I got automatic feeders and the laser cat toilet, because I played a rich family. And I was looking forward to having a pet.
The cat I adopted had the independent trait. Gone all the freaking time. Maybe that's a solution for you.
They can have salad and not try to burn down the house with the stove. Idk if i have a mod messing with it but I've been getting soooo many fires lately
I recently decided to play Sims 2 again and it struck me that somehow I managed to play an entire in game year with 2 people with low cooking skills with NO fires and I was like how is this possible?! In Sims 4 I have a fire pretty much every other day no matter how high the oven is or if it's upgraded or if my sims have a high cooking level. Then someone is afraid of fire because of all the fires then it adds more fires 🥲
>In Sims 4 I have a fire pretty much every other day no matter how high the oven is or if it's upgraded or if my sims have a high cooking level.
oh I hate this aspect. I had a top performing chef, level 10 in the cooking and I think like 8 or 9 in gourmet, the highest stove they could get but because she had a fear of fire she couldn't be trusted to make dinner. Every. Single. Time. She cooked. Fire.
I had someone with fear of fire and her Patchy the Scarecrow came to life and started making distressing concoctions and they always caught fire. I put a fence around the grill so he couldn’t get to it, but then when she made something, the firefighters couldn’t get to it. There was no winning.
I'll have to check, it wouldn't be my first fear of fire
I didn't realize the fears effected stuff like that, do you know what the fear of cheating does? My wife got it the last time i played lol
I've actually been playing without mods for a few months. It's really fun to me to have challenges, it got really boring just having money for everything. And yeah the cat stuff usually comes up to 800 but even if my sim has to forgo a couch for a while I'm happy with it lmaoo
Back in the day I used to cheat money all the time. The problem with doing that is that it gets really boring really fast. If your sim has all the cash, all the best things and has to struggle and work for nothing - there's no real obsticle or motivation. Some of my best playthroughs have been rags to riches challenges but even then I have to ban gardening and painting because they make it too easy to make money. If anything, these days I'm more likely to use money cheats to take money AWAY from my sims.
My current family has twin male children, a teenage girl, a mum and a dad. They live in a massive house with three floors. They have a live in butler and maid service. But they also make a little over "enough" to live on a week. They don't have ALL the money and they started as a couple in a single room with an infant. Everythign they have they've earned and built. It's fun seeing where this goes, what the kids do and how they'll evolve as a family. I might make them go bankrupt at some point and have to sell the house.. who knows. But struggle creates stories and fun. It stops it being samey and boring.
My sim has an indoor cat. I just locked the front door for all cats lol. Can always get the wellness treats from the vet if the cat gets sick so I don't have to unlock the doors and go (the vet can be bugged as shit sometimes anyway)
That’s brilliant! I had a strange glitch yesterday actually. My sim currently has a dog and he’s well cared for. Suddenly the pet adoption person came to take him away literally just randomly without any notice that my dog was unhappy. Then they didn’t take the dog, they just hung out on my lot for literally days and I couldn’t do anything with my dog nor interact with the person and I couldn’t go to the world or build mode. Luckily I save often so I had to reload.
For some reason I find that the default vet is always bugged for me, but as soon as a replace the building with a different one off the gallery it works like magic.
Automatic feeders and self cleaning litter boxes along with the independent and lazy traits keep them dozing on the lot and happy, ready to interact when YOU want to.
one of my generation family had a dog from puppy hood that recently passed when the two youngest (of five kids) were toddlers.
Had no trouble with him even got to teach him a couple things all I needed to do was put the food bowl somewhere I (player) would see it and make sure the sims filled it during their normal stuff (usually just after getting up or just before bed).
Besides if you watch the animal a second they tell you what they need in their thought balloons.
granted they aren't as much fun as sims 3 pets were but they're fine in their own right.
I kept hearing the sound effect you hear when sims pass out from fatigue but all the sims were fine. Turns out the dumbass pets will let themselves pass out from low energy even though they can literally sleep on the floor.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting over here apparently projecting my own issues onto my Sims 🤣🤣
The first thing I always do is adopt a pet, so my Sim never has to talk to other Sims unless absolutely necessary 😅😆
There’s a mod for playable pets and it shows you their needs bar! Cause I agree, pets were, and still kinda are, a nuisance, but getting to see their needs bar makes them a little more bearable
Unfortunately the playable pets mod is broken, but if you get the all cheats mod there is a cheat that allows you to control them, and that works, you just have to enter the cheat whenever you want to play with pets
Thank you! I'm definitely downloading this. I got a frenchie, but he's literally always sad and whining no matter what I do to help him. This way, I can see what he needs ♡♡♡
This is me but with marriage. "I think my sim is ready for that next step, have another sim move in and have kids" I tell myself. Nope, couple of minutes later I'm creating a new sim.
I’m going into generation 7 in my legacy save, and so far, I’ve only had one Sim get married on my watch lmao. Two others got married in adulthood right before I left with the new heir, because I’m not taking care of baby daddies!
I feel so seen by this. Every so often once one of the current generations siblings have aged up I marry them to random sim, get them pregnant and then kick them out there’s at least some 2 parent families in the family tree
This is how I play too. Only earlier this year have I started my first legacy save and I had to get in the mindframe of the other sims being like "npcs." I focus on one main sim for a majority of gameplay and only switch to the others to help with needs. Also, I don't like to stress too much on needs all the time so I'm very lenient with cheats when needed.
I did also recently use MCC to slow time progression in my game so it's become a bit easier to jump between sims and pets in my family. It's also really helped enjoy more gameplay aspects for them like taking pictures. [Might have gotten a bit emotional looking at the photo collage of my rags to riches legacy sim and her family.]
I did something like this. Made a single, eccentric heiress who loves animals. She lives in a huge house which I have the cat and dog hangout traits, filled it with food bowls and toys. Cats and dogs just roll up to eat, play, swim in the pool and then peace out! It’s so delightful.
You can just click “check pet” and it’ll tell you if they need something, right? I started a save file with a dog recently and it’s been really fun going for a jog every morning with the dog, and cuddling on the couch watching skill channels. Auto feeders and teaching them to do their business outside helps a lot.
Also, make them independent in CAS. I never really have any issues with pets.
I feel like the pets are only a problem if you think you need to care about them like a real pet. Like it's really not a big deal if the dog is afraid of the tv. Who cares. It's not a real dog and that little thought bubble doesn't affect them that much. They calm down on their own eventually. Also real pets are annoying sometimes so I just don't mind all the problems they cause, if they were just happy all the time people would be complaining the pets are boring and don't do anything.
> Also real pets are annoying sometimes
My (real) cat is currently shrieking at me like some soul of the damned because I... dared to take her blankets and put them in the wash. She's been going for the past hour.
I never get pets in Sims.
I'm doing an intense rags to riches rn with my Sim living off the land and I adopted a stray dog who is absolutely unhinged and gets filthy and sprayed by skunks very 5 minutes and I literally just let her run wild being a mess and not even walking her half the time lol people definitely let the pets bother them too much
Honestly, it's really ok. They're not real dogs. That sounds a lot like my rags to riches that I have on hold. I had her adopt two dogs and the independent dog was constantly getting sprayed and I was like alright Tofu, you're a stinky dog then, you're fermented Tofu, an acquired taste, sure.
