Ben Millam, who is is a cat lover and a geek, built an incredible machine that takes cat feeding to a whole new level.
He thought it would be great to train his cat Monkey to look for plastic balls hidden around the house and then throw them into a special designed machine.
The balls are RFID-tagged, so whenever Monkey finds a ball, he takes it over to the machine and inserts it into a bowl on top and food comes out of the feeder.
Ben trained Monkey by using ‘clicker’ training, this is based on associating a desirable behaviour with a distinctive click and a reward. It took some time and loads of patience but eventually Monkey realized that all that effort was worth it.
Ben explains: “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.”
“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.”
It’s an ingenious idea and Ben said that he built the feeder because he wanted Monkey to have a more fulfilling life life.
Watch the video to see how it works:
