What makes you interested in an automatic feeder for your cat? Do you want to control their portions while you’re away from home? Keep multiple cats’ food separate? Or are you looking for a feature-rich smart feeder that allows you to monitor your cat’s feedings while you’re at work? Let us know in the comments!
When we travel would like to have a cat sitter stop in every other day to scoop litter and to replenish the feeder as opposed to coming in 2x per day. We also have an outdoor cat who comes by AM and PM, and a feeder for him would be ideal as we are never sure exactly when he will show up. price is a consideration, as we need to buy 3 of feeders.
Right now I feed my cat 1/4 cup in the morning and 1/4 cup when I get home from work and sometimes wet food or snacks too. Sometimes I have to work overtime and worry about her being too hungry having to wait hours for me to come home late.
I cannot imagine what your cats think about the multitude of different feeders, litters, watering devices, food, and litter boxes that are put in front of them. They are adorable little supertroopers. Great review.
I've been seeing a lot of those lately and kept wondering what the deal was since they had no helpful info. I bet you're right, I think those sites are AI generated
Hi! Great review! In my case, I had to go for the microchip feeder, and we're so happy. I have 3 cats, and two different diets. Therefore, I had to supervise every meal. My youngest cat is a picky and slow eater and the other two eat their meals right away, so I got the feeder for the youngest. That way I make sure she can go and finish her meal whenever she wants and one of the other cats doesn't get diarrhea from eating another diet. My cat, who isn't food-motivated, learned to use it right away. It's different from the rest because you cannot fill it and forget about meals, but it's big enough to fit almost two days' food if I had to go. That's more than enough, as I would never leave my cats alone that long, someone would come over to check on them. Sorry for the long comment, but maybe it's useful for someone with my old problem!
Wouldn't you still have to supervise feeding time though even with the automatic feeder? Wouldn't your cats just eat each others food once it's available? My 2 cats definitely would even if I had then on different diets I would still have to supervise each meal because they would eat whatever food is available.
The surefeed microchip feeder is awesome. I have a 15 year old cat on geriatric food and suddenly a kitten landed in our house. The senior was stealing the high calorie kitten food, while the little one was eating the "big boy" food and not getting the nutrition he needed. We got two of them and now the old man is back on his diet while the baby is growing like a weed.
Even with having 2 separate auto feeders now how do you make sure they aren't still eating each others food? Do you feed them in separate rooms? I feel like with my 2 cats nothing stops them from stealing each others food!
@MissRuthless I have the guards on them so there is only one access point. With the target animal eating it is difficult for another to get around them to get the food. As soon as they step (or are pushed) away the door closes. But note it's not auto feeders, those are different from surefeed microchip feeders. Auto feeders just dispense food at set times while the surefeed control access to the bowl.
On the pet safe youtube channel, they say the petsafe eatwell auto feeder is ONLY for dry food but all the retailers say its for wet and dry. I wish someone would make an auto feeder for wet food with a wide shallow dish slots, these deep awkward dish slots are dumb...
Agree!!! I really badly need wet food feeder 😭😭😭 hard to find cat-sitter where i stay/also we are new in country/ and really worry the go for 2 night holiday abroad :(
The Cat Mate 2 compartment timed feeder has an insert for ice pack to keep wet food fresh and it seems like it has a relatively shallow dish from what I can see
Without her and the poorly written instructions I would never have been able to set up my auto cat feeder(Pet Libro granary) so that I can care for my sick uncle.
Agree. I like the Wopet smart feeder but unfortunately, it's for dry food only. Ipettie has product for wet food but not the smart feature, on sale now on Amazon.
I bought two catmates for my kitties a few months ago and am loving it! We feed 3 small wet food meals a day and two tiny kibble snacks and our cats have never been happier (and I don’t have to listen to them yell for food throughout the day while I’m working). Watching them go running when they hear them rotating is really adorable, too 😂
I got the WOPET feeder from Amazon and it was only 117$, I like to go away for the weekend and it’s nice to be able to see my cat from the camera and track her food. Also my cat spends about 90% of the day in the living room when we aren’t home so setting up the feeder in the living room allows me to see her almost all day.
Okay cat-food-dispenser-inventors, listen up: we need something that does all of this - Wet or dry food dispensing with refrigeration built-in for the wet food (and none of this battery-only bs, I don’t just have a bajillion DD batteries laying around); Smart phone connectivity with camera; slow feed option for hungry hippos; two separate individually programmable bowls with chip or tag recognition; quiet mechanics and shallow bowls. Oh, and make everything dishwasher safe. Cool? Cool, thanks, see you on Shark Tank
The slow feed option is definitely needed for auto feeders. I have an auto feeder, (for dry food) and even on the smallest portion setting, my cat will occasionally eat too fast and vomit afterwards. 🙄
Looked into the Wopet feeder and jumped on a huge prime day discount. I didn't have many issues in the setup, the only issue I had was it not registering when I held the "set" button but after a second try it worked fine. The feeder would shoot kibble onto the floor to begin with but it hasn't done that in a while, not sure what changed there but I'm happy regardless. Love the camera, the amount of funny angles I've captured of the cats sniffing the feeder has been worth it alone
Thank you so much for all these videos holding my hand though getting a new cat showing me what is the best to give my kitten the best start in life! I don't know what i would of done without you! Keep doing what your doing. Your doing great!
The black PetSafe is hard to program. But You Tube has instruction video that helped this gramma figure it out. I could follow his clear instructions step by step. Stop, back up til I got it. No rambling, no music just video of keys an what to push when. Thank you for this comparison vid. Good job. Texas here.
I hope they make more options for wet food like I really want to try C300 but I’m worried about whisker fatigue for my cats but I love how that brands had ice packs and stainless steel bowls you can buy to replace the plastic ones
We use the SureFeed for our 3 cats. They work great. Two of our cats are on a different food than the third - keeps them all out of each other’s food. The youngest has hung over the “back” of the feeder while opened to eat another’s food but we just moved the bowls around and he hasn’t done it since. Getting them trained to do it wasn’t too painful. Lol. They are all microchipped so didn’t need the tags (kept them just in case tho). The oldest and youngest were the easiest to train. The middle kitty is a scaredy-cat and his chip is pretty far back so he has to get up in it for it to open. At first he associated touching his butt with the feeder opening. So he’d go up to it and meow for me to come over. So cute, but he’s since figured it out.
I have a cat that starts waking me up at 4 30 am for food. I have 4 indoor cats and have been looking for a automatic feeder for wet food. Thank you for the review
Hi!! I saw your comment on wet food machine and wonder if you'd like the idea of a machine that grinds freeze-dried food and automatically adds water? Just like a coffee machine, so we can be freed from the manual work of preparing wet food.
I have a WoPet, but not with the camera and Wifi capabilities. I like it because my late cat who figured out how to trip the last feeder I had couldn't trip this one, and because the dish can be easily removed and washed (even run through the dishwasher). One of my cats is prone to chin acne, so being able to fully clean the dish every couple days keeps him from having breakouts.
I've had 3 of the surefeed chip feeders for about 4 years now. I love them. They're not perfect, but better than anything else I've tried. Feeding wet food can be problematic if you don't keep up with the cleaning. Cats push the wet food toward the back and it can get into nooks and crannies and ruin the motor. This happened to one of mine but it was covered by the awesome 3 year warranty. Now, after the warranty is finished, I completely take the unit apart down to the inner workings to clean it. Once the feeder is opened for a cat to eat from, another cat can come from the back and eat out of the bowl as well. You can purchase a plastic bubble piece to snap onto the back to eliminate that problem. So more costs. That being said, I'd definitely purchase these again. Imo, the best possible feeder for someone to create is a microchip feeder that also has a built in timer so that it can be locked until you want your cat's chip to open it. And also a completely sealed feeding area so that moisture and food can't get into the inner parts of the feeder. I also have the petsafe automatic feeder, but had it in storage for years since I had stopped feeding dry. I recently took it out and the motor is frozen. It won't turn the gears.
Thanks for you videos. I'm a new cat mom and was not aware of all the different litters, litter boxes and so many other things. Your videos have helped me. :)
Thank you so much for making this video! I know you mostly do reviews- but would love any advice on cat behavior and getting them to sleep through the night or to reduce vocalization and bad behavior to get human attention!
Hey Jacqueline, thank you for the comment. We do want to expand the channel to cover more topics like behavior and health, so you may see some videos like that soon. Your suggestions are much appreciated!
