Weird scenario, but I wanna do a treat every hour for 12 hours.

Anyone know of a good feeder or something that can do that? I could buy two 6 slot feeders and have them pick up after each other, but that seems a bit absurd.

  • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    this sounds like a fun arduino project

    edit: a quick google search found this!

    https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Elec_p106/electricity-electronics/automatic-dog-treat-dispenser

    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…

  • ChadCMulligan@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    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

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      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.”

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      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.