Ben Millam, a man who describes himself as an “aspiring geek”, built an incredible cat feeding machine that requires his cat Monkey to hunt for RFID-tagged white plastic balls placed strategically around the house. Whenever Monkey finds a ball, he takes it over to the machine and inserts it into a blue bowl fitted on top and food comes out of the feeder.
Millam said that he built the feeder because he wanted to make sure that Monkey’s life was more fulfilled.
So instead of feeding my cat, I hide these balls around the house… This all started after I read an explanation of why cats go about repeatedly exploring the same areas: it’s partly to establish and survey their territory, but they’re also practicing ‘mobile’ hunting: moving about, being curious, and poking their noses around in the hopes of upsetting potential prey and finding a meal. So what if my cat, while out on patrol, actually found its prey? Surely this would bring him one step closer towards a more fulfilled and self-actualized indoor kitty existence.
In the first episode of his viewer suggestion series, What's Your Problem?, inventor Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines, who has previously built a streamlined cake server, a turkey preparing machine and a busy person lunch feeder, decided to make his friend's cat's feeding time a bit more adventurous as well.…
Bistro is a new cat feeder with some impressive technology baked-in, including a camera with feline facial recognition and a scale that lets users remotely monitor their cat’s appetite from afar via smartphone while at work on on vacation. The feeder, which is currently seeking funding via an Indiegogo crowdfunding…
As a follow-up to their handy dandy Horse Head Squirrel Feeder and Unicorn Head Squirrel Feeder, the folks at Archie McPhee have now made that same feeder available as a Cat Head. This gray tabby design, which is also used in their realistic cat mask, is sure to give a…
Inventor Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines, who has previously built a streamlined cake server, a turkey preparing machine and a Christmas wrapping machine, has created a hilarious Lunch Feeder. This machine, like his others, incorporates key Rube Goldberg principles of tiny chain reactions to automatically send several courses of food…
Tristan, Greg and Fred of TGiF Design along with the assistance of Dr. Sophia Yin, have designed The Foobler (food + tumbler), an automatic self-reloading puzzle feeder for dogs. They are looking to take things to the next level with their Kickstarter project. A dog's natural instinct is to hunt…
Lori Dorn
Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.