So, I ended up going with an Ipettie Auto feeder and I frickin love it! Seriously. Customer service is amazing. I contacted them before ordering and they responded quickly and thoroughly and followed up a d day or two later to see if had any questions. After I ordered it, they reached out again to make sure I was liking it and if had anything could help with... Wasn't in a badgering way, it was just good customer service. It's extremely easy to set it up. The tray has 6 spots for food, but you can schedule just 5 times... So, one of the slots is considered an immediate feed. But, 5 schedule times is still more than others. And the trays dishes are a good side, not too deep. It's also super easy to clean because the tray sections are rounded, no crevices where food goes, so just wipes up easily! I use the ice packs because I give my kitty, Gwen, wet and dry food, and I'd say the ice packs easily last 8hrs, but depends on temp it'll be sitting in too. They give you two ice packs, so you have to make sure to refreeze them daily. You can purchase extra icepacks if would like to always have ice packs ready to go in feeder. On this topic, the feed tray you get with machine is plastic, but you can purchase a stainless steel one if you prefer that. The machine is very quiet when rotating. It does a beep when in position to alert your pet, but it's rather quiet - I live in a studio essentially, and so the feeder is near my bed, and it never wakes me up, though it goes off 3x over night. She also hasn't managed to pop the lid off to get at all her food (and she did try initially lol, I'd hear her pawing at it and whining lol). I got the non-wifi one, bc my wifi is sketchy where I live and I didn't wanna had issues with setting it up. But, there is one that you can get where you can set and change the schedule using and app on your phone. It also has a safety mechanism, so if kitty was eating or sniffing or pawing as the machine starts to rotate the tray, it will stop moving when feels any resistence or obstacle, it stops, rotates back a little, pauses for 30sec and then resumes. So, yeah, I love mine! Lol, got in Amazon. No, I'm not paid by them to gush about their feeder, lol, I wish!! I know the cat mate is supposed to be the top feeder for wet foods, etc. It's literally #1 on a feeder lists, BUT when you look at actually customer ratings and comments, it's lower than other feeders. My big concern with it was that it doesn't acknowledge if cat gets in way of machine turning. My kitty is young and curious. I read stories of people's cats getting stuck in them, like paws pinched, collars stuck. One guy wasn't home when it happened to his cat - he said he walked in, saw the feeder several feet from where it normally would me and flipped over, his cats collar had been ripped off the cat and the tags were wedged in the machine and his cat was hiding. ☹️ So, after reading that a few times, I was not excited for that feeder. But, again, the Ipettie one has that stop mechanism. Anyway, again, I love the thing, one of my best purchases ever. Highly recommend it!!! (As a PS in case you are planning on getting one or just got it... This is just regarding setting up the feeding schedule. I found it super easy to set it up. The directions are clear and it makes sense. But, one thing I will say is, for some reason, it seemed a lot of people were confused about this and mad at the machine for it (though, I think description/instruction packet are rather clear)... So, you can't set it by a day and time... You're just setting up to 5 times in a 24hr time period. So, say you want to feed your cat 1x a day for 5days. OK cool. You'd just put in that one time and leave all the other time slots as 12:00am (it's their equivalent of null time slot... So you can't actually set the feeder got midnight, but you could do 11:50pm or 12:10am, so, close enough). OK, want 2 feed times, ok put in the 2x and leave the rest empty. The feeder will always just activate when your scheduled time comes up. And, I know one woman was mad be she said her times kept getting changed... So, for example, if you set the times as like 1) 3pm, 2) 9pm 3) 6am 4) 12pm... The machine will actually just reorder them so listed chronologically... 6am, 12pm, 3pm, 9pm. She wasnt realizing it was all the same times she'd done, just put in chrono order. I learned it did that when I added a random night feed in the middle of my schedule and next time I went to update it, I saw it was changed. So, you can't tell the machine, do 8am & 8pm today, then 9am tomorrow.... Because, again, it goes in chrono order for a 24hr period. So if put that in, it'll go off at 8am, 9am, 8pm in one day. Make sense? )
Would love an updated version of this video! I wish that there was a microchip pet feeder that was also a smart feeder so it would store the biscuits in a tower and auto dispense them. The dream.
I got a microchip feeder around 2 years ago my dog would steal my cats food, that had anxiety. Honestly the feeder has its pros and cons. I loved it because he was able to get his food. The only downfall is if you only feed wet food the feeder does start to stink. And because you can't use water on it, it was hard to clean. Also the issue with the water was a bit annoying. If a little water spilled the feeder would break.But it was really good for when my cat was sick. He was able to get the food that he needed.
the petsafe simply feed automatic feeder works good, but our cat figured out she can knock a few more pieces of kibble into the bowl if she swats at the feeder and obsessed with it
I am sooo glad I watched this. I have a young healthy female cat and an older extremely over weight male. Trying to limit the males food has been a nightmare because he just steals the girls food lol. The microchip feeder looks like a lifesaver!!!
I love your videos. I have 10 cats rescued 5. Not op purpose have 10.lol. my Tonkinese boy is so fat. Now that I'm retired I can feed the cats different foods. Your cat food videos helped me get each cat on the correct food. Thank you.
I've had the pet safe eatwell for 7 yrs.. the reason i got it was because at times I would be away from the house for up to 6 days. It would allow me to feed Lelu regularly without being there. Lelu was new to me at about the same time.. she's a respectable eater.. she doesn't over eat at all. I've had no issues with this feeder, though I only use it for dry.. With wet food, it tends to go bad after a couple days (the stuff I give her anyways). She really only gets wet once or twice a week, the small can lasts 2 days and it's meant for urinary tract infections, which she seems prone too. My only concern with the feeder is if the batteries die while i'm gone.. but now knowing her eating habits, it doesn't really bother me much. Great reviews by the way, thank you for your time!
I had 2 cats, a full sized orange tabby male and a little 6 pound black tabby male. The big male would gouge and purge so I needed something to close after a certain time. The little one didn't eat much. I couldn''t tell how much he was eating as the big boy would eat his too. I ended up with the Wireless Whiskers. It uses a fob on a collar that opens the access to the food. It only works with dry food and the bin holds enough for at least a week. It takes a lot of programming but one nice thing is it spends 3 days gathering information on how much food each cat consumes. Then if there is any tweaking needed, it can be manually adjusted. When my big boy ate his portion, the doors would close on him until his next scheduled access. It had an alert for my little one when he wasn't getting enough, an underfed alert. Nice display and uses batteries for backup but primarily plugs into the wall. Unfortunately I got very ill but they had food while I was in the hospital until my family came to help. I lost my cats who are now in good homes but I'll be a cat mama again and will purchase another wireless whiskers. It was about one fifty.
Awesome information. I have a colony of 7 TNR'd cats I care for on my parents' property. I can't leave food out at night because of racoons, so, for last three years, have to go out at sun-up to put food out, and sundown to put it away. From your descriptions, it seems as if the PetSafe 5-meal feeder may be the best solution. It looks as though I can ratchet-strap it to the feeding table, to prevent racoon theft, set it to have an empty bowl rotate into position at sundown, a filled bowl to rotate at sun up, with two more meals rotating during the day, allowing me to go out once sometime during the day to refill bowls and refresh their water; though, from the portion size, I may need two or three of them... but it may be perfect! Thanks!
I got a petkit feeder, it have wide angle camera, WiFi enabled, plug and battery back up, I could change and add schedule on my phone, which is amazing. I could take a look at the camera and talk to my cat during feeding time, check if food got stuck or if it’s descending correctly. It also have a storage card on the unit to record feeding so I could check back. The camera have a night mode too, not super high def but works fine for the feeding purpose.
I have the surefeeder Yes one of my cats can steal from the side and back but surefeed has a solution. You can buy a plastic cage that goes on the back of the feeder. No more stealing most effective I also put raw food in the surefeed which means cleaning every meal but it works
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The Cat Mate feeder works pretty well for my furboy Spike. The only problem I had with it was ME. It fed him in the morning and in the evening, and since there are only five rotating cubbies, I would forget that I had to refill it after Day 2 (I'm getting old and have many senior moments lol!). He'd holler and yell all the while he was jumping on the bed to wake me up to fill his empty bowl. That wouldn't fly, so I bought the PetLibro where at least I could fill the hopper with a month's supply of kibble. I see you have reviewed the PetLibro, and I'll be interested to see what you thought of it. I will say one thing for the Cat Mate: I really like that you can use it with wet food, which I am trying to get him to eat in the evening. He's a kibble addict...but that's a story for another time. 😼
Very informative and thorough! We are considering an automatic feeder because our kitten really starts asking for food around 4:30 am and is waking us up often. We wake up at 6:00 am anyway, but I figure if she’s struggling to get through the night without feeling super hungry then maybe something like this would help. We do feed a huge portion around 9:00 pm before bed but the bowl is always empty in the morning and it seems not to satiate her through the whole night.
