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Monkey the Cat Hunts for Dinner
- cautious_int 11y agoI'm trying to think of a useful thing to teach a cat, using this technique, that would be helpful at home.
- mrbig4545 11y agoI'm going to use it to train my cat to close doors after she opens them!
- morganvachon 11y agoSome people train their cats to use the toilet instead of a litter box, using similar methods. Less mess and no litter to buy.
- dkersten 11y agoI considered doing this with my cat, but from reading up on it, it sounds like its not less mess because cats don't understand the concept of aiming into the toilet... Maybe it depends on the size of the cat though? I'm going to try teach my cat to fetch using clicker training. When she was a kitten, she used to fetch things I threw and then drop them at my feet.
- eternalban 11y agoI have strays from backyard that get to stay in when it is very nasty out. There guys are not trained but uncannily each has managed to somehow id the bathtub as the 'emergency place'.
- morganvachon 11y agoEvery cat I've ever had has been like this; if their litter box is full or for some other reason they don't want to use it, it's always the tub. I think it has something to do with the relative privacy the high bathtub walls afford them.
- dkersten 11y agoI've seen cats use the shower too.
- CatsoCatsoCatso 11y agoBoth my previous cat & my current both had/have a nasty habit of walking off from the litter tray before they've completely finished their "Number Twos". I'd be fearful that if they were toilet trained there'd be some nasty surprises on the seat or the bathroom floor. I'm sure there's a dark brown side to the glamour of potty trained kitties which we don't see.
- mrbig4545 11y agoI did this when I had 3 cats a while back. It's hard work, but it goes like this (over a couple of months!) only move onto the next step when the cat is comfortable 1. move the litter box next to the toilet 2. slowly raise it to toilet height 3. put it over the toilet seat 4. make an insert for the toilet with litter in, and small hole for drainage (i used a sheet of 5mm pvc iirc, and a heat gun to mould it into a bowl that sat over the rim of the bowl) 5. slowly use less litter 6. when there's no litter left, make the hole slightly bigger 7. keep repeating making the hole slightly bigger 8. when the hole is full size, take the insert away 1 cat hated it, I think the splashing noise scared him. The other didn't mind. The youngest loved it. In the end I went back to the litter tray as it was distressing cat 1 too much. The worst thing about this training is it takes months, and I only had one toilet, and removing the inset litter tray was a huge pita! There was something quite odd about going to the toilet and it being occupied by a cat though! Here's a pic of cat3, happy as larry. Even after I put the litter tray back he carried on using the toilet for a few weeks https://thisaintnews.com/static/user/pics/1219881600/1220319540-dsc00003.jpg https://thisaintnews.com/static/user/pics/1219881600/1220319... I think it would work best if I had 2 toilets, so it wasn't such an effort for me and guests to use it, and if there was only 1 cat instead of 3. It's too much work trying to train 3 cats to use it at the same time, and to convince them the floor is not a better option
- twic 11y ago1. Cat looks at bug tracker 2. Cat approaches bug tracker 3. Cat selects ticket in bug tracker 4. Cat implements fix for bug in ticket 5. Cat rebases 6. Cat pushes to GitHub
- mikegioia 11y agoI could never get through step 5 :/ Stupid cat.
- oinksoft 11y agoMy cat just forks the project because I reject the bird animation PRs... you know what they say, cats don't have owners, they have upstream.
- joezydeco 11y ago7. Yell at Cat for breaking the build and then Cat just walks off and goes to sleep.
- teddyh 11y agoThis is awesome, but the training schedule seems overly complicated. One would think it would be easier to have the balls initially positioned so that they fall into the feeding mechanism at the touch of a feather; probably at a place where food used to be served, so the cats are likely to be there and search for food. A cat should be able to figure out the procedure after knocking the balls in accidentally a few times. After this, it would just be a matter of moving the balls gradually further and further away from the feeding apparatus over time.
- INTPenis 11y agoOr just cover the balls in catnip at first to make the cat take an interest in them and realize what they're for.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- gwern 11y agoThat wouldn't work on the quarter or so of cats who are immune.
