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Rating:  -
This is a good product in theory, since it feeds your cat at regular intervals so it doesn't get fat, but it is difficult to program, and my electronics went crazy after a few weeks. I wouldn't recommend this product. Maybe there's something better that's made in America.
Rating:  -
Bought this product to try and control my cat's large appetite. Like the others, programming this thing takes a NASA degree, then you still don't know what your doing. No warning when the batteries died. And one day, it just stopped working all together. Getting ready to take a trip and not much else is offered out there, but I don't want to risk getting this thing again.
Rating:  -
I have had this product for at least a year and a half, and I have had no problems so far. I was looking at this page again to see if they had a waterer, which I may buy soon.
The best part about this purchase - I haven't had to change the batteries yet, for over a year. But it does take 4 D batteries, so make sure you have some or buy some with this product.
Other reviewers on this site have had problems programming it, but it comes with directions. I read the directions when I bought the machine, programmed it correctly on the first day, and have been able to just let it run since then. Programming is not entirely "intuitive," though, so the directions are important to keep if you want to change the programming often.
I got this for my cats because they put on too much weight with the free flow feeder we had before. We have had no problems with them forcefully "pulling" food out of the machine, mostly because the lid is tight-fitting and there is a hard plastic paddle holding the food in the receptacle.
Feeder is actually easy to clean because the bowl is large and smooth (for wipe-out cleaning) and the top receptacle can be wiped out easily by taking off the top lid. It is at leat 6 inches across, so it is not too small.
If you are wondering how the food dispenses, you can choose up to three feedings a day, and each feeding can be from 1-4 portions. As far as I remember, the portions are each 1/4 cup, and my vet recommended 1/2 to 3/4 cup per cat per day. If three daily feedings of 1 portion are too much for a cat, you can reduce it to two daily feedings of 1 portion, and they can be spaced out at any time of day.
One major consideration: I have two cats, and I had to make sure, at first, that they were sharing the amount of food. Luckily for me, I found that the bowl was big enough that both cats could eat at the same time, although sometimes my "less dominant" cat would wait it out and let the other cat eat some first. If you have cats that don't like to eat together or fight for any reason, I recommend two feeders in separate areas, although this is an expense I couldn't afford at the time.
Overall, I think this product is one of the best I have bought online, and I would recommend it to anyone with a pet who needs to start a consistent and controlled feeding schedule.
Rating: -
We decided to try this product for our cat. She's on a strict diet of Prescription Diet r/d. She's ONLY allowed to have 3/4 cup of r/d per day. We decided this feeder would be great because she could have three 1/4 cup meals without us having to be home three times a day. Sounds great, right? WRONG. This feeder does not dispense the correct amount of food. On the 1/4 cup setting, the amount of food ranged from 1 HEAPING 1/4 cup to almost 1/2 a cup of food!!! This is UNacceptable for anyone whose cat has strict dietary needs. We tried various things including leaving the hopper very full and leaving it almost empty. NOTHING worked. I should also point out that the box and instructions state that the feeder works with ALL shapes and sizes of dry food (and the box even pictured a food in the exact shape and size as ours).
Not to mention the creators of this product seemed to forget that cats are intelligent and they can very easily stick their paws up the chute and release more food. This product might be okay if you're just going out of town and want to make sure that your kitty is fed, but stay away from it if you have more specific needs.
You may feel that the product deserves a higher rating, but the way I see it, claiming that your product can dispense a specific amount of food when it cannot is false advertising and makes the product completely useless to me.
Rating: -
We purchased this for our cat 2 years ago for about $80 without reading any reviews. It ran every day for 2 straight years with no problems at all. The first set of Duracell D batteries lasted over 9 months and were still going strong but I replaced them because we were going on a 2 week vacation. The second set lasted over a year. Only now is the unit starting to show its age. Like others have noted the clock gains time but ours gains only about 5 min a month. The real problem now is that it is occasionally missing a feeding but again that's after 2 years. We're going to get the new version next.
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