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on February 15, 2016
We have two cats and recently had to begin to feed them wet food every 12 hours. Previously, we fed them dry food that they could eat at will. This has been quite a change, for us and for the cats. We purchased these feeders as tools to help to make this possible without it dramatically changing our lifestyle. So far, I'd give the feeder design an A- grade, and the functioning an A+! Why not an A+ all around? Well, there are a couple of little things that would enhance these even more. Read on!
These feeders reliably function as advertised. I won't list all of the features and functions here - the Feed and Go web site and other reviews here have done a great job of that! What I will describe is how we are using these, and how that seems to be working.
One of our cats has diabetes and needs to be fed every 12 hours. She is allowed two hours to finish each meal, then the food has to be removed from her access. Consequently, our other cat is on this same schedule.
We load up the Feed and Go for each cat's next meal and put it in the compartment to the left of the accessible compartment in the front of the feeder. We have programmed each feeder to feed twice per day - 5am and 5pm. Since any uneaten food after a feeding cannot be accessible to the cats any longer than two hours maximum, we programmed the feeders to "feed" again at 7am and 7pm; this results in the feeder rotating to an empty compartment.
At each "feeding" time, the feeder rotates counter-clockwise, and either makes food accessible (at 5am and 5pm) or removes access (at 7am and 7pm). The user has flexibility to program a "feeding" at any time of the day in five minute increments. This is the first issue for us. We feed the cats simultaneously now, and it may be better to offset the feeding by one minute so that each cat can distinguish the sound of my voice calling to the feeder. Unless we fool one feeder into thinking that it's a minute earlier or later than it is, this isn't an option. As of now, both feeders call both cats simultaneously. This may be ok for some. We'll experiment to see if we can offset the clocks a bit; we haven't done that yet, but it looks like this is possible on the Web portal for the Feed and Go. Or, we could manually call the cats a few seconds apart. That's probably a better option.
The strategy outlined above works without a hitch for one meal for which we've loaded up the food a few hours before. For example, we load up the feeders at about 10pm, so the food is in the feeder for seven hours before opening for the 5am feeding. Again, we have to feed wet food, but this amount of time in the feeder seems to be just fine. The feeders really are close to being airtight. The cats know that there's food in there because they've seen me put it there, but they don't obsessively hang around the feeders once the food is closed in. This makes me think that there must be minimal smell coming from the feeders (I certainly can't smell the food). And, the food looks just fine at 5 the next morning - no dry crust has formed, and the color still looks normal.
Beyond about seven hours or so, I worry that having the wet food sitting in the feeders isn't optimal. Would it be ok for up to 24 hours (assuming that we're away and have a pet sitter come in once per day, and the odd time she might have to load up three meals to cover the cats until her next visit)? Maybe. Some people say that this would be fine for 24 to 48 hours given the almost airtight seal, but I tend to be cautious. Here's the solution that I've found.
We purchased some of these: Porcelain Creme Brulee Dish - Assorted Colors Set of 4 - By SWEESE. They fit PERFECTLY in the food compartments. They are porcelain, so they hold cold for quite a long time. I put them in the freezer for several hours before loading up the food into the feeders. I also store the food in the refrigerator so that it starts out cold. AND, I put a couple of squares of ice cut out from these: Cryopak Flexible Ice Mats, Set of 2 alongside each frozen porcelain dish. I figure that a couple of hours of coldness can only help to preserve the freshness.
So this is the second issue that I have here for using these feeders for wet food - lack of refrigeration. The owner, Alex, has indicated that they are experimenting with some prototypes - one type that includes room for an ice pack under the food, and another that actually refrigerates the food compartment. These are not available now, but I am staying tuned just in case. Until then, my approach above gives a little bit more peace of mind. I'll post a follow up to this review after we have some more experience with this.
The last little improvement that would be great would be to have a mode whereby the Webcam on each feeder could turn on in response to motion. As I mentioned, our cats have two hours during which to eat their food. One of them zips over to a feeder right when it opens. The other is more leisurely about it, and we never know when he'll show up. If we wanted to monitor eating, it would be great if the camera could turn on and record the Webcam stream due to the motion of a cat eating at the feeder, noting the start time, and then turn off when the cat leaves/when the motion stops, noting the end time. I am no expert in this area, so I'm not sure if this is practical, but I have heard of motion-sensitive security cameras, so it may be worth exploring.
