General Care Discussion :: DIY auto feeder

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:46 pm   DIY auto feeder

While I have an ExoTerra turtle feeder, the capacity is a bit small for Morla for when I'm out of town a week or so. I decided to look into making one that holds more food for such occasions.

It is a clock mechanism that I removed the second and minute shafts and glued a threaded rod to the hour shaft. It dispenses food twice a day, 12 hours apart. The only drawback is it dispenses the food over a couple hours, as the container needs to rotate to do so. I also added small bits of cuttlebone so she had that while I was gone.

I took some pictures of how I modified the clock mechanism. Overall, it's a fairly inexpensive DIY, I think maybe less than $15 , though I had the wood already. I will get some instructions on the clock mechanism posted.
IMG_20190703_133156176.jpg
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 10:59 am   Re: DIY auto feeder

Looks pretty cool. Do you have a video of it in action? How much food/cuttlebone actually comes out?
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:09 am   Re: DIY auto feeder

I don't have a video. The action is pretty slow, one revolution per 12 hours.
It's not visible, but I cut a large slot in the container and use painter's tape to place what I cut out over the slot to adjust the amount. You can see a bit of the green tape. About 2-3 grams of food per revolution, but could be increased.
Last edited by Insanity on Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:17 am   Re: DIY auto feeder

Oh, that makes a lot of sense! Does your turtle constantly stare at the container :D
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:56 am   Re: DIY auto feeder

Not sure, I only had it in place when I was gone. I wouldn't be surprised if she did.
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 10:14 pm   Re: DIY auto feeder

Is it battery powered? That looks like a travel alarm.
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:22 am   Re: DIY auto feeder

It's a typical battery powered wall clock mechanism.
I got it a Michael's for about $8.
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