Do cubs need to constantly eat?

[Wolforsomethinglikethat]

I've been playing for a few hours now and finished 2 generations now, but I'm still not sure about that.
Because I don't want my cubs to die, it kind of turned into constant hunting and feeding. I'd like to explore more, so I'd like to know if anyone has any idea how quickly they starve.

[Methode ♕]

During exploring of the area I try to hunt , I dont know how long they can go without food , but sometimes my cub collapses due to hunger , then I pick it up and bring it to the water and start drinking myself so the cup will drink too and will start walking again , Then i have to hunt and feed it otherwise it will die. I think the bigger the prey they are given the longer they can go without food like deer. When they get older you can teach them how to hunt rabbits and frogs etc. so they can provide it for themselves.

[Wolforsomethinglikethat]

Yeah, I try to do the same, but end up in more hunting than exploring. When I first started, one collapsed. I brought it a rabbit and it collapsed again shortly after.
I noticed that bigger prey fills them up more, but haven't noticed them actually being able to go longer without food.
And I also noticed that they learn to hunt, but that doesn't help much since they always stay close to you, so they won't hunt unless you're close to prey anyways.
I like the game quite a lot, I would just like not being forced to feel like I need to go from prey to prey.

[SophiaGrace]

I end up hunting pretty constantly, I think it differs from survival mode to the normal mode. In the normal mode it is easier to move place to place as there will always be prey there. My aim is normally to get two (or three if I can) rabbits at a time, one between two cubs (the third for momma lynx). I also catch a deer every time I see it.

I'm pretty sure that I don't need to hunt as much as I do (particularly in adolesence) but I'm always too scared!!

[Wolforsomethinglikethat]

Exactly the same for me. And I'm playing in normal mode, so I guess that in survival mode I'd need to hunt even more and better.

[Methode ♕]

Maybe you are already hunting as much as you would in survival mode :P

[leetje]

If I want to go out exploring I wait untill my cubs left but I don't go back to my denn, then I don't have little mouths to feed and have time to explore the world.

[Wolforsomethinglikethat]

Yeah, that's probably the case. haha

And I was thinking of doing that, but then I thought that's a little bit too easy. Yeah, I wouldn't have to feed them anymore, but you don't need to eat either, so it would just feel like exploring in some sort of god mode.

[SneakyGremlin]

That's actually the one main thing I dislike about this game. It's very tiring to hunt all the time and not being able to enjoy other things. And it's not realistic for a cub to collaps five minutes after eating a rabbit... :I

The badger cubs in the first game lasted longer and they ate even less! An apple here, an root there. One should think that a meaty rabbit should fill a cubs stomach for a while at least.

I understand that it's all about the challenge, but still! I wish they could change it, so the cubs would at least survive more than five minutes without food!

[Wolforsomethinglikethat]

That's what I meant. I hope they'd either do something about that in another Shelter game or maybe add an option where you can choose how quickly they get hungry, kind of like difficulty settings.

[Lammergeier]

For me, after my cubs eat a full meal (four rabbits at once) it takes them 8 minutes to collapse and die.

[DaftElectra]

Yep. You have to hunt constantly. And then your cubs would still collapse for, like, no reason...

[eegas]

Once you've played survival mode for a while, exploring with cubs in normal mode feels pretty doable, because there's such an abundance of food compared to survival mode, and it's all easier to catch. You're also sort of forced to explore in survival mode, because prey will migrate away from you if you hunt too often in an area. So you may want to give it a try if you haven't. Just be prepared to lose cubs lol. I still haven't kept all four alive in survival mode.