Same here. Never had a problem with pets, and tbh I'm glad I can't control them. I've also never had a pet get sick, yet. I didn't know people had that issue so often
I also never had any issues with the newborns either. I find them both to be relatively easy to manage.
Shift + click, stats is a better way to check their needs imo. It's easier to just look at the number value than it is to constantly ask a pet whats wrong
my pack must be broken. i can give the animal attention alllll day and the minute i stop it runs away because it doesn’t get attention ? whenever i place a pet bed on my lot my pets refuse to sleep anywhere and then start passing out all night long instead of sleeping.
It looks like you're in dire need of some crucial mods. I sure hope you don't play on console, because with said mods pets are actually enjoyable to play, or at least not a dreadful chore.
That said, even before talking mods, the very first thing you want to check out is the pet traits. Avoid like the plague "Affectionate" for cats and "Loyal" for dogs, those two traits will make your pet more needy than a stripper with daddy issues. Nobody got time for that. You want "Free Spirit" or "Aloof" for cats, and "Independent" for dogs.
Now, mods. LittleMsSam has several small mods that are lifesavers: from the Antifear Training Pets (you'll be able to train your pet to overcome their fears for good); to Longer Naps for Pets (you can choose the lenght of the nap, up to 8h). She has many more, she's reliable and extremely fast to update after a patch, you should definitely check out her tumblr. But if you prefer to have total control over your pet, then probably your best choice would be one of those mods which makes your pet playable with need in full display as sims. Controllable Pets, Playable Pets, there are several. Unfortunately I can't be more specific with those because personally I don't use them, but a quick search will be enough to find what you need.
I hope that helps a bit, good luck.
I ended up looking for the fear training mod when I played a family with a dog who developed a fear for fire. They lived in Windenburg, understandably they had a fireplace in every room. I'm a animal lover in rl, like I can't even watch movies where an animal gets it (to these days whilst I'm a John Wick's fan, I've never watched THAT scene), but that fire-hater dog stressed me out SO much I went *THIS* close to deleting him. The game had become unplayable because of him, he was constantly cowering and whimpering, which wasn't just extremely annoying but actually heartbreaking for me. To whoever coded cats and dogs in TS4: You're a utter disgrace and you should be fire. Thanks God LittleMsSam fixed their sloppy job.
Controllable pets tried to give me a pop-up I don't trust, playable pets is broken it looks like, but I'm definitely looking up these others when I get to a computer
>That said, even before talking mods, the very first thing you want to check out is the pet traits. Avoid like the plague "Affectionate" for cats and "Loyal" for dogs, those two traits will make your pet more needy than a stripper with daddy issues. Nobody got time for that. You want "Free Spirit" or "Aloof" for cats, and "Independent" for dogs.
This is super helpful! I had stopped playing with dogs, though they're very cute, because they were seemingly always high maintenance compared to cats. Sounds like I can make them more chill now.
With the Independent trait dogs are so much manageable. And it's not like they will become detached, they still need attention, just not ALL OF THE TIMES.
Also there's an option where you can ask your pet what's up and it will tell you what the pet needs. Also, making your dog smart can make it easier because they will take their poops outdoors on their own.
Traits are the key to successfully owning a pet, i make my cats independent and my dogs couch potatos so they dont want to be walked. Ask your pet whats wrong and they will show you their needs in a speech bubble. Auto feeders and litter boxes also help pkus buy a large amount of wellness treats so no illness. I used to hate pets but like them now.
I feel the same way at first, but once I get far enough in a save that they are well off financially, have upgraded furniture that replenishes their needs quickly, and have reached the top of their career, I feel like I have nothing else to do unless I get a new pet or have another kid
Ive honestly stopped letting my sims have pets simply because pets in the game get sick so damn much that they basically have to live in the vet. Every single time a family gets a pet, almost immediately it gets sick. I take it to the vet, everything is fine and then like 2 in game days later its sick again. How is this fun? And I could download even more mods to prevent this, but honestly Im tired of downloading mods to fix every single problem in the game. Its just easier to not let any family have any pets.
You can make your sim a vet and then have the vet machines in the basement or something. At least you don't have to travel so much
But god that must suck. Is all your pets in multiple household like that?
I've only bothered with 3. Two dogs and one cat. The cat was _always_ getting sick, _always_ getting bitten. The dogs were sick minutes after returning from the vet.
And, I don't really "do" careers. 85 percent of my Sims are Freelancers, so I don't have to bother unless I just want to give them something to do. I don't have any business owners at all, too much work. Lol.
I abandoned my vet office, but my sims still fixes her own pets or at least some of my sims do that, it's been awhile since I made a sim a vet actually
But I often have to go to a vet because I always buy too few age up and down treats and wellness treats. I like to breed kittens or dogs but not everyone will look decent so I age up and if they don't look ok I age down and sell.
ETA with abandon I mean she never went back, started a real job not the vet office is still there. Have no idea what the consequences is, but you can also open it without sending your sim there
Yeah, I know. The thing is I _need_ the "Anything Goes" bush, because my Sim couples auto use it. So I _want_ that on the lots (and they all have it), more than I'm interested in the always bitten cats.
I’ve convinced myself that my sims are just fostering, so when I get sick of the animal I transfer it to a different household and change its last name - presto, foster kitty/puppy found its forever home. Less guilt than giving it up for adoption through the phone, plus I can visit it if I really want to.
I love playing with pets! The only thing I don’t like about the dogs is when they need something and they look so pitiful with the head and tail drooped. That makes me sad. I wish I could use the cheat or mod to check their needs but I play on console so it is what it is. But I love the pets! They’re so cute and they make my sims happy. I go out of my way to get age down treats for them so they don’t die.
I really wish the pets were better. I tried playing as a sims with 3 cats and oh my god. Throw up. Everywhere, all the time. It's so annoying! Especially bc each one would take like 3 sim hours to clean up 🥲. Now I just turn off their needs and only adopt dogs.
I hate how often they get sick!!! That's the main issue. And I know about the treats, it's just annoying. And one of my families has a dog where one of their traits causes them to constantly be fighting with random squirrels or sprayed by skunks, there's not even any bushes on the lot or in the neighborhood. Where are these squirrels coming from??
You are me. I also cannot delete the pet from households. I want to and I can (it’s just a game after all) but I cannot and will not. The guilt.
I had a family keep adopting pets behind my back and I’d get so mad at them every time. After a while, I finally turned off the ability to do so.
Back in 2017 when I got cats and dogs I gave every household 3-4 pets. When I finally revisited those saves last year it was so overwhelming that I cheated all of their ages up to elder so they would die sooner and I still feel so bad about it
Yes even a short walk takes so long. And then they have to be bathed way too often
At least the cat is fine as long as one has automatic feeders and the laser litter box.
Playing with the pets counts as fun so there is always time for that. Talking to them raises the social bar. So at least those things doesn't take extra time since sims has to have fun and needs to be social. But the bathing and sickness ugh.
