I got a pet cat as a kitten, but when it changed age, both the hunger and energy went into red and the cat will now only eat when it is given a treat. There is food in the bowl, but when sims go to bed, a message pops up that the cat is starving.
I have seen a similar post before but it only said that the cat needs to be trained to eat. That option doesn't come up.
I have even hired an obedience trainer and that did nothing.
Is there a way to get the cat to eat without moving in and out of the house? (I did this before and it solved the problem)

Several things you night want to try, first type in the cheat box boolprop ControlPets on so that you can control the cat, me I put this cheat in my userStartup.cheat file which goes in the Config folder inside The Sims 2 folder. This way I can always control my pets.

Once you can control the cat, see if you can make the cat eat. It is possible that there is no option to eat at the pet bowl, so try deleting the old pet bowl and buying a new one and then filling that one with food. Now see if you can get the cat to eat.

Another thing you can do is while you have the cat selected change to the cat and look to see what the learned behaviors are, maybe the cat wants to eat Sim food. If that is the case you can train them to eat pet food by discouraging them from eating Sim food or just cheat and use boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true and Spawn the Learned Behaviors Cheat Object or Buy the Learned Behaviours Cheat Object....I think it is buy Numenor. Then when you have the Learned Behaviours Cheat Object, with controlpets on switch to the cat and make the Cat Maximum toward eating Pet food.

I hope that this helps.

I know that I get a glitched pet bowl frequently and I fix it by deleting the old bowl and buying a new one and then refilling it and it takes care of the problem, so hopefully that is what is wrong in your game.

The first thing to check, always, is whether the food bowl is actually accessible. Sims have a tendency to put it down facing the wrong way, with the accessible side against the wall or otherwise blocked. Make sure the arrow is pointing at an open square.

Some cats will not eat out of the cheap pet bowl. Buy the most expensive one and see if she will deign to eat from it.

If the cat has learned to eat sim food, put a dish on the floor. When the cat eats, scold her. If she ever sticks her head into a pet dish, drop everything and run to praise her. After that it won't take long to train her.

Cats can eat fish that's on the ground. When I had a finicky cat starving while her hoomin was at work, I would take fish out of his inventory for her. But a fish that will feed six sims to satiety will only half-fill a cat. Better to teach her to eat pet food, or give in and give her sim food.

Pets can also eat flowers, so in a pinch make sure there are some flowers in the garden that she can reach as well.

another possibility might be that something is blocking the cat's bowl.

there is a hack with a name similar to stuck object remover. I think at the moreawesomethanyou site.
placing that hack on the adjacent squares might help.

I've had this with a dog before - look at your cat's traits: is one of them 'eats pet food' or is it 'eats sim food'? If it's the latter, you can feed the cat in an emergency by having a sim serve a meal and then put a plate on the floor. The cat will eat, and then you should scold it for eating sim food so that the 'eats pet food' trait will increase.

It's a pain in the rear though.

Edit: Peni got there first! Yes - that's how you train the cat to eat the right food. (Also seconding the tip about the bowls!)

If you're having problems with the food bowl rotating so it's unusable, you might want to try the automatic pet feeder extracted from Pet Stories. It's available at at the following site (ps_autopetfood.zip). The feeder can't rotate around the wrong way (it will always stay facing the direction you placed it) and will save your sims some money by lasting much longer between refills.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/f...p?dir=psconv%2F

I've had multiple pets that will not eat from a food bowl that is placed in the middle of the room; as soon as I've put the bowl up against a wall, they've started eating again. This has happened far too many times to be random chance, so if you've put the bowl in the middle of the room to avoid the accessibility issues, try putting it against a wall, making sure it's facing outwards.

I also find the medium-priced bowl to be the most popular with cats - prissy ones won't eat from cheap bowls, but quite a few cats of all persuasions won't eat from the expensive one either!

Maxis do so love their little complications!

What you describe sounds like a finicky pet bug. Luckily there's a fix on SimManipulator by Aaroneous .