Vacationing and Cow Plants

Pamhamlet

If I take my family on vacation to Granite Falls for several days, will their cow plant back home die if he is not fed? I don't want my Sims to come home to a skeleton in the backyard! (Not yet, anyway. Heh)

luv2play

I don't have a cow plant but when I go to Granite falls for a sim week and come back my plants and trees are just fine

Pamhamlet

Thank you for replying. I just wondered whether that has happened to anyone here yet, so I could be forewarned!

luv2play

yw, sorry I couldn't give you a definite answer but my guess is that it would be the same as with regular garden plants

catloverplayer

I'm wondering the same.

AnnLee87

I always keep my cow plants in the household inventory. My Sims and I forget to feed them. They are happily inventoried until I need them or have time to care for them.

allisoneg02

My sim has one and they went on a 2 day vacation, came home and he was still alive! I think your home lot is sort of "paused" while vacationing.

Pamhamlet

Oh, okay, thank you everyone for your input, that helps!

pepperjax1230

I had one and it died like a couple days after they returned from camping.

Simberella777

Cow Plants work the same as all your other plants when you go on vacation. They are put on ‘pause’ while you are gone and are in the exact same state when you return as they were when you left them.

Cow Plants can eat every 12 hours after the last time they were fed but only if a Sim triggers them to throw out a cake. If a Sim doesn’t walk by to trigger them, they can go up to 32 hours (that’s the longest I’ve seen so far) before wanting to eat again. My own Sim (I play a single Sim) cannot trigger his Cow Plant to throw out a cake. Apparently, they do not care to eat the hand that feeds them?

Once when my Sim wanted to go on vacation, it had been way more than 24 hours since the Cow Plant had been fed. Since he didn’t know ‘when’ this plant would get hungry, he called and invited a Sim to come over (no, not to eat them!). It worked. As soon as the other Sim stepped on the property, out came the cake! My Sim fed him, said good-bye to the invited Sim, and shortly thereafter went on vacation!

I’ve since learned that all you have to do is check him right before you leave. If he is contentedly bouncing away and happy as a clam (mouth shut), he will still be that way upon your return. Other Sims don’t even come by to entice the Cow Plant when your household is gone. All activity stops.

The only thing I think that may possibly be a problem is I’ve heard you only have a 10 minute window to feed him once the cake comes out? If you don’t notice he has been trying to notify you for awhile before you leave and you don’t check on him for awhile after you return … then yeah, you might not get to him soon enough.

Also, suppose you go on vacation well after his 12 hour trigger point. Even though he is contented when you leave, you return and immediately a neighbor comes over to welcome you home! Guess what? Your Cow Plant will also happily greet this neighbor! If you don’t notice this and converse with this friend for a half-hour, you may find once you turn around and look, you have a new skeleton decoration in your yard!

I’ve never played a family household with a Cow Plant. I don’t know how they work with other family members around. Do kids entice (tease, torment) them? Kids are known to do weird things like that you know. If so, it might change things a little bit. Anyone know?

Haylzies

I had not even considered the plants! Good to hear they 'pause' while you're away.

vampirekim

I got my first cow plant seed today and was so excited I planted him right away, forgetting that I was going to send the family away to Granite Falls for the weekend. Very happy to find this post and to know that the little cow seedling will be ok when they return

Pamhamlet

Mine has since died of hunger (nothing to do with camping). I was sad--I guess I never noticed the dangling cake. I can't remember if the cowplant moos when it's hungry or just sticks out the cake. I think it should moo loudly--the better to be noticed. Lol! Otherwise, it's off to find another cowplant berry!

tanzy2

That's great information about cow plants! It might explain why I had so much trouble keeping one alive for my astronaut sim. Her house was on the corner lot right up next to one of the neighborhood fishing spots. So people coming in/out of the neighborhood or to go fishing kept triggering stuff. I'd constantly get whims to chat with people fishing behind her house, sometimes she'd even run out behind her house to say hello. I'd be like, where are you going, why are you running out of your house?! Oh, there's someone fishing...

And that cowplant, every time I turned around, it had that cake out. I've haven't had problems with previous households keeping cowplants alive, but her's died after 3 or 4 days if I remember correctly.

CimmyNyx

I didn't consider putting my cowplant into my Sims inventory until reading this. Thank you!

TheLibrarySim

My cowplant has always been fine while my Sim is away vacationing.
Putting the cowplant into the inventory is brilliant, @AnnLee87 Smucky planted a cowplant in Granite Falls, but she didn't get the credit for "grow a cowplant" in the Botanist aspiration. Maybe if she brings it back home it might register.
My problem is that no one will try to take the cake! I've never had a single Sim get eaten by a cowplant.

SilentKitty

TheLibrarySim wrote: »

My cowplant has always been fine while my Sim is away vacationing.
Putting the cowplant into the inventory is brilliant, @AnnLee87 Smucky planted a cowplant in Granite Falls, but she didn't get the credit for "grow a cowplant" in the Botanist aspiration. Maybe if she brings it back home it might register.
My problem is that no one will try to take the cake! I've never had a single Sim get eaten by a cowplant.

I managed it once, the sim in question was inside the fenced box with the cowplant. It took some time but eventually it ate the sim.

Fences help with so many things.