DIY Elevated Feline Feeding Station - RaccoonProof and OpossumProof - Angela Pearl's Critter Village

Описание: Welcome to Angela Pearl’s Critter Village!
This is my DIY video explaining how I built my raccoon-proof cat-feeding station. But its not only raccoon-proof, so far it also keeps opposum and other climbing wildlife out of the cats’ foods!

Check out more of my Critter Village (including livestreams!) at https://www.angelapearl.com/crittervi...

All of the felines you will see in this video have been fixed, vaxxed and microchipped.

Bobcat is approx seven years old and he already lived on the property when we purchased our home. His kittens are Asher and Nibbler. They are approx nine months old. There were eight cats on the property when we moved in. I’ll be sharing their stories on my website if you would like to learn more about them and my TNR efforts.

You can also see the cat tower that I built for them to play on, but it also helps the kittens easily jump onto the feeding platform since they were too small to make the jump from the ground when I first built the platform. Bobcat prefers to jump from the ground, and while the kittens are now able to jump from the ground as well, they seem to prefer jumping from the tower.

You might also notice they have plenty of play stuff and a huge patch of catnip and cat grass! And this is only one small corner of what I affectionately call the Critter Village!

I got this hutch off of facebook marketplace for $25 and if you know anything about these hutches, that is a spectacular deal! I reinforced all of the joints and also installed a shelf to create an attic hideaway. They love it! The attic is Bobcat’s favorite place when we have rainy days!

You can see that as Bobcat lays down he has clearance under the hutch. I did not install the hutch floor and I also mounted it on a bit of a ledge that not only works well for air circulation, but the lip of the wood trim also prevents the food bowls from sliding out and falling off of the platform!I covered the roof with a heavy duty tarp folded a few times to insure waterproofing. I mounted it with clamps and sealed the seams with Waterproof Patch and Seal Gorilla Tape.

The attic is just some scrap wood to make a shelf that has some clearance on the front and back so the air can circulate. The extension cord then runs up the post. It is taped in place with the Gorilla Tape that I mentioned earlier, and the power line connection is sealed with Tommy Tape Miracle Wrap. The connection is then zip-tied to the underneath of the platform and then the camera wires run along the inside of the skirt and are taped against the aluminum flashing so as not to dangle where they could be damaged and/or used as a pull-up rope for climbing critters.

I have a few different cameras in the Critter Village. This one is a Kangaroo Indoor Outdoor Cam. I love these cameras! I was able to find them at a liquidation warehouse for a mere $15 each, so I scooped up a few of them. They need to be plugged in for power and they require WiFi. I have a 40 foot extension cord running from the house. All connections are safely waterproofed with Tommy Tape Miracle Wrap. I LOVE this stuff!

The skirt is 20” aluminum flashing. I used self-drilling screws to attach the skirt to the wood frame. To prevent myself and the cats from getting cut, I installed a bit of wood trim to cover the top of the flashing, and I covered the seams and bottom edge with more of the same Gorilla Tape previously mentioned.

I used a bunch of rocks to secure the base. The platform is sturdy and shouldn’t tip over, but we get a lot of crazy storms here in Georgia, so I figured better safe than sorry.

The post is cedar 4x4x4 with a post sleeve that prevents critters from being able to grip, claw and climb. This combined with the aluminum skirt is what makes this raccoon-proof!

The distance is five feet from the edge of the tower shelf to the edge of the platform landing. I moved these many times before I finally got a distance far enough that the raccoons would not jump, but close enough that the kittens could still make the jump since they were only approx six months old when I first built this in April 2022.

And finally, the bandits! I love all wildlife, but the raccoons especially were eating more catfood than the cats were. As you can see, the five foot jump is too intimidating for them and now they don’t cause a ruckus with the cats or the catfood! Mission Accomplished!

Distance from tower to platform five feet
Ground to platform four feet
Width of platform 32 inches
Depth of platform 42 inches front to back
Hutch measures 33 inches tall / 26 inches wide / 21 inches deep

These are the two YouTubers that I took inspiration from when creating my elevated feeding platform.
-This Old Mobile Home In The Woods
-Lonesome XJ

Here are the products that I used without paid promotion.
Tommy Tape Miracle Wrap
Kangaroo Indoor Outdoor Camera
Gorilla Waterproof and Seal Tape
20 inches x 50 feet Aluminum Flashing
Solar LED Night Lights
Fiberon ArmorGuard Post Sleeve 4” x 4” x 40”