I like to randomizing almost most thins for my households and that includes pets. How big lot they get depends on what type of a sims, but generally: the wealthier family, the bigger the lot. This can be rather challenging if you have a poor family with several pets, and who lives on tiny to small lots. I use CC 1x2 and 2x2 mainly for sims from the lower range of hierarchy and allow pets for any family. One or two pets on a tiny lot may not be a big deal, but if you have a pet "couple" and breeding them like more than 3 pets of cats and dogs,


Particular their sleeping needs. I do use cheats that affecting filling the food and cleaning the bowls and usually lock some of the doors for the pets, but that doesn't necessary effect the lot size. While 1x2 can be big to decorate when you use move-objects on the roads, how fun is it play with your pets on the road where the cars are? For me personally, the actual social/living areas are the most important so even in a 2x2-2x3 lots, I get little place for the garden, with and without pets.

EDIT: Referring items to the pets ONLY.

Dogs will sleep on the ground/floor if no bed is available, so I'm not sure there actually is a "minimum" there. Will cats do the same? I know they will irl, but apparently I haven't really played with pets (particularly cats) enough in TS2 to remember!

minimum number of objects; to me, enough for each household member to fulfill any Need at any time.
and when visitors are expected; enough for each potential guest be added.

Yeah, cats can also sleep on the floor. And on sofas, and beds (someone here on MTS has a mod to allow pets to sleep on a bed with a child in it). And cats will also sleep on the scratch tower thing. If I was cramped on space I would cut down on sleep locations. If there isn't enough rooms, then pets will make due with using sim furniture so the furniture they do have can have double purposes. If they had cats I would have one scratch tower, and then they can fend for themselves sleep-wise. I'd also make use of the smaller pet beds, the ones with one-tile options for small dogs, cats and puppies/kittens, if I really want them to have pet beds.

I usually have one food bowl per pet, because I think they run out too quickly and I don't want my pets to starve just because I can't be bothered to fill the bowl twice a day. So in a cramped situation, I rather skimp on the sleeping options and make sure they still get one bowl each. If there are dogs, I'd try to fit in one chew bone each, or at have at least three on the lot, so they don't go breaking furniture just because there is no free bone. And no litter box for the cat, because when they are housebroken they will pee outside if there isn't one.

In summary, one scratch tower for cats, one bone per dog or three per lot, one bowl per pet, and that's it, essential-wise.

I only buy pet beds if I have space; they don't need them. Especially with Mog's lovely kids and pets share bed mod!

A food bowl - some designs look fine outside, especially CC ones. ATS has a bucket which fills with scraps.

They do need some way to discharge their scratch/chew urge. I made an invisible recolour of the scratching post which I like to hide inside a tree for my cats. There are also invisible/newspaper objects to replace the cat tray, I use these, because I think cats should pee outside anyway. (Newspaper is ATS, she has a street animal set).

If you do have a tile free, the cat tree is a scratching post and bed all in one.

The dog only bath is a nice extra to add outside, because normally small bathrooms are too small to wash dogs, but I think a random bath outside looks silly. So I use this metal tub, sims can't use it, but they can wash dogs there.

http://sims2.aroundthesims3.com/objects/pets.html

No matter how small the lot, a cat needs a litter tray, a bowl and a toy. The cat I had on a 1 by 1 even had a one tile pet bed, but I use a lot of 1 tile cc on tiny lots. I think I had the bowl and toy under the open stairs and the basket in a nook at the top of the stairs. The tray was outside. Dogs need a bone and a bowl and either a bathtub or a cc puddle/sprinkler. A lot of my pets sleep on sims beds.

Well, it seems like only one cat (or dog) can use the item at the time, three items suddenly adds up if you have two adult cats and a litter though .... or more. (But that's max usually for me, They only breed once if its a male and dog).

I use the invisible one tile beds layered on a bigger bed from Sim wardrobe but that only useful for cats and puppies. One of families has three large dogs and a cat currently and eventually will have puppies. This family does live in a slightly bigger lot 2x3 and I plan to take use of bunk beds for same sex siblings. This family is a full eight of sims, but two will move out next season so Im consider waiting until then for the puppies.

I would not breed on a 1 by 1 lot, the sims do enough of that themselves. If I wanted to breed I would use at least a 1 by 2 but preferably a 2 by 2. In my hoods a 2 by 2 looks large.

Since we are on the topic of tiny lots, can someone point me to a good tiny lots download that is compatible with all the EPs/SPs up to Apartment Life?
Edited to add: I'm not looking for houses, just the empty 1x2 and 2x2 lots.

If you use moveobjects you can layer the solid pet bowls on top of each other facing different directions, allowing two (or three) pets to eat at once. Then use blender > fill all pet bowls cheat or simply direct a sim to clean and fill one, and while he picks it up to clean, quickly click on the second one to clean and fill that. The plain silver one doesn't result in clipping. The ones with pictures on the sides will look strange. The invisible pet bed to cram several babies in together is also a must! I mean, even if you didn't need to do it for the space reasons, do it for the adorable pictures!

@SIMelissa Sunny Side lots http://modthesims.info/d/251798 When you have all EP's and SP's any lot is compatible from base game right on up.

She doesn't have all EPs and SPs though, if she has up to AL that means she's missing M&G, which is both an EP and an SP. So unless I've missed something and M&G does not change save format, she can't use lots that require M&G

If one does not have room for an indoor bathtub, bienchens dog toothbrush chew toy can help - found here. I would personally find an outdoor tub weird, no matter how it looks, so if I really didn't have room for an indoor tub I would rather use that one for dogs hygiene. It's a custom bone that looks like the green toothbrush-shaped dog treat that exists in real life, which when chewed cleans the dogs teeth a bit, so bienchen set it to raise hygiene.

Thanks, Jo. I saw the ones by MaryAnn (right name?) that were dated 2006 and was not sure if they'd work..

Actually, gummilutt, I do have M&G. Mine came on the Fun With Pets disc. Most of my EPs and SPs are compilation packs. I always think of Apartment Life as the last one since that is always the last disc I install. Sorry for the confusion.

I don't like having bathtubs outside either, even if they are set so that only dogs can use them, but I quite like the look of Vanilla_Love's dogs-only bathtub (TSR link!) (though it wouldn't work for a historical 'hood because of the hosepipe, unless someone recoloured it to look like brownish leather or something, perhaps).

Those lots are BG compatible anyway so everyone is good to go with them. I've used them forever because they give you access to lot sizes you don't normally have (without having to fiddle with the Lot Adjuster - which was used to make them BTW).