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Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

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Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#81

Post by coldpie »

astrodust wrote: post #54
oniMaker wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately your common sense is in the minority of opinion here. HN is plagued by overeager engineers who endlessly discuss the how without addressing the much more important why . Why bother having a pet at all if you're not going to personally care for it?

"Why" is having control over frequency and quantity. If you have an over-weight cat you may need to dial that down gently over time to avoid too much protesting. The writer clearly indicated this is just for one meal of the day. People are losing their shit here as if this cat is locked in a room for months on end with no human contact.

No one is losing their shit.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#83

Post by tlrobinson »

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 wired up my Super Feeder (http://www.super-feeder.com/) to a relay and C.H.I.P. (https://getchip.com/). I wish I had multiple animals so I had an excuse to RFID it.

So far these are the triggers:

1. I put a hall effect sensor and another C.H.I.P. on his exercise wheel (https://onefastcat.com/) so it feeds him every few revolutions he runs (not sure if he's associated the two yet)

2. Alexa skill.

3. Daily 5am feeding to avoid the early morning hungry-cat-alarm-clock.

4. Hacked Amazon Dash button next to the bed (and IFTTT button on my phone) in case the 5am feeding isn't enough to silence the hungry-cat-alarm-clock.

So yeah, I identify with this statement "You might say I’ve won this battle. However I just spent 20 hours armor-plating a cat feeder. I think we know who’s really in control here, don’t we?"

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#84

Post by Fnoord »

dominotw wrote: post #27

do not feed cats from a machine. Even if you are super busy, give her food in the morning and after you get home from work, that's more than enough. Perhaps at the same time as your breakfast and your dinner. Despite the common perception of cats as 'loners' , they still want to be part of your 'gang' not a lonely creature feeding from a machine. Ideally you would want to play with the cat before feeding her so she a…

While I believe your contribution is an interesting one I recommend to not assume too much. We got 2 cats from the animal shelter, and they are not very playful (relatively speaking). They're generally afraid, tho much less nowadays.

What we do is we feed them manually, once a day, the very same amount (using the same bowl as scoop) in the evening before we go to bed (he's on a diet for FLUTD, and she has to eat the same food so she's slightly obese). This gives us the advantage that the cats are not annoying during night, and if they eat too much they'll have to wait till the evening (which means we either get annoyed during day time, or we don't notice since we're not around). We also give them fresh water at the same time.

A major issue is when we're gone for more than a day. But a cat feed machine wouldn't be adequate. Cats need fresh water as well, and enough. Refilling when it is empty isn't enough. Algae are being formed. So this requires manual labour, daily.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#85

Post by jevinskie »

astral303 wrote: post #26
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…

Don't feed your cat until 7am no matter what. Ignore all foot rubs and meows. He'll eventually learn and give up. Operant conditioning. Watch out though for that extra-hard last ditch effort he will put out before giving up. Stay strong.

I already refuse to feed him before 7am but he still tries. He is conditioned on getting breakfast from Dad and I need to condition him to get breakfast from the machine. I'm hoping that loading it with breakfast the night before and a lock indicator LED will remove Dad from the picture and allow for that conditioning.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#86

Post by jevinskie »

bryondowd wrote: post #16
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…

Great idea but unfortunately it is battery operated. I suppose a relay on Vcc might do the trick though!

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#87

Post by realstuff »

extra88 wrote: post #76
skizm wrote: post #70

Wonder what would happen if you just gave the cat unlimited access to a large bowl of unguarded food all day every day. Would the cat eventually self-regulate the amount it ate? Or would you just end up with a really fat cat? Or both to some degree?

Depends on the cat. Some will self-regulate and maintain a healthy weight but many will over-eat.

This is correct. I had some cats who self-regulate and some who will overeat. The overeater was a stray cat initially which explains the behaviour.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#88

Post by bbarn »

I had a simple auger-fed model for our cat. I realized very quickly she could reach up there and get food meant for the next cycle... and eventually realized I didn't care. If she takes the food intended for the next cycle, less comes out next, and if she goes into the next meals portion again, she's getting the same amount of food, and some stimulation for free trying to get it out.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#89

Post by kristofferc »

skizm wrote: post #70

Wonder what would happen if you just gave the cat unlimited access to a large bowl of unguarded food all day every day. Would the cat eventually self-regulate the amount it ate? Or would you just end up with a really fat cat? Or both to some degree?

This is exactly what we do with our cat. We just refill the bowl when it starts to get empty. I would say his weight is average to slightly below average. We have done this since he was a kitten so perhaps that's why it works quite well.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#90

Post by sfont »

skizm wrote: post #70

Wonder what would happen if you just gave the cat unlimited access to a large bowl of unguarded food all day every day. Would the cat eventually self-regulate the amount it ate? Or would you just end up with a really fat cat? Or both to some degree?

I have (too) many cats.

We just leave a bowl with kibble out for them during the day. Most of them self regulate. Two (out of six!) don't, and are a bit overweight.

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