Elevated Possum-Proof Cat Feeders

There aren't too many places that a possum or a raccoon can get to that a cat can't, but the feline's predatory nature ensures that the inverse isn't true. While they may have similar habits, cats are good at one thing that possums can barely do at all. Don't look at elevated raccoon and possum-proof cat feeders as starving a possum; look at it as keeping those giant rats alive by keeping your kitties well-fed.

  1. Possums Can't Jump

    • Possums cannot jump nearly as high as an average house cat. Possums and raccoons are excellent climbers, but they cannot jump through trees with the easy of a cat. Cats are just as adept at climbing as any of the local wildlife, but are far better at performing Olympic-grade leaps of up to five times their body length.

    Elevated Feeder Construction

    • Possums and raccoons can climb nearly anything they can sink their claws into. You could mount your your feeding platform on a wooden post and surround the bottom of the platform with a vertical skirt to spoil those clever climbers, but the far simpler solution is to keep them from climbing in the first place. The solution is to mount your platform about 4 feet off the ground on a smooth, stainless-steel pole. You could use regular steel, but stainless won't rust in the wet dirt.

    Jumping Off

    • Cats can easily leap vertically and grab the edge of a platform suspended 4 feet off the ground, but you can save your kitty some effort by giving him a step to leap from. Place your step about 2 feet off of the ground and about three feet from the feeding platform. You may even wish to staple some outdoor carpeting to the top of the platform so the cat has something to sink his claws into should he come up a bit short on the leap.

    Trapping the Rats

    • The easiest way to keep a possum out of your cat food is to get rid of it. Instead of a simple platform placed 2 feet off the ground, you might consider building a series of 3-foot-high walls around your cat feeder. Build a small platform on top of one of the walls so the cat can use it as a step, and line the inside of your box with smooth sheet-metal. The box will catch any vermin clumsy enough to miss their mark, at which point you can have your local animal control specialist relocate the possum to a farm.

    Fun Fact

    • There is a difference between possums and opossums. Both are marsupials, but the possum is brown in color and native only to Australia and the surrounding areas. The white-faced opossum, often called a possum, immigrated to North America more than 125 million years ago when the continent was still attached to Europe. It is the only surviving marsupial on this continent.