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Cat-proofing a cat feeding machine
- Rhapso 10y agoHas 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 10y agoThis causes weight gain. My dog gains weight if I walk her any less than I usually do, but still clammors endlessly for food.
- emodendroket 10y agoI've tried this experiment on myself with much the same results.
- vidarh 10y agoIt depends on the animal. The cats we had when I was growing up always had "unlimited" access to dry cat food and water, and it was only canned stuff we'd put out at specific meal times, and they never ate themselves fat.
- astrodust 10y ago> ...still clammors endlessly for food. This is normal for dogs. They're always "starving".
- goda90 10y agoSome pets might eat themselves to obesity given the chance. I'm not sure the amount of effort the cat puts into trying to get more food is a perfect determinate of how much food the cat needs to be healthy.
- Segfaulter 10y agoMine definitely would, he'd eat until he would throw up and then probably eat some more. We're pretty sure he had food scarcity before he made it to the humane society.
- dsr_ 10y agoYeah, you need to raise the cat from first weaning with unlimited access to food to prevent this. If they never experience a moment of food anxiety in their lives, most cats will only eat when they are actually hungry. The majority of cats, however, have a built-in desire to eat whenever food is available, because they have not learned that it will continue to be available in the future. It's really hard to teach them this at any point after early kittenhood.
- goodcanadian 10y agoThis is very common for predators as they may go several days between kills. They have to eat when they can as there is no guarantee of when the next meal will be. For that matter, it is not unusual for other animals, including humans. I am certain that an evolutionary drive to eat when food is available is a major factor behind rush obesity rates. We evolved with food shortages.
- rconti 10y agoI think cats that do NOT overeat is the majority. At least among domestic cats.
- FreezerburnV 10y agoIn the article he mentioned a couple times that increased food intake causes the cat to vomit. For a "lazy human" armor plating a robot, cleaning up cat vomit is the last thing he would want to do I imagine.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- djaychela 10y agoQuinn is a she, FTR. Also, some cats will eat themselves to obesity (and it tends to be those with this kind of appetite for food, no pun intended), so keeping a limit on their intake is important, particularly if they are house cats (not common in the UK, but I think they are more so in the US).
- astrodust 10y agoEspecially when your cat's a "puker" that will eat, eat, and eat some more, barf a bunch, and go back to eating. Also what is with everyone saying "he"? Seriously. That blog is pretty clear about who's writing it.
- walrus01 10y agoThat works great until you end up with: https://www.google.com/search?q=tubcat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b https://www.google.com/search?q=tubcat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&cli...
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThe author is a female.
- LeifCarrotson 10y agoThe 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 10y agoThat's topologically equivalent to what OP did.
- wlesieutre 10y agoAnd OP is topologically equivalent to a bagel (disregarding nostrils)
- WildUtah 10y agoOP is topologically equivalent to a bagel (disregarding nostrils) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustachian_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustachian_tube
- vacri 10y agoThe eustachian tube is sealed, unless you have a hole in your eardrum.
- stephenboyd 10y agoThere's also the nasolacrimal duct to consider. Other than those little details, one of my favorite insights from studying biology is that almost all animals are basically tubes with accessory organs attached, deuterostomes and protostomes.
- trhway 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Protovsdeuterostomes.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Protovsdeuterostomes.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protostome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protostome : "In animals at least as complex as earthworms, the embryo forms a dent on one side, the blastopore, which deepens to become the archenteron, the first phase in the growth of the gut. In deuterostomes, the original dent becomes the anus while the gut eventually tunnels through to make another opening, which forms the mouth. The protostomes were so named because it used to be thought that in their embryos the dent formed the mouth while the anus was formed later, at the opening made by the other end of the gut."
- jevinskie 10y agoI 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
- sofaofthedamned 10y agoI've got the same one and it doesn't stop cats tailgating other cats. It was however hilarious during the 'training' phase watching the stupidest of our two barrel towards the flap and go crunching into it. Did have a good idea for gamifying it though - a cat airlock with a camera, $5 a month, getting bored old ladies on Facebook to compare the cat in the airlock and making the decision to let it through or not...
- niftich 10y agoCatptcha-as-a-Service
- sofaofthedamned 10y agoThanks for the branding :D
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- warfangle 10y agoSounds like Reamde... :)
- JohnJamesRambo 10y agoAfter 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.
- dangrossman 10y agoThat's a good way to make cats fat and eventually diabetic. On top of free feeding alone causing obesity in a lot of cats, "weight control" cat food is the worst stuff, it's mostly grains (carbs) which a cat -- an obligate carnivore -- doesn't need in its diet at all.