I have a WoPet feeder that I used when my senior gal decided she liked to eat at two in the morning. It was a difficult challenge because "Butterscotch" only ate wet food. The WoPet feeder was a manual dial type setup and came with either one bowl or two. It has a cold pack that fits under the enclosed dish. It was a very simple and cost effective solution for my cat to be able to eat around two in the morning. The little cool pack kept the food cold and she learned quickly that food was available in the early morning. It had a dial (yes a manual dial that I turned to set) that you set to how many hours before it would pop open. Very old school, no bells or whistles, or huge expense. It served my purpose letting her eat around two and then during the day had her regular feeding schedule. I don't know if this is even made anymore, but it was a win, win situation for me and my cat. It would be good for medication too I would think.
Dry food is filled with carbs from corn, rice and other non cat foods. Your cat will become fat and unhealthy from eating only dry foods. Look it up, it’s true
Yeah I really miss the automatic feeder I had before the surefeed but since one cat is a slow eater and the other needs urinary care food the surefeed is essential. I think the only solution currently for this would be to use a microchip pet door on some kind of enclosure with one of the automatic feeders inside it.
3 года назад+1
Thanks, this is just the info I was looking for. The microchip feeder in particular.
M... Thank you.. My friend has an auto feeder & I made a copy of the instructions.. It took me days to understand all the features.. I can imagine how many days you spent on this project..
Thank you so much for making this video and especially for being so thorough. It's a huge help for me as I'm trying to figure out which feeder to go with. As far as why, our cats are already on a schedule. . . but want to have breakfast at 4 in the morning. We're happy to accommodate this but, since we aren't up at that time, we figured an autofeeder could help.
Thanks for your videos. I have one of the SureFeed microchip feeders but cant recomend it if you have a realy hungry cat. He draged the whole machene over the floor. Somedays I found it upp side down. When I glued it with doubblesided tape he bend the plastic up to open it.
Sometimes I forget that not all cats “measure” their food lol. My cat since he was little just eats what he needs . We leave a plate full and he’ll eat what he needs thru out the day. He’s never gotten fat or anything .Kinda blessed ngl
What prevents the wet food feeders from developing bacteria? I've understood that wet food should not stay at room temperature for more than a few hours as it will start to breed bacteria. The Cat Mate C500 has ice packs to keep the temperature up; but the Eatwell (Runner-up) does not.
Thanks so much for your recommendations! Ive been looking into getting a automatic feeder since starting shift work. My schedule is all over the place and it’s definitely impacting my cats feeding schedules. Just got two of the ones you recommended the most! So glad i dont have to compromise on the wet food too! So excited to get them set up ☺️☺️🥳
Question. If you have (like your case) more than 1 cat. I am.thinming of even 5 cats. How do they tend to share? Would you just buy 5 feeders? Thank you
I have 4 cats now, a kitten, 2 adults, and a senior. So theres 3 types of food depending on age. The problem Im having is they all go and switch bowls around, meaning I have to lock them up in different rooms, which is fine, but its annoying. The microchip feeder would work best, but I cant justify the $150 price tag, especially when I have to buy more than one, honestly I would need 4 to keep them from eating all of the others food. The second to youngest is a bit skittish, so if we do something she thinks is scary (usually in the morning when we have to get ready for work) she will run off and not eat. The oldest will always try and go steal out of her bowl, and will kick her out even if shes eating. Its such a pain, but I do love them so much!
I bought the first and the last feeder thanks to your reviews. Sadly the first one has quit working, but I am ordering a replacement because it functioned the best for us and our fat cat. The Surefeed works great for our thin grazer. It keeps his greedy alpha male brother out of his food. I also apperceive that I can give them both we and dry food during the day while I am gone to work.
Your video provided great explanations. You saved me shopping time when I just want to buy what is needed. Thanks for you your product reviews, I just ordered the WoPet with WiFi features.
We have 2 of these feeders. The Petsafe spinning bowl and the Surefeed microchip feeder. One of our old cats was a MAJOR food thief and took advantage of the other cat's grazing nature. We had to get the microchip bowls so our poor senior cat could get enough food. Before that, we were using the spinny feeders. After we got the microchip feeders, we only used the spinny bowls when we went out of town for a weekend, which wasn't often. Both of those cats have since passed and we got 2 new kittens. We just went ahead and acclimated the kittens to the microchip feeders since they were still in great shape and worked so well for the previous cats. I even ordered extra bowls in 2 different colors and we only use one color with one kitten and the other color with the other kitten so hopefully they can easily identify which bowl is theirs by color.
How do you prevent food thiefs? I put the feeder on a narrow shelf so only 1 cat at a time can fit. That works well but now the 6 month old kitten has decided she doesn't like it on the shelf and won't eat from it there. If I move the feeder to another place she will eat from it but the big cat is a thief! So do I just put the feeder back on the skinny shelf and pray kitten doesn't starve because she's being stubborn? HELP!
With two cats with different and exclusive diets there is only one option, the feeder with the microchip reader. It works perfect and is even better when the ́backdoor of the feeder is closed with the extra cap
I rally value your opinion. I was looking at Litter Robot auto pet feeder or now it’s called AutoPets auto feeder. It’s $249.99, is that better than Wopet you reviewed?
Hi! Great informative video! Would be awesome if you could do one on "Best Cat Carriers for traveling ( flights, vet appointments, hiking with your kitty) thank you😄😄
I'd like a microchip feeder (or simply a proximity activated feeder) because my cat likes to graze and eat her meals slowly over the course of many hours, and unless I intervene it will dry up until she eventually refuses to finish it. Obviously I can't be there to splash water on her plate several times a day once quarantine ends, so I figure a good microchip feeder will be able to keep the moisture in and keep the food fresh, plus the house will smell less of cat food. My requirements beyond basic function are: 1. Ease of cleaning, since I'll be using wet food. 2. Food can be served on a plate, not just in a bowl. My cat prefers to eat from flat surfaces, if I give her food in a bowl she will move the food to the floor before eating it. 3. Not too large. With cat trees, litter boxes and toys quickly eating away at my available floor space, I'd prefer something compact without unnecessary bells and whistles. And while not necessary, it would be nice if it looks nice as well and not like some cheap plastic toy.
We bought the sure feed and got it yesterday because one of our cats is on a prescription formula. It took him no time at all to get used to it we just put his treats in it. Now I'm thinking of getting it for our other cat that skittish and tends to run away when people or other animals approach her eating
Years ago I got the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Programmable Dog & Cat Feeder. Wow it works wonderful. I used battery’s as we get power blips a lot. My cat liked 4 very small feedings over the day, it worked ok for months. Loved that it can be set to deliver very small amounts of food at multiple times. Easy to fill and clean. Hard to program, most time it was easier to take the battery out and start over. I read it has a device to split the food into 2 bowls, need to find it.
Im looking into an automatic feeder mostly for the nights I'm not home for the dinner/ nighttime feed. Around 7pm. Occasionally we are out to dinner or at friends. I like not worrying about whether or not my cat will be fed on time.,
Are the ice packs on cat mate really effective?? Because I want to invest in it for wet food... But I want honest reviews for how fresh the food will be. Given, I work most weekdays and will be gone for 8-9 hours a day approximately so I'm only concerned about how the fresh the food will be for 9 hours or so...
Hi!! I saw your comment on wet food machine and wonder if you'd like the idea of a machine that grinds freeze-dried food and automatically adds water? Just like a coffee machine, so we can be freed from the manual work of preparing wet food.
I need the auto cat feeder for wet food because my cat needs daily medication which I can only hide in either soft cheese, or liquid treats. Probably in cream but I haven’t tried it yet. It’s once a day. I travel a lot so I need the cat to take it every 24h. My question: do you think it’s practical to dissolve crushed tablet in cheese then leave it for four days? Or will it become solid and unattractive to the cat anymore? Any real practical experience for a similar case would be appreciated plz.
Good question. I've tried a number of other automatic feeders since this video came out, and while I would still rate the wet-friendly rotating feeders as the best, I have discovered some more upright feeders that may be a good option (though they're not as easy to program as the ones listed here). You can see them in our recently-updated list of the best feeders published on the AAC website: allaboutcats.com/best-automatic-cat-feeder
Downside (con) for Cat Mate C500: When device is first fully loaded (5 compartments including immediate feed (position "0"), the two portions afterwards ("1" & "2") are above the ice pack, but "#3" is NOT. Number "4" begins over the ice pack but as soon as it rotates one position, it then is NOT over the ice pack. I have been wracking my brain to come up with various schemes so that portion "4" moves quickly past the unchilled portion (and it CAN be programmed that way) but I have decided to buy a different brand that chills all 5 compartments. (I also have a C300 (3 compartment) model, but I'm sending it back also because one compartment also does not get chilled until it rotates over a chilled position. I think Cat Mate makes a good product, but there being an unchilled position does not fit my pet's needs. NOTE: then unchilled position is the battery compartment. Other brands are designed differently.
thank you so much! this is very helpful :) Can anyone tell me why there is still not a cool combination of a microchip function with multiple meal for wet food to keep food fresh, offer small portions, avoid gulping and prevent others from stealing? Who yould love one of these too?? :)
I've been searching high & low for one of these and it does not exist. Someone who feeds & understands raw should invent a new automatic feeder. Any option I go with I'm going to have to sacrifice as none of them check all the boxes for what I need
We have one very similar to the wopet, just without the Wi-Fi hook up. But the mechanical operations the same. Unfortunately our smarter cat eventually figured out how to get the food out of it by sticking her paw up inside the mechanism. So we had to stop using that because she would just get as much food as she wanted.