The last note for now is that the cats have been quickly trained to recognize that the grinding sound of the motor turning the food tray means that their food will become accessible. And therein lies the rub...because the grinding sound means food at 5am and 5pm, but it means no more food at 7am and 7pm. Thus, it may be necessary for us to turn off the voice calling feature on each feeder and manually call the cats over only when the grinding sound means food. As of now, they are a little bit confused at 7am and 7pm when the trays turn and the food is gone. This said, cats are pretty darn smart and they'll probably figure this out. As of now, the food-motivated cat runs over to the feeder again at 7am and 7pm just in case.
All in all, these feeders are great as helpful tools. They would be A+ all around if they had some type of refrigeration or cooling option, and if the cameras could be set to motion sensitive mode. Shoot, if the feeder could send a text message when the camera turns on due to motion for a given feeder, that would be very fantastic.
Even so, these are well made and reliable and loaded with terrific features as they stand. I purchased both of these products, no relationship with the company, so these are just my unbiased comments.
These feeders reliably function as advertised. I won't list all of the features and functions here - the Feed and Go web site and other reviews here have done a great job of that! What I will describe is how we are using these, and how that seems to be working.
One of our cats has diabetes and needs to be fed every 12 hours. She is allowed two hours to finish each meal, then the food has to be removed from her access. Consequently, our other cat is on this same schedule.
We load up the Feed and Go for each cat's next meal and put it in the compartment to the left of the accessible compartment in the front of the feeder. We have programmed each feeder to feed twice per day - 5am and 5pm. Since any uneaten food after a feeding cannot be accessible to the cats any longer than two hours maximum, we programmed the feeders to "feed" again at 7am and 7pm; this results in the feeder rotating to an empty compartment.
At each "feeding" time, the feeder rotates counter-clockwise, and either makes food accessible (at 5am and 5pm) or removes access (at 7am and 7pm). The user has flexibility to program a "feeding" at any time of the day in five minute increments. This is the first issue for us. We feed the cats simultaneously now, and it may be better to offset the feeding by one minute so that each cat can distinguish the sound of my voice calling to the feeder. Unless we fool one feeder into thinking that it's a minute earlier or later than it is, this isn't an option. As of now, both feeders call both cats simultaneously. This may be ok for some. We'll experiment to see if we can offset the clocks a bit; we haven't done that yet, but it looks like this is possible on the Web portal for the Feed and Go. Or, we could manually call the cats a few seconds apart. That's probably a better option.
The strategy outlined above works without a hitch for one meal for which we've loaded up the food a few hours before. For example, we load up the feeders at about 10pm, so the food is in the feeder for seven hours before opening for the 5am feeding. Again, we have to feed wet food, but this amount of time in the feeder seems to be just fine. The feeders really are close to being airtight. The cats know that there's food in there because they've seen me put it there, but they don't obsessively hang around the feeders once the food is closed in. This makes me think that there must be minimal smell coming from the feeders (I certainly can't smell the food). And, the food looks just fine at 5 the next morning - no dry crust has formed, and the color still looks normal.
Beyond about seven hours or so, I worry that having the wet food sitting in the feeders isn't optimal. Would it be ok for up to 24 hours (assuming that we're away and have a pet sitter come in once per day, and the odd time she might have to load up three meals to cover the cats until her next visit)? Maybe. Some people say that this would be fine for 24 to 48 hours given the almost airtight seal, but I tend to be cautious. Here's the solution that I've found.
We purchased some of these: Porcelain Creme Brulee Dish - Assorted Colors Set of 4 - By SWEESE. They fit PERFECTLY in the food compartments. They are porcelain, so they hold cold for quite a long time. I put them in the freezer for several hours before loading up the food into the feeders. I also store the food in the refrigerator so that it starts out cold. AND, I put a couple of squares of ice cut out from these: Cryopak Flexible Ice Mats, Set of 2 alongside each frozen porcelain dish. I figure that a couple of hours of coldness can only help to preserve the freshness.
