I bought this cat feeder because I was going out of town for a week and did not want to pay the cat sitter to come over twice a day while I was gone when every other day would be fine if they were auto-fed. This feeder was the most frequently purchased, and had mostly positive reviews, compared to the other auto feeders I considered. The result was mostly good. They came quickly so I had plenty of time to set them up and have them run for week before I left. It was easy to set up, program, and use.
However, there were several problems that needed to be addressed before I felt good leaving my two cats.
1) It is relatively light weight and even when half full of food they are a bit top heavy; the cats would some times tip it over when running around and playing. My husband solved this problem by building a wood box that they both sit in with a cross bar that holds each feeder in place and makes the bottom more stable. Problem solved they have not tipped over since.
2) My younger and smarter little black kitty figured out on day one how to put his paw up the shoot and make food fall down. I noticed that when the next meal was scheduled only a few bits of kitty food fell into the try, so the feeder was not over feeding them as some people feared would happen if the cat was able to knock food out of feeder. However, my other cat is not that bright, very sweet but not that bright, he did not figure out how to get food from the feeder and when meal time came around the other cat had already eaten 95% of the food, leaving him hungry and my smart kitty over fed and soon to be fat. The only way we would think of to fix this problem was to try and teach my no so bright kitty how to get his fair share of food. After four days of training and assistance he was able to learn how to get the food. I like this method because the food comes out a few bites at a time and we no longer have the problem of the cats eating too fast and throwing up. So this "negative" is now one of the things I like most about the feeders and we decided to continue using them even when we are home.
3) The only real problem that seems to be ongoing is that the quality of the two feeders are not equal. One feeder is working perfect, it drops food at the same time every day. The second one, loses time every day and eventually one feeder would go off and it would be 20 minutes later, than an hour. We have reset the clock a few times, but it continues to lose time. About a week ago it quite all together. I pushed the manual feed button to feed the cats and the feeder churned and churned until all the food in the container was on the floor. We cleaned it up, turned it off, took out the batteries, and reset the whole thing. It is working again, but it is clearly not of the same quality as the other one, which has not had a single problem.
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Old one lasted 8 years. It's been improved since 2014.
My old one stopped working due to the feeder paddles all being curled up. It seems they were made aware of this problem as this new one is the same unit with 2 additions. The first new part is a disc with holes in it that goes into the reservoir. It is apparently there to hold most of the food weight to try to prevent the paddles from curling up as they did on the old one. The 2nd addition/improvement is the addition of a base to elevate the feeder and a larger bowl with a steeper food ramp. I had tried something similar previously. This seems to be working well and hopefully it will last 8 years as well. The old one still runs but stopped dispensing due to the paddles curling under the food weight. Review from 2016 for unit purchased in 2014: (I received this yesterday. I have 5 cats so I set it for 3 cups per feeding. It was unable to dispense this much due to it backing up and preventing all the food from coming out. I think it would work fine it they could raise the base and add a larger bowl. I put it on a wire plant holder and placed a paper plate under it. It works but the food goes off the plate. I also cut the feeding down to 2 cups. I'll have to see how much they eat and adjust. It was easy to program. I'm not sure a screw is needed in addition to a catch on the battery door. Your batteries definitely won't fall out. Perhaps a second catch or a larger one. A wired power supply option would be good. We'll see how long the batteries last. 11/28/2016 it's still going strong!)
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Monique
Awesome feeders for large dogs
Reviewed in Canada on November 14, 2020Size: One SizeVerified Purchase
Monique
Reviewed in Canada on November 14, 2020
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Villar
Parfait ! Quel confort !
Reviewed in France on October 14, 2013Size: 18 CupsVerified Purchase
