Grazer

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v50.14 · 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

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).

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 (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. 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 3 also can be sheared for wool. Creatures with larger sizes consume more grass, but also produce more meat when butchered. If grazing animals consume all the grass on a tile, the tile will be reverted to the base layer material. This may be sand, clay or soil. In this way you receive a visual clue as to the size of the pasture required.

Bugs

• Pandas only eat bamboo, and invariably starve.

• Egg-laying grazers will starve themselves sitting on a nest box.^Bug:4637

• Grazing children 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.

• When a civilian alert is active, grazers outside of the alert burrow refuse to eat.^Bug:6240