
Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine - mef
http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=3023
======
jevinskie
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 authorized feeding.

I'd like to hack it and add timer functionality. See, my cat is always trying
to get breakfast early and is always underfoot from 4 A.M. until I feed him. I
tripped over him and broke my ankle last month because of this. I figure, if I
can load up breakfast's meal before I go to bed, and only "unlock" the feeder
after 7 A.M., my cat may eventually learn to stop bugging me at night. The
joke will probably be on me though, darn cats.

I'd like to use an ESP8266 for this so I can also have an IoT feeder that
reports usage statistics. =P

~~~
astral303
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.

~~~
silencio
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 prevent her from rattling the door at 5am to ask
for food - the paint is a lost cause. We have a white noise machine. We ignore
her cries for food. We ignore her pawing things off our desks. We have a
system to keep track of food we give her so she can't "trick" the other
person. She knows exactly when we feed her (the meows get cranked up a notch
about an hour before food time) but despite not giving in, she keeps acting
like meowing at us is going to go anywhere.

No luck. And we know we're not underfeeding her - she's getting the calories
appropriate for her (currently normal) weight, is being fed wet food, has
fresh water, lots of attention and toys, all that stuff.

Unfortunately we have to give this up because we've got a baby on the way, and
it's just so frustrating to lose 2+ years of effort put into having her not
weigh 18lbs...

~~~
matt_kantor
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.

~~~
peatmoss
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.

~~~
silencio
Fine, fine, I just ordered the Petnet feeder :) Not my first pick, but it
supports the 1/16 cup portions I would need to maintain my cat's weight on the
dry food that she likes most. I shall see on Christmas Day if she'll tolerate
it :D

------
Coincoin
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.

~~~
quanticle
Yes, but with kids, you can at least have the hope that they'll eventually
learn to know better. With cats... not so much.

~~~
2016122
Yes it gets better. My 4 year old tidies up after her 2 year old sister. She
even get's angry that she is making a mess.

~~~
funnyfacts365
So now the 2year old will learn that she can do all the mess she wants because
she has her own cleaning maid... Just wait for it.

~~~
chris_st
Well, you've got to get _some_ benefit out of older siblings...

------
LeifCarrotson
The problem, as in most difficult hacking operations, is that the attacker has
physical access.

I would have put the machine in a base cabinet, run a chute out a small hole
cut in the toe mould, and if necessary, put a child lock on the cabinet.

~~~
ianai
That's topologically equivalent to what OP did.

~~~
wlesieutre
And OP is topologically equivalent to a bagel (disregarding nostrils)

~~~
pavel_lishin
If we're going to arbitrarily ignore orifices, then I'm a sphere.

~~~
yoodenvranx
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow)

------
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.

~~~
dceddia
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.

------
titanomachy
The problem-solving abilities of that cat are pretty impressive. I couldn't
imagine my cat bracing himself against a table and picking up the whole feeder
with his teeth, I wish there had been a video of that.

The creativity and versatility of even a "simple" biological intelligence is a
humbling reminder of how much work we have ahead for AI research.

~~~
civilian
Let me Dungeon Master this for you: You're trapped in a few rooms all day,
every day. You don't know how to read. Your best friend is gone or asleep for
17 hours a day. You're a little bored, but you're also not very smart, so it's
kind of okay. But you do have a lot of time on your paws.

There's a weird contraption that feeds you twice a day. And you can see food
still up there, on the conveyor belt.

How would you like to spend the next 7 hours?

~~~
Diederich
Well said.

My wife and I personally think it's borderline inhumane to keep a dog by
itself all day, since they are extremely social.

While we usually don't keep solitary cats, I don't think it's that
uncomfortable for cats to be alone, though per your DM interpretation, they
will commonly get into things. Which they will do in groups too.

~~~
Zachery
Some cats do much better when they have other animals or cat friends to
socialize with. It depends on a number of factors, and much like human, not
every cat is the same.

The amount of desired human attention sought from cats in our household has
has decreased as the number of cats in the has increased. That's not to say
they don't still want our attention, or that we don't give it to them. Having
friends to keep busy seems to make the days go by easier.

~~~
noir_lord
I have a pair of cats (sibling boy and girl), girl cat is cuddly and wants
attention, boy cat is solo and likes been on his own and rarely wants a fuss,
both miss the other if they aren't their even if they rarely bother with each
other.

When the boy went to be neutered, the girl spent the whole day going from room
to room meowing and looking in his usual spots.

When she went to be fixed, he did the same.

I'll probably never have a single cat again (some of that is that they are
used to each others presence I'm sure) since they are excellent company for
each other.