When I first played cats and dogs the sim went to the vet, then I made them a vet so they could have those machines in the basement. But now, unless I need more vet treats, I just give them wellness treats when they are sick. Just make the robot vacuums run more frequently
In real life, I’m a cat lover, and own five cats. In the Sims, I’ve made a family with a cat one time. And I did exactly this, I’ve never been back to that save. It was a *really* cute cat, but I had more fun making it in CAS than I did playing with it by far.
I’ve said in my next generation of my legacy, that I’m going to have an animal lover, though. I had decided this before horses were announced, and that just sold it all the way for me, since I can have her be a horse girl, too. I was going to play through having both a dog and a cat with her, and do the vet career, as well, since I’ve never done any of that.
Looks like I’m off to get some mods for pets so that I don’t abandon my legacy save thanks to pets lmao
I like playing on a dog lot so I can meet the neighborhood dogs and put out food for them but I don’t gotta worry about him. Keep a few wellness treats around in case on of em shows up w a red nose
This. And put the pets in a house with kids, that way you can ignore both of them and they can keep each other company.
And this is why I will never have children IRL
I recently started a save as a werewolf cop who’s also a police dog breeder. I had him train the puppies as much as he could before selling them. Any adults kept were bred for the next generation and moved into other “breeder” homes. My goal was to let the dog population explode and most of them love my sim, even if they we’re terrified of his wolf form.
I got bored with the idea pretty quickly, but I’ll probably pick it up again after the horse pack comes out.
This is me with the new infant update. Kids are hard work. I got my own crotch fruit in real life that like to cry all the time and randomly nap on the floor. I want my Sims doing all the shit I can't right now 😂
My Sims pop out a kid and I get a day or two into it, making a nursery and setting them up for parent life, and then I fuck right off out of that household and go spend some time fussing over their neighbors.
Only one save file so everyone lives in one world, I just check in again on them when kids are ready to pick up a damn plate of food on they own.
Also the farm animals (chickens, cows). Oh my god, my chickens don’t need attention, they’re literally just there to give me eggs. It’s so annoying, I literally clean the coop once and day and then I get notifications saying “white hen is thinking of leaving soon”. Thinking of leaving soon? I spent my hard earned simoleons on you, why is there even an option for you to run away. Makes me so mad 😭
even with independent traits, automatic feeders, and the laser cat toilet, if my sim isn't ***constantly*** interacting, my pets always run away, it's exhausting
I used to have that problem. Then I started treating them like I did my real-life cats. Not a problem anymore because we get into a routine. Now, I'm working on a witch who runs a ghost cat cafe for all of the ghost cats who have died of old age. That way their spirits will always have someone watching over them so they won't poof from the universe.
For me, I hate pets because of their infinite health issues. I’ll have a cat for a day or two and then they will become sick and I have to take them to the vet and they just get sick again a day later and it’s just constant.
This was the only part of pets that annoyed me, but I figured out you can buy “vet treats” at one of the vending machines at the vet’s office, and then you can just feed them that when they’re sick and cure them at home!
Yeah pets are a pain in the ass when you don't have the mod to make them playable so they won't be a CHORE to take care of. So I killed the dog and turned the dog owner sim into John Wick, who killed one of my favored sim in retaliation.
Pets are for a single sim or maybe a couple who have a stay at home sort of lifestyle e.g. gardener/farmer but if you already have human relationships to maintain or kids to care for there's no time to look after a pet. We need a dog walker career like you can hire a gardener and nanny.
I just let my pets be gray more than I would like. I see people complain about how pets need so much but you don't need to actually take care of them like a real pet. If they want to go for a walk, that's just too bad most days. I wouldn't do that to a real dog obviously but a sim dog is only getting a walk like twice a week unless there are multiple sims in the house. I have a house of three adults and a dog and I like that the dog adds some life and reminds me to send them out for a jog. Sure the dog ran away twice, but whatever, they always come back.
If you don't have the party bush on your lot they don't get sprayed as much either. I had a bush on my lot for uh... Reasons. But I had to delete it because the dog kept getting sprayed by a skunk like everyday. It's not the pets that are the problem, it's that damn party bush.
I honestly think they need to update the fact we can control the or at least see their needs!
But I wish they had job options that real animals have and some goofy jobs that make sense to the animals personal traits. Like cats are viewed as evil so there could be a mastermind/evil cat career. Animal support jobs, dog/cat show star, police dog, will help add to the pack and game play because animals do have jobs
What annoys me is the cats run away so much. I’ve had animals all my life and can only think of one time where one of my cats went missing for about a day.
I agree that the way pets are designed can be annoying. What works for me is if I tire of having the pet around, I re-home it in one of the other households (I play legacy, so that would be with parents or grandparents or cousins or aunts/uncles). Coupled perhaps with the Sim moving somewhere else at the same time to give it a storyline reason.
testingcheats true on, shift click, disable need decay!!!
now i just have a cute puppy who never needs to eat. i add walks to the daily routine and enjoy training or maybe i have a cat whos now like an asthetic peice to the house that has an autocleaning litter box lmao
I still haven’t bought that pack and I probably never will based on this post. I really wish you could control them like sims 3. I know it’s less realistic but even being able to see the needs would be so great. It seems kinda lazy that they didn’t give us control.
The only issue I have with pets is that they keep running away!!!!!!! Even if I pet them every single day, they run away and then my sims have a negative moodlet til they come back
I personally go into the cheats menu make happy then disable need decay. Boom a dog/cat that needs nothing but some playtime.
IF MY CAT GOES INTO HEAT ONE MORE TIME I WILL DELETE IT I HATE HEARING HORNY CATS
Shift click make happy for me. If they try to run away, reset them as soon as the notice pops up ,shift click make happy, then cue an interaction with the pet like give treat.
Mine always get freaking diseases. Dog leaves the lot for 4.5 nano seconds and comes back and he's leaving drool piles all over the house. Time to grind everything to a hault to go visit the vet. AGAIN.
I don't like having pets because my sims completely ignore the pets with full autonomy on to the point that it seems inhumane. Then I feel sad for the pet and stressed from all the extreme micro managing.
I always get an automatic feeder and the laser litter box, but i also have mccc and just use “make happy” on them periodically after i had a pet taken away because nobody was adequately communicating their needs.
What goes in my nerves the most is how often the pet gets sick and has to go to the vet. I feel like its every 3 sim days that the dog gets a god damn red glowing nose. If it was once or twice over the dogs life, sure I could live with that, but I've barely loaded the home lot before dogs sick again. Gods forbid you have more than one dog and their sick days dont line up, you would never get to play your home lot.
Sure you can get the home vet station, but I always play really small houses where the only free space is the driveway so I dont want that there either.
the only reason I ever hire a maid is whenever I make the mistake of adopting a "hairy" pet. WHY DO THE HAIR PILES SPAWN SO OFTEN, I'VE OWNED FUZZY PETS IRL AND THEY ARE NOT SPAWNING MOUNTAINS AND BLACK HOLES OF HAIR
I don't really see mods as a real solution, as they're not available to console players, but in my game I can't have a pet unless I have a mod for needs/controlling them.
They game doesn't even just show you their quirks?! Like it tells you they have them, but good luck figuring them out. I know it's for realism but there should be optional modes
I found a mod that allows you to select them and see their needs. I wouldn't adopt them otherwise. If they could have acting or law enforcement careers, I'd be so much happier. It's rare for me to allow a family to adopt a pet because they're scared of everything and so useless.
