CUSTOM PET FEEDER

I have 3 cats and feeding them was quite messy.  I had 3 sets of mismatched bowls and placemats to protect the floor, and no matter how hard I tried to keep it tidy, the area was always a mess.  So I decided to make a sleek no-mess feeder for my furball friends.  This could be used for small dogs as well, or easily modified for medium sized dogs.

Cost: About $30 for lumber.  The rest of the stuff I had on hand.

Materials I used:

1"x8"x6' Maple
5 cat bowls
Paint
Paste Wax
Nails
Wood Glue

Tools I used: (not all are completely necessary)

Jointer
Planer
Table Saw
Drill
Jigsaw
Nail Gun
Orbital sander

Step 1:

First, I had to figure out how many bowls I wanted, how far I wanted them spaced apart, etc; so I plotted everything out on a piece of 1/4" plywood.  I decided on 5 bowls total...food, water, food, water, food...and to space them all 1" apart from the sides and from each other.  I traced the bottom of the bowls and then cut one out with a jigsaw to make sure it was the right size, and that the lip of the bowls would cover the hole.  Surprisingly, that size hole (5") worked for all 3 different size and brand of bowls I had.  It must be pretty standard. So now that hole that I cut out became my template.

Tracing the template and playing with the spacing on the plywood helped me determine how much wood I needed.  This top was 31" long and I planed the lumber down to 3/4". The depth is 7".

Comments

[Barb37]

I love your attention to detail!

[knownware]

Good build. Thanks for sharing this.

[kkitchell]

why no water for third cat or are they sharing

[Few Bits]

Yah, they share. Cats don't drink a whole lot of water, they mainly get it from the wet food that I feed them.

[Browncoat]

Gotta feed your cats water, so this *might* be something you could enter into the Water Challenge.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Summer-Water-Challenge/

As a cat owner, I love this!! Does it keep the cats from spreading the food on the floor as much?

[Few Bits]

Hi Browncoat! Hahaha maybe I will! Yes it does, they don't get food or water anywhere now. My cat Dash used to spill the water dish all the time, which is no bueno for the wood floors. This has been a great solution.