Pet Habitats

[lanaenae]

IDK if this has been mentioned, or if I can make a suggestion somewhere but why are the small animal habitats so huge?

The bunny one makes sense, but why are hamsters/birds/etc. have bigger habitats than the bunnies do? They take 25% of bedrooms! It's kind of ridiculous. Can we make a suggestion to get this changed?

Also, is it just me or are we not able to interact with these animals? I tried a bird and a hamster but I couldn't do anything with either. Seems like a waste.

[flintlass]

i think its cause they were trying to be conscious of the fact that a lot of people put hamsters in way too small of enclosures and they SHOULD be in something very large due to the fact they are incredibly active.
But yeah for the GAME they were pretty damn big lol even if i understand why

[lanaenae]

Originally posted by flintlass:

i think its cause they were trying to be conscious of the fact that a lot of people put hamsters in way too small of enclosures and they SHOULD be in something very large due to the fact they are incredibly active.
But yeah for the GAME they were pretty damn big lol even if i understand why

I figured it was something like that, but it feels like they went way overboard. All the pet stuff feels way too huge. It's just strange to see a hamster have a bigger cage than a rabbit.

[galacticcorgi]

Because ideally your rabbits should be in an entire room to themselves vs a small cage. An enclosure for a rabbit is temporary. Hamsters need large amounts of space. Look up Victoria Raechel, she goes into it very much about ideal cage size.

[Siamese55]

Basically, they got feedback during development telling them to increase the size to represent proper welfare. I am also in the game-is-a-game camp, but I understand the reasoning and saw requests on the Discord.

[galacticcorgi]

It also helps in the sense that a LOT of people don't REALIZE proper care set ups. So this is a clue-in. People see these and are confused and can actually realize what PetSmart sells you ain't proper care for those animals.

[lanaenae]

Originally posted by Anakha:

It also helps in the sense that a LOT of people don't REALIZE proper care set ups. So this is a clue-in. People see these and are confused and can actually realize what PetSmart sells you ain't proper care for those animals.

That's nice and all, but the size of these cages just aren't good when you have a normal sized house. They take up a lot of space even in the castle. You don't need to have them tiny, but you also don't need them to take up the majority of the room.

It's a double whammy when you can't pick them up, play with them, or even get down lower to watch them do things.

[Ryuchan]

I will have to agree that some of the pet things are just WAY oversized, like the dog beds that are the size of a couch if not bigger than some of the couches in game. To me that's just not useable, ever. I'll just stick to the few smaller beds that were already in the game I guess, but it is a pity there ends up being literally nothing I can use.
I had some hope there would be a small tank, you know, the size of the fishtank already in the game basically, just for something like a tiny frog habitat I could stick in a kids room, but if there is I haven't found it yet. Ah well.

[thelogicalghost]

I just want to add that I think it's especially important even in games like this, and very laudable, for the developers to NOT give options for pets that are inhumane. The majority of people still aren't aware of how most pets really need to be treated. When public perception is so overwhelmingly incorrect, every non-fantasy piece of fiction that makes the effort to be correct is saving real animals' lives by changing that public perception, one audience member at a time.

I know it's annoying from a design perspective, but I think it's worth it if even one person playing this is prompted to do some research and moves their guinea pig to a bigger enclosure or gets a bigger fish tank or bird cage.

And you'd be surprised how many typical pets aren't actually super safe for kids, or untrained adults. For example, you can get salmonella from petting turtles!

Also, as someone who's owned and loved many large dogs, yeah dog beds for large breeds like goldens and shepherds should be at least comparable to a couch. Even if your dog has been trained to sleep in a crate, they should have enough space to fully stretch out in that crate. The game dimensions are admittedly a little wonky, but that's always been true of plush items, because the game can't simulate "squishing" a big plush item against something else.

[lanaenae]

Originally posted by thelogicalghost:

I just want to add that I think it's especially important even in games like this, and very laudable, for the developers to NOT give options for pets that are inhumane. The majority of people still aren't aware of how most pets really need to be treated. When public perception is so overwhelmingly incorrect, every non-fantasy piece of fiction that makes the effort to be correct is saving real animals' lives by changing that public perception, one audience member at a time.

I know it's annoying from a design perspective, but I think it's worth it if even one person playing this is prompted to do some research and moves their guinea pig to a bigger enclosure or gets a bigger fish tank or bird cage.

And you'd be surprised how many typical pets aren't actually super safe for kids, or untrained adults. For example, you can get salmonella from petting turtles!

Also, as someone who's owned and loved many large dogs, yeah dog beds for large breeds like goldens and shepherds should be at least comparable to a couch. Even if your dog has been trained to sleep in a crate, they should have enough space to fully stretch out in that crate. The game dimensions are admittedly a little wonky, but that's always been true of plush items, because the game can't simulate "squishing" a big plush item against something else.

I can agree that it's good to teach people proper pet care. It's just between the sizes of the cages and the inability to interact with them, it feels like you aren't meant to play with them at all.

I didn't feel the dog beds were too big, a little annoying, but manageable. But it does feel ridiculous that one bird cage for one bird took up such a major part of the castle foyer. But what really upset me was that I couldn't do anything but watch the bird, even if I could open the cage.

I could overlook the cages if they were interactive.

[Ryuchan]

Please don't think that I'm either cruel towards animals or ignorant with my comment regarding the size of the dog beds - I've owned plenty of dogs in my life as well and am quite aware that a large dog needs a space that big. But there are, as mine have been, plenty of small or even tiny breeds of dog, and perhaps a smaller alternative of bed could have been added for those? (certainly never put any pup in a crate to squish. The last dog in my life claimed one of my armchairs for himself where he could put his head or his paw in my lap while I was at the computer, or he just snuggled in the couch with me. But not for any lack of his own things)
I'm not arguing against giving any animal anything less than the space or care it should have, and I hope it doesn't come across that way.

[Jadeth]

I think its fantastic that they have done their research and made the pet enclosures representative of what they genuinely need! That said I think it is a scaling/size issue. If they would make the pets and their enclosures a little bit smaller, so the sizing is still appropriate but doesn't take up an entire room then I think that would be a good compromise. (The snake, spider and indoor rabbit stuff are sized fine but all the others could do with scaling down a bit tbh).

[lanaenae]

Originally posted by Jadeth:

I think its fantastic that they have done their research and made the pet enclosures representative of what they genuinely need! That said I think it is a scaling/size issue. If they would make the pets and their enclosures a little bit smaller, so the sizing is still appropriate but doesn't take up an entire room then I think that would be a good compromise. (The snake, spider and indoor rabbit stuff are sized fine but all the others could do with scaling down a bit tbh).

I think this would be the best solution. I haven't seen the size of spiders or snakes, because they scare me. I thought the bunny was good, and cats and dogs. I think you could scale the hamster, lizard, and guinea pigs down a tad. I get that the birds need a space to fly, so the large cage makes sense, as I feel those aren't meant to be in bedrooms anyway.

[HodorineMemmlereit]

I wanted to adopt some small animals, but my property is to small....