- soggypretzels 11y agoI agree. Here is what I would do: Train cat to attack a laser point (easy) Place ball next to target and point laser at ball and hope that it gets knocked in. When it does, reward it getting knocked in and gradually increase the distance to the target. I am assuming the cat would figure out at some point that it can carry the ball to the target in its mouth.
- bmillam 11y agoHi Teddy, I've been busy and avoiding reading comments, but happened to see yours here. Interestingly that's actually the approach I started with, using a cut slab of PVC pipe with screws for adjustable stopping points that initially positioned the balls at the edge of the bowl receptacle. The problem was, at least with my cat, that he tended to nudge the ball in the wrong direction (despite my attempts to make my ramp one-way), and his first instinct to affect the ball was to use his paws, lifting the ball away or batting it out of the bowl. Here's an example of how fragile and reflex-based I think these behaviors are (vs. levering some kind of affordance/object/goal-oriented intelligence), at least to start -- when Monkey was initially successful at carrying the ball into the bowl, all my training had involved approaching the feeder from the living room, to the feeder's right side. When I put the ball to the left of the feeder, he picked it up, approached the feeder, and about a foot away just dropped it and froze... apparently dumbfounded. It took more reinforcement and gradual variation with ball placement until he was able to generalize and approach the feeder from anywhere. Alright back to work for me! Thanks, Ben
- rogeryu 11y agoBut Don't Shoot the Dog! ;-) http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Shoot-Dog-Teaching-Training/dp/0553380397 http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Shoot-Dog-Teaching-Training/dp/05... This is actually a very fun read about conditioning - no matter if you have a cat or dog. I've read it quite a while ago, and I remember that conditioning cats is not that difficult, as long as you stick to positive rewards. Punishment doesn't work. For those who think this will be abused for manupilating people - that's what we do all day no matter if we read this book or not. It's just the way you do it, and that probably won't change by reading this book. It will teach you a lot about your own behavior.
- mrbig4545 11y agoI've taken a chance and decided to trust you. So I've ordered this book, don't let me down random internet stranger!
- rickdale 11y agoBook recommendations from random hn users has changed my life. 4 hour body in particular. For dog training I really like Michael Ellis from Leerburg.com. His free videos are really all you need, some of the paid dvds can be repetitive, but ultimately he keeps up with the latest trends and I think is amazing with dogs. Everyone has their own theory it seems though..
- noskynethere 11y agoWould you recommend 4 hour body to someone who is generally put off by Ferriss' writing style and ego-centricity?
- rickdale 11y agoYes! I haven't read any of his books all the way through, and I do find a lot of the podcast stuff pretentious. But this book changed my life, some of my friends lives and some of my family members. I think its a great start to learning to eat healthy and the easiest way to lose weight for sure. Let me know if you tinker with the diet, I would be interested in your results.
- soggypretzels 11y agoUsing RFID to detect the presence of the balls feels like overkill. Why not a light sensor, or a hair trigger switch out of reach of the cat. Sure The cat can now be fed by finding random objects, but maybe the training of using the ball will stop the cat from figuring that out.
- Serow225 11y agoThat is one hard-to-parse title!
- nkrisc 11y agoI was expecting to read about the unfortunate monkey some feline dined on.
- Serow225 11y agoThat is one hard-to-parse title! :)
- aMoniker 11y agoThis is a bad way to be clever. Just feed your cat. Do you think the cat enjoys having to learn and then implement your arbitrary rules everyday in order to eat? Just imagine making your child go on an easter egg hunt every time they were hungry. How long would the fun last?
- hoopism 11y agoThis is super awesome. About 5 years ago I built my own SSHable/Camera cat treat dispenser. We'd dump food on my cats head from work and laugh... it wasn't nearly as kind to the cat as this is.
- dominotw 11y agodon't feed kibble to your cat please.
- comrh 11y agoI was thinking all that for dry food, what a con.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y agoThe next step is to make a device that opens a wet can and let the cat choose with buttons or different drop targets.
- xsmasher 11y agoI've heard both "don't use dry food, it causes issues" AND "don't use wet food, it causes issues" so... You're going to have to provide some citation for your opinion.
