Why is my Food Advisor telling me my "Catnip supply is too low"?

Question

My food advisor randomly tells me my catnip supply is too low.

Food advisor: 'Your catnip supply is too low!'

At first I thought it was telling me that my production wasn't enough to feed my cats for the winter, but I see it appearing and disappearing on its own sometimes without me doing anything. Also I don't think it's strictly winter related, since it will sometimes appear after I purchase something but go away a short time later before winter starts, with no interference from me.

What exactly triggers this warning, and what is it supposed to mean?

For example:

I currently have 3720 catnip, 8 cats, and am gaining 3.10/sec. Despite running a surplus, my advisor is warning me my catnip supply is low.

Base 7.25
Season 0%
Demand -6.63

If I add one farmer, I jump to gaining 14.4/sec, and my food advisor goes away.

Base 7.25
Season 0%
Job Output +1.26
Demand -6.63

(I know these numbers don't add up, I'm sure there's modifiers affecting this somewhere)

It also went away on its own once I reached around 4800 catnip (this was summer day 89)

Answer 1

It's an estimate based off a "normal" winter (-75% catnip production). The script calculates the current catnip production and tells you if you will last winter with it. I say "estimate" because the math assumes winter just started.

The game operates in ticks. There are 10 ticks in one day, so it woild be 10 * catnipPerTick per one day, 0-100 days per winter.

For reference, here is the related source code:

updateAdvisors: function(){

    if (this.bld.get("field").val == 0){
        return;
    }

    var advDiv = dojo.byId("advisorsContainer");
    dojo.empty(advDiv);

    var winterDays = 100;
    if (this.calendar.season == "winter"){
        winterDays = 100 - this.calendar.day;
    }

    var catnipPerTick = this.getResourcePerTick("catnip", false, { modifiers:{
        "catnip" : 0.25
    }});    //calculate estimate winter per tick for catnip;

    if (this.resPool.get("catnip").value + ( winterDays * catnipPerTick * 10 ) <= 0 ){
        advDiv.innerHTML = "<span>Food advisor: 'Your catnip supply is too low!'<span>"
    }

}

Answer 2

The warning is triggered when your catnip supplies are low enough to reach 0 if your production goes in negative values (cold winter for example).
If your catnip production is in positive values at all times, even at the lowest possible happiness levels, then you shouldn't be getting this warning even when you use up all your catnip.