Taking care of a cow plant

They'll live off of the food your sims give them.
The important thing to note is if they actually eat. Sometimes they'll just sniff the food and shake their head, and the sim puts the food away, in which case they didn't eat.

That's the only thing I can think of though...Not sure why else they'd be dying so fast if they are actually eating.

I know if they stick their cake tongue out it means that are really hungry. If they are still hungry do they still shake their heads? I was assuming that shaking their heads meant they weren't hungry anymore.

Yes shaking their head means they don't want to eat.
I usually fed them before they stuck their tongue out to be safe. I know the tongue means they're hungry and they'll definitely eat, but I'm not sure of the exact period of time between sticking out their tongue and death

I guess the best thing to do would be to check if they'll eat at least twice a day that way they won't starve for sure. It's a lot of maintenance, but I'm not sure why they'd die otherwise.

I was only feeding them once a day. So maybe I should try for twice a day. And keep more of an eye out on them. Too bad we can't name them.

This happened to my Cowplant, I really didn't mean for it to die! :'(

Err it cute off my post

Cow plants are interesting creatures, that can survive the first 24 hours after feeling. You can tell when cow plants are hungry because there are 3 phases of the cake tongue. If it is not out not hungry. If it is barely sticking out it will eat if fed, but not hungry enough for Sims. If the tongue is sticking far out it is really hungry.

I let mine die because my sims seem to like the cake, they kept running out to eat it.

My Sim would always feed b4 bed and b4 work and when he came home from work the plant would be dead. That happened 5 different times and yes when my sim was home he would play with it and feed it several times while home.

I sorta rotate feedings around the house and I have about 6? in the house I play in. Only cowplants that seem to be planted on a certain corner of my house tend to die out while the other few are troopers and seem to stay alive since I've planted them for a while. (2 of them are fairly new, though.)

They can die by overfeeding if I remember right. There was a thread where simmers mentioned cowplant behavior somewhere...
They usually eat twice a day, and someone mentioned they would stick out a cake whenever you have visitors, too. So it'd be best if they had some sort of reliant schedule. They also don't usually eat the sims that feed them. (Or digest?)
They also won't digest sims that have a green bladder, so if you're worried about your sims dying from them, you can always make sure their hunger doesn't drop too low.

I'm not sure what would increase the duration of them being alive, but I can play my house sometime to see how long it takes a new cowplant to live since mine seem pretty hardy these days lol

if you hire a gardener will they tend to the cowplant? I know when I had a cowplant I just waited till I saw the cake to feed him, but I forgot him one day and then when I was like 'I should check---oh.. R.I.P.'

Quoted from Carl's Sims 4 Guide, hope it helps:
"If a Cow Plant is growing hungry, which happens after about 12 hours of not being fed, it will offer up cake. If the cow plant isn't fed after about 8-10 hours of this happening, it will die, leaving behind a rather cool-looking skeleton."

I play rotationally and when I leave a household I put the cowplant in the family inventory, just in case. I think unlike other plants they can die when they are left in inactive households.