I'm not sure why, but my cats and dogs won't eat until it's almost to late. They have food in their bowls and yet they don't eat it. Once their hunger gauge gets in the red they finally get desperate enough to eat out of their bowls. They even go so far as begging from sims who are eating or begging for treats before they will eat their food. They even eat food left on the counters. I'm starting to think my animals just don't like their pet food. Lol

Sounds like your pets are trained to eat sim food - which also means they won't eat pet food. Praise them when they eat pet food, and scold them when they eat sim food, to reverse the effect.

I though maybe it was a learned behavior, I just though it was weird because they do this as soon as I get them. Looks like I have some training to do. Thanks. ^_^

Pets do come pre-trained if you adopt them, iirc, but not if you get them from the pet shop.

There's a tab you can check to see what a pet's learned behaviours are.

I haven't paid real close attention, but it seems most, if not all strays are neutral on the learned behaviours. Some know some tricks, but those are different.

FYI, the Critturs (the playable dog "family" in the bin) are trained to be sim-food eaters.

ETA: Doesn't sound like this is part of the problem you're having, since your pets do eventually eat from the bowl, but just so you know, they can't eat from a bowl if the "front" is inaccessible. Annoying, but true. If a sim puts the bowl down facing the "wrong" direction after cleaning and refilling it, pets won't be able to access it.

I'm still having the problem even though this one dog has learned to eat pet food. I always make sure that the bowl is facing the right why too. They do eventually eat, it's just that they wait until the gauge is red. Then i think the only reason they do eat is because the hunger deprivation makes them eat. Oh well, I haven't had one die on me yet. >.<;

Perhaps your free will is set too low/off?