Cat Problem

AIman

My roommate has 3 cats and they cause problems. I don't mean normal cat stuff I mean things like constantly knocking full glasses off the counters, trying to eat your food, trying to drink from your cup etc. I am familiar with cats but these antics are well beyond acceptable. I have personally had half a dozen cups of water knocked over in one day. My roommate is fine with me doing something to curb these behaviors so I wanted to address the cup problem first.

We were talking about maybe something like a D cell battery with wires into a cup or some sort of automated squirt gun to chase them away. Nothing damaging, rather something to train them.

Any ideas, proven robots or automated items that work?

Mike Green

Someone posted a project here (you'll have to browse for it) that used a sensor (PING or PIR?) to detect the presence of a cat on a counter, then used a noise maker to frighten the cat off.

sylvie369

www.plasma2002.com/blenderdefender/

jazzed

This is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time [noparse]:)[/noparse] Thanks for posting.

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--Steve

parsko

AI,

I, too, have 3 cats. My one, her two. My one has a habit of immediately going for any glass of water placed anywhere unattended for more than about 2 minutes. He will actually get himself into other things besides water, but it always seems to be the water that is an issue. This was so bad at one point that I had to stop keeping water by my bed.

My solution was to use sippy cups (like the ones a Toddler uses). That stopped the behavior. As for around the house over the course of the day, I don't think there is much you can do. Cats will be cats.

I've tried the spray bottle, and it works, but you have to be persistant. I would guess, though, that the behavior will eventually come back after a month or two.

I've noticed that the behavior is often the result of something else. For instance, putting a bowl of water near where they keep finding your glass, might help. In my case, it also helped that my cat didn't have to go down two flights of stairs to get his water (it's just easier to dip into my stash!) If they are eating your food, it is probably due to them not having enough for themselves, and/or they are being fed from the table, and used to the supply coming from a human (versus only from the food bowl interface).

I would recommend that you change the cat water at least once a day, and not leave cups of fluid and food laying around. Also make sure you only feed them at specific time and place, so they develop a habit.

[noparse][[/noparse]I just reread this, and I make it out that you are a slob. I don't mean to imply that, please don't take it that way]

Otherwise, you can zap them with a collar, I'm sure. Squirt gun. Maybe something like this in the corner:
Automated Paintball Gun

That would show them!

-Parsko

Carl Hayes

Wow, that's great. I like cats, and I like this project too.

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· -- Carl, nn5i@arrl.net

Ugha

You need an ALF

Leon

Knowing that I'd studied psychology, a friend of mine asked me how to stop their cat jumping up onto the window sill at night and waking them up, instead of using the cat flap. I suggested a solenoid-operated puffer which was used in a Xerox copier - we worked for Xerox Research (UK) - to blow air in the cat's face and an electronic flash gun. He was able to operate them without getting out of bed. After using them a couple of times, the cat stopped waking them up.

Double-sided sticky tape is one way to stop cats jumping onto work surfaces - they don't like the feeling when their paws land on it.

My cat pushes mugs off the desk.

Leon

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Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle

sylvie369

My cat puts up sticky tape to keep me from sitting in her chair.
I shouldn't have left all these psychology texts laying around for her to read all day when I'm gone.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

mmm i se philz logd in·····gud

heerz da bes wa to handl catz
gt a big bol uv shrimp·····not da chep stuf eeder·····big shrimpz
put da shrimpz awa frm ware yu dont wan da cat
kep da bol ful

uh oh philz comin gota go·····jus remembr kep da bol ful

browser

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

Hey Phil.. That darn cat of yours isn't just walking on the keyboard this time!!

LOL!

OBC

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QuattroRS4

Nice one Phil!

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'Necessity is the mother of invention'

Those who can, do.Those who can’t, teach.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Oh man, I can't leave that cat unsupervised for one minute! (If you think his spelling is bad, you ought to see his Spin code.)

But that's not the worst of it, unfortunately. I just found the attached in my download folder.

-Phil

ElectricAye

Find out what your room mate is violently allergic to, then sprinkle it on the cat. Sooner or later said room mate will decide he/she is allergic to cats and.... problem solved.

Worked for me.

AIman

Thanks for the info.

One of the cats is double its proper weight, one·used to drink from cups as a kitten and the other cat simply does what it wants.

I think the noise maker or some sort of sudden movment will work and be the simplest for my roommates - theres actually four of us with the owner being the roomie mentioned - three cats with the same problems gets old. Especially when the house turns into a swamp...





Post Edited (AIman) : 2/20/2009 3:17:28 AM GMT