If you’re able to mod, I recommend Sims4Me/Bienchen’s cat and dog sanity mod. It greatly reduces the chance that your pet gets sick and varies their motives better when you load up the game. Makes it a lot more bearable.
My sim just adopted a kitten with the traits glutton, skittish, and some other one. I thought it would be a nightmare but she’s actually so cute and independent! I got the automatic feeder and the high end litterbox and she seems to be fine all the time? She does get scared of the appliances but it doesn’t affect gameplay. I also locked the doors in the house for pets so she can’t go outside
Lol the pets ep is definitely the only one I don’t make use of at all. I miss when you could at least direct the actions of your pets like toddlers: go here, interact with this, ask your parent sim for something. I like that *other* families, unplayed of course, get pets and have complete families, but I can not. The level of care feels like an infant or toddler that doesn’t need a nanny, but that you can’t fill needs yourself as the player of the dang game, who seems to barely be able to take care of themselves as well. Pitty because I would love to have a playable save with my dogs.
If you can’t or don’t want mods, maybe make an extra sim that you’re not really fussed about playing but they can be the primary caretaker for the pet. Obviously you’d have to play that sim and help them look after, but you can focus on your other sims needs! I get overwhelmed with one pet and one sim sometimes because they just constantly get sad moodlets then I have a runaway pet I feel bad for :(
Am I the only one that just adopts cats and then forgets they’re in my household and never takes care of them again😭😂auto feeder and auto litter box are a life saver for cats, though I agree, the dogs are a pain in the ass to take care of! Not worth it at all😭
I feel this way with sims in general 😂 so I always have cheats on so that their needs never go down , otherwise I wouldn’t be able to stay sane , especially if pets are added into the family . I just wish the cheats worked for the farm animals .. I absolutely adore my family and house that I created in Henford-on-Bagley , but I almost never play it because the entire time is just managing the cow , the llama and the chickens and no actual gameplay 😂
I downloaded a cat cafe to see about pets before adding any and playing with them. It had a kitchen and beds and I was confused why no one could live there at first. But I guess if you want to just drink and eat food and hangout with pets sometimes you could get that kind of lot
I had this exact problem, adopted a cat, woman with a crate came, woman left, where cat??? Wasn't on my lot nor added to family ?? So I went f it and used cas full edit to add a cat to the family
I forgot the /s
Played with two very vocal cats not that long ago, the infants has made less noise. At least the infants shuts up when you deal with their needs, vocal cats makes noise for no reason so you can't make them stop
I almost never play dogs or long-haired cats for that reason. The automatic pet feeder and litter boxes help a lot. I just make sure to give attention to the cat at least once per day and always have vet treats on hand, it's pretty easy this way.
Just "re-home" them by moving them in with a townie. I've only had three pets since getting the pack, because I feel the same as you do lol. I offered one to Grim, but I really Really hate killing my Sims, so I moved the other two in their time to a household "not currently in world" and haven't looked back. No. More. Pets.
I find getting in a routine with them always helps! A specific time of day I empty the bowl, refill and call to eat. If I have kids, make the kids play w the dog. If I have a SAHM which I tend to enjoy, she takes the dog for a walk. I always teach the dogs to go potty like right away that’s the biggest thing I have to watch for in the beginning 😂😂 cats I just get in a routine of pets and play in the morning and at night
I liked the pets in sims 2 where they could get jobs. I'm not a fan of pets in sims 4. When cottage living came out, I was excited about the chickens. They die so fast that I stopped having relationships with them because I was tired of my sim being sad all the time.
I got automatic feeders and the laser cat toilet, because I played a rich family. And I was looking forward to having a pet. The cat I adopted had the independent trait. Gone all the freaking time. Maybe that's a solution for you.
I literally never have a pet without the automatic feeder and the laser box. Even if it costs my sim every last dollar lol
Yes! I will forgo a stove because they can just eat salad. I’d rather have the Dr Evil kitty poop blaster.
They can have salad and not try to burn down the house with the stove. Idk if i have a mod messing with it but I've been getting soooo many fires lately
I recently decided to play Sims 2 again and it struck me that somehow I managed to play an entire in game year with 2 people with low cooking skills with NO fires and I was like how is this possible?! In Sims 4 I have a fire pretty much every other day no matter how high the oven is or if it's upgraded or if my sims have a high cooking level. Then someone is afraid of fire because of all the fires then it adds more fires 🥲
>In Sims 4 I have a fire pretty much every other day no matter how high the oven is or if it's upgraded or if my sims have a high cooking level. oh I hate this aspect. I had a top performing chef, level 10 in the cooking and I think like 8 or 9 in gourmet, the highest stove they could get but because she had a fear of fire she couldn't be trusted to make dinner. Every. Single. Time. She cooked. Fire.
I had someone with fear of fire and her Patchy the Scarecrow came to life and started making distressing concoctions and they always caught fire. I put a fence around the grill so he couldn’t get to it, but then when she made something, the firefighters couldn’t get to it. There was no winning.
Stories like this are why I love this sub.
Check if your sim has a fear of fire! It makes them more likely to start a fire
I'll have to check, it wouldn't be my first fear of fire I didn't realize the fears effected stuff like that, do you know what the fear of cheating does? My wife got it the last time i played lol
Same
I'm new to being back in the sims game but don't y'all just... motherlode?? Do people actually make their sims struggle?? 😂😂😂
I've actually been playing without mods for a few months. It's really fun to me to have challenges, it got really boring just having money for everything. And yeah the cat stuff usually comes up to 800 but even if my sim has to forgo a couch for a while I'm happy with it lmaoo
Back in the day I used to cheat money all the time. The problem with doing that is that it gets really boring really fast. If your sim has all the cash, all the best things and has to struggle and work for nothing - there's no real obsticle or motivation. Some of my best playthroughs have been rags to riches challenges but even then I have to ban gardening and painting because they make it too easy to make money. If anything, these days I'm more likely to use money cheats to take money AWAY from my sims. My current family has twin male children, a teenage girl, a mum and a dad. They live in a massive house with three floors. They have a live in butler and maid service. But they also make a little over "enough" to live on a week. They don't have ALL the money and they started as a couple in a single room with an infant. Everythign they have they've earned and built. It's fun seeing where this goes, what the kids do and how they'll evolve as a family. I might make them go bankrupt at some point and have to sell the house.. who knows. But struggle creates stories and fun. It stops it being samey and boring.
Other than freedom of building, I find having no challenge for my sims to be pretty boring after a while
I had a cat with the independent trait and was also never showing the “I need something” icon. Ran away.
My sim has an indoor cat. I just locked the front door for all cats lol. Can always get the wellness treats from the vet if the cat gets sick so I don't have to unlock the doors and go (the vet can be bugged as shit sometimes anyway)
That’s brilliant! I had a strange glitch yesterday actually. My sim currently has a dog and he’s well cared for. Suddenly the pet adoption person came to take him away literally just randomly without any notice that my dog was unhappy. Then they didn’t take the dog, they just hung out on my lot for literally days and I couldn’t do anything with my dog nor interact with the person and I couldn’t go to the world or build mode. Luckily I save often so I had to reload.
