Customer Reviews

Ergo Auto Pet Feeder, Small

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

My girlfriend is a vet and says that cats should be feed twice a day the recommended amount on the food can. Open feeding leads to over weight, knee problems and diabetic cats. This feeder works decent. Positives include easy to program, different or same feed times everyday, ability to adjust amount of food easily, chew proof cord and it is quiet. Negatives include auger is easily reached by cat allowing about 10 extra kibbles to fall out if the cat plays with it enough. It only took my cat about a week to figure this out. I have not had any problems since its purchase and my cats no longer wake me for food at 3 am. I built a divider so the food goes into two bowls, one for each cat, and it works good.

This unit is pricey but works well. The quality of the product seems cheap for the price, but nothing has malfunctioned. Definitely recommend to anyone who is annoyed in the middle of the night for food or needs to leave the cat alone for a weekend.

After several days of research, I decided this model was probably best for feeding dry food to our cats. The precise timing in nice because we have a cat who eats too fast and throws up so we are able to feed her a few kibbles several times a day and avoid that problem. It also allows each of them to eat their own special diet food without trying to steal from the other's dish.

My cats also discovered they could get more food by slipping a paw into the auger but we solved that with a small hood made of sheet metal. There is enough room for the food to come out but not enough to get a paw inside. I agree that the company should design a better cover for the auger.

The biggest problem we've noticed is that our cats have become very obsessed with food and will scramble madly to get off our lap/bed/etc when they hear the feeder.

Overall this feeder has been much more convenient than feeding by hand and lets the cats eat when we are at work. I'm not tripping over hungry cats when I get home from work. Our overwieght cat has lost weight and the other one doesn't throw up as often.

With a little bit of work... Which you shouldn't have to do...

I have had 2 of these for 2 years. I used to have problems with the timer locking on and dumping all of the food....I cut the cord off of the timers that came with the units and installed a plug. I then purchased a good digital programmable timer and used this to power both units. I never had an "over feed" again.

My Smart cat also learned quite early that he could get food from the auger door... I made a shield out of Lexan that goes under the door to keep him from getting in. He then realized that he could use his 22lbs of mass to knock the entire feeder around and get more food. He doesn't realize that he is robbing from his next meal and seems to be happy with that... Kind of a game I guess....

These things were a life saver being that I had to travel for work during the time I had them... I didn't have neighbors close enough to feed them regularly....

If you buy them, be ready to "rework" them....

B

I really wanted to like this feeder, as it has many great features (digital timer, large capacity); however, one of my cats quickly figured out its fatal flaw: the cat can get "extra" food from the feeder with just a little work.

The feeder uses a horizontal auger with a locking cover, but does not completely block off access to the food. So, my brilliant little kittie quickly (i.e. less than 5 minutes after first being introduced to the feeder) figured out that it could reach its paw under the cover and knock out more food. As my cats are on a diet, the access to extra food just doesn't work.

I called Ergo Systems, the manufacturer, and was sent a replacement auger cover, which turned out to be exactly like the cover that came with the autofeeder (so, no fix there). [I will say that Ergo Systems was good to deal with -- helpful, quick response].

Depite my attachment to the feeder, it is being returned as it is defectively designed and will work only for cats that either aren't really tenacious about food (if you know any I would like to meet it) or are capable of handling unlimited access to food (in which case you really wouldn't need the feeder).

This item works very well for our Beagle. If we let him he would eat a 50lbs bag of food each day. It was our children's job to feed him 1.5 cups of food each day, prior to this purchase, however, upon seeing the dog's sad puppy eyes pleading with them for more, they would willingly fill his bowl with two more cupfulls. This feeder has helped very much. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because while we were gone over New Years the feeder did get stuck ON, delivering our over anxious beagle with a pile of food he was happy to dispose of. We aren't sure if the problem was the timer having to change to the new year or if we had a power outage during the time he was to be fed or what. Before that and after that one time it has worked wonderfully and it is so funny to sit and watch him come to the feeder precicely at 5pm and wait for the motor to spit out his food. It used to take him about 1.2 seconds to wolf down his 1.5 cups of food. Now he has to wait and eat like a civilized dog...I think that's great. When the feeder is done, he will still sit there for a few minutes...JUST IN CASE another pellet is despensed and at first he would paw at it and try to stick his nose in the hole to reach for more, but now he knows it's in vain. Anyhow, I recommend the feeder as we've had good experience with it.

