Hungry cats since the update?

[Spazzy Hurricane]

Since the update I have gone through a lot of food, and for a few days about 8-12 cats of mine, as well as that many for 2 out of 5 other kittycat owners on the sim, have had the same problem, they would get to at least 60% hunger ... and it takes a lot to get them eating again and back to a normal stats! Has this happened to anyone else?

[Kitten Longmeadow]

(10-03-2011 10:51 PM)Spazzy Hurricane Wrote:  Since the update I have gone through a lot of food, and for a few days about 8-12 cats of mine, as well as that many for 2 out of 5 other kittycat owners on the sim, have had the same problem, they would get to at least 60% hunger ... and it takes a lot to get them eating again and back to a normal stats! Has this happened to anyone else?

We haven't changed anything with the cats or foods as far as the rate of consumption goes for food/milk. I can point out a few things to consider that I've come across while helping other people with similar issues.

Think of cats as having a food/milk "tank" like a gas tank; they will eat or drink to keep it topped off. If for any reason they are allowed to go without food or milk, they will need to eat/drink to fill up. So for example cats don't eat while they sleep, so when they wake up, they will seem to eat more for a short time.

The main thing is that the food and milk should last the same amount of time regardless of how fast the cats seem to consume it. The formula for consumption is:

# of bowls x 28 days / # of cats = how many days the food lasts

So for example:

10 bowls x 28 days / 20 cats = 14 days

Things that can affect the overall length of time that food/milk lasts: cats going without food and being allowed to go hungry, cats going without milk and losing the buff milk provides, adding or subtracting from your overall cat population, birthing new kittens.

Now, you also mentioned hungry cats. I often get called to come investigate why a customer's cats aren't eating, so I have a few things I look for right off the bat:

• What settings does the food have? If using a feeder, what settings does the mat have? (ie. sim-wide, parcel, range, my cats, group, anyone) The food is set to sim-wide and owner only by default. The feeder mat is also set to sim-wide food/milk and owner-only by default. It's not necessary to change these options unless you're setting up advanced feeding options, since changing them can lead to problems. For example having food set to sim-wide and anyone means that ALL cats on the sim will eat from your bowls. Similarly, setting the food to sim-wide and group means that all cats on the sim in that group will eat from your bowls. Setting your cats to parcel means that only cats within the parcel that the food is located will get to eat from the bowl. And setting the food to range means that the food MUST be in range of the cats' home point. If a person is unsure of how to set up their food, then they should contact a CSR for assistance.
• What permissions are set for the land? (ie. group rezzing, group object entry, group scripts) Are the cats, food, feeder, mat all set to the same group as the land? One common problem I have seen lately is that a customer will have the land set to group-only rezzing and object entry, but they're using an auto-feeder that is not set to group. This means that their auto-feeder can only rez out food when the owner is online. If you are limiting your land permissions for rezzing, object entry, and scripts to be group only, then you need to have your cats, food, feeder and feeder mats set to the same group as the land.
• Is the food the right kind of food? This is usually only an issue with new customers but we have had a few customers trying to feed their KittyCats Vita-milk only, or food from another breedable. Remember that our KittyCatS need Kitty Kibble from our main store to eat!

I hope this has been helpful! If you need support, please submit a ticket to our support site and request a food test: http://kittycats.biz/support. We'll get together with you to test your cats and see if there could be a possible problem that we need to fix.

[Tad Carlucci]

It was not helpful. Since the update cats are randomly stopping eating, and the HUD is no longer reliable. You're welcome to test on our sim but perhaps you should try testing yourselves first.

[Imon Nightfire]

I had about a dozen cats go through 5 bowls of food in one day, and all but two were non-breeding cats. Nothing recently has changed but the update on the way they are fed. I've taken all my non-breeding cats I keep as 'collectables' into inventory except the ones I've already perma-petted (another Permapet 120 Sale soon would be great!!!). The food is already much more expensive than my other breedable pets. I just can't afford this! I do hope it's found to be a bug. And the other weird thing is when I went to check my auto-feeder at that location, it said it was empty but when I opened it, I saw the bowls in the inventory of the feeder and closed it. When I looked again a moment later, they were gone. The bowl of food sitting out to be eaten said number 2 bowl. I had put bowls 1 through 5 in the day before and they usually feed in order. Could SL somehow be eating the bowls of food rather than the cats? The mystery deepens.

[Elora Lunasea]

Interestingly, I rezzed 2 bowls this past week or so that disappeared completely within seconds of rezzing them.

Just went poof.

I was not pleased to say the least. They were numbers 3 and 4 of a 5 count package.