Thank you very much for recommending the “PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder”! I found having an automatic feeder to be helpful in general. The first feeder that I had was the “Iseebiz Automatic Cat Feeder”. That worked pretty good for a decent amount of time, but it somehow became unplugged every so often and my cat (Bastu) would be able to sneak extra food out of the feeder (which always made me a bit nervous). After what I think was at least a year, the feeder stopped distributing food. I am not sure if there was problem with a gear, motor, etc. The second feeder (or the first replacement feeder) was a “Ymiko Automatic Cat Feeder”. Within the first week, there were issues with food being provided at the scheduled times. I noticed this happened at least one more time within 2 weeks. My cat has a special prescription diet, and I think that food is larger than average cat food. So, I left it out in the mailroom for my apartment complex with a note to let me know if it causes problems for somebody else’s cat. Nobody has contacted me after that point, so I am assuming that it might be OK for somebody else. However, not being feed all of the scheduled meals is not acceptable, and this was not the feeder for me. After watching this video, I purchased the PetSafe feeder (as the third feeder or second replacement feeder). I have been using this feeder for more than 1 month, and I have not noticed any problems. It is not as transparent as the Ymiko feeder, but it is more transparent than the Iseebiz feeder. The power adapter also has a different style plug, and I am not sure if that might contribute to the feeder not becoming unplugged (so far). Also, as an added benefit over both the Iseebiz and Ymiko feeders, I have not yet seen my cat “sneak” any extra food and I think the extra cover over the dispenser may make this harder for my cat. So, again, thank you very much for the recommendation!
I purchased the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed in April 2022 and am totally frustrated since it stopped working. I'm looking to replace with a different manufacturer.
@@mimirows So far, I think my experiences with the PetSafe may have been better than the Iseebiz feeder. However, I think functionality over multiple years (and, ideally, multiple individuals) is important to take into consideration, if that is possible!
Hey, is it even worth all the effort? I love cats as much as the next guy but I think it takes a family to entirely fulfill the cats needs. This might be too much responsibility and money then I expected. I'm not giving up, I could risk here being neglected by another person but I've got my hands full with one cat.
**couldn't. It just feels like I live and work for her solely. And I'm always worried about medical expenses. That really puts a debt in my wage. How has your experience been overall? Forever a passionate cat owner?
Did you just have one feeder for both cats? Do they normally share a bowl or have separates? My cats use separate bowls currently and I’m wondering how switching to an automatic would work and if I should invest in one vs two. They’re not aggressive about food it’s just how they were fed by the previous owner so I kept the same system.
This was very helpful for me. I currently have two cats, one that is a CH cat and he is becoming quite large and I want to trim him down, while my Burmese is very petite and needs her food. I offer wet food in the morning for her (the Burmese), the other cat doesn't really care for it. They free feed on kibble all day. I am at a loss on what to do. Simon, my CH cat is part Maine Coon so he is a big cat anyway, but that said, I think he has to trim down for health reasons so an automatic feeder seems like the answer as I work nights, four times a week for 12 hours at a time. Plus, since he is kind of skittish to say the least, I would have to get something he could figure out. He isn't the brightest bulb in the box. What do you think would be the best option? The chip one since they are both eating at the same place? Thank you so much.
Hey Pamela, that's a good question. It's between the microchip feeder and a standard kibble dispenser, I think. You said that both of them graze throughout the day, but I think it could be good for your Burmese to transition off of free-feeding as well. Out of the feeders shown here, I'd recommend the Wopet as it's quieter and easier to eat from-plus you'd get to see your kitties while you're at work and see how the food is being divided between the two of them. And of course, you could also go for the microchip feeder to keep Simon's food separate. Although the motion of the door is a little bit startling at first, my cats were less skittish around it than some of the other feeders and with time, I think it could be a good choice for Simon. I hope this helped you come a bit closer to making a decision. Good luck!
@@AllAboutCatsYT Thank you so much for getting back to me. Your channel has helped me so much. I have always had cats, I feed a large colony of ferals that I know I spoil rotten :) but I can't help it. Simon is a cat that I have never experienced before. I love this cat more than any cat I have ever owned. I saved him from a Pit Bull at my niece's home where I was living at the time, and I thought I would literally die myself. So thank you thank you. All of your research has been extremely helpful to me and I am sure others. :))))
We have a Homdox Automatic Pet Feeder that has been fantastic for dry food. It dispenses up to 4 meals a day and you can program each to be a different portion size as small as 1/8 cup. The feeder holds up to several several cups so I don't have to refill but 2x a month. I was even able to program my voice to call my cat every time it drops food. Given that my cat would totally over eat if she could it's been great.
Hey Thomas! Thanks for the support. I purchased the pillowcase on Amazon, but to ensure that the artist gets credit, it's best to purchase it from their store: elsasketch.bigcartel.com/product/tuxedo-cat-pillow
I disagree about any of the feeders being anti cockroach if you only feed what they can eat each time. I have the petsafe 5 portion feeder (the brown one reviewed). I love this feeder, but there have been occasions when I've had fruit flies in the house, and when I've opened the feeder to refill it, I find dead fruit flies under the white tray, which means they were able to get inside the feeder on their own.
@@karielizabeth7646 hi Kari has there been and troubles with insects and feeders since your comment? I’m trying to decide which one to buy for my cats. Thx.
What makes you interested in an automatic feeder for your cat? Do you want to control their portions while you’re away from home? Keep multiple cats’ food separate? Or are you looking for a feature-rich smart feeder that allows you to monitor your cat’s feedings while you’re at work? Let us know in the comments!
To control portions and mainly to keep the dog from eating the cat's food.
For me it was portion control and the ability to feed him multiple times a day and let him "snack" on small portions rather than eating larger meals.
I’m leaving for training with my job for 2 weeks. I’m looking into an automatic litter and feeder.
When we travel would like to have a cat sitter stop in every other day to scoop litter and to replenish the feeder as opposed to coming in 2x per day. We also have an outdoor cat who comes by AM and PM, and a feeder for him would be ideal as we are never sure exactly when he will show up. price is a consideration, as we need to buy 3 of feeders.
Right now I feed my cat 1/4 cup in the morning and 1/4 cup when I get home from work and sometimes wet food or snacks too. Sometimes I have to work overtime and worry about her being too hungry having to wait hours for me to come home late.
I cannot imagine what your cats think about the multitude of different feeders, litters, watering devices, food, and litter boxes that are put in front of them. They are adorable little supertroopers. Great review.
SO NICE HAVING REAL PEOPLE REVIEW THINGS INSTEAD OF THE AI CREATED REVIEW SITES WITH NO HANDS ON EXPERIENCE. Thank you!!
I've been seeing a lot of those lately and kept wondering what the deal was since they had no helpful info. I bet you're right, I think those sites are AI generated
Thank you for your contribution to the community! I recently learned about this way to donate to RUclips video creators!
Hi! Great review!
In my case, I had to go for the microchip feeder, and we're so happy. I have 3 cats, and two different diets. Therefore, I had to supervise every meal. My youngest cat is a picky and slow eater and the other two eat their meals right away, so I got the feeder for the youngest. That way I make sure she can go and finish her meal whenever she wants and one of the other cats doesn't get diarrhea from eating another diet. My cat, who isn't food-motivated, learned to use it right away.
It's different from the rest because you cannot fill it and forget about meals, but it's big enough to fit almost two days' food if I had to go. That's more than enough, as I would never leave my cats alone that long, someone would come over to check on them.
Sorry for the long comment, but maybe it's useful for someone with my old problem!
I have pretty much the exact scenario. 3 cats different dietary needs. Sureflap works best for me!
Wouldn't you still have to supervise feeding time though even with the automatic feeder? Wouldn't your cats just eat each others food once it's available? My 2 cats definitely would even if I had then on different diets I would still have to supervise each meal because they would eat whatever food is available.
I really appreciate the effort put in the video, really helpful
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the kind comment.
@@AllAboutCatsYT me too , I appreciate it
thanks a lot
The surefeed microchip feeder is awesome. I have a 15 year old cat on geriatric food and suddenly a kitten landed in our house. The senior was stealing the high calorie kitten food, while the little one was eating the "big boy" food and not getting the nutrition he needed. We got two of them and now the old man is back on his diet while the baby is growing like a weed.
