History Main / ForgotToFeedTheMonster

SubTrope of LethalNegligence. Compare ItWorksBetterWithBullets, ForWantOfANail, and SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome. Contrast InfiniteSupplies, OffscreenVillainDarkMatter, PerpetualMotionMonster. A good source of MookDepletion. A subtrope and subversion of CrazyPrepared.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

* Invoked by Ramsay Bolton and his attack dogs in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', since starving them will make them more desperate and therefore more violent and ravenous when they're unleashed. [[spoiler:This ends up literally biting him in the ass when he's defeated and gets his own dogs sicked on him; he says they're loyal and won't harm him, but since they're starving, said loyalty takes a backseat to their hunger.]]

* Defied in the miniseries ''ComicBook/ThessalyWitchForHire''. The title witch is revealed to have captured or enslaved several monsters over the centuries. When her would-be suitor Fetch accidentally makes her a target for a seemingly invulnerable beast, she decides to let most of these monsters go because she doesn't expect to survive her encounter with the beast, and thinks it would be cruel to let her assorted captives die.
* In one ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' story arc, the hero ends up in an old mansion [[DeathTrap converted into a gigantic house of DEATH]]. At one point, he gets thrown into a tube and ends up in a pool... which, due to lack of maintenance, features a half-empty base, and a suffocating shark.

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': One story has Asterix and Obelix thrown to wild beasts, who've been starved for a few days to make them nice and vicious. They take so long in actually getting on scene, however, that the only animal visible is a happy-looking lion with a ''very'' distended belly.

* [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse A Donald Duck comic]] has him team up with a [[RetiredBadass retired]] [[TuxedoAndMartini super spy]] in order to stop his old nemesis from returning. They eventually end up captured by said nemesis and are dropped into a SharkPool which turns out to contain nothing but bones. Leaving your ElaborateUndergroundBase unattended for 20 years tend to cause such issues.

* In [[http://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/06/13 this]] strip, ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' attempts to have a singing and dancing mouse that he's been training for four years perform for the reader, only to discover he forgot to cut air holes in the mouse's box.

* Overlaps with BuriedAlive in [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Poe's]] short story "The Premature Burial"

* In a variant, one of the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' tie-in novels had an ancient (and slightly senile) wizard summon up a vicious unnatural horror he remembered from his youth -- only to get a heap of dusty bones. This prompted him to think something along the lines of "Has it really been so long?"

* In the first book of the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' Han and Chewie are thrown in a cage on Kessel with a massive, rotting Rancor corpse. The crime lord who owned it then reminisces about the entertainment it provided before one of his minions forgot to feed it.

* Any time GOB performs an illusion involving animals in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''

* One woman on an episode of ''Series/FatalAttractions2010'' was attacked by her pet tigers because she could no longer afford to feed all of them and had to resort to scrounging for roadkill.
* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Howard is preparing to do a magic show when he finds an old trick in his closet involving a metal tin and a live dove. When he opens the tin, feathers fly out and the sight makes him retch.

* As of 2012, herbivorous animals in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' need to graze in a pasture, or they will starve to death. The mechanics of this are still pretty wonky, and several larger animals literally cannot eat fast enough to keep from starving. So much for your army of war elephants.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the captain's cabin on the Normandy 2 features a huge aquarium that you can fill with fish. And if you forget to feed them between missions, you'll be refilling it with fish, over and over and over again.
** This problem is cured in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', wherein you're able to purchase an automatic fish feeder for your aquarium.
** Back in 2, [[BridgeBunnies Kelly Chambers]] will do it for you if you ask nicely.
* [[{{Superboss}} Bonetail]] of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is a subversion, in that despite being reduced to a fossilized skeleton after a millennium of neglect, he is still an undead beast and the most powerful enemy in the game.
* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', Grimskull, the master of a sadistically devious labyrinth filled with evil instakill traps, has a VillainousBreakdown upon finding out that Raxgore, the unstoppable juggernaut he intended to send after you, has starved to death due to not having been fed in ten years, and that all the necromancers that could have raised him as undead had been eaten by Binky, his man-eating unicorn and one of the most brutal bosses you will likely face.
* During the Ardolis Pirate Trials in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'', one stage has the titular duo face a Grunthor named Snoojax... as a skeleton. The pirate hosting the trials then admits that the stage is "out of order".
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV''. According to legend, King Aquila decreed that no Samurai may enter the Land of the Unclean Ones, and had a powerful demon guard the way. Since this was almost 1500 years ago, when the party enters the demon's chambers and sees nothing, Walter suggests that it wasted away. Cue WakeUpCallBoss.

* O tries to invoke this in a ''Commissioned'' strip, to deal with a player who keeps his familiar in a sack and never makes any reference to it except when it's currently useful. He's talked down to the familiar having just run away due to neglect.