So this is the second issue that I have here for using these feeders for wet food - lack of refrigeration. The owner, Alex, has indicated that they are experimenting with some prototypes - one type that includes room for an ice pack under the food, and another that actually refrigerates the food compartment. These are not available now, but I am staying tuned just in case. Until then, my approach above gives a little bit more peace of mind. I'll post a follow up to this review after we have some more experience with this.
The last little improvement that would be great would be to have a mode whereby the Webcam on each feeder could turn on in response to motion. As I mentioned, our cats have two hours during which to eat their food. One of them zips over to a feeder right when it opens. The other is more leisurely about it, and we never know when he'll show up. If we wanted to monitor eating, it would be great if the camera could turn on and record the Webcam stream due to the motion of a cat eating at the feeder, noting the start time, and then turn off when the cat leaves/when the motion stops, noting the end time. I am no expert in this area, so I'm not sure if this is practical, but I have heard of motion-sensitive security cameras, so it may be worth exploring.
The last note for now is that the cats have been quickly trained to recognize that the grinding sound of the motor turning the food tray means that their food will become accessible. And therein lies the rub...because the grinding sound means food at 5am and 5pm, but it means no more food at 7am and 7pm. Thus, it may be necessary for us to turn off the voice calling feature on each feeder and manually call the cats over only when the grinding sound means food. As of now, they are a little bit confused at 7am and 7pm when the trays turn and the food is gone. This said, cats are pretty darn smart and they'll probably figure this out. As of now, the food-motivated cat runs over to the feeder again at 7am and 7pm just in case.
All in all, these feeders are great as helpful tools. They would be A+ all around if they had some type of refrigeration or cooling option, and if the cameras could be set to motion sensitive mode. Shoot, if the feeder could send a text message when the camera turns on due to motion for a given feeder, that would be very fantastic.
Even so, these are well made and reliable and loaded with terrific features as they stand. I purchased both of these products, no relationship with the company, so these are just my unbiased comments.
on May 27, 2016
I ordered 2 of these feeders for my kittens. I had an issue with my particular router so I emailed Feed and Go. Alex, the founder emailed me back very quickly to get some information about my router type. In less than an hour after that, Alex called me. This generous man, who is very patient, kind, humorous and knowledgeable spent an hour on the phone with me until both feeders were up and running. I'll be bringing my fur-babies home in a few days and I can't wait to be able to check in on them when I'm at work. These feeders are the best thing since sliced bread. They are worth every penny!
UPDATED REVIEW: It is now December 2016. After several months without any hiccups, these feeders somehow mysteriously end uwith the wrong time in the 'Scheduled' feeding section. I notice it every time they're set to turn for a feeding time. I should say, I can tell when
only one turns. One cat looks around the room wondering why I left him out for meal time. These feeders are still handy, but if you set up
scheduled feeding times when you'll be away from home, be sure to check often that the feeder time is set correctly for your time zone, etc.
SECOND UPDATED REVIEW: One of my naughty cats chewed through the power cord of the feed and go. I contacted Alex and he will be sending me extra power cords - FREE of charge. You can't get better care and service than that!!
UPDATED REVIEW: It is now December 2016. After several months without any hiccups, these feeders somehow mysteriously end uwith the wrong time in the 'Scheduled' feeding section. I notice it every time they're set to turn for a feeding time. I should say, I can tell when
only one turns. One cat looks around the room wondering why I left him out for meal time. These feeders are still handy, but if you set up
scheduled feeding times when you'll be away from home, be sure to check often that the feeder time is set correctly for your time zone, etc.
SECOND UPDATED REVIEW: One of my naughty cats chewed through the power cord of the feed and go. I contacted Alex and he will be sending me extra power cords - FREE of charge. You can't get better care and service than that!!
on July 26, 2016
I purchased this feeder when I was traveling for work out of country!
And now after 1 year I'm using it every day, happily.
It's amazing how simple it is to make sure your pet has food at the exact same time every day, or at the time that you want them to be fed, and you can watch them eat, or have the angle of the feeder in a way that during the day you can check on them and watch them play with their toys!
It's amazing, I absolutely love it.
Every night, my cat would wake me up to feed him, it was not fun, if you're a cat owner you know the story! Till I started using this feeder, at 3 am, he gets his food and I get my sleep! I even record my voice on the feeder so right when it wants to feed him it plays my voice which is very cool.