Omg this is my exact situation AND I have this feeder 🤣🤣🤣 good luck with everything!!
Even with having 2 separate auto feeders now how do you make sure they aren't still eating each others food? Do you feed them in separate rooms? I feel like with my 2 cats nothing stops them from stealing each others food!
@MissRuthless I have the guards on them so there is only one access point. With the target animal eating it is difficult for another to get around them to get the food. As soon as they step (or are pushed) away the door closes. But note it's not auto feeders, those are different from surefeed microchip feeders. Auto feeders just dispense food at set times while the surefeed control access to the bowl.
On the pet safe youtube channel, they say the petsafe eatwell auto feeder is ONLY for dry food but all the retailers say its for wet and dry. I wish someone would make an auto feeder for wet food with a wide shallow dish slots, these deep awkward dish slots are dumb...
I agree. I want something for wet food
Agree!!! I really badly need wet food feeder 😭😭😭 hard to find cat-sitter where i stay/also we are new in country/ and really worry the go for 2 night holiday abroad :(
The Cat Mate 2 compartment timed feeder has an insert for ice pack to keep wet food fresh and it seems like it has a relatively shallow dish from what I can see
Without her and the poorly written instructions I would never have been able to set up my auto cat feeder(Pet Libro granary) so that I can care for my sick uncle.
Agree. I like the Wopet smart feeder but unfortunately, it's for dry food only. Ipettie has product for wet food but not the smart feature, on sale now on Amazon.
I bought two catmates for my kitties a few months ago and am loving it! We feed 3 small wet food meals a day and two tiny kibble snacks and our cats have never been happier (and I don’t have to listen to them yell for food throughout the day while I’m working). Watching them go running when they hear them rotating is really adorable, too 😂
I got the WOPET feeder from Amazon and it was only 117$, I like to go away for the weekend and it’s nice to be able to see my cat from the camera and track her food. Also my cat spends about 90% of the day in the living room when we aren’t home so setting up the feeder in the living room allows me to see her almost all day.
I’ve had the PetSafe Eatwell 5-Meal Automatic Feeder for several years and it still works great. The batteries last a long time.
Thanks so much for always having captions on your videos!!
Of course! Glad you appreciate them! :)
Okay cat-food-dispenser-inventors, listen up: we need something that does all of this - Wet or dry food dispensing with refrigeration built-in for the wet food (and none of this battery-only bs, I don’t just have a bajillion DD batteries laying around); Smart phone connectivity with camera; slow feed option for hungry hippos; two separate individually programmable bowls with chip or tag recognition; quiet mechanics and shallow bowls. Oh, and make everything dishwasher safe. Cool? Cool, thanks, see you on Shark Tank
:-) Thanks for summing it up!
The slow feed option is definitely needed for auto feeders. I have an auto feeder, (for dry food) and even on the smallest portion setting, my cat will occasionally eat too fast and vomit afterwards. 🙄
you are definitly my favorite crazy cat lady, your videos help me a lot for picking the right products
Looked into the Wopet feeder and jumped on a huge prime day discount. I didn't have many issues in the setup, the only issue I had was it not registering when I held the "set" button but after a second try it worked fine. The feeder would shoot kibble onto the floor to begin with but it hasn't done that in a while, not sure what changed there but I'm happy regardless. Love the camera, the amount of funny angles I've captured of the cats sniffing the feeder has been worth it alone
Thank you so much for all these videos holding my hand though getting a new cat showing me what is the best to give my kitten the best start in life! I don't know what i would of done without you! Keep doing what your doing. Your doing great!
Nice job. That was very well done. Well spoken, concise and to the point. Thanks a lot.
WOpet reached out to me about collaboration, so I'm just researching before committing to anything. Thank you for your honest & thorough review!
Hey there, fellow reviewer! Hope this helped you make a decision. Cheers!
The black PetSafe is hard to program. But You Tube has instruction video that helped this gramma figure it out. I could follow his clear instructions step by step. Stop, back up til I got it. No rambling, no music just video of keys an what to push when. Thank you for this comparison vid. Good job. Texas here.
I hope they make more options for wet food like I really want to try C300 but I’m worried about whisker fatigue for my cats but I love how that brands had ice packs and stainless steel bowls you can buy to replace the plastic ones
We use the SureFeed for our 3 cats. They work great. Two of our cats are on a different food than the third - keeps them all out of each other’s food. The youngest has hung over the “back” of the feeder while opened to eat another’s food but we just moved the bowls around and he hasn’t done it since.
Getting them trained to do it wasn’t too painful. Lol. They are all microchipped so didn’t need the tags (kept them just in case tho). The oldest and youngest were the easiest to train. The middle kitty is a scaredy-cat and his chip is pretty far back so he has to get up in it for it to open. At first he associated touching his butt with the feeder opening. So he’d go up to it and meow for me to come over. So cute, but he’s since figured it out.
Thank you for sharing your experience with the SureFeed, Corie!
Really love how thorough you were in your process. Saved us all hours of research, well done.
Watching Forest train with the last feeder was so adorable!
I love it when she says she got input from her cats :)
I looked for this comment immediately lol
I have a cat that starts waking me up at 4 30 am for food. I have 4 indoor cats and have been looking for a automatic feeder for wet food. Thank you for the review
Great video, I work 12 hr shifts and like to go away on the weekends. My cat primary eats wet food
Thank you for the honest reviews. It was very helpful.
Hi!! I saw your comment on wet food machine and wonder if you'd like the idea of a machine that grinds freeze-dried food and automatically adds water? Just like a coffee machine, so we can be freed from the manual work of preparing wet food.
mallory your voice is really relaxing
This is so helpful❤
I have a WoPet, but not with the camera and Wifi capabilities. I like it because my late cat who figured out how to trip the last feeder I had couldn't trip this one, and because the dish can be easily removed and washed (even run through the dishwasher). One of my cats is prone to chin acne, so being able to fully clean the dish every couple days keeps him from having breakouts.
I've had 3 of the surefeed chip feeders for about 4 years now. I love them. They're not perfect, but better than anything else I've tried. Feeding wet food can be problematic if you don't keep up with the cleaning. Cats push the wet food toward the back and it can get into nooks and crannies and ruin the motor. This happened to one of mine but it was covered by the awesome 3 year warranty.
Now, after the warranty is finished, I completely take the unit apart down to the inner workings to clean it.
Once the feeder is opened for a cat to eat from, another cat can come from the back and eat out of the bowl as well. You can purchase a plastic bubble piece to snap onto the back to eliminate that problem. So more costs. That being said, I'd definitely purchase these again.
Imo, the best possible feeder for someone to create is a microchip feeder that also has a built in timer so that it can be locked until you want your cat's chip to open it. And also a completely sealed feeding area so that moisture and food can't get into the inner parts of the feeder.
I also have the petsafe automatic feeder, but had it in storage for years since I had stopped feeding dry. I recently took it out and the motor is frozen. It won't turn the gears.
Thanks for you videos. I'm a new cat mom and was not aware of all the different litters, litter boxes and so many other things. Your videos have helped me. :)
Thank you so much for making this video! I know you mostly do reviews- but would love any advice on cat behavior and getting them to sleep through the night or to reduce vocalization and bad behavior to get human attention!
Hey Jacqueline, thank you for the comment. We do want to expand the channel to cover more topics like behavior and health, so you may see some videos like that soon. Your suggestions are much appreciated!
So, I ended up going with an Ipettie Auto feeder and I frickin love it! Seriously.
Customer service is amazing. I contacted them before ordering and they responded quickly and thoroughly and followed up a d day or two later to see if had any questions. After I ordered it, they reached out again to make sure I was liking it and if had anything could help with... Wasn't in a badgering way, it was just good customer service.
It's extremely easy to set it up. The tray has 6 spots for food, but you can schedule just 5 times... So, one of the slots is considered an immediate feed. But, 5 schedule times is still more than others. And the trays dishes are a good side, not too deep. It's also super easy to clean because the tray sections are rounded, no crevices where food goes, so just wipes up easily!
I use the ice packs because I give my kitty, Gwen, wet and dry food, and I'd say the ice packs easily last 8hrs, but depends on temp it'll be sitting in too. They give you two ice packs, so you have to make sure to refreeze them daily. You can purchase extra icepacks if would like to always have ice packs ready to go in feeder. On this topic, the feed tray you get with machine is plastic, but you can purchase a stainless steel one if you prefer that.
The machine is very quiet when rotating. It does a beep when in position to alert your pet, but it's rather quiet - I live in a studio essentially, and so the feeder is near my bed, and it never wakes me up, though it goes off 3x over night. She also hasn't managed to pop the lid off to get at all her food (and she did try initially lol, I'd hear her pawing at it and whining lol).
I got the non-wifi one, bc my wifi is sketchy where I live and I didn't wanna had issues with setting it up. But, there is one that you can get where you can set and change the schedule using and app on your phone.