* ''Webcomic/DarkLegacyComics'': TheDitz tries to keep a turkey safe just before thanksgiving, [[http://www.darklegacycomics.com/314 so he builds a wall around it and guards it for a week.]]
-->'''Krom:''' Dude, you know you have to like, feed those things, right?

* Inverted in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', where failure to [[spoiler:give Satan's feline offspring milk]] on a daily basis results in them becoming extremely dangerous, and they're otherwise docile. The entire plot of the first [[spoiler:K I T T E N]] all started because one of their caretakers switched from the real deal to a soy-based substitute; the sequel involved a government conspiracy depriving the town of [[spoiler:milk]] so they could reproduce the conditions of two years ago.
* In one story arc, Webcomic/BrunoTheBandit is planning to kidnap a girl for ransom and begins to reflect on the first time he tried something like that only to come to a sudden realization. Cut to them in the attic observing the BoundAndGagged skeleton of Bruno's first ransom attempt.
* In ''{{Webcomic/Drowtales}}'', Kiel'ndia has been feeding her friend Naal'suul, who [[DemonicPossession succumbed to her demonic taint]] earlier in the story, for years in her hiding place under their old school. When she runs off to another city for a few chapters she gets back and [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=10464 realizes]] Naal hasn't eaten in days, so she promptly heads back to fix this. When she gets there [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=10582 Naal attacks her]] and then goes on a rampage. Ironically, this ultimately [[spoiler:saves Kiel and possibly the entire world, as it results in Naal being present when Kiel's "Big sister" [[HumanoidAbomination Kharla'ggen]] loses control after she's forcibly merged with a Demon God and is this close to mind-controlling Kiel too before Naal jumps in to try and eat Kharla, ultimately leading to both her and Kharla's demise]].
* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'': If you fail to pay the upkeep, the unit disappears, and the leader is normally given a psychic indicator that their forces have decreased from starvation. If the leader doesn't get such an update, then that's usually due to "Carnymancer" trickery and the ignored death is intentionally orchestrated.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' had Woody Johnson trying to come up with ideas to keep the new Secretary Of the Interior from firing him, and tries to summon a group of [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Oompa Loompas]] to help him.
-->'''Woody:''' ''[plays a flute; nothing happens] WHERE THE HELL ARE THEM OOMPA LOOMPAS?!''\\
''[cut to the Loompas rotting remains in a cage]''\\
'''Woody:''' ''GODDAMNIT'', forgot to feed them!
* ''WesternAnimation/RightNowKapow'' plays this for laughs in a single sketch. The Villain has captured the heroes and hung them over a giant tank filled with sharks that he starved just for the occasion. The silhouette of a shark appears in the water but quickly sinks to the bottom of the tank along with several others indicating their death and prompting one of the captive heroes to ask how long it has been since the sharks were fed.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales|2017}}'': In "From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!", a flashback to the 60's had Scrooge and Mrs. Beakley explore a booby trapped island, which included a pool full of piranhas. In the present, Scrooge and Webby go to the island, and they find that the piranha have all died. Scrooge complained that having to wade through a pool of dead piranhas was even worse than when they were alive.

Compare ItWorksBetterWithBullets, ForWantOfANail, and SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome. Contrast InfiniteSupplies, OffscreenVillainDarkMatter, PerpetualMotionMonster. A good source of MookDepletion. A subtrope and subversion of CrazyPrepared.

* [[{{Superboss}} Bonetail]] of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is a subversion, in that despite being reduced to a fossilized skeleton after a millenium of neglect, he is still an undead beast and the most powerful enemy in the game.

* [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP]]-[[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-4290 4290]] is an EldritchAbomination [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by a succession of [[AdvancedAncientHumans precursor civilizations]] and after ten thousand years, the mystical barriers are failing. [[spoiler:When they finally break all the way, it turns out that SCP-4290 starved to death approximitly nine thousand years ago]].

* [[BonusBoss Bonetail]] of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is a subversion, in that despite being reduced to a fossilized skeleton after a millenium of neglect, he is still an undead beast and the most powerful enemy in the game.

* [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP]]-[[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-4290 4290]] is an EldritchAbomination [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by a succession of [[AdvancedAncientHumans precursor civilizations]] and after ten thousand years, the mystical barriers are failing. [[spoiler:When they finally break all the way, it turns out that SCP-4290 starved to death approximitly nine thousand years ago]].

* [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse A Donald Duck comic]] has him teaming up with a [[RetiredBadass retired]] [[TuxedoAndMartini super spy]] and stopping his old nemesis from returning. They then end up captured by said nemesis and are dropped into a SharkPool which turns out to contain nothing but bones. Leaving your ElaborateUndergroundBase unattended for 20 years tend to cause such issues.

* During the Ardolis Pirate Trails in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'', one stage has the titular duo face a Grunthor named Snoojax... as a skeleton. The pirate hosting the trails then admits that the stage is "out of order".