what's the trick to food enrichment?

[Shy]

This is driving me insane. Some animals like the Ring Tailed Lemurs, have food enrichment requirements. and yet if I put those in the enclosure, then the keepers will only ever fill those and never the food platforms. Should I just give up on keeping Lemurs or any other animal that heavily depends on food enrichment? I've read through the list put up under zookeeper issues. Following it hasn't seemed to fix much

[XrystalBelle]

Zoo Keepers will always fill the enrichment items first as they are better for the animals. If there are not enough enrichment for the animals then they will fill the regular feeders. And if that still isn't enough they will put it on the floor. Watch what they do and you will be able to see what the situation is.

What I usually do is only place 1 of each enrichment item until it hits 100% or close to it and then the a small regular feeder near the windows. I then add more feeders around the viewing areas as needed.

So, don't worry if they don't fill the feeders, it will mean the enrichment feeders have enough for the animals in there.

[Shy]

It just seems like I keep having animals low on their nutrition needs when just the enrichments get filled.

[XrystalBelle]

How many animals do you have in the habitat and how close is the zoo keeper hut to the habitat and how many habitats is the zoo keeper tasked with dealing with.

A zoo keeper will finish a task before deciding on the next task. If they get tired during one task the next task will be put down the queue so that they can rest.

If you haven't already use work zones to allocate habitats to zookeepers. Depending on how big the habitat and how many animals there are you may need more than one zoo keeper allocated so that one can clean while the other feeds, and while one rests the other can feed or clean. The hut needs to be as close to the entrance of the habitat(s) it is preparing food for with a staff room nearby. Less walking distance means that they won't get tired while walking between staffroom and habitat and zoo keeper hut.

I have noticed more issues with multiple species and animals in a single habitat. The new patch coming in the next few weeks should resolve some of those issues and if not, point out where the problem is via zoo keeper thoughts.

[Moving Target]

Originally posted by Shy:

It just seems like I keep having animals low on their nutrition needs when just the enrichments get filled.

NUTRITION has nothing to do with enrichments, it is the QUALITY of the food inside that is your problem. Click on the habitat gate and go to the animal tab (looks like a paw icon) there is a green button there for setting food quality, the more the animal has been researched the higher you can set the quality, level 1 gives about 50% nutrition and is the default, levels 2 and 3 improve this but are more expensive per feed
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2036891125

[Shy]

Well i've given up on it and started over. I've set up work spaces, I have a hut next to it. I have multiple keepers. If you put Red Lemurs and Ringtails together someone will starve. So they just can't co-exist period it seems.

On another note though. I'm having a different problem which I should probably make a new discussion for. I've tried everything but my power and water plants, the secondary ones I created, are inaccessible.

[Dragster6681]

With your power/water plants use the rotate key to make sure that they are pointing the right way when you place them next to the paths.

[Spur]

I had forgotten about clicking on the habitat gate for nutrition. Good reminder. Thanks.
I do often have trouble clicking on the gate without opening the edit barrier menu. Oh well.
Power/water. I tend to plan a lot of my layout around placement of those facilities. I mark a good location spot in the empty field using Terrain Paint. Then as I build and path I know how much room I need for negative happiness and pathing. I also use the heat map to terrain paint the cercumference of my powered up area.