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The original was posted on /r/homeassistant by /u/True_Custard_7014 on 2025-03-12 01:29:02+00:00.

To be honest, this has been bothering me for quite some time.I have a lively and active kitten who seems to have endless energy. While I enjoy playing with him, he has an unbearable habit—he loves to scratch my door in the middle of the night, demanding that I get up to feed him.😫

I initially thought that as long as I prepared enough cat food before bedtime, the kitten would stop bothering me. However, after trying this for a while, I realized that the situation did not improve. After about a week of observing, I identified the reason: due to the humid climate in my area, the cat food easily becomes damp and soft after being left out for some time, and he refuses to eat it. Additionally, since my cat does not eat much at a time and prefers smaller, more frequent meals, I purchased a Litter Robot automatic feeder.

To address the issue of my cat waking me up at night and seeking food, I began exploring an intelligent solution that could automatically recognize the cat’s feeding needs and dispense food accordingly. After some research, I stumbled upon an ingenious idea in Home Assistant forums—using a camera to detect the cat’s approach to the feeder and automatically trigger the feeder to dispense food.

I then repositioned the Imou camera I had been using at home and unexpectedly discovered that this device features a zone alarm function ❗️(which allows me to define areas within the monitoring view that should trigger an intrusion alarm). I designated a one-meter radius around the feeder as the alarm zone. When the camera detects the cat staying in that area for more than 10 seconds, it sends an alert message to Home Assistant, which then automatically controls the feeder to dispense food. Now, the kitten can access fresh cat food at any time, and I am no longer awakened by meowing at four in the morning!

I am very excited to write down these words, hoping to provide some help to families who also have cats.😻😻