Cage（檻）は、cage traps（例えばcoyoteなどの野生動物の捕獲）, jails（牢屋）, zoos（動物園）, pits，aquariumsに使われる。
Multiple creatures can be assigned to the same cage with no penalty. It is apparently possible to fit hundreds of puppies in a cage with dozens of blind cave ogres with no ill effects or a dragon, a thousand cats, and whatever else is on hand, leading some players to conclude that cages include some sort of hidden "cage space" that allows infinitely tight packing of creatures.
There is no particular labor for releasing creatures from (built) cages. Use q to examine the cage (it must first be "built," not just stored - use b-j to build cages, and x to be sure to get the right cage), a to assign, and then use enter to toggle the animal(s) currently inside (animals assigned to the cage will have a green "+" next to them). Any available dwarf will perform the job, so beware of pitting untamed or hostile creatures with a weak dwarf.
You can get details about the creatures which are in a built cage by pressing t and then enter. There, you can scroll the list of creatures and get details, for example, you can tell whether a creature is male or female, which is useful if you are preparing a breeding program.
Vermin can also be assigned to cages, to save space or animal traps. However, if you try to release them (q and then a), the dwarf will pickup an animal trap and put the poor creature back in a stock cage. To explicitly release an animal, instead "pull" the animal somewhere else: either assign the animal to a pit (which could simply be a hillside outside your fortress), or a pasture. This has the benefit of making it clear where the animal is being released. However keep in mind the dwarf will uncage the animal first and then lead it to the release, so large/dangerous animals may escape en route. Consider using the dump command to move the cage before release, or assign the animal stockpile next to the pit/pasture.
Bees shows up in the list of creatures that can be assigned to a cage, but dwarfs will not start the task, and it will not be shown in the jobs list.
Breeding creatures are unable to get pregnant if caged, although they will give birth while caged if they became pregnant before being caged.
To set a cage as a jail, query the cage, designate it as a room, and then set it to be used for justice. Only metal cages may be used in this way, despite wooden cages being strong enough to hold dragons.
If you want your prisoners to survive their sentences, it is strongly recommended not to use cages but chains or ropes for your prisons, with drink and food placed directly adjacent to the chains. Caged dwarves must be given water and drink by others, and the required jobs are almost never generated. Dwarves caged in the name of justice will normally die of thirst or starvation, due to a bug preventing prisoner care jobs from being queued up in many cases Bug:2606.
Remotely Opening Cages †
A built cage can be linked to a lever to remotely open it. When the cage opens, the occupant(s) inside are released, the cage and mechanism deconstruct and can be returned to their respective stockpiles. Note that you have to use a "built" cage as described above, it won't work with cages on your stockpile. Also note that the mechanism attached to the lever will not automatically deconstruct; you have to manually deconstruct the lever to get back the mechanism used to open the cage.
Alternate way of Opening Cages †
When traders are around, you can select "move good to trading depot" and select the cage of choice. When a hauler takes the cage, any untameable creatures inside will be released. Be sure to disarm the creature beforehand...
A way to release creatures from stockpiled cages (which have not been built) is to assign the creatures to a pasture (which is possible for any living thing except dwarves). The same precautions as for trading the cage should be taken first.
Cages and Fluids †
A cage will protect a creature inside it from drowning, so if you want to drown a creature in a cage, you must open it remotely, as explained in the above section (as a corollary, if your fortress is drowning in water, you can cage your dwarves and rescue them later). However, built cages will not protect caged creatures from magma, making this a somewhat faster option, as it doesn't require linking each cage to a lever. Cages which are not magma-safe will be degraded and/or destroyed by this process, and cages which are made of flammable materials (such as wood) may be set on fire. Any items the creature had equipped will teleportVerify to wherever the creature was caged, typically a tile with a cage trap on it. These items may or may not be on fire; no case of teleporting !!large cave spider silk sock!!s have yet been observed, but this doesn't prove it can't happen. Exercise caution.
