Underwater feeder not being used by animals.

[Maffeketel]

Hello everyone!

I've just completed my new king penguin habitat. I've made a large water section where they can swim and they seem to do so quite frequently.
The water meets their deepwater requirements and I've placed an underwater feeder in this habitat. The keeper is able to reach it and it gets filled when the keeper comes to feed the penguins. It also shows as operational on it's panel.

The penguins do not seem to use the underwater feeder whatsoever unfortunately. They only use the feeding stations that I placed on dry land and if I remove those they simply starve. The feeder also indicates that it has never been used in the last 12 months and it has been installed for quite a while now without ever being used by the penguins.
The penguins can reach the area where the feeder is located but they just swim around it without doing anything with the fish that come out of it.

Has anyone gotten these feeders work succesfully? This is my first time that I'm using this new item and I seem to have set everything up correctly but I just can't get the penguins to actually use it.

Thanks in advance for any responses!

[Just Kevin]

Have you clicked on a feeder to make sure it is deep enough? They have to be very very deep.

[Maffeketel]

Originally posted by kevlms:

Have you clicked on a feeder to make sure it is deep enough? They have to be very very deep.

I've tested this and the feeders can't even be filled if I move them to a lower depth.
The game indicates that the depth is too low if the feeder isn't properly placed which is not the case.

I could try lowering the bottom even further but the feeder indicates that it is working so it should be deep enough. The keeper fills it, the feeder says that it is working but the penguins never use it.

[Nariel]

Do you have other feeders they are using instead. Try removing the other food items and only have the underwater feeder, see if that helps :)

[Maffeketel]

Originally posted by Nariel:

Do you have other feeders they are using instead. Try removing the other food items and only have the underwater feeder, see if that helps :)

I've removed all of the other feeders but the penguins have decided that they would rather starve instead of using the underwater feeders. ;p

[Maffeketel]

Update : I've lowered the entire bottom of the water section even further and they still will not use the underwater feeders. They swim underwater and pass by the feeders but they just completely ignore them.

I'm fairly sure by now that this is not working correctly and that I might be dealing with a bug. The king penguin should be able to use them. I'll have to do some testing with the other animals that can use the underwater feeder and see whether the same issue pops up.

[Just Kevin]

The feeders should issue tiny fish, but I have seen them not so so for no apparent reason.

[Maffeketel]

Originally posted by kevlms:

The feeders should issue tiny fish, but I have seen them not so so for no apparent reason.

I have 2 underwater feeders at the moment and both have fish coming out of them and I also see that theyre getting filled when the keeper comes to feed the penguins.

I'm curious whether anyone has ever gotten these things to work.

[Just Kevin]

But you say fish are coming out of them, so does not mean they are working? They don't work all the time because they become empty.

[Maffeketel]

Originally posted by kevlms:

But you say fish are coming out of them, so does not mean they are working? They don't work all the time because they become empty.

The feeders are working and being filled which is not the issue. The issue is that the penguins never used them in spite of this fact.

However, I've managed to solve this problem! The deep diving mechanic and these feeders are really finnicky to use though but hopefully this will help out other people who struggle with setting these things up correctly.

I lowered the entire floor of the waterbasin even further with the bottom now being quite a bit lower then the minimum depth required for these feeders to work. This took quite a bit of work as I had to place all of the rocks again manually. After that I made the entire water section a lot wider even though it was quite wide already. Then I place my 2 underwater feeders right in the middle of the water on top of a few raised rocks. I made sure that the funnels were still visible. I only placed one feeder on dry land for the juvenile penguins as they can't swim.

After all that I waited for the keeper to start feeding and thankfully the penguins finally started entering the water en masse and used my underwater feeders! It seems that the amount of free space surrounding the underwater feeders needs to be incredibly deep and wide, without any obstacles as the deepwater swimming mechanic is really wonky.
Be prepared to create large bodies of water if you want to use these feeders!

I'm happy that I got it working but the diving mechanics definetly need some more work.

[Nariel]

Originally posted by Maffeketel:

Originally posted by kevlms:

But you say fish are coming out of them, so does not mean they are working? They don't work all the time because they become empty.

The feeders are working and being filled which is not the issue. The issue is that the penguins never used them in spite of this fact.

However, I've managed to solve this problem! The deep diving mechanic and these feeders are really finnicky to use though but hopefully this will help out other people who struggle with setting these things up correctly.

I lowered the entire floor of the waterbasin even further with the bottom now being quite a bit lower then the minimum depth required for these feeders to work. This took quite a bit of work as I had to place all of the rocks again manually. After that I made the entire water section a lot wider even though it was quite wide already. Then I place my 2 underwater feeders right in the middle of the water on top of a few raised rocks. I made sure that the funnels were still visible. I only placed one feeder on dry land for the juvenile penguins as they can't swim.

After all that I waited for the keeper to start feeding and thankfully the penguins finally started entering the water en masse and used my underwater feeders! It seems that the amount of free space surrounding the underwater feeders needs to be incredibly deep and wide, without any obstacles as the deepwater swimming mechanic is really wonky.
Be prepared to create large bodies of water if you want to use these feeders!

I'm happy that I got it working but the diving mechanics definetly need some more work. :cleanseal:

Glad its working now. Thank you for sharing your solution, hopefully this will help others with a similar issue

[Just Kevin]

Interesting. There's no indication that they need space as well as depth. I wonder about that floating platform with a hole in it. It seems to need a sea to be viable.

[Just Kevin]

I am not sure if the aquatic creatures that require the fish feeder actually eat the fish. I have not seen any do so. I think the game just assumes that they do, when fish are coming out of it.

[Maffeketel]

Originally posted by kevlms:

I am not sure if the aquatic creatures that require the fish feeder actually eat the fish. I have not seen any do so. I think the game just assumes that they do, when fish are coming out of it.

They do eat them! My penguins swim by and I see them catching a fish in their beaks and swallowing it.

It's just really difficult to get the feeders to work correctly in the first place. If the feeder indicates that it is operational that doesn't mean that the animals will actually use it due to how wonky the diving mechanic is.

[Just Kevin]

I think I have just noticed that there's a possible limit to how many get filled when the keeper empties a bucket in. Some start to spit out fish, and says how much food there is in them, whereas some remain empty, and it seems random. Strange.

[HockeytownGuru]

Originally posted by Just Kevin:

Interesting. There's no indication that they need space as well as depth. I wonder about that floating platform with a hole in it. It seems to need a sea to be viable.

Same here. its frustrating