It also has a safety mechanism, so if kitty was eating or sniffing or pawing as the machine starts to rotate the tray, it will stop moving when feels any resistence or obstacle, it stops, rotates back a little, pauses for 30sec and then resumes.
So, yeah, I love mine! Lol, got in Amazon. No, I'm not paid by them to gush about their feeder, lol, I wish!!
I know the cat mate is supposed to be the top feeder for wet foods, etc. It's literally #1 on a feeder lists, BUT when you look at actually customer ratings and comments, it's lower than other feeders. My big concern with it was that it doesn't acknowledge if cat gets in way of machine turning. My kitty is young and curious. I read stories of people's cats getting stuck in them, like paws pinched, collars stuck. One guy wasn't home when it happened to his cat - he said he walked in, saw the feeder several feet from where it normally would me and flipped over, his cats collar had been ripped off the cat and the tags were wedged in the machine and his cat was hiding. ☹️ So, after reading that a few times, I was not excited for that feeder. But, again, the Ipettie one has that stop mechanism.
Anyway, again, I love the thing, one of my best purchases ever. Highly recommend it!!!
(As a PS in case you are planning on getting one or just got it... This is just regarding setting up the feeding schedule. I found it super easy to set it up. The directions are clear and it makes sense. But, one thing I will say is, for some reason, it seemed a lot of people were confused about this and mad at the machine for it (though, I think description/instruction packet are rather clear)... So, you can't set it by a day and time... You're just setting up to 5 times in a 24hr time period. So, say you want to feed your cat 1x a day for 5days. OK cool. You'd just put in that one time and leave all the other time slots as 12:00am (it's their equivalent of null time slot... So you can't actually set the feeder got midnight, but you could do 11:50pm or 12:10am, so, close enough). OK, want 2 feed times, ok put in the 2x and leave the rest empty. The feeder will always just activate when your scheduled time comes up. And, I know one woman was mad be she said her times kept getting changed... So, for example, if you set the times as like 1) 3pm, 2) 9pm 3) 6am 4) 12pm... The machine will actually just reorder them so listed chronologically... 6am, 12pm, 3pm, 9pm. She wasnt realizing it was all the same times she'd done, just put in chrono order. I learned it did that when I added a random night feed in the middle of my schedule and next time I went to update it, I saw it was changed. So, you can't tell the machine, do 8am & 8pm today, then 9am tomorrow.... Because, again, it goes in chrono order for a 24hr period. So if put that in, it'll go off at 8am, 9am, 8pm in one day. Make sense? )
Would love an updated version of this video! I wish that there was a microchip pet feeder that was also a smart feeder so it would store the biscuits in a tower and auto dispense them. The dream.
I got a microchip feeder around 2 years ago my dog would steal my cats food, that had anxiety. Honestly the feeder has its pros and cons. I loved it because he was able to get his food. The only downfall is if you only feed wet food the feeder does start to stink. And because you can't use water on it, it was hard to clean. Also the issue with the water was a bit annoying. If a little water spilled the feeder would break.But it was really good for when my cat was sick. He was able to get the food that he needed.
the petsafe simply feed automatic feeder works good, but our cat figured out she can knock a few more pieces of kibble into the bowl if she swats at the feeder and obsessed with it
I am sooo glad I watched this. I have a young healthy female cat and an older extremely over weight male. Trying to limit the males food has been a nightmare because he just steals the girls food lol. The microchip feeder looks like a lifesaver!!!
Talk about quality of information. Algo comment. Thumbs up!
I love your videos. I have 10 cats rescued 5. Not op purpose have 10.lol. my Tonkinese boy is so fat. Now that I'm retired I can feed the cats different foods. Your cat food videos helped me get each cat on the correct food. Thank you.
I've had the pet safe eatwell for 7 yrs.. the reason i got it was because at times I would be away from the house for up to 6 days. It would allow me to feed Lelu regularly without being there. Lelu was new to me at about the same time.. she's a respectable eater.. she doesn't over eat at all. I've had no issues with this feeder, though I only use it for dry.. With wet food, it tends to go bad after a couple days (the stuff I give her anyways). She really only gets wet once or twice a week, the small can lasts 2 days and it's meant for urinary tract infections, which she seems prone too. My only concern with the feeder is if the batteries die while i'm gone.. but now knowing her eating habits, it doesn't really bother me much.
Great reviews by the way, thank you for your time!
I had 2 cats, a full sized orange tabby male and a little 6 pound black tabby male. The big male would gouge and purge so I needed something to close after a certain time. The little one didn't eat much. I couldn''t tell how much he was eating as the big boy would eat his too. I ended up with the Wireless Whiskers. It uses a fob on a collar that opens the access to the food. It only works with dry food and the bin holds enough for at least a week. It takes a lot of programming but one nice thing is it spends 3 days gathering information on how much food each cat consumes. Then if there is any tweaking needed, it can be manually adjusted. When my big boy ate his portion, the doors would close on him until his next scheduled access. It had an alert for my little one when he wasn't getting enough, an underfed alert. Nice display and uses batteries for backup but primarily plugs into the wall. Unfortunately I got very ill but they had food while I was in the hospital until my family came to help. I lost my cats who are now in good homes but I'll be a cat mama again and will purchase another wireless whiskers. It was about one fifty.
Awesome information. I have a colony of 7 TNR'd cats I care for on my parents' property. I can't leave food out at night because of racoons, so, for last three years, have to go out at sun-up to put food out, and sundown to put it away. From your descriptions, it seems as if the PetSafe 5-meal feeder may be the best solution. It looks as though I can ratchet-strap it to the feeding table, to prevent racoon theft, set it to have an empty bowl rotate into position at sundown, a filled bowl to rotate at sun up, with two more meals rotating during the day, allowing me to go out once sometime during the day to refill bowls and refresh their water; though, from the portion size, I may need two or three of them... but it may be perfect! Thanks!
I got a petkit feeder, it have wide angle camera, WiFi enabled, plug and battery back up, I could change and add schedule on my phone, which is amazing. I could take a look at the camera and talk to my cat during feeding time, check if food got stuck or if it’s descending correctly. It also have a storage card on the unit to record feeding so I could check back. The camera have a night mode too, not super high def but works fine for the feeding purpose.
Many thanks for the tremendous effort and thorough study.. very helpful, bless you!
I have the surefeeder Yes one of my cats can steal from the side and back but surefeed has a solution. You can buy a plastic cage that goes on the back of the feeder. No more stealing most effective I also put raw food in the surefeed which means cleaning every meal but it works
Excellent info for cat owners. Thank you.
Wow.. So Informative.
I live in Fl. I need ask u question. I week ago fou d a little kitten on a busy expressway. So I first thought it was a rodents crossing super busy expressway so I had my husband. Break to slow down. I was so shocked to find I. From of my husband vehicle and I jumpsd out and was shocked to see a terrified kitten all alone. So ..i got him in my car. He was so scared. This story gets good. We on way stopped at a quick store so we can get him Milk and food. The story has now twist. We thought we got him hone safely but could not find him when we got hone since car. But we could not find him. We even had workers to help us look for him. We could not find him .. It was over 99 degrees . so we left car open to see if he us there to bri g him in house till we could get him to proper vet. But no sign if the little kitten so we thought he mustcjumoed out since we had our own pets too in car. And hecwas terrified that he could been road kill. I was so tisturbed by all this could not 💤 I was wo deribg uf u want help me with MY cat situation. Is Woukd lime to pass a Law to name sure no 🐱 or animal be left behind. Why would soneo e be so cruel? There should be a law past on expressway. No dumping g animals in road it deserted place.
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Thank you for this video! We bought the catmate because of your video and are really happy with it.
The Cat Mate feeder works pretty well for my furboy Spike. The only problem I had with it was ME. It fed him in the morning and in the evening, and since there are only five rotating cubbies, I would forget that I had to refill it after Day 2 (I'm getting old and have many senior moments lol!). He'd holler and yell all the while he was jumping on the bed to wake me up to fill his empty bowl. That wouldn't fly, so I bought the PetLibro where at least I could fill the hopper with a month's supply of kibble. I see you have reviewed the PetLibro, and I'll be interested to see what you thought of it. I will say one thing for the Cat Mate: I really like that you can use it with wet food, which I am trying to get him to eat in the evening. He's a kibble addict...but that's a story for another time. 😼
Very informative and thorough! We are considering an automatic feeder because our kitten really starts asking for food around 4:30 am and is waking us up often. We wake up at 6:00 am anyway, but I figure if she’s struggling to get through the night without feeling super hungry then maybe something like this would help. We do feed a huge portion around 9:00 pm before bed but the bowl is always empty in the morning and it seems not to satiate her through the whole night.
An automatic feeder could be a great option for you and your kitten. Thanks for stopping by!
