I'm so curious about why you need this.
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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I'm afraid it's nothing fun.
I had two cats, one young, one old.
My old 17 year old cat passed recently, and my 3 year old cat has been super erratic for months since. I've tried tons of things from calm down treats, pheromones, different toys... he's just a very unhappy young cat. He runs around just meowing a ton at random times, which he never did before. There is my room mates cat so there is another cat, but my cat has 0 interest in this other cat. He's unhappy.
I'm hoping maybe I can hide this in different places each day and he'll have something to hunt when it makes a noise and give him a sense of schedule and things to do?
I've tried most of the advice I can find online, so now I'm trying to make things up. I didn't give very many details because I knew if I did, I'd just get a whole ton of advice that I already tried.
this sounds like a fun arduino project
edit: a quick google search found this!
more sophisticated 3d-printed dispenser, along with Raspberry Pi source code (python):
https://hackaday.com/2022/11/22/local-iot-cat-treat-dispenser/
another for arduino:
https://www.instructables.com/Arduino-Project-Cat-Food-Dispenser/
there are lots more...
We've got one that you can schedule meals through an app. Most of the smart auto feeders offer that kind of capability. Ours is set to drop a pre selected amount at 0530, 1200, and 1700.
I have this one:
…it has no slots, just a single big hopper. You can program it to feed any amount at any interval, and holds a huge amount of food. You can also control it remotely via any internet connection.
If you live near a stream or river you could easily rig a water wheel to dispense cat food at whatever rate you want with the right gear combos and some scoop buckets with flaps
ok, so to calculate the first gear, we're going to go with (2πr cos AB x tan Φ) / v / 24hrs, where v = the average speed of the water in the river measured at least 30 times at random over a period of a year. The first to second gear is a ratio of 5:2.667. The second to third gear ratio is 4.20:6.9 (niceee). This will be the prototype.
"go build a water wheel" they said, "it'll be easy" they said...
This sounds like the most complicated over-engineered option I've ever heard of.
"Guys, is there a cat treat dispenser?"
"So what you do is first, live by the river, and THEN connect a waterwheel, to run as power and connect that to the cat feeder, to dispense at so many wheel turns from the water"
"Or, ya know.....maybe something battery operated, or plugs into a wall outlet."
You forgot the part of building a metal trebuchet
But first, we need to talk about parallel universes.
Cats dig waterwheels though, everybody knows that.
Is there one you can dispense via Wi-Fi?
Two six slots feels like the best answer unless you can score a programmable auto-feeder and your treats are dry food.
It may feel absurd but your scenario is quite out there so there aren't great solutions readily available.