I have a very erratic schedule. My cat cannot be left with a continuous food supply since he is one who will eat until he's stuffed. Unfortunately, this meant he was getting fed at all kinds of odd hours.

So, I did a little research on the internet and found this little beauty. It has a reservoir that holds about 5 gallons of food and a timer that you can set so that the machine only dispenses food when you want it to (instead of when the food bowl is low or empty). It's very handy if you don't have a regular schedule and/or if your small pet has to be kept on a strict diet. It's even been great on the few occasions that I've had to take short trips out of town. I no longer need to worry about finding someone to come over and feed him. As long as I leave him with enough water, he's just fine.

There are a few drawbacks. The timer is a little complicated to program. There are instructions and all, but if you have problems with the VCR clock and timer, then you might want to ask for help. Also, the price is a little steep. As a solution to this, I would recommend visiting the manufacturer's website directly (http://www.autopetfeeder.com/). They offer returned and refurbished models at a discount (I've been using a refurbished model and have not had a single problem over the 9 months I've had it).

This machine isn't an excuse to neglect your pet. You still need to check the feeder about once a week or so to make sure it is still dispensing properly. It will however help you streamline your busy life so that you can spend more time with your pet and less time worrying about feeding him.

I have had this product for about a year, and it has saved my sanity. I have to get up at 530 for work, and my cat would wake me up every night at 330 or 4 to be fed and would bug me until I finally got up at 530. Needless to say, I was not happy about missing out on 2 hours of sleep every night. I was at wit's end, but I couldn't free feed him because he is overweight. I really didn't want to have to make a decision between me getting my sleep and him getting fat. So I tried this product. AND I LOVE IT!!!!! Yes, it did not take him long to figure out he can serve himself, but I did an experiment one day. I programmed the feeder to give him the amount I wanted to give him, and let it run naturally through 8 cycles (one day's worth of feedings). Then I simulated a feline paw pulling down extra food after the cycle completes (with my finger) and did that for 8 cycles. Absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in amount of food dispensed. People need to consider....if the cat is pulling down extra food after the cycle stops, it just means that when the auger starts up for the next cycle, there wont be any food right in the end. So it will run for a few seconds without depositing any food into the bowl. The only thing a cat is doing is basically "living on credit". They're taking food from their next feeding, not giving themselves extra. I challenge anyone who thinks their cat is getting more if they dig it out themselves to do the same experiment I did. All that's happening is that my cat is deciding himself when he eats. If he doesn't want to wait for the 8pm feeding and wants to dig the food out at 630, well, whatever. If anything, this digging out of food might actually cause a cat to lose weight, because when my cat is going for it, he's on his back, his side, rolling back and forth to get just the right angle. Even if he did manage to dig out an extra kibble or two that he should not have received, I am quite sure that he used up more calories getting the food out than he received from his pilferage. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this product for any person who is tired of being awakened at 2am by a hungry kitty. I have not had any problems with this item and I am admittedly not as good on maintaining it as I should be. When it does finally die, I will splurge on the hundred dollars to get another one. It's well worth getting a full night's sleep and not having a fat cat from free feeding.

Are you trying to watch the caloric intake of your adult cat? Well, this feeder is not for you. I started travelling erratically on business, so I needed something to feed the puss while I was away every now and then. I quickly discovered this would not be a suitable full-time feeding solution.

The food dispenser contains a corkscrew spiral which rotates to push out food, based on the program you set. I tested the machine for about a week in my presence - puss quickly learned that she could pick at the feeding tube any time she wanted and food would fall out via gravity, gradually working its way around the corkscrew. I tried a cat food slightly larger than the recommended 3/8" size (Meow Mix) to see if it would hold up better behind the corkscrew. With persistence she was still able to force food out any time she pleased. I didn't try anything larger at the risk of jamming the machine (as recommended for the warrantee).

