Well, have 4 hours playing non stop now and have 2 planets on tribal stage, one carnivore and one herbivore (still haven't figured how to go omnivore =[ but i think i do now after thinking it a while here) mmm, about that, i still dunno if i have enough time playing to even give advice here xD but mmm...
If your carnivore then go with wars against other tribes, try not to loose members, keep food on the thingy ALWAYS so your thingies will suffer from no hunger.
If herbivore like my main file, make some maracas, do the above about the food, go mariachi on EVERY tribe you see and always have some type of offensive tool with you so you can whack a mole a tribe or two (if its not worth to do it the way around).
Overall, just make members you can sustain, if you feel you dont have enough time to get food for all then try NOT to make new babies, i think when their hunger reaches a certain level they get as we say, unhappy (though the vid with the stick when you start the tribal stage is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO effin hilarious LOL)
Have fun, hope your problem gets solved and i hope i never run tru it hehe