Also, at lunch meeting, you can show your cat LIVE to your workers, how cool is that heheh : )
It also has 6 sections, and if you're traveling you can just feel it anyway you like and be sure he gets fresh food.
Good luck.
And now after 1 year I'm using it every day, happily.
It's amazing how simple it is to make sure your pet has food at the exact same time every day, or at the time that you want them to be fed, and you can watch them eat, or have the angle of the feeder in a way that during the day you can check on them and watch them play with their toys!
It's amazing, I absolutely love it.
Every night, my cat would wake me up to feed him, it was not fun, if you're a cat owner you know the story! Till I started using this feeder, at 3 am, he gets his food and I get my sleep! I even record my voice on the feeder so right when it wants to feed him it plays my voice which is very cool.
Also, at lunch meeting, you can show your cat LIVE to your workers, how cool is that heheh : )
It also has 6 sections, and if you're traveling you can just feel it anyway you like and be sure he gets fresh food.
Good luck.
Power cable can get unplugged if wild / stray animals have access to the area where your pet feeder is located at
on July 5, 2016
I think it's a great product in general, I like the overall idea and the benefit for the user(s) AKA pets and pet owner(s). In my specific scenario with cats that use a pet door to be able to go outside and come back into the room with the pet feeder, stray / wild animals can come in, which happened in my case while I was away for a few days, and disconnected the feeder by pulling on it and disconnecting the power cord. There might be a way to somehow secure the power cord to the latch that covers the back of the pet feeder's chassis, but because it is all plastic it might get ripped off if pulled strongly enough by animals (in my case probably raccoons). Because the pet feeder does not have a backup battery and as a result no power then, it stopped working. It continued working immediately though after I came back and re-connected the power cable.
So, if you have a pet door and have woods around with small to mid-sized stray / wild animals that could get to your pet feeder, keep in mind to be around or have someone regularly check on the feeder in case you are not around.
So, if you have a pet door and have woods around with small to mid-sized stray / wild animals that could get to your pet feeder, keep in mind to be around or have someone regularly check on the feeder in case you are not around.
on July 11, 2017
Elegant Flying saucer from Wall-E doesn't work so well for wet food and multi-day absences.
Update,
AS I feared, the seller short-changed me on the return. ONLY BUY THIS IF YOU'RE CERTAIN YOU WON'T NEED TO RETURN IT!
This is meant to be the best Automatic Pet Feeder.
Now the startup team deserves maximum credit for working so hard on making a product that meets the goals they set themselves and delivering such a high quality product.
It wasn't for me and I found a more simple product that better addressed my needs.
I wanted this to feed my pets some wet food when I'm not home and to have peace of mind that they're happy and well fed when I'm on a two or a three-day business trip.
For me, the Feed and Go doesn't achieve this. It's not optimal for multi-day programming since it has a weekly schedule and I can't set it to run a "Day One, Day Two, Day Three" schedule which is closer to what I would need.
It comes with 6 compartments. However, the first compartment is for immediate feeding only, as it doesn't come with a moving lid like some other automated feeders.
You get an email warning 5 minutes before feeding time and another at feeding time. So if your pet likes to come to the feeder and you want to have time to tune in, you get to see them live. If your pets are like mine and trying to call them with anything but delicious treats results in yawns, this is hit or miss.
Cleaning is acceptable, as long as you are ok with sticking with the rigorous: "No moisture on any parts" rules.
The opening and closing mechanism is very tight and requires two hands for opening. That's a good thing for pet owners where the pet wants to get at the food: Not a chance. Slight downside is that it's fairly hard to open. That might improve with time, though.
Then there's the customer service.
I got some very friendly and helpful replies at first. However, when I followed up because my concerns weren't addressed I got radio silence and finally a nasty reply when I asked Amazon to return the item.
Pros:
- Very well designed. Everything is elegant, it's big but it sits in your Kitchen (Or wherever your pets like to eat) like a flying saucer just landed. Think "Eve" from Wally.
- Setting it up and setting up the web interface is easy and straightforward.
- The sound recording works well and it plays back the sound at a loud volume.
- Locked tight: Unless your pet is capable of breaking the actual housing they won't get to the food.