I have a WoPet feeder that I used when my senior gal decided she liked to eat at two in the morning. It was a difficult challenge because "Butterscotch" only ate wet food. The WoPet feeder was a manual dial type setup and came with either one bowl or two. It has a cold pack that fits under the enclosed dish. It was a very simple and cost effective solution for my cat to be able to eat around two in the morning. The little cool pack kept the food cold and she learned quickly that food was available in the early morning. It had a dial (yes a manual dial that I turned to set) that you set to how many hours before it would pop open. Very old school, no bells or whistles, or huge expense. It served my purpose letting her eat around two and then during the day had her regular feeding schedule. I don't know if this is even made anymore, but it was a win, win situation for me and my cat. It would be good for medication too I would think.
Dry food is filled with carbs from corn, rice and other non cat foods. Your cat will become fat and unhealthy from eating only dry foods. Look it up, it’s true
I guess I want too much… I want a microchip feeder with a 24 cup hopper. Thanks again for great reviews.
Hopefully you'll find that soon! It's a great idea.
Yeah I really miss the automatic feeder I had before the surefeed but since one cat is a slow eater and the other needs urinary care food the surefeed is essential. I think the only solution currently for this would be to use a microchip pet door on some kind of enclosure with one of the automatic feeders inside it.
Thanks, this is just the info I was looking for. The microchip feeder in particular.
Thank you very much for the information. You've saved me a lot of time and effort with me trying to find a suitable product.
M... Thank you.. My friend has an auto feeder & I made a copy of the instructions.. It took me days to understand all the features.. I can imagine how many days you spent on this project..
Hey Gary, that's a great story! Some of these feeders can be quite complex with a lot of cool features. Thanks for the support!
Thank you so much for making this video and especially for being so thorough. It's a huge help for me as I'm trying to figure out which feeder to go with. As far as why, our cats are already on a schedule. . . but want to have breakfast at 4 in the morning. We're happy to accommodate this but, since we aren't up at that time, we figured an autofeeder could help.
Thanks for your videos.
I have one of the SureFeed microchip feeders but cant recomend it if you have a realy hungry cat.
He draged the whole machene over the floor. Somedays I found it upp side down. When I glued it with doubblesided tape he bend the plastic up to open it.
That's a very hungry cat. :)
Sometimes I forget that not all cats “measure” their food lol. My cat since he was little just eats what he needs . We leave a plate full and he’ll eat what he needs thru out the day. He’s never gotten fat or anything .Kinda blessed ngl
I wish there was more auto feeders for wet food
Me 2 I'm adopting a kitten in about 2 weeks and we researched and are planning to feed him dry and wet food
You can check this amzn.to/34NsJR2
What prevents the wet food feeders from developing bacteria? I've understood that wet food should not stay at room temperature for more than a few hours as it will start to breed bacteria. The Cat Mate C500 has ice packs to keep the temperature up; but the Eatwell (Runner-up) does not.
Looking through these and seeing how much these items have jumped in price is insane :(
Thank you for the review though!!
Thanks so much for your recommendations! Ive been looking into getting a automatic feeder since starting shift work. My schedule is all over the place and it’s definitely impacting my cats feeding schedules. Just got two of the ones you recommended the most! So glad i dont have to compromise on the wet food too! So excited to get them set up ☺️☺️🥳
Question.
If you have (like your case) more than 1 cat. I am.thinming of even 5 cats. How do they tend to share? Would you just buy 5 feeders? Thank you
I have 4 cats now, a kitten, 2 adults, and a senior. So theres 3 types of food depending on age. The problem Im having is they all go and switch bowls around, meaning I have to lock them up in different rooms, which is fine, but its annoying. The microchip feeder would work best, but I cant justify the $150 price tag, especially when I have to buy more than one, honestly I would need 4 to keep them from eating all of the others food. The second to youngest is a bit skittish, so if we do something she thinks is scary (usually in the morning when we have to get ready for work) she will run off and not eat. The oldest will always try and go steal out of her bowl, and will kick her out even if shes eating. Its such a pain, but I do love them so much!
I bought the first and the last feeder thanks to your reviews. Sadly the first one has quit working, but I am ordering a replacement because it functioned the best for us and our fat cat. The Surefeed works great for our thin grazer. It keeps his greedy alpha male brother out of his food. I also apperceive that I can give them both we and dry food during the day while I am gone to work.
Your video provided great explanations. You saved me shopping time when I just want to buy what is needed. Thanks for you your product reviews, I just ordered the WoPet with WiFi features.
Thank you, Joyce. I'm happy to hear that you appreciated the review. :)
This is very informative and useful..thanks
We have 2 of these feeders. The Petsafe spinning bowl and the Surefeed microchip feeder. One of our old cats was a MAJOR food thief and took advantage of the other cat's grazing nature. We had to get the microchip bowls so our poor senior cat could get enough food. Before that, we were using the spinny feeders. After we got the microchip feeders, we only used the spinny bowls when we went out of town for a weekend, which wasn't often.
Both of those cats have since passed and we got 2 new kittens. We just went ahead and acclimated the kittens to the microchip feeders since they were still in great shape and worked so well for the previous cats. I even ordered extra bowls in 2 different colors and we only use one color with one kitten and the other color with the other kitten so hopefully they can easily identify which bowl is theirs by color.
How do you prevent food thiefs? I put the feeder on a narrow shelf so only 1 cat at a time can fit. That works well but now the 6 month old kitten has decided she doesn't like it on the shelf and won't eat from it there. If I move the feeder to another place she will eat from it but the big cat is a thief! So do I just put the feeder back on the skinny shelf and pray kitten doesn't starve because she's being stubborn? HELP!
@@wendaschoppert2028 Are you using the microchip feeder?
With two cats with different and exclusive diets there is only one option, the feeder with the microchip reader. It works perfect and is even better when the ́backdoor of the feeder is closed with the extra cap
thanks a lot for your work! How long did the Wopet one last?
I rally value your opinion. I was looking at Litter Robot auto pet feeder or now it’s called AutoPets auto feeder. It’s $249.99, is that better than Wopet you reviewed?
Hi there! We hope to review it soon, but I believe that it should be a bit better than the Wopets.
Hi! Great informative video! Would be awesome if you could do one on "Best Cat Carriers for traveling ( flights, vet appointments, hiking with your kitty) thank you😄😄
Sirisha, that's a great idea! We do plan to review the best carriers at some point in the future. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your ideas!
I'd like a microchip feeder (or simply a proximity activated feeder) because my cat likes to graze and eat her meals slowly over the course of many hours, and unless I intervene it will dry up until she eventually refuses to finish it. Obviously I can't be there to splash water on her plate several times a day once quarantine ends, so I figure a good microchip feeder will be able to keep the moisture in and keep the food fresh, plus the house will smell less of cat food.
My requirements beyond basic function are:
1. Ease of cleaning, since I'll be using wet food.
2. Food can be served on a plate, not just in a bowl. My cat prefers to eat from flat surfaces, if I give her food in a bowl she will move the food to the floor before eating it.
3. Not too large. With cat trees, litter boxes and toys quickly eating away at my available floor space, I'd prefer something compact without unnecessary bells and whistles.
And while not necessary, it would be nice if it looks nice as well and not like some cheap plastic toy.
Thanks for the reviews. I have been looking into some auto feeders.
Thanks for content!
Appreciate the time, effort and time for making this video 💪💪
We bought the sure feed and got it yesterday because one of our cats is on a prescription formula. It took him no time at all to get used to it we just put his treats in it. Now I'm thinking of getting it for our other cat that skittish and tends to run away when people or other animals approach her eating
Years ago I got the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Programmable Dog & Cat Feeder. Wow it works wonderful. I used battery’s as we get power blips a lot. My cat liked 4 very small feedings over the day, it worked ok for months. Loved that it can be set to deliver very small amounts of food at multiple times. Easy to fill and clean. Hard to program, most time it was easier to take the battery out and start over. I read it has a device to split the food into 2 bowls, need to find it.
Excellent information.
Im looking into an automatic feeder mostly for the nights I'm not home for the dinner/ nighttime feed. Around 7pm. Occasionally we are out to dinner or at friends. I like not worrying about whether or not my cat will be fed on time.,
Are the ice packs on cat mate really effective?? Because I want to invest in it for wet food... But I want honest reviews for how fresh the food will be. Given, I work most weekdays and will be gone for 8-9 hours a day approximately so I'm only concerned about how the fresh the food will be for 9 hours or so...
😊Great video, very informative, just what I needed. Thank you
Hi!! I saw your comment on wet food machine and wonder if you'd like the idea of a machine that grinds freeze-dried food and automatically adds water? Just like a coffee machine, so we can be freed from the manual work of preparing wet food.
