	22.80	4.8
Muskox	911.793	285,000			5 × 5	21.93	4.7
Giant red panda	1,053.393	235,100			5 × 4 ♠	18.99 ♠	4.4 ♠
Tapir	1,189.207	200,000	Yes		6 × 3	16.82	4.1
Llama	1,286.991	180,000	Yes	Yes	4 × 4	15.54	3.9
Deer	1,553.939	140,000			5 × 3	12.87	3.6
Reindeer	1,642.754	130,000	Yes		5 × 3	12.17	3.5
Panda	1,642.754	130,000			5 × 3 ♠	12.17 ♠	3.5 ♠
Warthog	2,000.000	100,000			4 × 3	10.00	3.2
Elk bird	2,000.000	100,000			4 × 3	10.00	3.2
Kangaroo	2,164.453	90,000	Yes		4 × 3	9.24	3.0
Alpaca	2,613.403	70,000	Yes	Yes	4 × 2	7.65	2.8
Goat	3,363.586	50,000	Yes		3 × 2	5.95	2.4
Mountain goat	3,363.586	50,000			3 × 2	5.95	2.4
Ibex	3,363.586	50,000			3 × 2	5.95	2.4
Impala	3,363.586	50,000			3 × 2	5.95	2.4
Sheep	3,363.586	50,000	Yes	Yes	3 × 2	5.95	2.4
Capybara	3,640.161	45,000			3 × 2	5.49	2.3
Wombat	5,656.854	25,000			2 × 2	3.54	1.9
Gazelle	6,687.403	20,000			2 × 2	2.99	1.7
Hoary marmot	11,246.827	10,000			2 × 1	1.78	1.3
Red panda	18,914.832	5,000			2 × 1 ♠	1.06 ♠	1.0 ♠
Hare	24,716.044	3,500			1 × 1	0.81	0.9
Groundhog	27,745.276	3,000			1 × 1	0.72	0.8
Cavy	74767.439	800			1 × 1	0.27	0.5
Rabbit	106365.918	500			1 × 1	0.19	0.4

Key

♠ the four panda species will eat only bamboo (any type), in effect requiring much larger pasture areas even on maps where bamboo does grow, and modding to survive on maps where it doesn't

The giant animals not listed here are not included yet because that's a bunch more work, and I'm unsure how many of them (if any) are still bugged.

Bugs

• Grass does not grow back on mountain biomes.^Bug:4164
• Egg-laying grazers will starve themselves sitting on a nest box.^Bug:4637
  • Some workarounds are detailed in this forum thread.
• Grazing juveniles tend to clump in the same tile as their mother, leading to starvation and overcrowding. This is particularly problematic for species with large litters, like giant capybaras.^[Verify]
• When a civilian alert is active, grazers outside of the alert burrow refuse to eat.^Bug:6240