Livestock Feed Dispenser: Setup and Troubleshooting

A feeder stores calories, not intact food

Load the dispenser, use its blending action, and inspect the stored calorie total. Food disappearing from the input grid is expected when it has become calories; it is not enough on its own to establish that the animals were fed.

The dispenser belongs with the animals it serves. A direct August Steam discussion reports putting it inside the cage and opening it to process the food. That is historical playtest testimony. The current Wikily feeder reference describes the same placement and calorie-storage system.

Set up one observable feeding cycle

1. Put the dispenser into the cage containing the rats.
2. Load suitable ordinary food into its input storage.
3. Use Blend and check that the calorie reserve increases.
4. Review its hunger target and automatic-blending setting.
5. Sleep, then compare both stored calories and animal hunger.

Change one thing at a time when diagnosing a failure. If you move the feeder, change the feed and add more rats at once, the next morning gives you little evidence about which change mattered.

Food suitability matters

Wikily lists Gutterflow Pellets and Industrial Fish Feed as fish-only inputs: rats do not draw those calories. It also notes that Peat is usable as dispenser calories even though rats do not eat it loose. Read the actual feed category rather than assuming every calorie-containing object works for every animal.

The same reference describes separate stored calorie groups for rat meat, other meat, other food and fish feed. Rat meat creates a prion hazard for rats. NPC Tips' release guide advises clearing a contaminated reserve with Empty. Do not expect adding safe food to remove the suspect calories already present.

What the settings change

The reference lists a target-hunger slider and Auto Blend, initially off. Auto Blend controls whether stored inputs are processed at night; a loaded input grid and an available calorie reserve are different states. Inspect both before concluding that the machine failed.

This feeder is listed as using no power. Buying another Energy Cell is therefore not the first response to an empty reserve or hungry rats. Check its location, food category, processing state and target first.

Avoid accidental livestock processing

The dispenser can blend animals and fish as inputs as well as food. Keep valuable breeders out of its processing grid and confirm the contents before blending. Housing animals in the same cage is different from placing them inside the dispenser's input storage.

Once one cycle works, keep a reserve for the colony you already have. Expand only when you understand how quickly that reserve falls and where the replacement feed will come from.