Cons:
- While it's advertised for Wet Food, the Cons make it so that it's still sub-optimal for automated wet food feeding. Given the price point, I would've hoped that this was "The One". It's not, at least for me. * When posting this review I noticed the line in the product description that says: "We don't recommend leaving wet food in for longer than 24 hrs". I either wilfully ignored this or it wasn't in the description when I ordered the product.
- The biggest one for me was that all of the instructions and feedback from the company indicated that there's a "wrong" way to insert the tray back. The warnings include: Don't leave any moisture on the tray, or it will fry the electronics, "push down on to the housing to the align the infrared", careful not to let food stick out over the top of each compartment or it will block the infrared, etc., etc.
When the tray is inserted "wrong" it can get stuck or advance only half-way, essentially making the whole expensive box obsolete, and, what's worse, leaving your pet without food, when you're counting on the device to dole out food when you're not home.
- The camera is blurry. To put it mildly. With my pets, all I could see was a big blob while they were feeding. What the camera DOESN'T let you see is if the compartment is empty. You can see this in the product photos where it shows you the pet, but not the pet's food. Truth in advertising.
- The camera only activates at feeding time, there's no motion sensor and no option for cloud recording. When asked about this, the manufacturer responded with: That's not an advertised feature. You're better off with a small motion-sensing webcam placed strategically above or nearby.
- There is no app, it's simply a mobile website. That's not a big deal, however, it means that notifications are email or text only. I tried out the product for exactly 12 hours and I think I received 100 emails. Or more!
- There's no dedicated compartment for an ice pack. The recommendation from the manufacturer is to place ice packs in each compartment. Not a big deal if you want to use this with dry food. With wet food, every little helps. Or would've helped. Not very sanitary after a while, even if you wash them, or you buy new ice packs a lot. (I know ice-packs only keep the food cool for 8 hours, but that's more than you get without ice packs!) My point is, other automated feeders HAVE compartments for ice packs.
So all in all, I can recommend this item to someone that wants to pay top dollar for the key features that work well:
Multiple, programmable feedings, web interface, (blurry) webcam AT feeding time, very tightly closing lid, and 5+1 feeding compartments. Works really well for dry food and so-so for wet. Read the five-star reviews of owners who have that experience and keep my comments in mind if you feel the same way: Returns on this item are NOT easy: It ships in a big-arm box and I can understand that a small startup isn't happy taking these back.
However, that's not the customer service I expect from a > $200.00 product I bought online. If it's not for me, I should be able to return it no questions asked.
Essentially this is a great product for a pet owner who wants their pet fed while they're away at work and who wants to see if the pet comes to eat when the bell rings and/or not have to worry about feeding them when they're home.
Update,
AS I feared, the seller short-changed me on the return. ONLY BUY THIS IF YOU'RE CERTAIN YOU WON'T NEED TO RETURN IT!
This is meant to be the best Automatic Pet Feeder.
Now the startup team deserves maximum credit for working so hard on making a product that meets the goals they set themselves and delivering such a high quality product.
It wasn't for me and I found a more simple product that better addressed my needs.
I wanted this to feed my pets some wet food when I'm not home and to have peace of mind that they're happy and well fed when I'm on a two or a three-day business trip.
For me, the Feed and Go doesn't achieve this. It's not optimal for multi-day programming since it has a weekly schedule and I can't set it to run a "Day One, Day Two, Day Three" schedule which is closer to what I would need.
It comes with 6 compartments. However, the first compartment is for immediate feeding only, as it doesn't come with a moving lid like some other automated feeders.
You get an email warning 5 minutes before feeding time and another at feeding time. So if your pet likes to come to the feeder and you want to have time to tune in, you get to see them live. If your pets are like mine and trying to call them with anything but delicious treats results in yawns, this is hit or miss.
Cleaning is acceptable, as long as you are ok with sticking with the rigorous: "No moisture on any parts" rules.
The opening and closing mechanism is very tight and requires two hands for opening. That's a good thing for pet owners where the pet wants to get at the food: Not a chance. Slight downside is that it's fairly hard to open. That might improve with time, though.
Then there's the customer service.
I got some very friendly and helpful replies at first. However, when I followed up because my concerns weren't addressed I got radio silence and finally a nasty reply when I asked Amazon to return the item.
