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

231–240 of 302 posts

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#231

Post by peatmoss »

matt_kantor wrote: post #146
silencio wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Try an automatic feeder. I have the one mentioned in the article and didn't need to do any extra hardening to protect it from our two cats. Even though we kept a tight feeding schedule, our cats used to start meowing and pestering us an hour before dinner time. Now, they just sit quietly and stare at the automatic feeder until it dispenses their food.

Second this. Our cat was clearly able to outlast my patience. At one point early-ish into our cat's tenure in our home, during a particularly persistent meowing session I said to my wife (jokingly!), "holy shit I'm going to kill this cat." To which I quickly had the sad realization that some people probably do abuse or kill their pets. So I decided to check for advice from the ASPCA.

All the kitty guides on webbernets say, "be firm and don't give into kitty's demands." Whereas I read on the ASPCA website, "buy an automated feeder."

Guess which worked? Happy automated cat feeder owner, and our cat mostly doesn't drive me insane around feeding times.

For reference, I also own this model of cat feeder and have not needed to harden, though I do have it wedged up next to a wall to lessen risk of tipping.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#232

Post by peatmoss »

AlexCoventry wrote: post #230
Goronmon wrote: post #104

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. He'll maybe learn to give up. Or he's like one of our cats where we have to install a baby gate on the outside of the closed door to our bedroom to make it difficult for him to bang on the door all night/morning so that we can sleep.

Some mild punishment may be necessary. If a cat bothers me while I'm in bed, they get held by their scruff and moved to the floor. The cats bother my wife, but not me.

We lock our cat out of the bedroom at night (and have since day 1), and own a cat feeder. Cat ownership bliss.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#233

Post by cowpewter »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #22

Simpler solution? Place cat feeder on top of refrigerator, long tube to direct falling food down to bowl on floor.

2 of my 3 cats are quite regularly on top of the refrigerator. One likes to nap up there, and the other likes to experiment with gravity by knocking magnets off the fridge. The only reason the 3rd doesn't get up there is because she is almost 18 years old and has arthritis and can't jump anymore. When she was younger she would use the fridge as a stepping stone to get on top of the kitchen cabinets and regularly nap there. There is no such thing as a cat-proof vertical height.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#234

Post by fellellor »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #176
ianai wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must entertain your cat(s). I find it best to do so consciously for fear of what the cat will deem entertaining otherwise.

Or let your cat out - it would rather entertain itself killing the local wildlife.

Or maybe a bunch of dogs will entertain themselves by killing the cat.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#235

Post by somethingelse97 »

lg wrote: post #181
silencio wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

put a tsp of vinegar in the spray bottle. They learn even faster

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#236

Post by ThrustVectoring »

eric_h wrote: post #216
eric_h wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ages ago, when I was still living with my parents, we had an indoor/outdoor cat that had a habit of going to various high shelves in the house and accidentally knocking things off them. To curb this behavior, one of us would grab him off the shelf and literally throw him outside (onto grass, maybe 6' in the air), thinking that he would associate the unpleasantness of being thrown with his unwanted behavior. He did. H…

Felt I should add that this cat also figured out how to operate a light switch, with similar motivations.

I knew a cat that figured out how to operate a light switch so that they could stare at moths through the glass door that would show up with the balcony light on.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#237

Post by pinkrooftop »

throwanem wrote: post #143
pinkrooftop wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its turning into reddit //waiting for this to be flagged and silenced just for suggesting HN quality has declined

I'm about to flag your comment not because it suggests the quality of discourse on HN has declined, but because it makes a net negative contribution to the quality of discourse on HN. In other words, you seem to be being the problem you perceive. Perhaps you might do otherwise.

Ok u win at hacker news I guess gotta be someone

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#239

Post by ianai »

fellellor wrote: post #234
JupiterMoon wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or let your cat out - it would rather entertain itself killing the local wildlife.

Or maybe a bunch of dogs will entertain themselves by killing the cat.

I wanted to downvote you, but this is part of why letting cats out is cruel. They're best off living a life of leisure indoors. Make sure it's a good life by entertaining and caring for them. That's what pets are supposed to experience in the modern era.

Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine

#240

Post by paulcole »

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…

My cat was on a "diet" similar to yours. I just ended up giving in and letting him eat all the food he wanted, which ended up being less than expected. He just freaked out at having an empty bowl.

He's a very big strong boy now (20ish pounds) and is just very happy.

My thinking was that he's a cat and what's the point of a cat being unhappy for his whole life.

Post reply on HN