- danparsonson 10y agoI can't speak for anyone else, but with the cat I used to have, that would've resulted in an empty cat feeder and a very sick cat within an evening. I had to hide absolutely anything even vaguely edible, especially (bizarrely) bread, which the cat adored and which caused it terrible diarrhoea... Not all cats are created equal!
- nommm-nommm 10y agoCat 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.
- ddebernardy 10y agoThere's no such thing as "weight control" (dry) cat food except on food packaging by the crooked pet food business. The stuff invariably is full of carb, which cats do not metabolize like we do (they get their glucose through gluconeogenesis, from meat) and it's far too dry (cats on a normal diet gets the bulk of their water from "wet" food, and get much less water when on dry food, leading to kidney stones and bladder problems). Cats are true carnivores. They shouldn't be getting dry food to begin with.
- ianai 10y agoSomeone 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 10y agoI 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. :)
- Tempest1981 10y agoI would add an exhaust fan, to prevent smell in the bowl area.
- gjayawar1990 10y agoWoow had no clue we have got these type of machines nowadays.
- monochromatic 10y agoI'm impressed by both of the adversaries in this story.
- ayuvar 10y agoThis 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.
- ianai 10y agoAfter about a year the cat will have pulled the whole thing apart through sheer, continued prying.
- gh02t 10y ago> Kudos to Quinn for never giving up. Kudos to the cat for never giving up. My cat is clever and stubborn but this cat is downright devious.
- yoodenvranx 10y ago> I'm terrified to think what the next step will be once Sprocket chooses to escalate. I think we should be very happy that cats don't have opposable thumbs.
- xemdetia 10y agoWith Amazon echo and such devices, you never know when you'll come home to a miniature safecracking kit.
- cwkoss 10y ago"Today I came home and found my cat using a plasma cutter"
- pain_perdu 10y ago...
- astrodust 10y agoDid you even read the article?
- JKCalhoun 10y agoSimpler solution? Place cat feeder on top of refrigerator, long tube to direct falling food down to bowl on floor.
- mjschultz 10y agoBoth my cats get up on the refrigerator easily.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThe 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 10y ago> 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?
- ddebernardy 10y agoThere's this joke that goes something like this: - What's the highest a cat can jump? - [... no idea or wrong answer ...] - How high do you store your food? Vid of a cat jumping over 1m90 high: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw7CURpGRmw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw7CURpGRmw
- cowpewter 10y ago2 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.
- JKCalhoun 10y agoSimpler solution? Place cat feeder on top of refrigerator, long tube to direct falling food down to bowl on floor.
- sigstoat 10y agoanyone 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 10y agoDissenting 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 10y agohuh. 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.
- dominotw 10y agodo 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.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- oniMaker 10y agoUnfortunately 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?
- astrodust 10y ago"Why" is having control over frequency and quantity. If you have an over-weight cat you may need to dial that down gently over time to avoid too much protesting. The writer clearly indicated this is just for one meal of the day. People are losing their shit here as if this cat is locked in a room for months on end with no human contact.
- coldpie 10y agoNo one is losing their shit.
- tyingq 10y agoCompare to cows, who after being trained by real cattle guards, won't step on painted lines that simulate them.
- jdcarter 10y agoBut 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 10y agoRelevant 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/
- scott_karana 10y agoAdmittedly, cattle have been selectively bred for compliance for millennia, whereas I kind of suspect that humans encourage cats' hunting behaviour.
- elif 10y agoAll 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 10y agoI 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.
- run4yourlives2 10y agoThis 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 10y agoA) 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 10y agoI 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 10y ago"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.
- jdcarter 10y agoThere was no neglect. Quinn bought a fancy feeder because nerds love stuff like that, right? Cat figured out how to defeat the feeder. By the time she's welding a steel enclosure for the feeder, the story has clearly moved from "solving a problem" to "I'm not going to be beaten by a cat."
- oniMaker 10y agoThe fact that you're downvoted for common sense is alarming. HN is supposed to be a place for smart people.
- pinkrooftop 10y agoits turning into reddit //waiting for this to be flagged and silenced just for suggesting HN quality has declined
- grzm 10y agoIf you're down-voted, I would suggest it's because your comment doesn't add anything substantive (which would actually improve the quality of HN), makes a common, uncharitable complaint while doing so, and mentions you expect downvotes, which is counter to the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- pinkrooftop 10y agoit's substantive to the OP and GP's commentary. it's not apropos of nothing
- sctb 10y agoYou also might be getting downvoted because this was already a tiresome cliché 6 years ago. Now I'm not sure what it is, but the guidelines (as old as the hills, themselves) still ask us not to post it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- throwanem 10y agoI'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.
- dschep 10y agoThat is amazing. I'm so glad I can just free feed my cat with out her getting obese, or even fat.
