- All animals in this universe seem to be sentient, even insects and octopi, and understanding each other.
Dolittle locked his estate for 7 years and likely didn't get any food supplies from outside world.This means he had to get meat for his carnivore friends.Yoshi could live on fish from local pond, Jip could adapt to fish-based diet as many real life dogs, and from aquarium scene we learn that speech of aquatic animals cannot be heard in air. So nobody cares about fish screaming in agony.But among Dolittle's animals there is a several months old lion cub that obviously couldn't arrive before isolation. Its parents are nowhere to be seen, but were definitely there for 7 years until cub's birth. Lions in captivity cannot eat only fish. So this means Dolittle needed meat for a pair of lions for all those years. And he got it from talking livestock. Did he slaughter or euthanized them? Or led them away in the field where lions are hiding, one by one?There are also animals that need to eat (talking) insects - sugar glider and capuchin monkeys.Maybe this cub is just
Not Allowed to Grow Up.
- A limited supply of meat acquired before Lily's death could be stored in ice house, but not for a long time.
- It’s possible that before locking his estate Dolittle did have just enough meat stored (which could have been dried) for two Adult lions (or he made arrangements for meat to be delivered and left at the gates) and the cub’s mother became pregnant and gave birth around 5 months before the events of the film. It could also be that the parent(s) are somewhere else in Dolittle’s estate which is why they are never seen or they had passed away.
