Wow I had the same problem with the exact same feeder. This solution is awesome! I just ended up tying the unit to a table and called it a day. I also adjusted the food output, knowing he was going to get extra food from reaching up inside the feeder.
Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
261–270 of 302 posts
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#262One of our greedy cats used to attempt to get into the Andrew James automatic feeders, even though he never could. He'd do this noisily at 4 in the morning. We've had to go back to manual feeding, and for this our cats have tried pulling the carpet up, chewing off our hair, dragging our hair, batting us in the face, meowing incessantly from a distance, chewing the MP3 player in the room, chewing the window handles, c…
Of course sponge never does anything, he/she's got a guy for that!
Ah so he's an evil mastermind with his naughty minions to do his dirty work eh? I had never thought of that...
Oddly he never made a fuss even when he was a kitten (before we got this other gang of pests). He's just such a calm cat and actually calms you down if you pick him up [slows your heartbeat down] (he'll purr if you just look in his direction normally)
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#263do 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…
Very good points about monitoring your cat's inputs and outputs. My cat develops urinary tract issues about once a year and you notice the reduced appetite and litter box use. I have a Litter Robot so I do make sure to check it at least once a day. The litter box is another thing I'd like to throw an ESP2866 in so I can monitor litter box use frequency. Any ideas on how to detect a poop versus a piss? Perhaps there a…
You could record the time the cat spends doing his business, a poop should take longer.
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#264Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#265Earlier 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.
He's kind of a weirdo. He just sees punishment as mostly "attention" and doesn't mind it that much. Plus, any movement towards him in the morning is seen as "I must be getting fed now!" and he gets all excited.
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#266How common is it to need to restrict a cats eating? I always just keep dry food constantly available for my cat. She is around 14 years old and is a dainty little thing. I've never had any issue with her overeating or anything. When I'm away from home for a couple days, I'll just fill a really large bowl and leave it for her and there's usually a bunch left when I get back. Is this terribly unusual?
It's not unusual, but the cause is unfortunate. If she's 14 years old and you feed her dry food, she probably has bad teeth. Does she have 'cat breath'? When they have bad teeth, it's a balance of the pain from hunger vs the pain from eating, and tend to be skinny. It might be time to add some wet food to her diet.
Bad teeth aren't a problem for cats in the wild because they live on average 3-5 years, but the majority of house cats will have teeth problems as they get older.
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#267I 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…
You don't need a special device, just don't ever feed your cat when it's bugging you. You taught him that bugging you gets him food. It's probably too late now for you though lol.
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> but this is part of why letting cats out is cruel.
Because they might die relatively quickly and painlessly at some point? How is that cruel?
Given the choice, cats always prefer to go outside, even after being exposed to hostile animals outside. Presumably their walnut brains have evolved heuristics w.r.t. the utility of being eaten. Plus, I think I'd rather be killed by a dog than slowly grow arthritic, tumorous, and blind until I can't eat anymore and I have to be taken to that place I hate so they can stick a needle in me and kill me. If that's "what pets are supposed to experience in the modern era" then I want none of it.
I've had a number of cats, and the outdoor ones don't usually live as long as the indoor ones, but they seem a lot happier about it. Live fast, die young.
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#269This is an excellent example of why AI safety can never work by listing bad outcomes. And the cat is not even superintelligent.
The cat also has fairly easily understood goals. If, instead, the cat were trying to turn everything into paperclips it might be harder to combat its efforts because you'd never figure out what it was trying to do beyond causing chaos.
Wait, I fail to see how "converting everything into paperclips" is a more complex and hard to understand goal than "getting food"
Re: Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or maybe a bunch of dogs will entertain themselves by killing the cat.
That's a level of wanton cruelty I wouldn't expect a dog to exhibit.
Badly trained and feral dogs definitely love to kill smaller animals. I've lost chickens to a neighbor's dog and at least one cat to the feral dog packs that roam San Antonio. There are certain social groups there who don't exercise good pet ownership and see releasing unwanted puppies onto the street as a preferable alternative to spaying and neutering.
Standard operating procedure on rural ranch land is to shoot any dog that you don't recognize near your livestock. The reasoning is that it's either feral, has a disease, or is poorly trained enough to leave its own property. Either way, it poses a serious risk to your livestock; such dogs frequently kill small animals (chickens, rabbits, barn cats, etc.) in bulk (they don't even bother pausing before going to the next one) and will sometimes kill or harass large animals like cows or goats.
People often have a pretty optimistic view of dog behavior because their main exposure to dogs is as relatively well-trained, well-fed, and neutered pets.