Pros:
- Very well designed. Everything is elegant, it's big but it sits in your Kitchen (Or wherever your pets like to eat) like a flying saucer just landed. Think "Eve" from Wally.
- Setting it up and setting up the web interface is easy and straightforward.
- The sound recording works well and it plays back the sound at a loud volume.
- Locked tight: Unless your pet is capable of breaking the actual housing they won't get to the food.
Cons:
- While it's advertised for Wet Food, the Cons make it so that it's still sub-optimal for automated wet food feeding. Given the price point, I would've hoped that this was "The One". It's not, at least for me. * When posting this review I noticed the line in the product description that says: "We don't recommend leaving wet food in for longer than 24 hrs". I either wilfully ignored this or it wasn't in the description when I ordered the product.
- The biggest one for me was that all of the instructions and feedback from the company indicated that there's a "wrong" way to insert the tray back. The warnings include: Don't leave any moisture on the tray, or it will fry the electronics, "push down on to the housing to the align the infrared", careful not to let food stick out over the top of each compartment or it will block the infrared, etc., etc.
When the tray is inserted "wrong" it can get stuck or advance only half-way, essentially making the whole expensive box obsolete, and, what's worse, leaving your pet without food, when you're counting on the device to dole out food when you're not home.
- The camera is blurry. To put it mildly. With my pets, all I could see was a big blob while they were feeding. What the camera DOESN'T let you see is if the compartment is empty. You can see this in the product photos where it shows you the pet, but not the pet's food. Truth in advertising.
- The camera only activates at feeding time, there's no motion sensor and no option for cloud recording. When asked about this, the manufacturer responded with: That's not an advertised feature. You're better off with a small motion-sensing webcam placed strategically above or nearby.
- There is no app, it's simply a mobile website. That's not a big deal, however, it means that notifications are email or text only. I tried out the product for exactly 12 hours and I think I received 100 emails. Or more!
- There's no dedicated compartment for an ice pack. The recommendation from the manufacturer is to place ice packs in each compartment. Not a big deal if you want to use this with dry food. With wet food, every little helps. Or would've helped. Not very sanitary after a while, even if you wash them, or you buy new ice packs a lot. (I know ice-packs only keep the food cool for 8 hours, but that's more than you get without ice packs!) My point is, other automated feeders HAVE compartments for ice packs.
So all in all, I can recommend this item to someone that wants to pay top dollar for the key features that work well:
Multiple, programmable feedings, web interface, (blurry) webcam AT feeding time, very tightly closing lid, and 5+1 feeding compartments. Works really well for dry food and so-so for wet. Read the five-star reviews of owners who have that experience and keep my comments in mind if you feel the same way: Returns on this item are NOT easy: It ships in a big-arm box and I can understand that a small startup isn't happy taking these back.
However, that's not the customer service I expect from a > $200.00 product I bought online. If it's not for me, I should be able to return it no questions asked.
Essentially this is a great product for a pet owner who wants their pet fed while they're away at work and who wants to see if the pet comes to eat when the bell rings and/or not have to worry about feeding them when they're home.
on November 27, 2016
This has worked well so far. It was easy to set up and schedule feedings via the website. It sends e-mail when a new serving has been exposed. I gave me trouble only once when I was setting it up the night before a trip: while trying it out with a feed-now command, the tray rotated only half way; I immediately received an e-mail saying it detected a problem and provided instructions to press a combination of buttons on the top of the feeder to reset it, which worked.
The camera on it is really blurry, and at least with mine does not point down so that I can see that the new serving has been exposed.
Note that all communication with the feeder is done through the website, and there are no instructions for alternate connection. If the company goes out of business it appears it will become useless, like so many other Internet-of-Things devices (except it will continue its current feeding schedule).
On the recommendation from a friend, I got one of these to provide an evening serving of canned food for my cat while I'm away (due to allergies, she is unable to eat dry food, even supposedly non-allergy ones). The night before my trip I prepare single servings of the canned food, placing them in saucers (search Amazon for Dean Jacob's set of 4 bread dipping saucers - these circular porcelain saucers fit precisely in the tray and negate the need to clean the feeder tray daily, at least for my cat who is a clean eater). I wrap the saucers in wax paper and put each in a sandwich bag in the freezer. My pet sitter comes in the mornings and provides a serving of fresh canned food, and also puts a frozen serving into the feeder so that it will be exposed that evening, by which time the food has thawed. He rinses the prior night's saucer and puts it in the dishwasher. This has worked well since I got the feeder a few trips ago.