------
monochromatic
I'm impressed by both of the adversaries in this story.

------
primitivesuave
My ex girlfriend's cat was a fat cat and would nip the back of our legs when
he was hungry. I spent one night building an Arduino feeder that rationed his
food out throughout the day, and by the next morning it had been destroyed. He
also loved to "experiment with gravity" by pushing things off tables and
windowsills, for which he also destroyed most of the engineering work I did to
deter him. So I know firsthand what an impressive feat it is to cat-proof
_anything_.

~~~
eric_h
> So I know firsthand what an impressive feat it is to cat-proof anything.

The fact that it took 1/8" steel plate to cat proof it is an amazing testament
to the ingenuity of those little serial killers.

------
72deluxe
One 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, chewing the lamp, rocking the wireless phone
backwards and forwards so that it beeps, chewing the phone charger, digging
our slippers into oblivion, digging through my wife's handbag, clawing the
bannisters, jumping onto the banisters whilst shouting in a catlike manner and
precariously wobbling around (I fear he'll fall down onto the ground floor and
damage himself badly, he'll fall on the stairs), pulling bifold doors open (he
can grab them with his paw underneath), biting our hands. British Shorthairs
are STRONG. Anything to get us up!

Our golden wonder cat Sponge has never done anything to get us up. He
patiently waits. He's lovely.

~~~
Klathmon
Of course sponge never does anything, he/she's got a guy for that!

~~~
72deluxe
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)

------
lolc
When people talk about how their pets are acting funny, I always wonder
whether they realize that it's because of the boring habitat their pets have
been put in. Asking them about it is delicate because it implies that their
pet might be unhappy about its situation.

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

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

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

~~~
ianai
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.

~~~
wyager
> 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.

~~~
fellellor
In my case I got sick of cats coming into my life and then promptly dying
within a year of that.

As far as keeping them happy goes, I have found that they tend to do well if
they have other cats for company. Solitary cats usually don't make great pets.

I am however, talking about stray cats with no breeding history. I have heard
that many pet cat breeds are bred for specific behavioral traits which make
them better suited for an indoor only life. I also don't condone such
practices.

------
ayuvar
This is the best up-armoured cat feeder I've seen this week. Kudos to Quinn
for never giving up.

I'm terrified to think what the next step will be once Sprocket chooses to
escalate.

~~~
cwkoss
"Today I came home and found my cat using a plasma cutter"

~~~
rthille
Mine found easier to use my desktop pc to order cat food from Amazon...

/me does not (any longer) own a cat.

~~~
Chris2048
It's a joke, until you get one of those Amazon wifi buttons that orders things
automatically...

------
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](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.

------
yoodenvranx
Jeff Atwood also wrote an interesting article about cat feeding machines but
with a slightly different topic:

"This Is All Your App Is: a Collection of Tiny Details"

[https://blog.codinghorror.com/this-is-all-your-app-is-a-
coll...](https://blog.codinghorror.com/this-is-all-your-app-is-a-collection-
of-tiny-details/)

------
dominotw
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
associates food with hunting not as a cure to boredom. Even if you are too
busy to do that, the act of giving your cat food can be a bonding experience
for a cat that's stuck indoors 24/7\. Many cat health issues can be diagnosed
by keeping an eye of food habit since cats famously hide their weakness (to
not signal weakness to predators, i would imagine). Free feeding cats would
hide their illness till its too late to do anything about it.

Same with litter even if you use 'litter robot' keep an eye on the poop when
you change the litter, common kidney diseases can be instantly identified by
glancing at poop.

~~~
oniMaker
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?

~~~
nommm-nommm
Give me a break.

The author was giving two meals a day and often got home late in the evenings.
Only the evening meal was from a machine. Don't act like the cat is being
abused. The author looks like she is providing the cat with a very nice life.

"Whys?" It helps prevent tripping incidents when the cat knows its food time
and is rubbing on your feet as you walk. It helps with anxiety associated with
irregular feedings. That's just two reasons I thought of off the top of my
head.

~~~
dominotw
>The author was giving two meals a day and often got home late in the
evenings.

"An automated feeder would save me one chore per day, and I wouldn’t have to
worry about getting home late in the evenings."

You seem to have ignored "save me one chore per day" which is what my original
comment was in response too. Occasional late meal is not a big deal at all,
you don't need to go about inventing ridiculous machines for that.

~~~
nommm-nommm
>Occasional late meal is not a big deal at all

How do you, personally, anonymous Internet commenter, know how much stress
_this specific_ cat has when the evening meal is late?

You can give constructive comments about the benefits of manual feeding vs
auto feeding without being rude and speaking in absolutes. There's certainly
benefits of both options that differ with individual cats and circumstances.

