Fort Catnip

[Darren Wright]

We bought an automatic cat food feeder and had been testing it out as we go out of town time to time. I tried to keep it under an end table on the porch last time, it worked for a few days, but eventually Trash panda won. He got it out from under the table and the lid off.


Surprisingly it didn’t incur any real damage, just a few teeth marks around the lid.


I decided to build an enclosure for it today. I wanted the base large enough they couldn’t easily tip it over, cover the feeder slides so they couldn’t knock them off, and still have the bowls removable for cleaning.

I first outlined the feeder on the base, then squared out space around the outline to frame out the walls, just 1x2 pieces for the corners and some left over sheeting from the guest cabin for the walls and base, nothing fancy, but plan to paint it.



I got some help on the project from Sissy.


I hot glued some rubber feet on to keep the from sliding it on the porch.


Added the hinges and a clasp.


Won’t leave the table over it, but may add a landscaping block or two for extra anchoring.


I have a power cable come out the window for it, but if that gets disconnected or damaged, the feeder still runs on 4 D batteries, once programmed.

 

[Brent Dowell]

"When in Doubt, Build it stout"

Looks like that ought to keep them out of it. Looking forward to the next update on the trash panda saga!

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Looking forward to the next update on the trash panda saga!

I'm envisioning a groundhog day kinda scenario here with increasingly complicated and zany attempts to keep out the trash pandas...

 

[Darren Wright]

I do need to add a dedicated camera to the feeder, certainly would be fun to watch.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

I'm envisioning a groundhog day kinda scenario here with increasingly complicated and zany attempts to keep out the trash pandas...

Yeah, the lil' bandits are already holding meetings and forming committees to figure out how to defeat this. Darren could turn this into viral video content like Mark Rober and the squirrel obstacle courses he's built in his back yard.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Darren could turn this into viral video content like Mark Rober and the squirrel obstacle courses he's built in his back yard.

I dunno.. Is going from monetizing squirrels to monetizing trash pandas a step to far?

Tune in to our next episode to find out....

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

I dunno.. Is going from monetizing squirrels to monetizing trash pandas a step to far?

Tune in to our next episode to find out....

I built Fort Catnip. Click here to see what happened next!

 

[Charles Lent]

"click here" doesn't work Vaughn.

Charley

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

"click here" doesn't work Vaughn.

Charley

Yeah, it does. It simply goes to the post above mine. That's the joke. It's clickbait.

 

[Charles Lent]

So fast on my computer that it didn't even look like it happened.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

So fast on my computer that it didn't even look like it happened.

I probably should have used a more traditional method of Internet trolling, lol.

 

[Darren Wright]

Just a quick update. The raccoons have figured out how to remove the bowls from time to time, and even have tried to pull part of the plastic bowl out, but this time they got it all the way out.


I have to say that abs either had a weak spot or the raccoon had some strength, it's not easy to tear like that.

I used some of the loctite ultra gel and it's holding together pretty good.


I used some washers to prevent them from lifting the bowls, but may just do a full overlay to keep them from reaching under/around too.


They do get it moved away from the wall a few inches, but so far the wide base has kept them from flipping it over.