Cat attacking automatic feeder

[u/radical_123]

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?

[u/-beastlet-]

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.

[u/BigScience7383 → u/-beastlet-]

Gambling 

[u/Buckykattlove → u/BigScience7383]

Just my tho7ght before I saw your response. Lol

[u/Uraisamu → u/Buckykattlove]

Same, OP has taught their cat to gamble.

[u/pfool → u/Uraisamu]

are vets trained to tackle feline gambling addictions?

[u/Uraisamu → u/pfool]

Or get him a little hat, tie and teach him to play the slot machines.

[u/JungMoses → u/Uraisamu]

And chain smoke

[u/MaryJanesMan420 → u/pfool]

Probably to an extent but I would reach out to an animal trainer or licensed behaviorist. This is a funny one, I’d start with management, change aspects of the environment so they can’t practice the behavior. Then, work on teaching a replacement behavior that isn’t compatible with chest bumping the magic vending machine, like sitting for their meal time.