[HN Gopher] Furiosa's Cat Feeder (2016)
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Furiosa's Cat Feeder (2016)
Author : a_t48
Score : 118 points
Date : 2022-02-01 19:14 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blondihacks.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blondihacks.com)
| tantalor wrote:
| HAMMOND: Yes, yes, yes. That's why we're taking extreme
| precautions.
|
| GRANT: Do they show intelligence? With their brain cavity...
|
| MULDOON: They show extreme intelligence, even problem-solving
| intelligence. Especially the big one. We bred eight originally,
| but when she came in she took over the pride and killed all but
| two of the others. That one... when she looks at you, you can see
| she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like
| this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders
| came.
|
| SATTLER: But the fences are electrified though, right?
|
| MULDOON: That's right, but they never attack the same place
| twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses,
| systematically. They remember.
| protomyth wrote:
| Its amazing how the iteration of test and fix turns into armor
| plated cat feeders and armored-up code. You look at the end point
| and go "surely that wasn't necessary", but anyone who was around
| for the development knows that it was just the iterations
| dictating a crazy looking but complete solution.
| 323 wrote:
| Why google for 5 minutes when you can weld for 5 hours :)
|
| https://petspruce.com/tamper-proof-automatic-cat-feeder/
|
| https://felinefollower.com/top/tamper-proof-automatic-cat-fe...
|
| Also, is this site hosted on a solar powered raspberry pi? It's
| down with 5 comments and 20 upvotes.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Just because a cat feeder _says_ it 's cat proof doesn't mean
| it _is_ cat proof
| borski wrote:
| The one she modified also said pet proof ;)
|
| "PET-PROOF: The feeder is designed to keep prying paws from
| sneaking food before scheduled mealtimes"
| Smoosh wrote:
| That first link has some weird repetitive text about the litter
| box. Odd.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| Both these websites reek of SEO spam.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| A pretty fun read, but the site is struggling. If it does not
| load for you, here's a cache:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20210619021044/https://blondihac...
| a_t48 wrote:
| Whoops, sorry Quinn (if you see this)
| andrewxdiamond wrote:
| Quinn is a software engineer IRL, so she very well may!
| a_t48 wrote:
| I hope so. Quinn is very very indirectly related to me
| getting into software engineering in the first place. :)
| RicoElectrico wrote:
| Do we know whether it's potentially possible to rewire cat
| behavior, or are their brains set in stone after some time?
|
| - Like in the TFA, food insecurity
|
| - Un-feralizing cats reliably
|
| It seems that cats are odd one out with respect to adaptation.
| Dogs can have temporary issues when adapting to new owners or
| envinonments, but given some time they can cope. Even wild
| animals we don't consider domesticated can adapt better than
| cats.
| stormbrew wrote:
| I don't even know where to start with this. Do you really
| believe cats are somehow uniquely incapable of adaptation or
| learning?
|
| House cats are, for whatever reason: - very
| routine driven, - very sensitive to food availability,
| - get bored really easily.
|
| This combination means that if you regularly disrupt those
| things you force the cat to _constantly_ adapt. Most animals
| (including humans!) don 't deal well with that.
|
| Honestly I think most bad behavior for cats is that third
| point. People think because they're smaller than dogs they're
| ok with tiny uninteresting spaces but that's not really how
| they work. Especially if you have more than one, but if you do
| only have one then they're gonna get incredibly bored.
|
| Anyways, in my house we have 4 cats and we managed to "train"
| them into more or less free feeding from all being pretty food
| insecure by just using rfid-controlled feeder bowls that only
| open for the right cat, so there's some anecdata for being able
| to change cat behaviour.
| RicoElectrico wrote:
| > This combination means that if you regularly disrupt those
| things you force the cat to constantly adapt.
|
| I did not imply regular disruption. But take this example - I
| have read/heard about semi-feral cats which were regularly
| fed for over a year by somebody before allowing to be
| touched. At this rate you could make it so for wild animals
| typically found at human settlements like squirrels and
| corvids. So, no change after the beginning, yet it took a
| year for the cat before realizing humans are friendly.
|
| > Honestly I think most bad behavior for cats is that third
| point. People think because they're smaller than dogs they're
| ok with tiny uninteresting spaces but that's not really how
| they work.
|
| On that one I have to agree - some people are surprised their
| cats ignore them, but they don't play, especially to spend
| energy during the so called zoomies.
| nonameiguess wrote:
| > But take this example - I have read/heard about semi-
| feral cats which were regularly fed for over a year by
| somebody before allowing to be touched.
|
| This is true of individual cats, but not at all for cats as
| an entire species. I regularly feed semi-feral cats and
| even took one in. There is tremendous variety in how long
| it takes before they'll let you touch them. In some cases,
| it's never. In some cases, it's right away. I'd reckon an
| average case is maybe about a month. It presumably depends
| heavily on individual personality plus whatever history of
| trauma from other large animals and people they have
| already experienced before they ever met you.
| darknavi wrote:
| > You might say I've won this battle. However I just spent 20
| hours armor-plating a cat feeder. I think we know who's really in
| control here, don't we?
|
| The stuff we do for our pets.
