Title pretty much says it all. My first zoo fell apart because keepers weren't feeding the animals. Thought it was my mistake so I started a new zoo, and as a trial decided to just build the first exhibit and see if I encounter the same problem and I am. I've tried all the "solutions" offered online, removing the enrichment items, moving the food tray, moving the door, with and without work zones and nothing. Anyone else having this issue? If so, anyone know anything about it being fixed? Game is pretty much unplayable if my animals won't get fed.
Keepers still not feeding animals
- Thread starter Fordimus
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- keepers not feeding
Not I. Over 350 hours of playtime and I have yet to have a feeding issue in the game that wasn't the result of either something I needed to correct or simply that keepers are on break.
I haven't been able to get my keeper to feed through the tray, but I decided to try adding enrichment feeders and took out the tray and she ends up filling the enrichment feeders. I guess its a temporary work around for myself but not sure if Frontier is aware. Thanks for the reply though
I haven't been able to get my keeper to feed through the tray, but I decided to try adding enrichment feeders and took out the tray and she ends up filling the enrichment feeders. I guess its a temporary work around for myself but not sure if Frontier is aware. Thanks for the reply though
Do make sure you are aware of how keepers actually function. They won't fill feeders just because they are empty, they only fill them if both of these conditions are true:
1. NO feeder in the habitat has food, and
2. An animal is actually hungry.
If, and only if, both of those conditions are true when they check a habitat the keeper will leave the habitat, go the keeper hut and prepare food, and then return to fill feeders.
They prioritize filling enrichment feeders first, and if there's enough of those they will not put any food in a normal food tray. If There's not enough, they will put food in food trays as well. And if there's not enough of both, they will just dump food on the ground.
That last bit is relevant, because even with insufficient feeders in the habitat they will still dump food if an animal is hungry.
Are you perhaps not aware of those things and expect them to feed animals just because a tray is empty? Or thinking they aren't doing anything because they leave the habitat (to actually go get the food)?
I wasn't aware to the full extent of the order, but I assumed there was a bigger reason because in my initial zoo (I was on sandbox) I had more than enough keepers to always have someone available but my animals were starving and the keepers would walk in, walk out, and roam and not feed even if they weren't tired and didn't have a high workload. I was just curious if that was carrying over and was a bug or was something I was doing.
I'll have to experiment and take out the enrichment and just forward and starve my animals to see if the tray gets filled or if that's a bug I'm still having.
Thanks for the info though
I knew most of it but not quite there being a specific order or not keeping the tray full. But as stated above, I was monitoring to see if they were roaming, being lazy or doing their jobs lolWhen that's happened to me it's almost always been that a feeder with some food still in it had become inaccessible. Like a grazing ball feeder, with how they get kicked around by the animals, can get into a spot where no animal, nor the keeper, can get to it. Even if all other food trays in the enclosure are empty, that one with food in it will lead to the keeper not bringing food...but because it is not accessible, the animals will starve. This is more of a "glitch" than a "bug" seeing as things work as intended...but end up leading to a bad end result.
The only other time it's happened to me is when I failed to add a keeper hut to the work zone (accidentally selected the next door research center instead...oops). But the game gives an alert message when that happens now iirc.
Yes, that can be a problem, because the keepers are resetting only the empty food enrichment items to their base points before they're refilling them! Maybe that should be changend, so they are resetting all of them.
@Fordimus : Make sure, the terrain to / around your feeding items is traversable for the keepers, a simple tree can make it inaccessible for them.
This has always been my biggest issue for this game, and the reason why I'm not playing it.
I've done everything everyone has said, i've removed all enrichment feeders, placed only water and food trays, placed a keeper hut in front of the enclosure, trained my keepers, set a work zone, put the water/food trays in front of the gate and even still, even when I only have 2 animals in the enclosure, and the trays are empty; my keepers walk in, look around and leave.
