Why did animals need to eat/be fed for a year in the Ark?

Question

Why did animals need to eat/be fed for a year in the Ark?

"Oh, because they need to eat", you'd say, but really the Mabul was one big miracle, overriding all laws of nature - physics, geology, zoology, biology, genetics and whatnot.

Why in this huge miracle did animals need to eat? This problem was easily "circumvented" for the Israelites in the desert with Mannah. This "natural behavior" actually caused more additional miracles to be performed - miraculous preparing of the food for all animals, miraculous feeding, taking care of poop etc.

Why couldn't G-d simply stop them from eating for a year?

Answer 1

R Ari Wasserman explains the ark was a "chesed school" and that feeding animals became the mechanism to teach Noah and his family a value which would be fundamental to the new world being created.

As Chazal tell us, feeding all these creatures was a full-time, round-the clock job, as some were nocturnal, some ate more often than others, etc. Noach and co.’s constant giving was part of Hashem’s rehab program for humanity.

As Rabbi Mordechai Gifter explains, Hashem created the world solely to bestow chesed and to enable man to do likewise. But Noach’s generation couldn’t manage it. Either people rejected chesed altogether, committing violent crimes, or – along with the animals – they perverted this precious value by engaging in forbidden relationships. Their inability to live in harmony destroyed the world. To rebuild it, humankind had to become humankind, mastering chesed anew.

That’s what Noach and his family did aboard the ark. Aside from protecting them from the flood, this craft served as a floating chesed academy in which they learned to work together and give unstintingly. Only after “graduation” were they permitted to exit the ark and embark on the sacred task of reconstructing the world. (Pirkei Torah, parshas Noach)

Answer 2

Why couldn't G-d simply stop them from eating for a year?

Because it was all part of G-ds plan, in recreating a perfect species.

Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, also known as the Meshech Chochmah, writes that the reason why the animals that were inside the ark were fed, is because it was part of G-ds "rehabilitation" programme. Animals also acted sinfully during the generation of the flood, so they needed to be "re-schooled" so to say.

The Meshech Chochmah explains that by feeding the animals, they would learn (re-learn) faithfulness (part of explanation below).

ובגמרא פרק חלק למשפחותיהם יצאו אמר ר' יוחנן ולא הם והענין דהמבול היה שוהה שנים עשר חודש (עיין עדיות משפט דור המבול י"ב חודש) אף שכל ענין המבול היה שלא ע"ד הסדור הטבעי, וקיום נח והבעלי חיים היו בענין השגחה מיוחדת להתקיים באויר כזה אשר היה משחית ומכלה ולזה אמר ויזכור אלקים את נח ואת כל אשר אתו בתבה פירוש בעוד היותם בתבה זכר אותם בהשגחה מדויקת וכן דרשו בב"ר מה זכירה נזכר לו שזן ופרנס אותם כל י"ב חודש שבתבה וא"כ היה ביכולת ההשגחה למחות כל היקום כרגע אולם כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו על הארץ [לבד מה שלא השחיתו במקרה] ונשחת תכונת הבע"ח לגמרי וטבעם היה לאהוב הרע והחמס ולזה היה צריך חנוך י"ב חודש ולהיות נעצרים

See also this wonderful article, written by Daf Yomi Digest on Sanhedrin 108:

During these twelve months the animals themselves refrained from procreating, became accustomed to minimal rations, were fed by man and would once again fear him. After this reinitiation they could leave and remain eternally faithful to their families and no longer mate with other species. This is what Rav Yochanan meant when he said that “they left to their families and not they themselves,” as the animals had undergone such a drastic change in their behavior and nature that the original group which entered were now truly different animals than those which had entered the ark.