Pet tech no match for a stubborn 20-pound cat, but automatic feeders help

In “My big, fat, technophobic cat,” a writer describes her 10-year-old cat Pablo, who weighs about 20 pounds. Vets have repeatedly warned that his obesity cannot continue, citing risks of diabetes, kidney problems, and urinary crystals related to his weight and a too-small urinary opening. The writer says she has tried nearly everything to get Pablo to lose weight.

The trouble began with a Litter-Robot 4, bought because it automatically scoops waste and has a built-in scale. Pablo initially tolerated it, but after the family moved into a four-story row home, he claimed the top floor and stopped using the robot on the second floor. He began defecating on the carpet outside the writer’s third-floor office, and after a three-week standoff the family relented, replacing the expensive robot with a $20 stainless steel litter box. A smart scale placed under the box made the enclosure feel cramped to Pablo, so it was removed.

Other pet tech fared no better. Pablo ignored ball tracks, an Enabot companion robot, robot vacuums, and wand toys, the writer says. She concludes that the state of pet tech is no match for him.

In a separate essay titled “My cats hate each other, but this automatic feeder is helping,” another writer recounts nearly a decade of feeding two cat siblings that dislike each other. After the couple had a child in 2024, their four-times-daily feeding schedule began to slip, so they turned to automatic feeders.

The writer first bought two PetSafe programmable feeders for about $90 each, relying on a review that described them as raccoon-resistant. The feeders solved the basic problem of regular feeding, but the writer complains about four D batteries, a convoluted five-button interface, a minimum portion that was slightly too large, drifting clocks that let the orange male finish and steal his sister’s food, and a rumbling treadmill loud enough to jolt their daughter out of her bedtime routine.

Last year the writer switched to two roughly $55 feeders from a company called VOLUAS. The new feeders plug into a wall with batteries as backup, and their silicone wheel design is quiet enough not to annoy the family. The writer says these devices solved essentially all the problems of the earlier feeders, even though, in her words, “no technology could cure the darkness of the feline soul.”