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My wife and I have two cats and I work out of the house and getting automatic feeders was a godsend. They used to routinely wake us in the middle of the night by meowing and jumping on us, and meow incessantly in the evenings. Our feeders give them a little bit of food five times a day and they no longer meow at us when they're hungry; they sit by their feeder and wait for the food. We cuddle with them multiple times a day and play with them as much as possible, and they are incredibly loved. I like your sentiment that cats should be more than just fixtures in our household, but I feel your advice is a bit unfair.

Similar situation here. Separating the concept of humans from food providers has been very beneficial in our household. We still give the cats a lot of attention.

As an owner of multiple cats, and fiance to a licensed veterinary technician, this sounds like good and sensible advice for maintaining a cat's health and well-being. We've caught many health issues by noticing changes in feeding, drinking, poo and litter box use. I don't know why you've gotten so many downvotes.

Having a feeding machine that operates on a regular schedule when your schedule is anything but does not mean you're being a delinquent pet owner. It doesn't mean you're oblivious to your pet's health.

Some people have automatic coffee makers that run on a timer. Does that make them indifferent to their own health?

I didn't read any implication of delinquency or obliviousness into the OP's post. It seemed merely informative and another aspect to think about when considering how and when to feed your pets. A disagreement is not necessarily adversarial.

An automated feeder has been actively better for my cat's health. She is eating the correct amount now. When I was feeding her by hand on a diet, she blamed me for it.

>Some people have automatic coffee makers that run on a timer. Does that make them indifferent to their own health?

This analogy is very far off from feeding your cat from a machine.

Feeding a cat is 1. giving it food 2. bonding and establishing a relationship 3. chance to check on cat's well being.

People can talk and tell someone if they are unwell.

Having an automatic thermostat is being indifferent to the climate.

In the old days we'd shovel coal into the furnace. We were in tune with nature.

While I believe your contribution is an interesting one I recommend to not assume too much. We got 2 cats from the animal shelter, and they are not very playful (relatively speaking). They're generally afraid, tho much less nowadays.

What we do is we feed them manually, once a day, the very same amount (using the same bowl as scoop) in the evening before we go to bed (he's on a diet for FLUTD, and she has to eat the same food so she's slightly obese). This gives us the advantage that the cats are not annoying during night, and if they eat too much they'll have to wait till the evening (which means we either get annoyed during day time, or we don't notice since we're not around). We also give them fresh water at the same time.

A major issue is when we're gone for more than a day. But a cat feed machine wouldn't be adequate. Cats need fresh water as well, and enough. Refilling when it is empty isn't enough. Algae are being formed. So this requires manual labour, daily.

Great points. Also feeding cats only dry food can lead to kidney problems in old age - they do not naturally drink much water, instead relying on moisture from their food sources. Feed good quality canned food!

Did you even read the article? TFA's cat gets wet food in the morning, dry in the evening.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Under "In Comments", third paragraph.

Very good points about monitoring your cat's inputs and outputs. My cat develops urinary tract issues about once a year and you notice the reduced appetite and litter box use. I have a Litter Robot so I do make sure to check it at least once a day. The litter box is another thing I'd like to throw an ESP2866 in so I can monitor litter box use frequency.

Any ideas on how to detect a poop versus a piss? Perhaps there are urea sensors? The mass of the litter clump would be another good data point to measure, but I don't have any ideas about how to set it up with the Robot.

This hacker has the right idea:

https://twitter.com/litterboxtweets

You could record the time the cat spends doing his business, a poop should take longer.

Unfortunately your common sense is in the minority of opinion here. HN is plagued by overeager engineers who endlessly discuss the how without addressing the much more important why.

Why bother having a pet at all if you're not going to personally care for it?

Give me a break.

The author was giving two meals a day and often got home late in the evenings. Only the evening meal was from a machine. Don't act like the cat is being abused. The author looks like she is providing the cat with a very nice life.

"Whys?" It helps prevent tripping incidents when the cat knows its food time and is rubbing on your feet as you walk. It helps with anxiety associated with irregular feedings. That's just two reasons I thought of off the top of my head.

>The author was giving two meals a day and often got home late in the evenings.

"An automated feeder would save me one chore per day, and I wouldn’t have to worry about getting home late in the evenings."

You seem to have ignored "save me one chore per day" which is what my original comment was in response too. Occasional late meal is not a big deal at all, you don't need to go about inventing ridiculous machines for that.

>Occasional late meal is not a big deal at all

How do you, personally, anonymous Internet commenter, know how much stress this specific cat has when the evening meal is late?

You can give constructive comments about the benefits of manual feeding vs auto feeding without being rude and speaking in absolutes. There's certainly benefits of both options that differ with individual cats and circumstances.

>without being rude

def not my intention. Can you point out where i was rude so i can keep that in mind for future.

What I said of course is not true for special needs cats, do whats best for your cat if its special needs. I assumed we are talking about the 99% general case because original article didn't mention any special requirements that her cat had. I doubt anyone reading that blog would get the impression that her cat is special needs. Would you tell you someone "not speak in absolutes" to if she says "don't don't declaw your cat" ?

I know many cat owners who "play" with their cat by dangling a feather on its head, telling them to improve the play by creating intrigue and mystery during the play by hiding the source of noise is not an insult, I wouldn't think so. I made many pet owner mistakes myself. Unfortunately cats have the misguided 'easy maintenance' reputation which works against their well being.

"Why" is having control over frequency and quantity. If you have an over-weight cat you may need to dial that down gently over time to avoid too much protesting.

The writer clearly indicated this is just for one meal of the day. People are losing their shit here as if this cat is locked in a room for months on end with no human contact.

No one is losing their shit.

I was with you until the second line. You're extrapolating how much they care about their pet based on just this?