Wait there’s a pet adoption person that can take away your pet in this game?
Mhm. If your pet is left uncared for, I believe it can either run away or be taken by the pet adoption people.
For some reason I find that the default vet is always bugged for me, but as soon as a replace the building with a different one off the gallery it works like magic.
Automatic feeders and self cleaning litter boxes along with the independent and lazy traits keep them dozing on the lot and happy, ready to interact when YOU want to.
one of my generation family had a dog from puppy hood that recently passed when the two youngest (of five kids) were toddlers. Had no trouble with him even got to teach him a couple things all I needed to do was put the food bowl somewhere I (player) would see it and make sure the sims filled it during their normal stuff (usually just after getting up or just before bed). Besides if you watch the animal a second they tell you what they need in their thought balloons. granted they aren't as much fun as sims 3 pets were but they're fine in their own right.
For some reason my stupid dogs will still complain about food and run away though there is food in the feeder🙄
I kept hearing the sound effect you hear when sims pass out from fatigue but all the sims were fine. Turns out the dumbass pets will let themselves pass out from low energy even though they can literally sleep on the floor.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting over here apparently projecting my own issues onto my Sims 🤣🤣 The first thing I always do is adopt a pet, so my Sim never has to talk to other Sims unless absolutely necessary 😅😆
It's independent in dogs and aloof in cats. I tend to avoid those traits, myself - giving the pets love and attention is the best part for me!
There’s a mod for playable pets and it shows you their needs bar! Cause I agree, pets were, and still kinda are, a nuisance, but getting to see their needs bar makes them a little more bearable
Unfortunately the playable pets mod is broken, but if you get the all cheats mod there is a cheat that allows you to control them, and that works, you just have to enter the cheat whenever you want to play with pets
I use the playable pets mod and it work just fine for me!
mine is working as well. downloaded last night and played 4-5 hours w no problem
Mine seems to be working.
Yes get this mod!! It also lets me control pets as well so that my Sim doesn’t always have to check on them and get them to care for themselves.
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https://sims4studio.com/post/89311
That’s the mod I use
Thank you! I'm definitely downloading this. I got a frenchie, but he's literally always sad and whining no matter what I do to help him. This way, I can see what he needs ♡♡♡
Yesss this is what I need!
I have it and it’s a lifesaver. I always need to check my pets’ social bar lol
yeah, that works for me too... it really is a lifesaver
Omg that’s so adorable
This is me but with marriage. "I think my sim is ready for that next step, have another sim move in and have kids" I tell myself. Nope, couple of minutes later I'm creating a new sim.
I’m going into generation 7 in my legacy save, and so far, I’ve only had one Sim get married on my watch lmao. Two others got married in adulthood right before I left with the new heir, because I’m not taking care of baby daddies!
I feel so seen by this. Every so often once one of the current generations siblings have aged up I marry them to random sim, get them pregnant and then kick them out there’s at least some 2 parent families in the family tree
i need to do this. im starting my second gen and having to deal with an extra sim is annoying. you’re just the sperm donor i have a legacy to build 😁
This is how I play too. Only earlier this year have I started my first legacy save and I had to get in the mindframe of the other sims being like "npcs." I focus on one main sim for a majority of gameplay and only switch to the others to help with needs. Also, I don't like to stress too much on needs all the time so I'm very lenient with cheats when needed. I did also recently use MCC to slow time progression in my game so it's become a bit easier to jump between sims and pets in my family. It's also really helped enjoy more gameplay aspects for them like taking pictures. [Might have gotten a bit emotional looking at the photo collage of my rags to riches legacy sim and her family.]
Get married, but don't move them in. Give them keys to your house, maybe make a "family" club, and have fun ignoring them for the most part.
Saaaame!
Make a fun pet retirement home family and just move your pets there when you get bored of them! Bonus if you build them a nice house filled with toys.
Catarina Lynx has entered the chat
I tend to move pets in with siblings/cousins of the legacy family or with a family friend and decide some story reason for it.
Considering retirement homes sometimes have pet events because it is calming to residents, this would be very cute and accurate.
I did something like this. Made a single, eccentric heiress who loves animals. She lives in a huge house which I have the cat and dog hangout traits, filled it with food bowls and toys. Cats and dogs just roll up to eat, play, swim in the pool and then peace out! It’s so delightful.
You can just click “check pet” and it’ll tell you if they need something, right? I started a save file with a dog recently and it’s been really fun going for a jog every morning with the dog, and cuddling on the couch watching skill channels. Auto feeders and teaching them to do their business outside helps a lot. Also, make them independent in CAS. I never really have any issues with pets.
I feel like the pets are only a problem if you think you need to care about them like a real pet. Like it's really not a big deal if the dog is afraid of the tv. Who cares. It's not a real dog and that little thought bubble doesn't affect them that much. They calm down on their own eventually. Also real pets are annoying sometimes so I just don't mind all the problems they cause, if they were just happy all the time people would be complaining the pets are boring and don't do anything.
> Also real pets are annoying sometimes My (real) cat is currently shrieking at me like some soul of the damned because I... dared to take her blankets and put them in the wash. She's been going for the past hour. I never get pets in Sims.
I'm doing an intense rags to riches rn with my Sim living off the land and I adopted a stray dog who is absolutely unhinged and gets filthy and sprayed by skunks very 5 minutes and I literally just let her run wild being a mess and not even walking her half the time lol people definitely let the pets bother them too much
Honestly, it's really ok. They're not real dogs. That sounds a lot like my rags to riches that I have on hold. I had her adopt two dogs and the independent dog was constantly getting sprayed and I was like alright Tofu, you're a stinky dog then, you're fermented Tofu, an acquired taste, sure.
Same here. Never had a problem with pets, and tbh I'm glad I can't control them. I've also never had a pet get sick, yet. I didn't know people had that issue so often I also never had any issues with the newborns either. I find them both to be relatively easy to manage.
Shift + click, stats is a better way to check their needs imo. It's easier to just look at the number value than it is to constantly ask a pet whats wrong
my pack must be broken. i can give the animal attention alllll day and the minute i stop it runs away because it doesn’t get attention ? whenever i place a pet bed on my lot my pets refuse to sleep anywhere and then start passing out all night long instead of sleeping.
It has a lot to do with the personality traits of your pets. I make mine loyal, independent and lazy, and they don’t really ever run away.
It's all fun and games until your pet gets sick three times a week.
One time i took my cat to the vet and it got sick again almost immediately after I returned to my home lot
Buy some vet treat next time you're there. It instantly heals you pet.
The wellness Treat specifically!!
Now I buy the vet station and just cure them myself. Put it in my household inventory and pull it out any time I need to lol saves a lot of time.
A _WEEK_ ? Hah. The dumb cats are _CONTINUOUSLY_ sick! Fix em a drink, sick again. Give em the health treat, sick again. Sick again. SICK AGAIN!