The camera on it is really blurry, and at least with mine does not point down so that I can see that the new serving has been exposed.
Note that all communication with the feeder is done through the website, and there are no instructions for alternate connection. If the company goes out of business it appears it will become useless, like so many other Internet-of-Things devices (except it will continue its current feeding schedule).
On the recommendation from a friend, I got one of these to provide an evening serving of canned food for my cat while I'm away (due to allergies, she is unable to eat dry food, even supposedly non-allergy ones). The night before my trip I prepare single servings of the canned food, placing them in saucers (search Amazon for Dean Jacob's set of 4 bread dipping saucers - these circular porcelain saucers fit precisely in the tray and negate the need to clean the feeder tray daily, at least for my cat who is a clean eater). I wrap the saucers in wax paper and put each in a sandwich bag in the freezer. My pet sitter comes in the mornings and provides a serving of fresh canned food, and also puts a frozen serving into the feeder so that it will be exposed that evening, by which time the food has thawed. He rinses the prior night's saucer and puts it in the dishwasher. This has worked well since I got the feeder a few trips ago.
on March 30, 2017
We have to return this feeder after 5 days since our lab puppy was able to get to all 4 cups in the feeder while we were gone one night. He managed to rotate the tray insert just with his nose without destroying the machine. We were so disappointed, since we loved the webcam and being able to check in on him. However, the webcam connection only seemed to work about 60% of the time, and it was constantly offline, sometimes for hours. This was the whole reason we spent more on this feeder and it didn't work as expected. I don't know if the speaker worked either since we never saw our dog moving when I called him over. Overall, it could use some improvement with the webcam and needs an app, but if you have a less interested dog or cat, the design and appeal of this machine is pretty neat and sure to make your hungry pet a happy camper. Our dog was just too excited to resist!
on June 22, 2015
Our cat needs to be fed 8 times a day because of stomach acid coming up a few hours after a meal. When I'm home, I don't mind feeding him but going out was complicated, even to run errands!
Enters Feed & Go. Our cat didn't hesitate one second to eat from it! Call My Pet Over is useless, the machine is pretty noisy when it rotates, he knows what to do. If I know or think I may not be home on time, I put frozen raw/wet food in the feeder, place an ice pack on the top, schedule the feeding(s) and leave, our Dude waiting by the feeder for the next meal. It's fun to watch him sometimes, the feeder starts rotating and he's on it right away.
We love it! The cat eats from it, it takes wet/raw food as well as dry, it's great quality and is beautiful (looks like a giant Apple Magic Mouse), albeit it has a big footprint. It was easy to set up, webcam is fun, website easy to use. It's actually genius. The pet sitter has no problem using it, although it seems complicated for a stranger to rely on an automatic machine and website. No issue so far, everything is set up by me anyway, so it's been easy.
It's great but not perfect, especially for the price.
- Like I said, it's noisy when rotating, the first time, the husband thought it had a problem.
- Webcam does the job but is poor quality, for the price, you'd expect something better.
- It's not stainless steel. Alex told me that the plastic is not made of chemicals that cause chin acne. It's good that there's less (or other?) chemicals but my understanding is that plastic scratches easily and will eventually host loads of bacteria, hence the chin acne. I will keep feeding him in his Basis Pet bowls (the best on the market http://www.basispet.com/products/stainless-steel-cat-dish-made-in-the-usa) as much as I can.
- The compartments are not well suited for cats who literally have to put their whole face down to lick the food stuck in the corners (there is some waste with wet/raw food). Surprisingly, our cat doesn't get frustrated and will do whatever it takes to get the most of his meal but I would love it if the bottom corners were rounded (slopes) like the Basis Pet bowl.
- The unit is not refrigerated, getting the ice pack to stick to the top of the feeder is a challenge.
Customer service is excellent. One of the latches broke recently, I contacted Alex who answered very promptly and offered to fix the lid for us. Knowing that I was concerned about our feeding schedule and our cat issues, he sent us a temporary unit, and wanted to make sure we were all set up before I sent mine.