|
| I use this nifty feeder/hopper in conjunction with an outlet
| running ESPHome for scheduling:
|
| https://superfeederstore.com/wall-mount-cat-feeder-csf-3xl-b...
|
| It's dumb and it works great!
| h2odragon wrote:
| I half expect the cat to be securing a supply of explosives.
| "finally convinced her to give up" ... there's a touch of tragedy
| in that. "We had this lovely game, human, until you spoiled it."
| Sniffnoy wrote:
| (2016)
| hycaria wrote:
| I would've stopped at the part where the cat can make them fall
| one by one with her paw. Let her grab food that way, that will
| make her busy longer than when dropping the meals.
| jasone wrote:
| Previously discussed:
|
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13230904
|
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13271746
| podiki wrote:
| What a journey! My vet recommended more puzzle feeders and moving
| to get rid of the free dry food (I do wet food in morning/night),
| both to control how much the cat eats and to give them something
| to do. After all, in the wild food is not free, they have to hunt
| for it.
|
| One they recommended was something like [0] which is what I've
| been using. Works pretty well in that most of the time the cat
| knows he can't get food from me (though smart enough to know I
| fill them up and hide them). Adds a little game and great if
| you'll be out of the house for a while. So there's no longer a
| bowl for dry food at all, he has to "hunt" for his mice. Though
| I'm guilty of sometimes giving some bonus food, I think it is a
| helpful system. I think he'd be all over an autofeeder just like
| in this story (already have to hide the big dry food bag as he'll
| get into it).
|
| [0] https://docandphoebe.com/
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > both to control how much the cat eats
|
| Get one Surefeed per cat and that's not a problem any more -
| side benefit, you'll see when one cat suddenly eats less which
| may be an indicator for toothache... which can escalate into
| full-blown hepatolipidosis like it did with one of my old cats.
|
| Invest 300EUR, save 3500EUR in veterinary ICU costs down the
| road.
| Steltek wrote:
| Won't the cats swarm over you while you're filling the hunting
| feeder or dispersing them through the house?
| madaxe_again wrote:
| I'm so grateful for our two - we just leave out big bowls of
| dry food, they eat a bit here and there, never excessively, and
| both are lean and happy. I figured it was because they were
| secure that there would always be more food - and it seems to
| be the case, as I recommended to a friend who was new to cats
| that they do the same, and their guys behave likewise.
| stormbrew wrote:
| We have four cats and 2 of them require special food (kidney
| and allergies), and of the other two one of them will eat any
| food he can find most of the time while the other wanted to
| be in control of her own food to the point where she would do
| the thing where she scratched at the side of the bowl trying
| to bury it, presumably to keep it from the other one.
|
| So just leaving some bowls out didn't really work for them,
| they'd constantly eat each others' food or eat everything as
| quick as possible to keep it from the other cats, with
| predictable (and gross) results.
|
| We got feeder bowls that only open with the right RFID and
| now they're all much happier and more food secure. Sadly
| there's no good ones on the market I could find that do
| _both_ automatic feeding and the rfid-gating, so we still
| have to manually feed them but for the most part they don 't
| care when we feed them anymore except sometimes in the
| morning (which is the most likely time for them to run out of
| food).
| nsv wrote:
| Seems like a cool DIY project if you get the time to do it!
| technothrasher wrote:
| > I figured it was because they were secure that there would
| always be more food
|
| I've lived with quite a few different cats in my day. It's
| simply the individual cat. Some cats overeat if allowed, some
| don't. It's certainly nice when you have one that doesn't,
| but it's nothing you did if you have one that does.
| amelius wrote:
| The problem with this approach is that you'll have spilled bits
| of cat food all around the house.
| heyheyhey wrote:
| Yep, had this problem with one of those "ball feeders". My
| solution was to put it in bathtub.
| kelnos wrote:
| We have a ball feeder, but this ends up not being a
| problem; he eats every scrap of the food that comes out,
| even if there are smaller crumbs. I guess it helps that we
| feed him on a wood floor, not carpet, too.
| a_t48 wrote:
| I wish I could feed mine wet - but one of them requires
| specialized dry food (Ultramino) that doesn't come in wet :(
| 0x002A wrote:
| Thousands of years ago felines decided to domesticate the hoomans
| for two reasons: continuous and scheduled supply of food and door
| opening functionality on demand.
| tasha0663 wrote:
| I love the final look. Dirty steampunk art deco. Like something
| out of _BioShock_. Needs some barnacles.
| mousefad wrote:
| I sub to Quinn's youtube channel on the subject of metal
| machining, and recommend it if you're into that kind of thing.
| https://www.youtube.com/c/Blondihacks
|
| Quinn is both a skilled maker and a wonderful teacher (not to
| mention having a superb wry sense of humour). The channel is one
| of the most informative places on "maker youtube". Quinn's
| amazing!
| camtarn wrote:
| Agreed! It's great to see Quinn turn up on HN. Her channel is
| an excellent source of very relaxing machining content.
| [deleted]
| Elof wrote:
| Got the HN hug -
| https://web.archive.org/web/20210619021024/https://blondihac...
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(page generated 2022-02-01 23:00 UTC)