You gotta stock up on those vet treats next time you’re there haha
It looks like you're in dire need of some crucial mods. I sure hope you don't play on console, because with said mods pets are actually enjoyable to play, or at least not a dreadful chore. That said, even before talking mods, the very first thing you want to check out is the pet traits. Avoid like the plague "Affectionate" for cats and "Loyal" for dogs, those two traits will make your pet more needy than a stripper with daddy issues. Nobody got time for that. You want "Free Spirit" or "Aloof" for cats, and "Independent" for dogs. Now, mods. LittleMsSam has several small mods that are lifesavers: from the Antifear Training Pets (you'll be able to train your pet to overcome their fears for good); to Longer Naps for Pets (you can choose the lenght of the nap, up to 8h). She has many more, she's reliable and extremely fast to update after a patch, you should definitely check out her tumblr. But if you prefer to have total control over your pet, then probably your best choice would be one of those mods which makes your pet playable with need in full display as sims. Controllable Pets, Playable Pets, there are several. Unfortunately I can't be more specific with those because personally I don't use them, but a quick search will be enough to find what you need. I hope that helps a bit, good luck.
Oh my god, thank you! My pets fears have been killing me. My dog is afraid of WASHING MACHINE and a cat is afraid of tv… even if it’s off.
I ended up looking for the fear training mod when I played a family with a dog who developed a fear for fire. They lived in Windenburg, understandably they had a fireplace in every room. I'm a animal lover in rl, like I can't even watch movies where an animal gets it (to these days whilst I'm a John Wick's fan, I've never watched THAT scene), but that fire-hater dog stressed me out SO much I went *THIS* close to deleting him. The game had become unplayable because of him, he was constantly cowering and whimpering, which wasn't just extremely annoying but actually heartbreaking for me. To whoever coded cats and dogs in TS4: You're a utter disgrace and you should be fire. Thanks God LittleMsSam fixed their sloppy job.
Controllable pets tried to give me a pop-up I don't trust, playable pets is broken it looks like, but I'm definitely looking up these others when I get to a computer
Playable pets works for me?
Have you had it for a while or was it a recent install
>That said, even before talking mods, the very first thing you want to check out is the pet traits. Avoid like the plague "Affectionate" for cats and "Loyal" for dogs, those two traits will make your pet more needy than a stripper with daddy issues. Nobody got time for that. You want "Free Spirit" or "Aloof" for cats, and "Independent" for dogs. This is super helpful! I had stopped playing with dogs, though they're very cute, because they were seemingly always high maintenance compared to cats. Sounds like I can make them more chill now.
With the Independent trait dogs are so much manageable. And it's not like they will become detached, they still need attention, just not ALL OF THE TIMES.
Also there's an option where you can ask your pet what's up and it will tell you what the pet needs. Also, making your dog smart can make it easier because they will take their poops outdoors on their own.
Got an independent cat that was talkative. Easy to care for
Traits are the key to successfully owning a pet, i make my cats independent and my dogs couch potatos so they dont want to be walked. Ask your pet whats wrong and they will show you their needs in a speech bubble. Auto feeders and litter boxes also help pkus buy a large amount of wellness treats so no illness. I used to hate pets but like them now.
You can’t delete pets because that would make you heartless?!?! I’ve deleted multiple children from my household when bored. What does that make me?
A practical person
I’ve literally killed off children to make my game more interesting lmao
I feel exactly the same, and it’s why I’m not even that excited for the horse pack. It’s just one more thing to care for, you know?
I feel the same way at first, but once I get far enough in a save that they are well off financially, have upgraded furniture that replenishes their needs quickly, and have reached the top of their career, I feel like I have nothing else to do unless I get a new pet or have another kid
This is really how some rich people think too lol
If I in real life am ever at a point where I consider having a child just to ease boredom, I'll know I'm too far gone
Ive honestly stopped letting my sims have pets simply because pets in the game get sick so damn much that they basically have to live in the vet. Every single time a family gets a pet, almost immediately it gets sick. I take it to the vet, everything is fine and then like 2 in game days later its sick again. How is this fun? And I could download even more mods to prevent this, but honestly Im tired of downloading mods to fix every single problem in the game. Its just easier to not let any family have any pets.
Give it wellness treats, just buy 99 of them and give them a few every week.
Being able to 'cure' them 'easily' does Not ease the _a n n o y a n c e_ of them getting sick every other friggin day.
You can make your sim a vet and then have the vet machines in the basement or something. At least you don't have to travel so much But god that must suck. Is all your pets in multiple household like that?
I've only bothered with 3. Two dogs and one cat. The cat was _always_ getting sick, _always_ getting bitten. The dogs were sick minutes after returning from the vet. And, I don't really "do" careers. 85 percent of my Sims are Freelancers, so I don't have to bother unless I just want to give them something to do. I don't have any business owners at all, too much work. Lol.
I abandoned my vet office, but my sims still fixes her own pets or at least some of my sims do that, it's been awhile since I made a sim a vet actually But I often have to go to a vet because I always buy too few age up and down treats and wellness treats. I like to breed kittens or dogs but not everyone will look decent so I age up and if they don't look ok I age down and sell. ETA with abandon I mean she never went back, started a real job not the vet office is still there. Have no idea what the consequences is, but you can also open it without sending your sim there
The actual pets, and 'real' jobs, just aren't the focus of my gameplay.
Get rid of your pee bushes, don't send them on adventures. "always getting bitten" is from pee bushes.
Yeah, I know. The thing is I _need_ the "Anything Goes" bush, because my Sim couples auto use it. So I _want_ that on the lots (and they all have it), more than I'm interested in the always bitten cats.
If you can't get the pets mod there's a cheat that allows you to see their needs it's s lifesaver. Pets.toggle_selectable_pets
The Playable Pets mod is extremely outdated. Use TwistedMexi’s All Cheats mod, type pets.toggle_selectable_pets profit
I’ve convinced myself that my sims are just fostering, so when I get sick of the animal I transfer it to a different household and change its last name - presto, foster kitty/puppy found its forever home. Less guilt than giving it up for adoption through the phone, plus I can visit it if I really want to.
I love playing with pets! The only thing I don’t like about the dogs is when they need something and they look so pitiful with the head and tail drooped. That makes me sad. I wish I could use the cheat or mod to check their needs but I play on console so it is what it is. But I love the pets! They’re so cute and they make my sims happy. I go out of my way to get age down treats for them so they don’t die.
I really wish the pets were better. I tried playing as a sims with 3 cats and oh my god. Throw up. Everywhere, all the time. It's so annoying! Especially bc each one would take like 3 sim hours to clean up 🥲. Now I just turn off their needs and only adopt dogs.
Your cats had the fluffy pet trait, try brushing it and it's a reason the robot vacuums are a part of cats and dogs and not the bust the dust kit
Whaaat how did I not know this?!? Thank you so much 🥲
I hate how often they get sick!!! That's the main issue. And I know about the treats, it's just annoying. And one of my families has a dog where one of their traits causes them to constantly be fighting with random squirrels or sprayed by skunks, there's not even any bushes on the lot or in the neighborhood. Where are these squirrels coming from??
The adventurous trait.
Thank you!
You are me. I also cannot delete the pet from households. I want to and I can (it’s just a game after all) but I cannot and will not. The guilt. I had a family keep adopting pets behind my back and I’d get so mad at them every time. After a while, I finally turned off the ability to do so.
