Cat Sustenance Fortification
12mad
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6gwern
4Gordon Seidoh Worley
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1cwillu
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I don't know if you've seen this, but I feel it'd be right up your alley. It's the story of a war between a human who knows how to weld and a cat who wants to thwart their automatic feeder.
I considered doing the same thing to the water dispenser, but that would leak. Instead we decided to put it up out of reach of the kids, and cut a wooden base so it's less likely to tip.
Probably just as well, because cats prefer their food clearly separate from their water, even if that preference is not obvious until you test it, given cats' usual covert preferences & states. (Although I would be a little concerned that if you put the water up high, you are otherwise discouraging them from drinking, and cats don't drink enough water as it is.)
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2One downside to the way you've set up the water with it screwed in is that it'll be harder to clean.
I have a similar water dish for them and it doesn't just need to the jug refilled, but for the basin to be cleaned regularly. It gets dirty, I suspect both from mold that attempts to grow in the water and from cat saliva and bits of food that fall in. Also sometimes cats deliberately put food in water before eating it.
On the first picture of the feeder, if you screw through a small piece of wood on the inside, it'll act as a washer and make it much harder for the screw to pull through the plastic if a cat gets kinetic with it.
I think it is okay as is, but if they do manage to break it I will redo it with something to spread the force out.
