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We started using an automated feeder with our dog. It broke one day and we were surprised to see that he was prompting us to feed him almost exactly at the prog
by hellotheretoday 3y ago
We started using an automated feeder with our dog. It broke one day and we were surprised to see that he was prompting us to feed him almost exactly at the programmed times. Like down to the minute.
Not sure if he’s relying on other sensory information like certain smells or sounds. I don’t believe that’s the case; we didn’t replace the broken feeder for 3-4 months and he was able to keep time within a few minutes during that period. Our behavior is erratic and changes often; we work jobs with very inconsistent schedules (thus the automatic feeder) so it’s likely not that our behavior is prompting him as well. We can even observe him consistently going to his feeding area on the security camera at the correct time when no one is home. Interesting stuff!
- jvanderbot 3y agoCircadian cycles are pretty reliable in terms of timekeeping. I end up upstairs every day for lunch at about the same time, and I always find myself in the kitchen grabbing a diet coke at about 130 because I used to grab one after a 1pm meeting for the longest time.
- hellotheretoday 3y agoDoes that hold true for animals though? Modern humans sleep on a pretty consistent schedule but my dog sleeps randomly throughout the day. And unfortunately for him my sleep schedule is utter chaos so he is often up very late And to further make it weird: our vet told us to feed him multiple small feedings throughout the day so the feeder was programmed for 6 feedings with 2 hour intervals from 9am to 9pm. He hit the mark for all feeding times! I still think there is potentially some sort of external prompt(s) though. Circadian rhythm is an excellent idea. Maybe that combined with something hard to detect, like lighting levels (which would explain why the timing shifted a few minutes over a few months). Who knows!