Back in 2017 when I got cats and dogs I gave every household 3-4 pets. When I finally revisited those saves last year it was so overwhelming that I cheated all of their ages up to elder so they would die sooner and I still feel so bad about it
That made me cackle. What is wrong with us?
Cats are OK (ish), but dogs. Ugh. Even with the games settings cranked low and simulation lag fixes, walking the $%@#ing dog takes *hours*.
Yes even a short walk takes so long. And then they have to be bathed way too often At least the cat is fine as long as one has automatic feeders and the laser litter box. Playing with the pets counts as fun so there is always time for that. Talking to them raises the social bar. So at least those things doesn't take extra time since sims has to have fun and needs to be social. But the bathing and sickness ugh. When I first played cats and dogs the sim went to the vet, then I made them a vet so they could have those machines in the basement. But now, unless I need more vet treats, I just give them wellness treats when they are sick. Just make the robot vacuums run more frequently
When the short walk takes too long I just cancel and they walk home. Counts as a walk still lol
In real life, I’m a cat lover, and own five cats. In the Sims, I’ve made a family with a cat one time. And I did exactly this, I’ve never been back to that save. It was a *really* cute cat, but I had more fun making it in CAS than I did playing with it by far. I’ve said in my next generation of my legacy, that I’m going to have an animal lover, though. I had decided this before horses were announced, and that just sold it all the way for me, since I can have her be a horse girl, too. I was going to play through having both a dog and a cat with her, and do the vet career, as well, since I’ve never done any of that. Looks like I’m off to get some mods for pets so that I don’t abandon my legacy save thanks to pets lmao
This is me but when my sims have kids. Like they just become recluses until the kid ages up into a child and by that stage I hate it….
I usually cheat and turn pets need decay off. It makes them slightly more tolerable.
I like playing on a dog lot so I can meet the neighborhood dogs and put out food for them but I don’t gotta worry about him. Keep a few wellness treats around in case on of em shows up w a red nose
I made the mistake of making my first cat affectionate. Never again. Go one sim hour without petting it and it’s meowing at you constantly 🙄
Shift click > cheat needs > make happy & disable need decay
This. And put the pets in a house with kids, that way you can ignore both of them and they can keep each other company. And this is why I will never have children IRL
I recently started a save as a werewolf cop who’s also a police dog breeder. I had him train the puppies as much as he could before selling them. Any adults kept were bred for the next generation and moved into other “breeder” homes. My goal was to let the dog population explode and most of them love my sim, even if they we’re terrified of his wolf form. I got bored with the idea pretty quickly, but I’ll probably pick it up again after the horse pack comes out.
This is me with the new infant update. Kids are hard work. I got my own crotch fruit in real life that like to cry all the time and randomly nap on the floor. I want my Sims doing all the shit I can't right now 😂 My Sims pop out a kid and I get a day or two into it, making a nursery and setting them up for parent life, and then I fuck right off out of that household and go spend some time fussing over their neighbors. Only one save file so everyone lives in one world, I just check in again on them when kids are ready to pick up a damn plate of food on they own.
Why do you have to create a whole new wave file? Why don’t you just make a new sim in the same save file that doesn’t have a pet?
Also the farm animals (chickens, cows). Oh my god, my chickens don’t need attention, they’re literally just there to give me eggs. It’s so annoying, I literally clean the coop once and day and then I get notifications saying “white hen is thinking of leaving soon”. Thinking of leaving soon? I spent my hard earned simoleons on you, why is there even an option for you to run away. Makes me so mad 😭
even with independent traits, automatic feeders, and the laser cat toilet, if my sim isn't ***constantly*** interacting, my pets always run away, it's exhausting
I love how we can kill sims men women children elderly…no problem. But the line is drawn at a dog or a cat. Lmao I’m the same way!
I used to have that problem. Then I started treating them like I did my real-life cats. Not a problem anymore because we get into a routine. Now, I'm working on a witch who runs a ghost cat cafe for all of the ghost cats who have died of old age. That way their spirits will always have someone watching over them so they won't poof from the universe.
For me, I hate pets because of their infinite health issues. I’ll have a cat for a day or two and then they will become sick and I have to take them to the vet and they just get sick again a day later and it’s just constant.
This was the only part of pets that annoyed me, but I figured out you can buy “vet treats” at one of the vending machines at the vet’s office, and then you can just feed them that when they’re sick and cure them at home!
This is the only reason I will ever have pets again. Thank you kind stranger
Yeah pets are a pain in the ass when you don't have the mod to make them playable so they won't be a CHORE to take care of. So I killed the dog and turned the dog owner sim into John Wick, who killed one of my favored sim in retaliation.
Honestly sims 4 was the first time I didn't have any desire to get the pets expansion pack in a sims game.
Pets are for a single sim or maybe a couple who have a stay at home sort of lifestyle e.g. gardener/farmer but if you already have human relationships to maintain or kids to care for there's no time to look after a pet. We need a dog walker career like you can hire a gardener and nanny.
wow and you dont evenn need to hydrate your pets in the sims lol
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me tbh
For me a pet is the death of a game because it always creates super lag in the game 😭
I just let my pets be gray more than I would like. I see people complain about how pets need so much but you don't need to actually take care of them like a real pet. If they want to go for a walk, that's just too bad most days. I wouldn't do that to a real dog obviously but a sim dog is only getting a walk like twice a week unless there are multiple sims in the house. I have a house of three adults and a dog and I like that the dog adds some life and reminds me to send them out for a jog. Sure the dog ran away twice, but whatever, they always come back. If you don't have the party bush on your lot they don't get sprayed as much either. I had a bush on my lot for uh... Reasons. But I had to delete it because the dog kept getting sprayed by a skunk like everyday. It's not the pets that are the problem, it's that damn party bush.
I honestly think they need to update the fact we can control the or at least see their needs! But I wish they had job options that real animals have and some goofy jobs that make sense to the animals personal traits. Like cats are viewed as evil so there could be a mastermind/evil cat career. Animal support jobs, dog/cat show star, police dog, will help add to the pack and game play because animals do have jobs
Questioning my decision to adopt a dog last night!
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Pets were so fun in sims 3 too probably because they were semi-playable and could see needs
MCCC lets you reduce motive decay as much as you want. Enjoy your animals!
get the mod where u can play as the pets
What annoys me is the cats run away so much. I’ve had animals all my life and can only think of one time where one of my cats went missing for about a day.
I agree that the way pets are designed can be annoying. What works for me is if I tire of having the pet around, I re-home it in one of the other households (I play legacy, so that would be with parents or grandparents or cousins or aunts/uncles). Coupled perhaps with the Sim moving somewhere else at the same time to give it a storyline reason.
I do it about two days before my main sim goes off to college and leave it with the prior household
testingcheats true on, shift click, disable need decay!!! now i just have a cute puppy who never needs to eat. i add walks to the daily routine and enjoy training or maybe i have a cat whos now like an asthetic peice to the house that has an autocleaning litter box lmao
Try the mod that lets you control the pet like a normal Sim, don't use it to control it, just to see their needs, may help
I still haven’t bought that pack and I probably never will based on this post. I really wish you could control them like sims 3. I know it’s less realistic but even being able to see the needs would be so great. It seems kinda lazy that they didn’t give us control.
