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Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

quinndunki.com

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Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#11

Post by Segfaulter »

goda90 wrote: post #6
Rhapso wrote: post #2

Has he tried a increase in the cat's food intake? Seems low cost, low risk, and if it does not work you can resume armor plating the robot.

Some pets might eat themselves to obesity given the chance. I'm not sure the amount of effort the cat puts into trying to get more food is a perfect determinate of how much food the cat needs to be healthy.

Mine definitely would, he'd eat until he would throw up and then probably eat some more. We're pretty sure he had food scarcity before he made it to the humane society.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#13

Post by niftich »

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #7
jevinskie wrote: post #4

I recently got a SureFeed RFID feeder. It can read your cat's microchip or an RFID collar tag. When an authorized kitty approaches, a flap raises and lets the cat eat. I got it to prevent other family pets from stealing my cat's food. It works well for that purpose and seems well designed. The feeder has clear side "walls" and the flap itself acts as a wall on the rear of the feeder, helping prevent food theft during…

I've got the same one and it doesn't stop cats tailgating other cats. It was however hilarious during the 'training' phase watching the stupidest of our two barrel towards the flap and go crunching into it. Did have a good idea for gamifying it though - a cat airlock with a camera, $5 a month, getting bored old ladies on Facebook to compare the cat in the airlock and making the decision to let it through or not...

Catptcha-as-a-Service

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#16

Post by bryondowd »

jevinskie wrote: post #4

I recently got a SureFeed RFID feeder. It can read your cat's microchip or an RFID collar tag. When an authorized kitty approaches, a flap raises and lets the cat eat. I got it to prevent other family pets from stealing my cat's food. It works well for that purpose and seems well designed. The feeder has clear side "walls" and the flap itself acts as a wall on the rear of the feeder, helping prevent food theft during…

For a cheap and simple hack solution, I would imagine you could just get one of those outlet timers. That's assuming the device uses wall power, defaults to locked when unpowered, and doesn't require any user input to resume function when power cycled. Just set it to power on at 7AM and either set it to power off at the time you usually refill it, or just manually switch it off when filling.

Not as much fun as an IoT cat feeder, though.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#18

Post by sofaofthedamned »

niftich wrote: post #13
sofaofthedamned wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got the same one and it doesn't stop cats tailgating other cats. It was however hilarious during the 'training' phase watching the stupidest of our two barrel towards the flap and go crunching into it. Did have a good idea for gamifying it though - a cat airlock with a camera, $5 a month, getting bored old ladies on Facebook to compare the cat in the airlock and making the decision to let it through or not...

Catptcha-as-a-Service

Thanks for the branding :D

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#19

Post by dsr_ »

goda90 wrote: post #6
Rhapso wrote: post #2

Has he tried a increase in the cat's food intake? Seems low cost, low risk, and if it does not work you can resume armor plating the robot.

Some pets might eat themselves to obesity given the chance. I'm not sure the amount of effort the cat puts into trying to get more food is a perfect determinate of how much food the cat needs to be healthy.

Yeah, you need to raise the cat from first weaning with unlimited access to food to prevent this. If they never experience a moment of food anxiety in their lives, most cats will only eat when they are actually hungry.

The majority of cats, however, have a built-in desire to eat whenever food is available, because they have not learned that it will continue to be available in the future. It's really hard to teach them this at any point after early kittenhood.

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