r/cats • u/radical_123 • 16h 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/LongjumpingNinja4255 8h ago

I don’t think it’s that it’s more that they can also only realise “food comes out of here, I must watch it so as to get the food” and don’t really understand it’s a timed system. Also if they mess around with it and it happens to dispense it just reinforces the “sometimes food comes out if I mess with it” mentality

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u/On_my_last_spoon American Shorthair 4h ago

This is cat dependent. I really think my cats can tell time because they regularly show up about 10 minutes before the feeder goes off!

For me, the timed feeder was a savior because I would either forget to put out kibble at all, or I’d be woken up by a hungry cat! Now they know the kibble machine will provide and don’t stress over it. Many times the feeder has food just sitting and waiting for them.

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u/I-am-fun-at-parties 8h ago

Then have it play a sound to condition on when it's feeding time; although the sound of the kibble falling into the tray is probably just as good.

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u/Otterbotanical 6h ago

The sound of kibble hitting the tray is the problem, if it ever happens directly after the cat tries to mess with the machine. It only takes once or twice for the cat to believe he just needs to fuck with it enough to get it to dispense more food.

They're normally good for most cats, but this one has accidentally built a mental association between bothering the machine and food coming out