- jdalgetty 10y agoLucky you!
- rconti 10y agoHaha, I know! chucks a week's worth of food in 5 bowls "peace out cats, see you next week!"
- jrnichols 10y agoours 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.
- dodders 10y agoHad 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 10y agoWhy not just leave the dry food out? Most cats won't overeat.
- skizm 10y agoWonder 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?
- endisukaj 10y agoKnowing cats... It would just end up with a really fat cat.
- extra88 10y agoDepends on the cat. Some will self-regulate and maintain a healthy weight but many will over-eat.
- realstuff 10y agoThis 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.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoDifferent cats have different histories with food security too, which probably plays a role.
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoThis is very true. I have two cats, male and female. They are from the same litter, and have had the same upbringing. One is quite chubby, the other stays fairly thin. The chubby one is also naturally lazier.
- kristofferc 10y agoThis is exactly what we do with our cat. We just refill the bowl when it starts to get empty. I would say his weight is average to slightly below average. We have done this since he was a kitten so perhaps that's why it works quite well.
- sfont 10y ago
- rahrahrah 10y agoI love it that there's people in the world who are so nerdy as to document such a thing.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- rhaps0dy 10y agoThis is an excellent example of why AI safety can never work by listing bad outcomes. And the cat is not even superintelligent.
- nullc 10y agoThe 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.
- bbarn 10y agoI 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 10y agoI 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 10y agoThe 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 10y agoLet 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 10y agoWell 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 10y agoSome 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 10y agoI 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.
- primitivesuave 10y agoMy 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 10y ago> 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.
- yoodenvranx 10y agoJeff 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-collection-of-tiny-details/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/this-is-all-your-app-is-a-coll...
- joering2 10y agoSomewhat relevant and got some attention on HN recently: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill
- hash-set 10y agoWow. That's...disturbing...
- dan_ahmadi 10y agoThis 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.
- lolc 10y agoWhen 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 10y agoYou must entertain your cat(s). I find it best to do so consciously for fear of what the cat will deem entertaining otherwise.
- JupiterMoon 10y agoOr let your cat out - it would rather entertain itself killing the local wildlife.
- palunon 10y agoNot everyone has a house... I wouldn't let my cat out in the middle of Manhattan. (Even if I think you shouldn't own a cat if you don't have somewhere for it to roam, sometimes, life happens)
- fellellor 10y agoOr maybe a bunch of dogs will entertain themselves by killing the cat.
- ianai 10y agoI 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 10y ago> 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.
- massysett 10y agoHe/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.
- blunatic 10y agoI 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 10y agoI have the PetNet and my cat has no problem detaching the bowl. Bane of my existence.
- blunatic 10y agoHow? 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 10y agoThe 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
- ezarowny 10y agoThere have also been some curious outages server-side that have caused the feeder to not actually feed. You would think an IoT device like this would default to using a locally stored schedule or something.
- Coincoin 10y agoWait 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 10y agoYes, but with kids, you can at least have the hope that they'll eventually learn to know better. With cats... not so much.
- 2016122 10y agoYes 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 10y agoSo 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 10y agoWell, you've got to get some benefit out of older siblings...
- matt_kantor 10y agoThis 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/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/427730/
- dghughes 10y agoMy 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.
- topcomfort 10y agoИнтернет магазин бытовой техники http://www.topcomfort.com.ua http://www.topcomfort.com.ua
- 72deluxe 10y agoOne 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 10y agoOf course sponge never does anything, he/she's got a guy for that!
- 72deluxe 10y agoAh 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)
- dboreham 10y agoObviously all the software development managers are going to gravitate to this thread..
- enobrev 10y agoI 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.
- moconnor 10y agoThis should give a moment's pause to anyone who thinks we could keep a superhuman AI in a box.
- pluma 10y agoYou're joking, but let's not forget that we had to reset the universe the last twenty-three times this happened.
- stcredzero 10y agoMostly 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.
- smilekzs 10y ago> 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!
- alphanumeric0 10y agoI'm not much of a hardware hacker but it'd be interesting to work on a wet food cat feeding machine.
- convolvatron 10y agoi 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?
- partycoder 10y agoI 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 10y ago> 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.
- suhith 10y ago"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?"
- sturmeh 10y ago"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?
- JoeSloth 10y agoAfter 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.
- otakucode 10y agoHow 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 10y agoIt 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.
- snarfy 10y agoIt'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.
- johnnymonster 10y agoWow 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.
- Pica_soO 10y agoCould 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?
- restlessmedia 10y agoWonderful article, I howled aloud when I passed this "It was the best and worst day for Sprocket.".
- koffiezet 10y agoMan 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.
- Perry17 10y agoRunning 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