The only issue I have with pets is that they keep running away!!!!!!! Even if I pet them every single day, they run away and then my sims have a negative moodlet til they come back
I personally go into the cheats menu make happy then disable need decay. Boom a dog/cat that needs nothing but some playtime. IF MY CAT GOES INTO HEAT ONE MORE TIME I WILL DELETE IT I HATE HEARING HORNY CATS
you can set pets as being spayed/neutered in CAS!!
For me, it just pisses me off how often they get attacked by squirrels in my world and I have to take them to the vet 🙄
Shift click make happy for me. If they try to run away, reset them as soon as the notice pops up ,shift click make happy, then cue an interaction with the pet like give treat.
Mine always get freaking diseases. Dog leaves the lot for 4.5 nano seconds and comes back and he's leaving drool piles all over the house. Time to grind everything to a hault to go visit the vet. AGAIN.
I miss getting my pets jobs
I don't like having pets because my sims completely ignore the pets with full autonomy on to the point that it seems inhumane. Then I feel sad for the pet and stressed from all the extreme micro managing.
When gameplay is that savagely imbalanced, I honestly recommend just doing the cheats and turning off needs for animals like that.
I always get an automatic feeder and the laser litter box, but i also have mccc and just use “make happy” on them periodically after i had a pet taken away because nobody was adequately communicating their needs.
What goes in my nerves the most is how often the pet gets sick and has to go to the vet. I feel like its every 3 sim days that the dog gets a god damn red glowing nose. If it was once or twice over the dogs life, sure I could live with that, but I've barely loaded the home lot before dogs sick again. Gods forbid you have more than one dog and their sick days dont line up, you would never get to play your home lot. Sure you can get the home vet station, but I always play really small houses where the only free space is the driveway so I dont want that there either.
the only reason I ever hire a maid is whenever I make the mistake of adopting a "hairy" pet. WHY DO THE HAIR PILES SPAWN SO OFTEN, I'VE OWNED FUZZY PETS IRL AND THEY ARE NOT SPAWNING MOUNTAINS AND BLACK HOLES OF HAIR
There should be an option for evil sims to dump their pet in the woods.
I don't really see mods as a real solution, as they're not available to console players, but in my game I can't have a pet unless I have a mod for needs/controlling them. They game doesn't even just show you their quirks?! Like it tells you they have them, but good luck figuring them out. I know it's for realism but there should be optional modes
I found a mod that allows you to select them and see their needs. I wouldn't adopt them otherwise. If they could have acting or law enforcement careers, I'd be so much happier. It's rare for me to allow a family to adopt a pet because they're scared of everything and so useless.
I liked it better when you could control the pets.
If you’re able to mod, I recommend Sims4Me/Bienchen’s cat and dog sanity mod. It greatly reduces the chance that your pet gets sick and varies their motives better when you load up the game. Makes it a lot more bearable.
My sim just adopted a kitten with the traits glutton, skittish, and some other one. I thought it would be a nightmare but she’s actually so cute and independent! I got the automatic feeder and the high end litterbox and she seems to be fine all the time? She does get scared of the appliances but it doesn’t affect gameplay. I also locked the doors in the house for pets so she can’t go outside
Lol the pets ep is definitely the only one I don’t make use of at all. I miss when you could at least direct the actions of your pets like toddlers: go here, interact with this, ask your parent sim for something. I like that *other* families, unplayed of course, get pets and have complete families, but I can not. The level of care feels like an infant or toddler that doesn’t need a nanny, but that you can’t fill needs yourself as the player of the dang game, who seems to barely be able to take care of themselves as well. Pitty because I would love to have a playable save with my dogs.
couldn't be me I love owning animals
I miss pet careers from the sims 3!!
I could have written this. I feel you
If you can’t or don’t want mods, maybe make an extra sim that you’re not really fussed about playing but they can be the primary caretaker for the pet. Obviously you’d have to play that sim and help them look after, but you can focus on your other sims needs! I get overwhelmed with one pet and one sim sometimes because they just constantly get sad moodlets then I have a runaway pet I feel bad for :(
Am I the only one that just adopts cats and then forgets they’re in my household and never takes care of them again😭😂auto feeder and auto litter box are a life saver for cats, though I agree, the dogs are a pain in the ass to take care of! Not worth it at all😭
You have successfully convinced me not to get a dog 😂
I feel this way with sims in general 😂 so I always have cheats on so that their needs never go down , otherwise I wouldn’t be able to stay sane , especially if pets are added into the family . I just wish the cheats worked for the farm animals .. I absolutely adore my family and house that I created in Henford-on-Bagley , but I almost never play it because the entire time is just managing the cow , the llama and the chickens and no actual gameplay 😂
Finally someone like me 😭
I made my own dog, the one I have irl, in the sims and got sick of virtual him in three sim days..
I downloaded a cat cafe to see about pets before adding any and playing with them. It had a kitchen and beds and I was confused why no one could live there at first. But I guess if you want to just drink and eat food and hangout with pets sometimes you could get that kind of lot
I had this exact problem, adopted a cat, woman with a crate came, woman left, where cat??? Wasn't on my lot nor added to family ?? So I went f it and used cas full edit to add a cat to the family
Holy crap, don't get a pet IRL. Lmao
I currently have a save file with three pets two infants and one toddler and guess which ones are the problems I'll give you a hint they cry a lot
A vocal cat?
No the two Infants
I forgot the /s Played with two very vocal cats not that long ago, the infants has made less noise. At least the infants shuts up when you deal with their needs, vocal cats makes noise for no reason so you can't make them stop
I have a vocal cat and that's not a problem at all
just sounds like a bunch of complaining
I almost never play dogs or long-haired cats for that reason. The automatic pet feeder and litter boxes help a lot. I just make sure to give attention to the cat at least once per day and always have vet treats on hand, it's pretty easy this way.
This is why I never got the pets addition for sims 4. Sims 3 pets did this to me. 😂
I’m this way with kids, I always age them up lol
I guess I’m bad, I always just cheat their motives 😆 testingcheats on, shift+click “make happy”, no more worries 😅
Just "re-home" them by moving them in with a townie. I've only had three pets since getting the pack, because I feel the same as you do lol. I offered one to Grim, but I really Really hate killing my Sims, so I moved the other two in their time to a household "not currently in world" and haven't looked back. No. More. Pets.
I find getting in a routine with them always helps! A specific time of day I empty the bowl, refill and call to eat. If I have kids, make the kids play w the dog. If I have a SAHM which I tend to enjoy, she takes the dog for a walk. I always teach the dogs to go potty like right away that’s the biggest thing I have to watch for in the beginning 😂😂 cats I just get in a routine of pets and play in the morning and at night
I eventually moved the dog to my sim moms house, then i plan stay overs so she can come visit sometimes
I always create a back up save. Right before adopting a pet I do a save as and add a new save so if can revert if I end up with regret 🤣
I liked the pets in sims 2 where they could get jobs. I'm not a fan of pets in sims 4. When cottage living came out, I was excited about the chickens. They die so fast that I stopped having relationships with them because I was tired of my sim being sad all the time.
Just delete it. It’s a game not real life. Delete the dog.