~~~
dominotw
>without being rude

def not my intention. Can you point out where i was rude so i can keep that in
mind for future.

What I said of course is not true for special needs cats, do whats best for
your cat if its special needs. I assumed we are talking about the 99% general
case because original article didn't mention any special requirements that her
cat had. I doubt anyone reading that blog would get the impression that her
cat is special needs. Would you tell you someone "not speak in absolutes" to
if she says "don't don't declaw your cat" ?

I know many cat owners who "play" with their cat by dangling a feather on its
head, telling them to improve the play by creating intrigue and mystery during
the play by hiding the source of noise is not an insult, I wouldn't think so.
I made many pet owner mistakes myself. Unfortunately cats have the misguided
'easy maintenance' reputation which works against their well being.

------
dan_ahmadi
This is amazing, but I have to say, I really don't think it will work for my
cat. He would learn to use an acetylene torch if there was food as a reward.

------
dodders
Had similar problems with our cat who was able to retrieve food from every
automatic feeder we tried, apart from the perfect pet feeder [1] which was the
only model that defeated him.

[1] [http://www.perfectpetfeeder.com/](http://www.perfectpetfeeder.com/)

~~~
ScottBurson
Why not just leave the dry food out? Most cats won't overeat.

~~~
pdxandi
Exactly, most. Mine, however, do, and then they get sick and nauseous and
barf.

~~~
dodders
This. Mine will eat and eat and then I will manage his weight back down from
21 pounds again.

------
dschep
That is amazing. I'm so glad I can just free feed my cat with out her getting
obese, or even fat.

~~~
rconti
Haha, I know! _chucks a week 's worth of food in 5 bowls_ "peace out cats, see
you next week!"

~~~
jrnichols
ours are usually like that but the bigger one... if he can even see the bottom
of the food bowl? his little cat world is upside down. i can usually just
shake the bowl and set it back down and he's happy.

------
suhith
"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?"

------
ianai
Someone in the other thread suggested the problem is she can smell the rest of
the food. I'd bet that's a huge contributor.

~~~
highstep
I thought the same when he said the cat was no longer interested in trying to
defeat the metal box -- I bet the cat can't smell the food as strongly as it
did without the box.

I've always found it easier to trick cats rather than force them to do things.
But to trick a cat you must think like one. :)

------
elif
All of the attack vectors of that specific cat feeder have been addressed by
mine.

I applaud the ingenuity, but fear she spent far more time and money "fixing"
this one instead of doing a little amazon shopping.

I also hope that she unbolts that bowl to clean it every week.

~~~
vidarh
I suspect this is one of those cases where it starts out as just a quick fix,
and soon turns into a challenge where buying a better feeder feels too much
like cheating.

------
joering2
Somewhat relevant and got some attention on HN recently:

[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill)

~~~
hash-set
Wow. That's...disturbing...

------
rhaps0dy
This is an excellent example of why AI safety can never work by listing bad
outcomes.

And the cat is not even superintelligent.

~~~
nullc
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.

~~~
rhaps0dy
Wait, I fail to see how "converting everything into paperclips" is a more
complex and hard to understand goal than "getting food"

~~~
krallja
Imagine what a cat _trying_ to turn everything into paper clips would look
like.

------
dghughes
My plan if I were to ever build a robot I'd use a cat's brain as the AI
template for the brain.

Move something 1mm the cat comes into the room and seems to be thinking "Hey
who messed up the place? What's going on?"

Cats are little pattern recognition machines.

------
tyingq
Compare to cows, who after being trained by real cattle guards, won't step on
painted lines that simulate them.

~~~
jdcarter
But on the other side, compare with pigeons who could pilot a glider bomb into
WWII enemy ships:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon)

(As the owner of both a cat and parrot, I've learned not to underestimate
their intelligence.)

~~~
IngoBlechschmid
Relevant short story by esteemed science fiction author Ted Chiang (author of
/Story of Your Life/, which got turned into the movie /Arrival/): The Great
Silence. [http://supercommunity.e-flux.com/texts/the-great-
silence/](http://supercommunity.e-flux.com/texts/the-great-silence/)

------
moconnor
This should give a moment's pause to anyone who thinks we could keep a
superhuman AI in a box.

~~~
pluma
You're joking, but let's not forget that we had to reset the universe the last
twenty-three times this happened.

------
koffiezet
Man did I get lucky with my cat when reading all these comments here... She
always has a bowl of food available, only touches it when she's hungry and
rarely finishes it completely. I fill it up once or twice a day, and she
mostly ignores me when I do. The most she does is come and smell the freshly
poured food from time to time, but with little interest in actually touching
it at that point - even when her bowl had been completely empty. And when she
eats, she's always very calm about it, like there's no rush.

