why can't survivors feed dogs automatically?

[upuaut2]

currently it is a pain in the butt having dogs, since there is alot of mircromanagement involved with keeping them since you have to feed them manually each time, and basically stay focused over it, or else they will starve and go berserk then attack the survivors.

right now if you want pets, is best to have the cows, that only eat vegetables and survivors fill their feeders automatically.

i hope they do something similar with dogs

[dr46onfusion]

Why not have the animals you 'tamed' and put into control automatically get food for themselves? So in this case dogs will eat any 'food' left in the open such as meat in storage.

[StormCrow]

What I find really odd is the fact the wild Ulfen basically eat grass, but when you tame them, they will only eat from your feeder and go berserk if you don't give them food. They just forget there's food everywhere XD

[Elgar]

Originally posted by upuaut2:

currently it is a pain in the butt having dogs, since there is alot of mircromanagement involved with keeping them since you have to feed them manually each time, and basically stay focused over it, or else they will starve and go berserk then attack the survivors.

I don't understand what you mean... In my game my dog eats automatically in the feeding trough, I don't have to feed him manually. What is your issue ?

[upuaut2]

Originally posted by Elgar:

Originally posted by upuaut2:

currently it is a pain in the butt having dogs, since there is alot of mircromanagement involved with keeping them since you have to feed them manually each time, and basically stay focused over it, or else they will starve and go berserk then attack the survivors.

I don't understand what you mean... In my game my dog eats automatically in the feeding trough, I don't have to feed him manually. What is your issue ?

they won't eat automatically. in my game you have to feed them manually. not sure this is a bug or not. and i have plenty of meat in the storage.

[Elgar]

Originally posted by upuaut2:

they won't eat automatically. in my game you have to feed them manually. not sure this is a bug or not. and i have plenty of meat in the storage.

That's very strange. I use slop or insect meat (I keep the red meat for my survivors) and it works flawlessly. Did you check the feeder restrictions to see if you have unchecked certain food categories?

[76561199056944839]

Originally posted by upuaut2:

they won't eat automatically. in my game you have to feed them manually. not sure this is a bug or not. and i have plenty of meat in the storage.

Hey upuaut! When you say "in storage", do you mean in the animal feeder? Or just in storage somewhere?

[2alphyns]

The problem I run into is that the trough always wastes food when feeding dogs. The survivors keep topping if off faster than the dogs can eat. I'd really like a smaller "food bowl" for them.

[ojediforce]

I'm not the op but I just started playing and came here trying to figure out a similar question. The problem with the animal feeder is that your people will fill it with 300 meat and meat spoils faster than other foods. I haven't found a way to control the amount in the trough or a way to prioritize one storage area over another. This is why I have been feeding my dogs red meat manually. They don't seem to have a visible hunger bar so I wait until they are starving. It has been a pain.

Reading further up the thread I'm guessing that they don't need to be fed red meat exactly. My assumption as a new player was that if I had to have a specific food to tame a creature then I must need to feed it that food to keep it happy and fed. If I'm understanding that correctly than I have probably been putting myself through a lot of aggravation during my first game due to a misunderstanding of the game mechanics tied to the assumption that animals required the same food used to tame them to be fed. It never occurred to me to feed them slop since that isn't what I would ever feed my own dog. Given that they are omnivorous though I guess that makes sense given the available options.

[upuaut2]

Originally posted by JensErik_Frontier:

Originally posted by upuaut2:

they won't eat automatically. in my game you have to feed them manually. not sure this is a bug or not. and i have plenty of meat in the storage.

Hey upuaut! When you say "in storage", do you mean in the animal feeder? Or just in storage somewhere?

the feeders are for omnivorous right? the dogs don't ever use them. i mean in the storage, or the place for the dry meat. i get the option to feed them manually, but if i don't keep doing so, even though their hunger level was 100% they would shortly go on starvation. i had to keep feeding them manually the whole time. i eventually got rid of the dogs because how annoying it was. only keep omnivorous right now mostly because they can feed themselves, and the survivors fill their feeder automatically too wich makes things easier.

there should be a feeder for dogs

[Elgar]

Originally posted by upuaut2:

the feeders are for omnivorous right? the dogs don't ever use them. i mean in the storage, or the place for the dry meat

As I said in my previous post, please check the restrictions set for your feeder. Be sure you allow carnivorous food and/or slop.

If your feeder is filled with either carnivorous food or slop, your dogs will eat in the feeder. By the way, it works even if the slop is crafted with vegetarian food (slop recipe has restrictions you can set too).

[upuaut2]

Originally posted by Elgar:

Originally posted by upuaut2:

the feeders are for omnivorous right? the dogs don't ever use them. i mean in the storage, or the place for the dry meat

As I said in my previous post, please check the restrictions set for your feeder. Be sure you allow carnivorous food and/or slop.

If your feeder is filled with either carnivorous food or slop, your dogs will eat in the feeder. By the way, it works even if the slop is crafted with vegetarian food (slop recipe has restrictions you can set too).

oh good to know, will do that

[Martin]

Originally posted by upuaut2:

Why can't survivors feed dogs automatically

Why can't people irl do this.. instead we put food in a bowl and expect the dog to feed itself.. oddly.. much like ingame.

[76561199056944839]

Originally posted by upuaut2:

the feeders are for omnivorous right? the dogs don't ever use them. i mean in the storage, or the place for the dry meat. i get the option to feed them manually, but if i don't keep doing so, even though their hunger level was 100% they would shortly go on starvation. i had to keep feeding them manually the whole time. i eventually got rid of the dogs because how annoying it was. only keep omnivorous right now mostly because they can feed themselves, and the survivors fill their feeder automatically too wich makes things easier.

there should be a feeder for dogs

All animals use the feeders, even the dogs, as long as the appropriate food has been placed in it. Dogs will usually eat raw meat, as well as slop, so keep your feeder topped up with Raw Meat or Slop and they should eat from the feeder.

Storage is exactly that: storage, and your dogs can't access that. They also can't access the drying rack.

[Ed-209]

Was there ever a reasonable solution found for feeding dogs? Ran into the same issue with the trough -- It gets filled with 300 meat that spoils before the dogs can even eat a very small fraction of it, causing my settlers to refill it with another 300 meat. Ends up being a huge waste and drain on my food stores. Thought it'd be cool to have a dog or two around, and it has helped with morale, but the food drain is a bit unreasonable.

Barring that, is there any way to tell the dogs to just go away... short of, you know, slaughtering them? :D

-- Edit --

Found you can feed them manually, but have to wait until the animal is in a starving state. If they are not, the contextual menu the pops up when when you right-click them will not present the option (even greyed out).

Still not really ideal (now I have to watch each of my dogs to see if their starving), but better than throwing a ton of feed into the trough just to have it rot.

[Ed-209]

Maybe? Dogs are starving again, and the option to feed them is gone again. Only options popping up are to "Lead" or "Slaughter," not sure what the trigger is to bring up the manual option to feed them is.