But honestly, there needs to be at least an option in sandbox (since that's all I play) to have keepers just fill everything inside the enclosure. Because no matter what I do, my animals just die of starvation or dehydration. It's ridiculous. Especially since I love the game, but I can't play it because, well the main attraction to the game dies.
I've done everything everyone has said, i've removed all enrichment feeders, placed only water and food trays, placed a keeper hut in front of the enclosure, trained my keepers, set a work zone, put the water/food trays in front of the gate and even still, even when I only have 2 animals in the enclosure, and the trays are empty; my keepers walk in, look around and leave.
But honestly, there needs to be at least an option in sandbox (since that's all I play) to have keepers just fill everything inside the enclosure. Because no matter what I do, my animals just die of starvation or dehydration. It's ridiculous. Especially since I love the game, but I can't play it because, well the main attraction to the game dies.
I have that same problem, but only with my tortoises...
Other than that, when I get the hungry notification.. 99/100 times the keeper is already on the way or in the habitat..
Really a shame people are still having this problem, I do feel it could be something people forgot or did wrong..
Sorry, there are too many people not experiencing those problems...
I do recommend adding a adding a screenshot of your zoo, screenshot of your keepers in your staff menu and a screenshot of your workzones, maybe people can advise more..
We can try to locate a problem.. I saw some people adding only the habitat but not a zoo keeper building to the same habitat(s)...
I think some of it is people expecting keepers to fill trays when they are empty, not understanding that isn't how it works. Keepers wont fill any trays unless an animal is also hungry and no other feeder has any food. @dean_river words it in a way that it appears he expects exactly that, and that's just not how it works. Empty trays don't matter if no animal is hungry or there is any other feeder with food in the enclosure.
I've had animals die of dehydration, but never hunger, but it may be the same bug that causes both. I always, literally always, put water pipes and not water trays in enclosures, so the bug that is causing the dehydration issue is not a keeper bug...it's an animal bug. They get thirsty, but still don't drink. I can always resolve it by using the "move" to relocate the animal in the enclosure though. It seems to reset them to where they then run to the water pipe to get a drink.
I've had animals die of dehydration, but never hunger, but it may be the same bug that causes both. I always, literally always, put water pipes and not water trays in enclosures, so the bug that is causing the dehydration issue is not a keeper bug...it's an animal bug. They get thirsty, but still don't drink. I can always resolve it by using the "move" to relocate the animal in the enclosure though. It seems to reset them to where they then run to the water pipe to get a drink.
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It could be the keeper hut too some people have a lot of habitats but only a few keeper huts only one keeper can fit in the small hut at a time.
They die of dehydration and starvation.
People keep trying to tell me i'm doing it wrong, and telling me how it's designed but I personally don't think it matters how it's currently designed. I know i'm not alone here in having it not work or (and not saying I am) being confused about how to maneuver around the game mechanic. In my eyes, that means the game mechanic is broken and should be changed. I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to make sure my animals are fed and hydrated. If the game mechanic prioritizes enrichment feeders (which boils down to being a toy that happens to have some food in it) then there's no point in even having food or water trays at all since they never get filled (again, I stopped placing enrichment feeders entirely. They're still not being filled, while animals are starving) that seems completely broken and illogical. Again, I love the game. I played a lot of ZT2 back in the day, and this hits the nostalgia. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk or a basement dweller or anything like that. I'm upset about it because it's stopping me from playing a game I enjoy, and I spent $60 on it which; since I can't play it, I could have used for something else.
I don't put any food trays down unless it's an animal that has no enrichment researched. The food enrichment toy does two things, make them happier, and feed them. I put down 2 enrichment feeders per starting habitat if I'm able and there's no problem. I also make sure they're easy to get to for the keeper and for the animals.
The only problem I have is when food goes bad, keepers don't register that and clean it. I have to call them to the feeders.
Food trays and water trays are there for basic needs only. They're there for when you have nothing else. It's like wearing tier 1 armor when you research tiers 2 and 3. Why do that?