And it doesn't stop there. She knows how to use the litter-box, but she
prefers to go outside - which means I rarely have to clean it - like once
every month at most, only when she has been left inside for too long. I should
find something to notify me when she actually used it.

She probably spends 70% indoor, 30% outdoor, which is when she terrorizes the
other, more tame (but much larger) cats of the neighborhood or goes hunting. I
should also find something that addresses here hunting nature, because the
rate at which birds and mice are dropped at my back-door is quite alarming. A
collar with a bell didn't seem to affect her hunting success-rate at all, and
only gave her an allergic reaction to the collar - so we removed it.

------
skizm
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?

~~~
extra88
Depends on the cat. Some will self-regulate and maintain a healthy weight but
many will over-eat.

~~~
realstuff
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.

------
alphanumeric0
I'm not much of a hardware hacker but it'd be interesting to work on a wet
food cat feeding machine.

~~~
convolvatron
i was always a big bowl of dry food pet owner, but when my cat got older and
couldn't keep her weight up, i had to get her on wet food.

i don't think it would be hard to dispense from the puck cans, or extrude out
of a plastic sack.

but it seems like portioning would be hard with the cans.

i can't imagine how it would clean itself though. even if you were wasteful
enough to use disposable feeding dishes you'd be functioning as much as a bio
reactor for flies and bacteria as much as a feeding station.

incineration? alcohol? steam cleaning and a sewer hookup?

------
massysett
He/she needs the Feed and Go.

[http://www.feedandgo.com/](http://www.feedandgo.com/)

It is expensive but impregnable. My cat can smell the food in there, so for
the first couple of days he relentlessly attacked it. But he can't get in so
he has given up.

He can figure his way into many things, including most trash cans, so we put
kitchen trash into a 5-gallon bucket with a screw top lid.

Most pet feeders are cheap, poorly thought out, and easily penetrated by cats.

------
stcredzero
_Mostly foiled by this copper, she then went back again to the lift-and-drop
strategy. This time she figured out she could rotate my hold-down clamp out of
the way, and again the machine was free to lift._

Is this an indication of cat cleverness, or tech person's engineering
ineffectiveness?

If I ever design a cat feeder, then I'll design one with discrete feeding
compartments, and holes tapped in a bottom plate for hold-down screws.

------
blunatic
I highly recommend the PetNet SmartFeeder. I've had two for both of my cats
for the past year, and they work great. It allows you to setup automated timed
feeds for several meals a day, then pings your phone each time a feed goes off
(for peace of mind).

The product design is about as nice looking as you can make a feeder, and the
mobile app's UI has improved a lot over the past few months to a good state.

~~~
ezarowny
I have the PetNet and my cat has no problem detaching the bowl. Bane of my
existence.

~~~
blunatic
How? Do you have an older model? The entire feeder sits on the metal bowl and
to remove it requires that I lift up the entire feeder.

~~~
ezarowny
The beta model and the production model are both quite easy to remove with a
small amount of pressure. The production model takes a bit more work but not
much.

This video is from when I had the beta feeder but the same principle applies:
[https://youtu.be/YHq1xHL8p2o](https://youtu.be/YHq1xHL8p2o)

------
JohnJamesRambo
After about the second failure I would have gotten one of those auto feeders
that let out as much as they want and some weight control cat food.

~~~
nommm-nommm
Cat was eating so much _volume_ she was vomiting. Weight control food doesn't
help with this issue.

Additionally, my obese cat was on a very controlled amount of "diet" food for
years, it doesn't actually work. Switched him to Blue Buffalo and didn't
observe any weight change.

And before anyone asks, yes, the cat has been to the vet and has gotten all
the blood work and I've tried multiple meals and everything. Don't even go
there.

------
otakucode
How 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?

~~~
Broken_Hippo
It seems cats have a range.

Some, like yours, will just eat as hungry. Daintily. One of my cats is like
this.

Some cats tend to be chubby. They will eat on cues, and eat often. I have one
of these cats as well. He's also a somewhat finicky eater - he'll eat lots or
refuse to eat. He's been a bit large since he was born, but I don't have a
need to restrict food yet.

And some cats will just eat until they throw up. Sometimes it is because of
food insecurity, sometimes just personality. For these cats it is pretty vital
the food is regulated.

Sidenote: There are other reasons to regulate food as well. I once had a cat
with allergies and was fed prescription dry food, twice a day, as per vet
instructions. Sad that I had to put that cat down due to health.