I need the auto cat feeder for wet food because my cat needs daily medication which I can only hide in either soft cheese, or liquid treats. Probably in cream but I haven’t tried it yet. It’s once a day. I travel a lot so I need the cat to take it every 24h. My question: do you think it’s practical to dissolve crushed tablet in cheese then leave it for four days? Or will it become solid and unattractive to the cat anymore? Any real practical experience for a similar case would be appreciated plz.
Question, given that you posted this video about two years ago, are there any new models of auto feeders out that you would add to this list?
Good question. I've tried a number of other automatic feeders since this video came out, and while I would still rate the wet-friendly rotating feeders as the best, I have discovered some more upright feeders that may be a good option (though they're not as easy to program as the ones listed here). You can see them in our recently-updated list of the best feeders published on the AAC website: allaboutcats.com/best-automatic-cat-feeder
@@AllAboutCatsYT Thank you for responding! It's always good to know about more options before making a purchase!
Thanks so much. This video is very helpful
Downside (con) for Cat Mate C500:
When device is first fully loaded (5 compartments including immediate feed (position "0"), the two portions afterwards ("1" & "2") are above the ice pack, but "#3" is NOT.
Number "4" begins over the ice pack but as soon as it rotates one position, it then is NOT over the ice pack.
I have been wracking my brain to come up with various schemes so that portion "4" moves quickly past the unchilled portion (and it CAN be programmed that way) but I have decided to buy a different brand that chills all 5 compartments.
(I also have a C300 (3 compartment) model, but I'm sending it back also because one compartment also does not get chilled until it rotates over a chilled position.
I think Cat Mate makes a good product, but there being an unchilled position does not fit my pet's needs.
NOTE: then unchilled position is the battery compartment. Other brands are designed differently.
thank you so much! this is very helpful :)
Can anyone tell me why there is still not a cool combination of a microchip function with multiple meal for wet food to keep food fresh, offer small portions, avoid gulping and prevent others from stealing? Who yould love one of these too?? :)
I've been searching high & low for one of these and it does not exist. Someone who feeds & understands raw should invent a new automatic feeder. Any option I go with I'm going to have to sacrifice as none of them check all the boxes for what I need
Really!!! Would love to be able to program my fat cat's food while keeping skinny kitty out of it!
Enjoyed the review! Thanks!
We have one very similar to the wopet, just without the Wi-Fi hook up. But the mechanical operations the same. Unfortunately our smarter cat eventually figured out how to get the food out of it by sticking her paw up inside the mechanism. So we had to stop using that because she would just get as much food as she wanted.
Thank you very much for recommending the “PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder”!
I found having an automatic feeder to be helpful in general. The first feeder that I had was the “Iseebiz Automatic Cat Feeder”. That worked pretty good for a decent amount of time, but it somehow became unplugged every so often and my cat (Bastu) would be able to sneak extra food out of the feeder (which always made me a bit nervous). After what I think was at least a year, the feeder stopped distributing food. I am not sure if there was problem with a gear, motor, etc.
The second feeder (or the first replacement feeder) was a “Ymiko Automatic Cat Feeder”. Within the first week, there were issues with food being provided at the scheduled times. I noticed this happened at least one more time within 2 weeks. My cat has a special prescription diet, and I think that food is larger than average cat food. So, I left it out in the mailroom for my apartment complex with a note to let me know if it causes problems for somebody else’s cat. Nobody has contacted me after that point, so I am assuming that it might be OK for somebody else. However, not being feed all of the scheduled meals is not acceptable, and this was not the feeder for me.
After watching this video, I purchased the PetSafe feeder (as the third feeder or second replacement feeder). I have been using this feeder for more than 1 month, and I have not noticed any problems. It is not as transparent as the Ymiko feeder, but it is more transparent than the Iseebiz feeder. The power adapter also has a different style plug, and I am not sure if that might contribute to the feeder not becoming unplugged (so far). Also, as an added benefit over both the Iseebiz and Ymiko feeders, I have not yet seen my cat “sneak” any extra food and I think the extra cover over the dispenser may make this harder for my cat.
So, again, thank you very much for the recommendation!
I purchased the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed in April 2022 and am totally frustrated since it stopped working. I'm looking to replace with a different manufacturer.
@@mimirows So far, I think my experiences with the PetSafe may have been better than the Iseebiz feeder. However, I think functionality over multiple years (and, ideally, multiple individuals) is important to take into consideration, if that is possible!
Oh sweet lord, I get to sleep in again. I've forgotten the majesty of sleeping in since I've been solely taking care of my kitties
Hey, is it even worth all the effort? I love cats as much as the next guy but I think it takes a family to entirely fulfill the cats needs. This might be too much responsibility and money then I expected. I'm not giving up, I could risk here being neglected by another person but I've got my hands full with one cat.
**couldn't. It just feels like I live and work for her solely. And I'm always worried about medical expenses. That really puts a debt in my wage. How has your experience been overall? Forever a passionate cat owner?
Any issues with whisker fatigue?
We love all about cats! More cat videos! Yay!
Awww, this is such a sweet comment. Thank you!
Did you just have one feeder for both cats? Do they normally share a bowl or have separates? My cats use separate bowls currently and I’m wondering how switching to an automatic would work and if I should invest in one vs two. They’re not aggressive about food it’s just how they were fed by the previous owner so I kept the same system.
Hi Liza, my kitties did share these feeders, but I can't say that it's an ideal approach as you'd need to train them to eat at different times.
Thanks for posting this. I found it very helpful. Just curious did you test the ARF Pet Automatic 4 meal feeder?
Glad you found it helpful. No, we didn't try the Arf Pets feeder and I can't speak on its reliability or performance.
This was very helpful for me. I currently have two cats, one that is a CH cat and he is becoming quite large and I want to trim him down, while my Burmese is very petite and needs her food. I offer wet food in the morning for her (the Burmese), the other cat doesn't really care for it. They free feed on kibble all day. I am at a loss on what to do. Simon, my CH cat is part Maine Coon so he is a big cat anyway, but that said, I think he has to trim down for health reasons so an automatic feeder seems like the answer as I work nights, four times a week for 12 hours at a time. Plus, since he is kind of skittish to say the least, I would have to get something he could figure out. He isn't the brightest bulb in the box. What do you think would be the best option? The chip one since they are both eating at the same place? Thank you so much.
Hey Pamela, that's a good question. It's between the microchip feeder and a standard kibble dispenser, I think. You said that both of them graze throughout the day, but I think it could be good for your Burmese to transition off of free-feeding as well. Out of the feeders shown here, I'd recommend the Wopet as it's quieter and easier to eat from-plus you'd get to see your kitties while you're at work and see how the food is being divided between the two of them. And of course, you could also go for the microchip feeder to keep Simon's food separate. Although the motion of the door is a little bit startling at first, my cats were less skittish around it than some of the other feeders and with time, I think it could be a good choice for Simon. I hope this helped you come a bit closer to making a decision. Good luck!
@@AllAboutCatsYT Thank you so much for getting back to me. Your channel has helped me so much. I have always had cats, I feed a large colony of ferals that I know I spoil rotten :) but I can't help it. Simon is a cat that I have never experienced before. I love this cat more than any cat I have ever owned. I saved him from a Pit Bull at my niece's home where I was living at the time, and I thought I would literally die myself. So thank you thank you. All of your research has been extremely helpful to me and I am sure others. :))))
We have a Homdox Automatic Pet Feeder that has been fantastic for dry food. It dispenses up to 4 meals a day and you can program each to be a different portion size as small as 1/8 cup. The feeder holds up to several several cups so I don't have to refill but 2x a month. I was even able to program my voice to call my cat every time it drops food. Given that my cat would totally over eat if she could it's been great.
Damn that feeder sounds great
Wow. This one sounds like THE feeder for my Mom to use on the two stray outdoor cats that adopted HER a year ago. 😂
Where did you buy the cat pillow in the background? Love this channel
Hey Thomas! Thanks for the support. I purchased the pillowcase on Amazon, but to ensure that the artist gets credit, it's best to purchase it from their store: elsasketch.bigcartel.com/product/tuxedo-cat-pillow
@@AllAboutCatsYT awesome. Thank you
Hi this is really helpful. Love it! Which do you recommend that would be an anti-cockroach feeder? Thanks!
Hey Angela, all of these feeders could be anti-cockroach feeders, as long as you don't dispense more than your cat(s) can eat in one sitting.
Thank you for your help. I greatly appreciate it.
I disagree about any of the feeders being anti cockroach if you only feed what they can eat each time. I have the petsafe 5 portion feeder (the brown one reviewed). I love this feeder, but there have been occasions when I've had fruit flies in the house, and when I've opened the feeder to refill it, I find dead fruit flies under the white tray, which means they were able to get inside the feeder on their own.
@@karielizabeth7646 hi Kari has there been and troubles with insects and feeders since your comment? I’m trying to decide which one to buy for my cats. Thx.