- cleaver 11y agoI think dominotw is a cat. If so, don't expect a citation.
- Nadya 11y agoWet food causes dental issues but isn't a problem with regular checkups unless your vet prescribes dry food to a cat especially prone to dental issues caused by wet food. Dry food is tied to obesity due to being higher in carbs, and obesity -> higher chance of diabetes. As for nutrition - high end dry food will always be better than cheap wet food but overall, from what I've gathered from many vets, is that wet food is better. So I can see the argument for "wet food is taking better care of your cat" but, unless you notice your cat getting overweight, I don't think kibble could be considered harmful.
- jusben1369 11y agoI thought the lack of any moisture in dry food can create other issues too?
- scoot 11y ago(Unintentionally) misleading title. This is not about a monkey being hunted by a cat...
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mst 11y agoConfusing for a moment, sure, but not really misleading - 'The Monkey the Cat Hunts for Dinner' would've been that, without the leading 'the' the sensible expectation is that it's a cat name.
- apalmer 11y agohmmm wonder if this actually is beneficial to the cat in any way? The theory is the cat is more 'actualized' because he is actually hunting his food. But this doesn't smell, taste, or behave like food. Generally in animals the 'reward' is triggered at a sensual level. Meaning take sex, yes there is a sex drive and a very strong drive for 'actualization'. However if you remove the smell, taste, feel, visualization but kept the 'mounting' behavior it probably wouldn't satisfy the drive, as the satiation triggers are wired to the senses. Basically, I think actually bother to hiding the food is going to satisfy the cat on a far more deeper primal level than training him to redeem food tokens. But maybe it will, interesting.
- evo_9 11y agoFun read but I'm really against keeping a cat inside all day, for most of its life. Granted you may not have a choice, depending on your location. But generally I think more effort should be placed on slowly getting a kitten acclimated to the outside world than something like this. I've done it with all my cats, basically starting to let them outside around the time they are neutered. The kitten will naturally take a very cautious approach as they slowly explore their environment. It's actually fascinating to watch as they slowly gain more confidence and move farther into the brush and edges of your yard/property (provided you have the space). Eventually getting into tree's and exploring up as well as out. They are happier, they are healthier and they live longer. My first cat that I raised this way lived until 18.
- zimpenfish 11y agoAgreed with the "not indoors" part. Plus they'll bring you presents from outside too. Sometimes even in one piece.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> and they live longer. Every source I can find indicates that, on average, strictly indoor cats live much longer than indoor/outdoor cats who in turn live much longer than strictly outdoor cats. (My own experience aligns with this and further with the there being a much wider distribution in lifespans as you go further down the strictly indoor to strictly outdoor continuum.)
- e40 11y agoEvery source I can find indicates that, on average, strictly indoor cats live much longer than indoor/outdoor cats who in turn live much longer than strictly outdoor cats. This is absolutely true. I had a cat that refused to stay indoors during the day. He was constantly getting injured in fights with other animals (mostly not cats, I believe). An infection almost killed him, except we were willing to plunk down the money to get the wound attended to and for the antibiotics. Wearing that cone of shame was the worst 3 weeks of his life.
- mixologic 11y ago
- schoen 11y agoDid anyone notice that the batteries powering the device are "9 Lives" brand? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eveready_Battery_Company#/media/File:Eveready_9_lives_Super_Heavy_Duty_D_cell.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eveready_Battery_Company#/medi...
- ggambetta 11y agoThere's a small typo in the title of that article, it should read Urban cat makes human slave build contraption so he can play hunter whenever he wants and then have some food
- delinka 11y agoYou remind me of this: "What if we are all just pawns in corn’s clever strategy game, the ultimate prize of which is world domination?" --Michael Pollan in http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_...
- norea-armozel 11y agoMy cat would just poop in my shoe if I tried to make her do anything. LOL
- goblin89 11y ago‘Prey balls’ with cat detection and evasion capabilities seem like a potential development of the idea, if it weren’t so technically challenging.
- Akkuma 11y agoI think this has already been accomplished by http://getshru.com/ http://getshru.com/
- muP 11y agoI thought the article would be about a monkey hunted by a cat for dinner.