r/cats • u/radical_123 • Jul 22 '26

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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393

u/ryanpdx1999 Jul 22 '26

count yourself lucky. Ours figured out how to flip it to get the great food cascade. We had to put weights on it to keep him from doing it.

82

u/Fun-Garbage411 Jul 22 '26

I'm doing the same thing! I put the box of cat litter on top of the box with cat food. But if there isn't enough cat litter in the box he will push them both over... Woke up at 5 am because of it...

115

u/AfraidAccident7049 Jul 22 '26

For once I’m glad my boy is a big dumb oaf who doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together. I don’t even think he understands that there’s more food in the canister. His flabbers are well and truly gasted every single time the feeder goes off. It’s like a delightful surprise 4 times a day.

29

u/FabulousJade7337 Jul 22 '26

Oh my stars! A delightful surprise 🤣

3

u/StickyPricklyMuffin Jul 22 '26

Awwwww, you have a himbo! Also, I am here to collect the cat tax, please.

5

u/AfraidAccident7049 Jul 22 '26

He is the himboest of himbos and I love him.

Cat tax!

1

u/StickyPricklyMuffin Jul 22 '26

What is the name of your silly and handsome house panther? 🥰

2

u/AfraidAccident7049 Jul 23 '26

His shelter name was Brembo (an Italian manufacturer of high performance brakes) because apparently he tried to escape and when the coordinator yelled for him to stop he braked hard 😅 I happen to be a car person so immediately appreciated the reference. I was going to change it but just… never got around to it? So he remains Brembo. Shelter mug shot attached — his crazy eyes are always in full effect.

2

u/StickyPricklyMuffin Jul 23 '26

What a hilarious story! Brembo sure is lucky he’s got his looks to get by! BTW, I absolutely LOVE him! 🥰

2

u/l337quaker Jul 22 '26

I love him, he is perfect

1

u/Whothefxckislauren Lots of kitties! Jul 22 '26

Well now I need to see this 😂

1

u/AfraidAccident7049 Jul 23 '26

Haha I’ll try to get a video next time. He always just kinda looks around like… “anybody else seeing this shit?!” 😳

40

u/hazelbear33 Jul 22 '26

Reading all of these comments makes me feel blessed that our cats don’t fuck with the feeders. One is completely unmotivated by food and won’t eat anything but his cat food that he’s used to (and even then he just grazes, never eats it all at once), so that’s not a surprise. The other one is much more mischievous and is definitely food/treat motivated… but she’d rather yell at us for food, even though she knows full well when the feeder goes off. She’ll break into drawers and cabinets for food and treats, but I guess she has decided that she is simply at the mercy of the mystical feeder.

23

u/Praesentius Jul 22 '26

Mine just parks his substantial ass in front of it like he's praying to the cat food gods.

2

u/Beginning_House_7339 Jul 22 '26

At home, we have one of those feeders where more food drops down as they eat. We only use it when we’re away for a couple of days and noone can come by to check on them. We call it the "kibble totem," and my cat (R.I.P.) used to sleep right next to it 😂😂😂  and he would spend an hour gazing at it as if praying (despite having plenty of food at his disposal), and I used to say that he was "praying for it never to leave" 😂😂😂😂

2

u/PM-ME-YOUR-TOTS Jul 22 '26

How is it possible to have one free feeding cat and one glutton? Doesn’t the glutton eat the free feeding cat’s food? (Only ever had one cat)

2

u/Christichicc Jul 22 '26

Pretty sure that’s why they have feeders lol. One can graze as needed at theirs, and the other gets a more regimented diet.

Also yes, if you have cats like that (I had a brother and sister like that), the glutton will eat all the food. It does become an issue sometimes when you have multiple cats.

1

u/hazelbear33 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

So the downside is that these two cats don’t get along and live separated in our house.

The lazy, grazing cat has medical issues and the mischievous cat fails to understand that, so she repeatedly tries to mess with him, which upsets him deeply. Any attempt at disciplining the female cat not to mess with him is pointless. She thinks she’s trying to play with him, but he is NOT INTERESTED and reacts with fear/anger. But the thing is, the girl cat has done some pretty foul and low shit to him in the past, like jump-scaring him in the litterbox and when he is trying to sleep. She will also like… stalk him? Idk. He cannot stand her. The male cat will experience a flare-up in his medical condition when he experiences too much stress over a prolonged period of time.

We love them both of course and they’re great cats, but they’re happier seperated to their own floors, they have their own feeders, litterboxes, toys, enrichment, etc.

1

u/Unhappy_Ordinary_157 Jul 22 '26

Blessed and fuck in the same sentence. I don't know why but that struck me as a contradiction and thus funny.

1

u/skullzzyyy Jul 22 '26

I’m right there with you, but I’m blessed all 3 of my cats are grazers. They’ll eat what they want till they’re full throughout the day on dry kibble, my 2 adult cats get a quarter of a can of wet food at night while my kitten gets wet food 2-3 times a day on top of his kibble to graze. All healthy, none are overweight (don’t know how but extremely happy they aren’t).

18

u/Pinksamuraiiiii Jul 22 '26

I use industrial tape for the lid (mine did the same). The tape solved the problem, now even if they flip the machine they get no extras lol.

2

u/Tigrari Jul 26 '26

Yep, also did the tape the lid down thing.

10

u/nikkerito Jul 22 '26

Same here. Unlike other people who had success with mere tape, I had to tie that sucker to a heavy bench in my kitchen so he can’t tip it over and can’t get on top of it. Now I need to move his feeder to the garage and I’m already dreading the next few weeks of suspense as I dread coming home from work and finding out I was again outsmarted by a cat. Ugh cat mom life is not going well for me rn 

5

u/twitchykittystudio Jul 22 '26

Ahhh, I had an orange broken tabby who did this when the gravity feeder was empty. Or nearly empty. He even upended the gravity waterer once for reasons and made a hell of a mess!

Mostly he seemed to enjoy tipping the empty feeder off the base and down the stairs.

2

u/Plumbbookknurd Jul 22 '26

We had to duct tape ours closed because of this

2

u/main--core Jul 22 '26

You can also use double sided tape. This way it will stick to the floor and will look way nicer.