The only problem I have is when food goes bad, keepers don't register that and clean it. I have to call them to the feeders.
Food trays and water trays are there for basic needs only. They're there for when you have nothing else. It's like wearing tier 1 armor when you research tiers 2 and 3. Why do that?
See, that just makes no sense to me. enrichment feeders are just toys with food. Why are they the main food source? They're small. Why would the large food and water trays not be the main thing. That's like going to a restaurant expecting a meal, but all they give you is bread.
Even when I was still placing enrichment feeders animals still died of hunger and thirst, keepers just wouldn't fill up anything.
I've done everything everyone suggests. But all of that is just hoops to jump through. I shouldn't have to jump through hoops.
I understand that food rotting can be potentially a problem (not that i've been able to experience it because I rarely see food at all) My suggestion of a switch to turn on or off all food being filled by player choice is not perfect. But it's all I can think of. But my point is, the mechanic insists on giving me the run around in something that should be extremely simple.
I have also experienced animals dying from starvation. One time I had a habitat that was too big and the enrichment items too spread out for the keeper to fill them. By the time the keeper was finished with giving the animals food the first animals who ate were already hungry again. I solved this by moving the food enrichment items closer to the staff gate.
The Second time I had animals dying from starvation was that the keeper would get stuck on the path whilst going to the habitat.
Also you have to remember that the first priority of a keeper is to clean the habitat and if the habitat is clean then check if the animals are hungry. This can become a problem for habitat whit alot of animals. I always make sure that I assign 2 keepers to such a habitat. 1 keeper I set only to cleaning and 1 keeper only to feeding.
The Second time I had animals dying from starvation was that the keeper would get stuck on the path whilst going to the habitat.
Also you have to remember that the first priority of a keeper is to clean the habitat and if the habitat is clean then check if the animals are hungry. This can become a problem for habitat whit alot of animals. I always make sure that I assign 2 keepers to such a habitat. 1 keeper I set only to cleaning and 1 keeper only to feeding.
I...I just...Yeah, I know all of that. I've said that I know it. I've said I've done what people suggest. work zones, traversable environments, trained staff, clean environments, enough food for the size of the environment, i've experimented with different environment sizes and different number of species. I've done it all. I also said that people keep telling me that i'm doing something wrong, and telling me how the game mechanic works. Everyone keeps telling me the same thing. But I keep saying the game mechanic isn't good and should be changed. (at least in my opinion) I do everything people say, and my animals still die
@dean_river I understand it's frustrating for you. We are trying to help you because we want you to enjoy the game. 10 brains know more than 1. Maybe make use off the offer from above? We can check it out and see of you really didnt miss anything!
I'm not asking for help though. I know i'm coming off as rude, and i'm really not trying to. I also recognize i'm not the original poster. But i'm not asking for help, or suggestion for a work around people did. I don't want the game mechanic explained again.
I'm posting here to express my grievances. That after hours of changing my zoo's around, and creating new zoo's to implement these work arounds, something that I don't even want in my dream zoo it doesn't change. I don't want a keeper hut outside of every exhibit. But i'm forced to. Not that it even works for me. I digress. I'm just annoyed at having spent $60 for a game that I love, and want to play, but can't. I'm not looking for tips and tricks. I'm here to try and bring awareness, and make frontier see that they need to alter it in some way.
I'm posting here to express my grievances. That after hours of changing my zoo's around, and creating new zoo's to implement these work arounds, something that I don't even want in my dream zoo it doesn't change. I don't want a keeper hut outside of every exhibit. But i'm forced to. Not that it even works for me. I digress. I'm just annoyed at having spent $60 for a game that I love, and want to play, but can't. I'm not looking for tips and tricks. I'm here to try and bring awareness, and make frontier see that they need to alter it in some way.
Ok, I understand. I really think the best way of bringing awareness to Frontier is by giving them your saved game files so they can see the problems which you are experiencing them selves.