Challenge -Paul verses the Raccoon!

 Hi there, this is Paul, Linda's husband writing this post. The journey begins with helping our neighbors while they are out of town to feed a stray cat they adopted.  To make the task easier I convinced them to buy an automated feeder. It can be programmed to dispense a feeding portion at a specific time.  The feeder can also record your voice to announce it is feeding time.  It was important to dispense the food in daylight hours as we have raccoons in the area and if they discover food they will forage for it at night.

Unfortunately the raccoons did discover the feeder and tore it apart and they did consume all the cat food.  Two cinder blocks were added to hold and protect the feeder.  This simple approach didn't work as they were able with their little hands to pull the feeder out and dismantle the feeder and consume all the food.

Being an engineer I took the challenge and it was game on.  A cinder block across the top and a smaller one for the lid would do the trick.  After all these are just little raccoons. Keep in mind, this car feeder is sitting on a TABLE ON A COVERED PORCH.

Nope.  They pulled the feeder out and threw it to the ground.  The feeding tray on the left is not securely attached to the base and the small block did not deter these pesky animals.

Pipe strapping was added to the bottom feeding tray and as you can see it did hold the tray to the feeder tank but they still managed to pull the whole unit out from between the cinder blocks.

To prevent them from pulling the whole feeder unit out between the two cinder blocks I added a block of wood which had a metal strap to hold the tank in and a 2nd strap in the back to hold the cinder block on top.  I didn't think they would be strong enough to pull the cinder block off the top.  I was wrong!

The fight continues! 

Okay they were strong enough to pull the feeder out from the top cinder block.  Next step was to secure the feeder not just to the top cinder block but strap it to the two side cinder blocks.  And just in case that wasn't enough I added two more cinder blocks on the side for added weight. They would have to be able to pull against 5 cinder blocks (top and 2 on each side)

After all of that work, the raccoons still managed to get to the food. They weren't strong enough to pull the feeder unit out of it's fortress but they did manage to get the top cinder block off. Their little hands are strong.

The top cinder block was not enough so a better solution was needed.  I drilled two metal dowels in the side cinder which then went through a top cap board with two wing nuts. The solution needed to be strong but you still needed to easily get to the feeder to refill it.

This was successful except they still managed to dislodge the small feeder cap.  I had to make a larger sheet metal cap to go over the top to make getting the top off impossible,  Also, since I was worried that this whole fortress could be pulled forward and topple,  I added to out riggers for forward stability.

It looks like a fortress with lots of cinder blocks, straps, chains, screw, metal and more.  In retrospect I should have just built a sealed enclosed box secured up high and a feeding tube down to a feeding tray. 

 

Congratulations! You win said the racoon.

Sign up with your email address to receive the latest updates straight in your inbox.

About Linda @ Life and Linda

Hello, welcome to LifeandLinda. I am from Northern California. I enjoy blogging, Designing Blogs, Decorating, cooking, entertaining, gardening and clogging. I hope you enjoy your visit.