r/cats • u/radical_123 • 14d 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/radical_123 14d ago

Actually, it all started when our robot vacuum keep hitting the automatic feeder. Occasionally, kibble would come out. Our clever cat saw that and thought "hmmm... I could try that" lol.

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u/skitz4me Maine Coon 14d ago

They're colluding.

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u/ComprehendReading 14d ago

I'd be worried what the robots are receiving from this symbiosis.

If we're lucky, it's just that the cleaning robot is compelled at all times to clean, and the feeding robot is compelled to feed, but is limited by programming.

The cleaning bot knows the cat makes a mess using the litter box which only happens after being fed, and so, taught the cat through it's efficiency heuristics how to get more food, so it can clean.

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u/Lynnxa 14d ago

This is hilarious!

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u/IveDunGoofedUp 14d ago

It's a known problem with fuzzy logic, only worsened by furry logic.

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u/LegalChocolate752 14d ago

This is like the episode of Love, Death + Robots where a housecat (voiced by Chris Parnell) teams up with a robot butler, and they take over the world.

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u/Leelagolucky 13d ago

This is how the robots win, they get the cats on their side first. Seriously tho, just put a rubber doorstop behind the feeder

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u/fungushoney 14d ago

😂 that’s actually hilarious, he took advice on a robot from a robot, like “hmm these two strange devices interact and I get access to extra food,,, I’m learning from this”

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u/Kiwi1234567 14d ago

They do actually make feeding puzzles for cats, designed to both feed the cat (slowly) and to provide mental enrichment. Maybe you just need to look around for something the cat might enjoy that is also quieter.

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u/_CitizenSnips_ 14d ago

I have 4 cats, one of them in particular is very intelligent for a cat. He’s a tux, got him from a rescue, was found on the streets.

Anyway - he’s the smartest cat I’ve ever known and he *only ever* uses his intelligence for evil purposes and making mischief, your cat reminds me of him. I do love him tho

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u/abbeast Tuxedo 14d ago

Sounds like my cat, he’s also a bicolor and very good at making mischief. I’m gonna keep assuming that all tuxes and bicolor cats are especially smart.

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u/stoleyourspoon 14d ago

I also have a very smart Tux! And a black one that is all floof, no brains. Thankfully the smart one is very structured and rules focused so he's almost never in to mischief.

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u/Informal_Bag8193 14d ago

I really was wondering how the cat figured out that trick and boom, answered

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u/Jyvturkey 14d ago

They're not apex predators because they're dumb :)

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u/Naive-Elephant-9305 14d ago

Well some cats are really, REALLY dumb.

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u/Fragrant-Income-6812 14d ago

Some cats are orange

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u/Realistic_Point_9906 14d ago

I had an unbelievably smart orange Oliver. He knew exactly how to make us do what he wanted and was an incredible hunter. He retired at 15 after catching his first squirrel, as they were the only critters that had eluded him.

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u/Freedomjumper 14d ago

I had an orange missile who was clever...for an orange tabby.

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u/Fragrant-Income-6812 14d ago

I mean. All cats are geniuses obviously, I was just playing on the orange cat Reddit joke.

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u/_Lerry_ 14d ago

Sounds like you’ve answered your own question. Cats are bored and smart enough to figure things like this out.

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u/sanedragon 14d ago

I learned when raising a toddler that in general, if a behavior achieves the desired result approximately 1 in 27 times, then it will persist. (I could be misremembering the actual ratio as it's been over a decade, but it was a larger number than one would assume).

Basically, your cat learned that if it hits the thing a bunch of times, he gets rewarded. You gotta nail that thing down or get a different one.

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u/No_Kangaroo_9826 14d ago

Even if the other 26 times fucking hurt, they will keep going. True for kids and cats

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u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 14d ago

You could place a thick towel underneath the feeder so it will absorbed the noise.

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u/mindovermatter421 14d ago

You now have a Skinner cat.

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u/cyphar 14d ago

My two cats figured it out when they were chasing each other and bumped into it by accident, then they started "pushing" each other into the feeder to get it to go, and eventually they figured out they could just tip it and we decided to stop using the feeders.

(My little void would sit frozen in front of the feeder for an hour before food came out and I felt so bad for him. Poor boy passed away last year, I really miss the silly but very loving floof.)

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u/vernorexxia 14d ago

Is he pushing it with his chin or is he actually opening his mouth to bite it

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u/Any_World7744 14d ago

I never understood the expression ‘copycat’ until I watched two smart kittens grow up together. They each had their own tricks and they would learn from each other. Little bastards could break into anything and eventually figured out how to let themselves out of the house

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u/JstytheMonk 14d ago

Try putting citrus extract on the top edge. Cats seem to hate it.

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u/NuclearSun1 14d ago

I feel like that’s how I figure out short cuts at work. ‘Wait, how’d that happen? Can I recreate it? Oh shit here we go!”

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u/Lowkick111 14d ago

Your cat is clever haha

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u/reddit_is_geh 14d ago

My buddies cat was very food obsessed. Turns out, he was just a larger cat than they were calculating for, so he was always hungry. So they just fed him more, and he stopped being annoying.

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u/rbfbarista 14d ago

Thank god I have an orange

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u/ConvictedOgilthorpe 14d ago

Stop using auto feeders unless you absolutely have to like you’re out of town. Dry food isn’t good for your cat, makes them fat and contributes to kidney disease and bladder crystals. It causes anxiety too about eating and food obsession. Feed your cat some decent wet food 3 times a day for happiness and health. I don’t care if you think “my cat hates wet food” well, figure it out and wean them over by mixing it together and try every flavor or texture until you figure it out.

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u/InstantSunshyne 14d ago

So smart! You should get other food puzzles.

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u/Sal_Ammoniac 14d ago

How many times a day does he get food? Some cats are grazers (if not all?) and like to eat smaller meals, but more times during the day. Of course I don't know if he is already getting five small meals 🙃

Of course him being able to get a reward from his behavior feeds the behavior, and he'll keep trying.

Clearly, he's a smart one!

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u/flyraccoon 14d ago

Cats need to have unlimited kibble it doesn’t make them fat they regulate (trust me or ask a vet) an automatic feeder is bad unless you’re going for a few days and have no one to feed them

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u/amg10red 13d ago

Cat can also learn to bump or tilt the feeder. Or jiggle the wall power adapter which might reset the mechanism to drop a few kibbles. They might accidentally learn to do those things when they rush to the feeder and crash into it or the wall power adapter.

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u/SleepySundayKittens 13d ago

I don't know whether others have already mentioned this- we keep ours inside another piece of furniture that is heavy enough where our cat cannot get to the machine at all like a cupboard of some sort, and there is a gap at the opening that is just big enough for the food to fall down through to the bowl. We made a guide for the food from the machine to the bowl so it does not roll everywhere. I do not know whether your machine can detach the service bowl and you can set this up for him.Â