Enters Feed & Go. Our cat didn't hesitate one second to eat from it! Call My Pet Over is useless, the machine is pretty noisy when it rotates, he knows what to do. If I know or think I may not be home on time, I put frozen raw/wet food in the feeder, place an ice pack on the top, schedule the feeding(s) and leave, our Dude waiting by the feeder for the next meal. It's fun to watch him sometimes, the feeder starts rotating and he's on it right away.
We love it! The cat eats from it, it takes wet/raw food as well as dry, it's great quality and is beautiful (looks like a giant Apple Magic Mouse), albeit it has a big footprint. It was easy to set up, webcam is fun, website easy to use. It's actually genius. The pet sitter has no problem using it, although it seems complicated for a stranger to rely on an automatic machine and website. No issue so far, everything is set up by me anyway, so it's been easy.
It's great but not perfect, especially for the price.
- Like I said, it's noisy when rotating, the first time, the husband thought it had a problem.
- Webcam does the job but is poor quality, for the price, you'd expect something better.
- It's not stainless steel. Alex told me that the plastic is not made of chemicals that cause chin acne. It's good that there's less (or other?) chemicals but my understanding is that plastic scratches easily and will eventually host loads of bacteria, hence the chin acne. I will keep feeding him in his Basis Pet bowls (the best on the market http://www.basispet.com/products/stainless-steel-cat-dish-made-in-the-usa) as much as I can.
- The compartments are not well suited for cats who literally have to put their whole face down to lick the food stuck in the corners (there is some waste with wet/raw food). Surprisingly, our cat doesn't get frustrated and will do whatever it takes to get the most of his meal but I would love it if the bottom corners were rounded (slopes) like the Basis Pet bowl.
- The unit is not refrigerated, getting the ice pack to stick to the top of the feeder is a challenge.
Customer service is excellent. One of the latches broke recently, I contacted Alex who answered very promptly and offered to fix the lid for us. Knowing that I was concerned about our feeding schedule and our cat issues, he sent us a temporary unit, and wanted to make sure we were all set up before I sent mine.
on April 15, 2016
As others have noted, the lack of battery power is the biggest drawback. Others have cited lack of consistent power, but for me, the issue is that I live in a really old apartment with a sever lack of outlets, which limits the locations I can put the feeder and also adds to my power strip / extension cord situation (which is something I have been trying to minimize because it is, of course, a safety issue).
But those issues overcome, the feeder itself is quite good. My cat is notorious for figuring out how to break into feeders, and I've had to Jerry-rig solutions before to prevent her from doing everything from prying lifs off to pawing at the open dish until it moves over enough so that she can wedge her paw into the next bowl that contains food, which she proceeds to eat with utmost diligence, one tiny pawful at a time. She tried her hardest to move this dish but it wasn't going anywhere, and after a few days, she gave up trying. That in and of itself may be worth the expense.
I would like the option to completely disable the webcam. I know some people may like this feature, but I don't have a use for it and have taped over it in the meantime. Like the baby monitors that can be hacked into, I view this as more of a gimmick/security risk that isn't worth the ability to see a few chair legs and my cat's giant head when she's actually shoving her face into her food. But tape will suffice for now.
Overall, as a feeder it is excellent, but could do with fewer gimmicks and a battery option. Maybe less tech bells and whistles could also reduce the price.
But those issues overcome, the feeder itself is quite good. My cat is notorious for figuring out how to break into feeders, and I've had to Jerry-rig solutions before to prevent her from doing everything from prying lifs off to pawing at the open dish until it moves over enough so that she can wedge her paw into the next bowl that contains food, which she proceeds to eat with utmost diligence, one tiny pawful at a time. She tried her hardest to move this dish but it wasn't going anywhere, and after a few days, she gave up trying. That in and of itself may be worth the expense.
I would like the option to completely disable the webcam. I know some people may like this feature, but I don't have a use for it and have taped over it in the meantime. Like the baby monitors that can be hacked into, I view this as more of a gimmick/security risk that isn't worth the ability to see a few chair legs and my cat's giant head when she's actually shoving her face into her food. But tape will suffice for now.
Overall, as a feeder it is excellent, but could do with fewer gimmicks and a battery option. Maybe less tech bells and whistles could also reduce the price.