It's also possible to cage fluids(done by pushing uncaged animals/invaders over armed cage traps with water.) The cage containing the liquid must be built to remove the liquid. *magma not tested (yet)
Traders may bring cages for sale. If these cages contain a tamed creature, the item will be listed as (creature) cage, and will not describe the material the cage is made out of. However, the cage may contain a tamed vermin, in which case it will be listed in the trading dialogue as by the material the cage is made out of. In such cases, the expanded cage description will list the contents of the cage. You can often infer that trained vermin are in a cage by noting the cage's value compared to other cages of identical quality in the list.
However, once you have bought the cage the item name will list the material of the cage; ie: Wolf Cage (Oaken).
If you want to sell an animal, you need to assign it to a constructed cage first (see above) and then deconstruct the cage by querying it and pressing x. You can then select the cage in the trading menu.
Note that only tamed animals can be traded safely. The dwarf assigned to hauling a container will look through its contents and chuck out anything that can't be traded. In the case of cages, this means anything sentient - including such nasties as cyclopes.Bug:4065 Letting such monsters loose in the middle of your fort is good fun.
An easy way to take away all prisoner-held armor and clothing is via the mass designation tool. Designate an area with d-b-c to claim and d-b-d to dump an area (i.e. your animal stockpile, filled with caged prisoners). Afterwards, hit k, and go over each cage and press d for each of them - this stops the dumping on the cages themselves. You will need a garbage dump set up already for the dwarves to take the dumped items to. The dwarves will strip the prisoners naked and haul the items away. The cages themselves (and the creatures within) will remain in place. The items will end up in the garbage dump zone. If you want to to reuse the items, you need only to designate claim d-b-c on your garbage dump zone to reclaim the items after they are dumped there. If your animal stockpile is outdoors, you need to have the "Dwarves Gather Refuse from Outside" o-r-o order set.
An easier way to selectively disarm prisoners is to designate mass forbid d-b-f and mass dump d-b-d on all of the caged prisoner stockpile. You will need a bookkeeper for this. Press z and go to the stocks screen. Find an item category with items marked F and D. Press f to remove the F for those items, but don't remove the D. This will unforbid them, but they will remain marked for dumping. When you exit the stocks screen, the dwarves will haul those items from the cages and drop them into the garbage dump. When the dwarves have finished the hauling tasks, designate a mass claim d-b-c and mass undump d-b-D on the same area as earlier to remove the forbid and dump designations from the cages and the rest of the contents.
This method can be used to confiscate specific items from caged prisoners, like weapons, armor or bags containing stolen property or kidnapped children. It can be more useful to just remove their weapons if you want to use your caged prisoners for target practice; they will be more durable with their clothes and armor equipped, but not very dangerous without their weapons.
Emptying refuse †
If you tame an animal while it is inside a cage (a process which involves feeding a plant to the caged animal), you may leave seeds inside the cage. To get these out, you must mark them for dumping, designate a garbage zone, and wait for a dwarf to dump the seeds in the garbage zone. Then you can reclaim them.
Animals that expire in a cage (built in a zoo, or just sitting in an animal stockpile) also clutter up the cage until removed. If the cage is unbuilt and the animal is butcherable, your dwarves may haul the animal, cage included, to the butcher shop for processing. If not, you will need to manually clean the cage by dumping the corpse and any other items.
Marking refuse for dumping can be done by pressing k for an unbuilt cage (t for a built cage), then selecting the cage and pressing Enter, then selecting the item and pressing Enter again, and finally pressing d to mark the item (rather than the cage) for dumping. Or if there is a lot of refuse, you can use d-b-d to mass-dump everything in the tile, and then un-mark the cage itself.
How to quickly empty out many cages †
If you have many cage traps then you may have trouble emptying out cages quickly enough at times. See Mass pitting for suggestions on how to quickly recycle cages.
Another easy way to quickly empty cages is to simply send the imprisoned creatures to a pasture, where your squad can slaughter them. (Your dwarfs can drag every goblin except thieves). The easiest way is to place the pasture right next to the cages and let our dwarfs shoot them down. This way you can kill the thieves and monsters too.