------
Perry17
Running a background check on your partner is the anatomist rule of dating .
ascertain if they are who they claim to be in the first place and best smart
about it by hiring professionals via www.consultanthackers.com

------
smilekzs
> You need opposable thumbs to remove a bolt (even a finger-tight one), so I’m
> confident this is secure.

> 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?

I find this very disturbing... That said, the final result looks very well-
made. Nice hacking!

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

~~~
nommm-nommm
The top of a refrigerator is an easily accessible location for a feline.

Additionally, putting any expensive gadget up high above a hard surface is a
recipe for disaster.

~~~
masklinn
> Additionally, putting any expensive gadget up high above a hard surface is a
> recipe for disaster.

Machine parts and cat vomit (because the explosion will have dropped all the
dry food through the room) not your style?

------
johnnymonster
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.

------
partycoder
I had 10+ cats at some moment and feeding them was a challenge.

I used to form lines with cat food. Looked a bit like farming.

Birds then would try to eat the remains, only to become additional cat food.

I've heard some vegans force their cats to become vegans as well. I think it
is not healthy.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
> _I 've heard some vegans force their cats to become vegans as well. I think
> it is not healthy._

You are correct. I'm mostly vegetarian (I eat fish), but I won't do that to a
cat. They need meat for health, and not doing so is cruelty.

I truly wish that these folks would give the cats away to someone that can
feed them properly and invest in a vegetarian pet that fits their lifestyle:
Birds, iguana, and so on.

------
JoeSloth
After reading, I can't help but think that the problem is that the cat knows
there is food inside.. is there a leak where the scent gets out?

I would try sealant around all the seams And revert back to so lesser security
measures to test it.

------
dboreham
Obviously all the software development managers are going to gravitate to this
thread..

------
Pica_soO
Could one draft a NN-Algorithm from this? One NN as a antagonistic force,
trying to overcome a machines original purpose, one as a deterring force, that
alters the CAD-model?

------
sturmeh
"It’s almost as though there’s a psychological effect of the imposing
structure that is keeping her from even trying."

What like being able to see how much cat food is still in the machine?

------
Rhapso
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.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
This causes weight gain. My dog gains weight if I walk her any less than I
usually do, but still clammors endlessly for food.

~~~
emodendroket
I've tried this experiment on myself with much the same results.

------
restlessmedia
Wonderful article, I howled aloud when I passed this "It was the best and
worst day for Sprocket.".

------
sigstoat
anyone with more money than time and metal working skills might consider just
getting a super feeder: [http://www.super-feeder.com](http://www.super-
feeder.com) (nothing but a satisfied customer, here.)

~~~
acallahan
Dissenting opinion: I owned a Super Feeder before upgrading to the feeder
pictured in the original story. My cat was able to produce food from the super
feeder continuously, just by lightly smacking the tall column on the top.
Perhaps the kibble my cat eats is below the minimum supported size?

The new PetSafe feeder is better: it will produce a little food when kicked,
but it will only drop out a bit of the next meal from the top of the ramp; in
contrast, the super feeder could drain its entire reservoir through continual
knocking. I also find the PetSafe a better machine in other regards (battery
operated, much larger reservoir, easier to program a serving by volume).

I do think the super feeder is more hackable though, so if you're looking to
do metalwork maybe it's the better fit.

~~~
sigstoat
huh. usually a solid rap will drop a bit of loose stuff from our super feeder,
but a second one doesn't drop anything more. basically behaves as you're
saying your petsafe does.

> Perhaps the kibble my cat eats is below the minimum supported size?

i do think it has some issues with sufficiently small kibble. i noticed a bit
of increase in portion size variability when we moved to a smaller kibble.

did you have any luck with reducing the gate opening?

> I do think the super feeder is more hackable though

controlling it by applying power is certainly convenient. i've got an rpi
which dispenses on a schedule, and lets us hit a web page to dump out some
more food when the cats are complaining.

------
rahrahrah
I love it that there's people in the world who are so nerdy as to document
such a thing.

------
pain_perdu
...

~~~
astrodust
Did you even read the article?

------
run4yourlives2
This seems like a classic case of over-engineering the wrong problem.

The problem isn't that the cat is getting into the machine, the problem is
that the human is neglecting to feed the cat.

Solve the right problem.

~~~
Yen
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 build a machine to dispense
food, or pay another human to come by and feed the cat.

C) I often enjoy reading stories about the process of engineering (iterated
problems, solutions, new problems, etc.), even if the final result is 'over'
engineered.

~~~
run4yourlives2
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 misses solving the actual problem at hand.

~~~
marssaxman
"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.

