Petrification does not state the creature "no longer needs to eat/drink (or sleep)"[1]:
Petrified
- A petrified creature is transformed, along with any nonmagical object it is wearing or carrying, into a solid inanimate substance (usually stone). Its weight increases by a factor of ten, and it ceases aging.
- The creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can’t move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
- The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
- The creature has Resistance to all damage.
- The creature is immune to poison and disease, although a poison or disease already in its system is suspended, not neutralized.
So, by RAW, does a petrified creature starve? What in the condition text (or on other rules) makes a petrified creature eschew food / drink / sleep?
Note:
- Common sense dictates that it should be so, but let's stick to RAW.
Best Answer
As silly as the question sounds, it's interesting from a rules perspective.
A petrified creature retains its statistics (such as hit points) except as noted in the condition. It can still attempt some saving throws (just not Strength and Dexterity ones). So clearly, a petrified creature is still a creature, and not an object — it hasn’t really become a statue.
But the creature does become “solid inanimate substance (usually stone).” A creature polymorphed into another form needs to eat what its new form eats. For example, a creature polymorphed into a Zombie gains Undead Nature and does not need to eat.
Some other creatures have their unusual dietary habits in their creature blocks. Others are left to common sense. Explicit or implicit, a creature’s diet is part of its “statistics” which get replaced when it is polymorphed or petrified.
So what does an solid inanimate substance need to eat? We don't have stat block of a rock that happens to be a creature, but I think we can agree that it does not need to eat.