Advise on how to get my cat to run to the automatic feeder again

Behavioral

I have a problem with one of my cats. I have two, older one is 7 and the younger is 5 years old. A year ago I started a job with very changing schedule, some mornings I have to get up at 4am and others not until 9am or so. My cats are very food motivated and greedy even. They get fed 4 times a day in small amounts. I bought an automatic kibble feeder that gives them food at 5 in the morning, and it runs every morning, even if Im already awake. For a long time it was a savior to my sleep as they didnt come demand me to feed them so early every morning when I could sleep for longer.
Now, for some reason my younger one doesn't run to it anymore, but to me instead, meowing me to get up and walk to the feeder. And she will continue eating when I go back to bed, so it's not like she needs me to guard her eating. When I'm up, she happily eats everything in the bowl. So, I don't think it's because she doesn't like the food. If I don't get up, she will not go to it, and the other cat will eat her share aswell.
Any advise on how to teach her to go to the bowl on her own again? They have the kibble only once a day and get wet food on other food times. I've tried changing the kibble to a better one but there was no change in her interest.
Thanks in advance!

Posted Jun 27, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC

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