Great idea for automatic animal feeding while away

nathan104 · #1 04/11/09, 07:56 PM

Today we rigged up our automatic animal feeder. Will work for any outside animal. We took a deer feeder I had in the shed and screwed a bucket(with bottom cut out) to the bottom of it so that when the spincast goes off it would hit the bucket and fall straight down and funnel it into the feed trough. . We put the feed trough under it. So, just set the spinner timer and it determines how much feed is dispensed. Timer can be once a day or twice a day. It was my dads idea. Might be other have been doing this for some time, but I thought it was a great idea and wanted to put it out there.

pheasantplucker · #2 04/12/09, 06:22 AM

works for dog food? cat food?

**Ross** · #3 04/12/09, 07:03 AM

How much food is dropped per cycle?

AnnieinBC · #4 04/12/09, 10:22 AM

Would you be able to put up a picture of the feeder you made? We are trying to think of something we can use here for our piggys.....thanks

Annie

travlnusa · #5 04/12/09, 02:23 PM

Was visiting a farm and they had a great system for feeding large round bales.

Picture a LARGE ramp with side rails on it.

The ramp stuck into the pasture the lenght of one large haybale.

Behind it, on the same ramp, were two other large round bales.

As they ate bale #1, #2 would start to work its way down. He would fill it every few weeks for his heifers.

In true farmer fashion, it was build out of old fence posts, left over boards for the rails, etc. Only new cost was his time.

nathan104 · #6 04/12/09, 03:36 PM

Deer feeder timers have adjustable feed rates. You can set the amount of seconds you want it to spin and broadcast feed. They are usually used to throw corn but feed isnt much different. Basically, we set the timer in the middle, set it off, then weighed the amount of feed dispensed and adjusted the timer for more or less from there.

It would work the same for dog food or cat food as well. If the feed you are wanting to put in it is very small, its possible spinner may need to be adjusted a little closer to the funnel on the bottom of the feeder to keep it from falling out.

My feeder is a basic 55 gallon drum deer feeder which is set up to be on three legs. It has the feeder assembly on the bottom. Some of them are digital where you can set the exact times you want it to feed up to several times a day, others are manual timer and then there are some that use a photo sensor to feed at dusk and dawn. Mine runs on a 6 volt battery and other run on small 12v batteries. I have a small solar panel to put on the side of mine which keeps the rechargable battery charged.

Usually the deer feeder spins and broadcast the feed 10-20 ft in a cricle. Which is why we screwed a bucket to the bottom of the feeder covering the whole feeder assembly on the bottom of the barrel. So, when the feed is broadcast, the bucket keep it from flying away and it falls straight down into the waiting feed trough. \

Ill try and take a picture or two.

Judy in IN · #7 04/13/09, 03:07 AM

Well, automatic feeders work well for dogs and cats, IF you can keep varmits out of them.

However, if you're feeding round bales to horses, for example, the dominant animals "guard" the bale, and the weaker animals lose out. I've seen some stunted horses come out of this situation.

You would have to feed more than one bale at a time, to provide adequate feed space.

Or go on vacation in the summertime!