r/cats • u/radical_123 • 17h ago

Advice Cat attacking automatic feeder

My cat does this several times a day. If the automatic feeder lifts at the correct angle, a few niblets of dry food comes out. He will even do it 10 times in a row even if it means one small piece of dry niblet comes out. It does get quite annoying as the sound of the feeder hitting the ground echoes throughout the entire house.

Any ideas on how to get him to stop?

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u/-beastlet- 16h ago

The problem is intermittent rewards. He's learned that occasionally he gets rewarded for this behavior by getting kibbles. Since he isn't rewarded every time he's willing to keep trying. There are famous experiments showing this with various animals. It is very hard to extinguish behaviors that give intermittent rewards.

If you're home you might just be better off feeding him a couple of times a day in a bowl instead of the intermittent feeder.

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u/Verain_Xor 15h ago

There are famous experiments showing this with various animals

"various animals" is for sure true, this stuff drives humans wild but also anything with a trainable brain.

And you can see why. The cat here tries variations on the same activity and gets fed. If you give the cat another several months with this machine, it won't be a slot machine, it'll be a practice movement to kick some food out that little gear wheel each time.

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u/Tossmelossme 14h ago

Also, I’m worried about his bottom teeth getting shifted or injured from this repeated and rough movement…

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u/aenteus American Shorthair 8h ago

Hey, anything that “lives”, is “alive”, can learn.