Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

quinndunki.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 302 posts

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#181

Post by lg »

silencio wrote: post #136
astral303 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How long is "eventually"? My cat is almost 5 years old. She is the type to overeat to obesity, probably because she was abandoned at ~1yr by her previous owner. For half her life my partner and I have been feeding her like clockwork 3 times a day, minus all of 2-3 weeks of vacations where our roommate took over. I have to exert a constant effort to maintain our bedroom door and the rubber that I lined on the jamb to…

for our cat it was two simple solutions: 1, feed her about 1/3 of her daily food right before I go to bed; the later she eats the later she gets hungry. 2, when she cries for food before feeding time, I chase her around the apartment with a spray bottle spraying the shit out of her. over time it has gotten much better, not perfect but she definitely learned that crying for food = getting unpleasantly wet.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#182

Post by e40 »

massysett wrote: post #120
astral303 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We tried this with our cat for years. He had a designated feeding time. We never broke it. His internal clock is pretty good but not exact, so he starts to pester for food an hour or two before feeding time. So he would surely wake us up if fed at 7:00am, so one solution is to feed at night. This results in a cat constantly underfoot begging for food for two hours, which is literally a tripping hazard. The solution i…

So, your cat transferred all their respect for you to the machine.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#184

Post by enobrev »

I went through a similar sort of battle with my cat. I lucked out on an ugly, but thus-far impenetrable solution.

http://imgur.com/wQNebLM

I bought that feeder at the last minute before we left town for a weekend, which was just long enough that we needed the cat to be fed, but just short enough that it didn't make sense to bug friends or a service. Ran to the store and grabbed the only one they had, which is to say, no real research was involved beyond necessity.

It's an OK feeder. I don't love it. But I _really_ love having an automated feeder. It literally improved our lives. There were issues, which I'll explain, but for the $80 I spent on it, I couldn't just chuck the thing. I had to at least try to work it out.

First problem was that the bowl is detachable. So almost immediately, the cat would knock the bowl off trying to get under the feeder for more food. And when feeding time came, it just emptied onto the floor. Tape fixed that.

And then he realized that if he lifted the feeder with his face, it would drop a few pebbles of food into the bowl. And so he started knocking the thing around when he got hungry. This wasn't a huge deal at first. He'd do it a couple times and then go back to sleep.

And then we went away for another weekend. When we got home, the feeder was on the other side of the apartment. "Cute", we thought, put the feeder back and went about our day.

The next night, at about 2am, the cat spent a full hour trying to get in. He was lifting the feeder about once per minute, sometimes more. So just a constant banging for a full hour until I got up to do something about it. I tried to leave it be as I got some work done, but it got worse and louder. Just as I arrived on the scene, he'd popped the top off - though he hadn't realized he could get the food from the top.

So, at a loss for time as I needed to get back to work, I did what's shown in the photo. Taped the lid under a tall chair. I figured that would buy me some time to get back to work and I could try to work on a better solution in a day or so. It's been that way for about 4 months now.

The magic of it is that the cat can't get enough leverage on the feeder to knock it around and get food out. And if he lifts the chair (with his face), the tape has enough give that the chair moves, but the feeder remains unmolested. It looks ridiculous, but it solved the problem, so we're leaving it as is. That chair is now part of the cat feeder.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#185

Post by matt_kantor »

Coincoin wrote: post #138

Wait until you get children. Those bastards have the same brain as yours and tiny tiny hands. Preventing them from opening closets, garbage cans and cabinets is an arms race. You know you will eventually lose, the only thing you can do is slow them down.

This reminded me of the video game Who's Your Daddy[0]. It's 1-on-1 with asymmetric gameplay; the goal of the dad is to take care of the baby, while the goal of the baby is to kill itself.

[0]: http://store.steampowered.com/app/427730/

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#186

Post by dceddia »

bbarn wrote: post #88

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.

I thought this too! Except our cat never lost any weight, and seemed to be getting fatter, until we put the feeder in a laundry basket, and now they can't get access anymore and have slowly been losing weight.

The laundry basket is the tall type, with a hole cut in the bottom and a funnel installed, plus a chute screwed on for good measure. It's mounted on the wall, raised about 1ft, so they can't get their grubby little paws in there.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#187

Post by ThrustVectoring »

brazzledazzle wrote: post #159
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 know it sounds cruel and I didn't feel quite right doing it but this is why I walk around my cats like they're not there. After a couple close calls where I almost fell it seemed like it was worth a shot. I do slow down a bit so I carry/push them rather than kick when they're actually underfoot though. It only took a couple bonks to the nose and a time or two of being carried by my foot a few inches into the air to…

I've used something similar to teach a kitten I had to not step on keyboards. Just pick them up and drop them on the floor every time they touch the keyboard - they learn that that touching keyboards is How You Fall Off The Desk.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#188

Post by pryelluw »

akiselev wrote: post #165
pryelluw wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im not a cat owner and this might seem a bit strange. Why not just out the cat in a cage with food/water/bed before going to sleep?

I think the vast majority of cat owners would consider that not only strange but cruel as well. Cats need quite a bit of room for mental well being, let alone general health, and locking them in cages at night is definitely harmful. Doing so at night, for a nocturnal animal, is doubly so. Cages are only broken out temporarily for transportation and health reasons.

I see. That makes sense. :)

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#189

Post by marssaxman »

run4yourlives2 wrote: post #169
Yen wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A) the human feeds the cat, with delicious wet food, every morning. Many cats are only fed once daily anyway, this cat is fed twice daily. B) When traveling, one is not at home to feed the cat, at all. If fed, cats are quite content to have the house to themselves for a few days. If a cat is disciplined about eating, you can just put a lot of food in the bowl and leave it alone while you travel. If not, you need to b…

I have a cat. I know how it works. Part of having a pet is dealing with the fact that you have to take care of it. Many people have pets and go on vacations. >even if the final result is 'over' engineered. This is a major issue though. It's why a lot of engineers can't translate ideas and solutions into elegant businesses... Of course there is nothing wrong with this project, so long as you understand it completely m…

"Can't" create an elegant business, or "don't care to"? Different people are motivated by different things.

Seems to me the person undertaking this cat-feeder project is the one who gets to decide whether or not they have solved the "actual problem at hand", since they are the one who decided what the problem was in the first place.

Post reply on HN