The bottom line - if you're watching your cat's weight, this machine will make him/her fatter, assuming s/he has the wherewithal to figure out its weakness. If your puss knows when to stop eating, then this unit might serve you well. I plan only to use it while I travel.

Our kitty loves food. She learned within a day where the food was kept and to associate those strange big people with food almost instantly. Consequently, no matter how much we fed her, she constantly whined and screamed for food. She would make a bee line to the pantry door every time she heard it open or would lie in front of the door trying to stretch her legs as far underneath as she could to reach the food bag. We had to find a way to disassociate ourselves from feeding and do it before kitty drove us crazy.

After much research, I concluded there is no perfect or inexpensive solution. I decided to try the Ergo Small Auto Pet Feeder.

Positives:

* This is one of the only feeders that allows you to program multiple feedings over multiple days and has a large enough canister that doesn't need to be constantly refilled.

* Contrary to many of the complaints I have read regarding programming the timer, I found it as simple to program as an alarm clock. Really, I don't understand what the fuss about the "poor" instructions is about ... there are apparently lot of people who don't know how to program alarm clocks ... or, follow directions.

* It works as advertised. I had the feeder programmed to feed her 1.5 ounces, 4 times each day, 7 days a week and functioning properly within thirty minutes of opening the box.

* Within a few days, our kitty learned to listen for the patter of food hitting the tray, lost most of her interest in the closet as soon as we removed the food bag, and, mercifully, stopped begging us for food.

Negatives:

* It is NOT cat "smarts" proof. If your cat is remotely intelligent or moderately curious he/she WILL figure out how to shake or tap or paw more food from the auger tube. Our cat figured this out after ONE feeding. This design flaw could have been easily remedied by the manufacturer. Nevertheless, it is not the "all-your-cat-can-eat" exaggeration some reviewers have described. Unless your cat is a behemoth and pounds the heck out of the machine, he/she will only be able to paw out a few kernels at a time from the last twist of the auger. Which is a small price to pay for having a smart cat.

Our gambit worked. She is learning to disassociate us from feeding more and more every day. Best of all, she stopped whining and screaming for food. Worth every penny.

Personally, I am quite pleased with the Ergo Feeder and due to my own need to "fix" things that can be improved, I plan to build a box to house the feeder in that will solve the "buffet" issue.

Bought this feeder because my cats need a prescribed amount of food daily to keep their weight down, and they need to be fed if we are out of town for a few days. First impression out of the box was that this is a very sturdy appliance, not cheaply made. The timer is very good, a separate device, and it allows up to 8 on/off cycles for a day. The cycles can be programmed as short as 1 second. That's important, because to get the correct amount of food, I needed to program the unit to run about a minute every day. The cats figured out right away that they could pull on the plastic hinged cover that covers the auger and chute, and cracked it by the hinge. I went on-line to the manufacturers FAQ site, and found their suggested solution to this problem is to tape the cover down to the unit so the cats can not pry it loose. If the cover is replaced, cats will just break the new one. So, I covered the front of the feeder with lovely gray duct tape to outsmart the cats and hold down the cover. Within another day, the cats figured out that they can sit with their front legs stretched out into the bowl, and poke their paws up under the cover into the chute, where they can wiggle the auger and get food to drop whenever they want. The auger is intentionally mounted loosely according to the mfr's web site. My move. I found a small plastic bottle about the diameter of the bottom of the chute cover's opening, and taped it on so that the cats can no longer get their paws up into the chute and access food. They now became obsessed with chewing off the duct tape to get the cover loose. So I went out and bought Gorilla tape, which is stronger than ordinary duct tape. It's been 1 day now and although they have tried to work the new tape off, they have not been able to do it yet. This feeder may work out, but it has been a lot of effort to outsmart my cats, and the mfr's solution of just taping the chute cover down seems kludgy at best.