Auto Feeders??

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donna & sam siam

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Hi everybody! I think I may have asked this once before, but on the Lantus Land site. I'm looking for an auto feeder that I can set the times at any time I like. I just bought a Cat Mate C50 and am disappointed because it only allows me to set it for every 4 hrs. I would like a feeder that holds 5 or 6 meals, will allow me to set whenever, and actually WORKS!! Any suggestions?? Thanks a bunch! Have a relaxing Sunday everyone!
 
Sienne and Gabby said:
This is autofeeder that several people use. They have had good success with it. I didn't. I tried one. It died and Amazon replaced it. I had the same problem with the replacement.
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This is the one I've had for a few weeks and does exactly as you are asking. You put batteries in and it has a digital clock so you can set it to turn when you want it to. The bad part is that the only way to turn it off is to remove the batteries which resets the clock. I myself haven't had any problems with it. Once it didn't fully rotate but other than that, no problems to report. That's also a good price, I paid a bit more for it when it was on sale at Petco.com
 
Donna -

We have 2 of the PetSafe 5-meal auto feeders (1 for each cat). The first time we wanted to use it, tested it out and all was well. But - only one opened when it was time. After that, no problems. It takes practice to get it locked down correctly and I think we should've practiced more before leaving it. However, no problems since.

I read TONS of reviews before investing and it seems they have fixed the issues people complained about. We got ours at Amazon.com for this same price. Gotta love Amazon.com - no tax and free shipping to my front door!!

I like that it's easy to wipe down and is dishwasher safe.

Hope this helps -

Libby
 
We have 2 of the PetSafe 5-meal and you set the time you want it to move, not the interval. 1 would sometimes get stuck halfway in the middle, the other has always worked fine.
 
SabrinaFaire said:
The bad part is that the only way to turn it off is to remove the batteries which resets the clock.
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You can cancel a scheduled meal with one of the buttons. I have two of the PetSafe 5 compartment feeders and rarely use it these days but I still have a meal scheduled in both feeders just in case. Both feeders are currently set to cancel the meal. The feeder is still on (clock still runs) but it doesn't rotate.

One you program the feeder with the times, you can pretty much forget about it :smile:

Once it didn't fully rotate but other than that, no problems to report.
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That often happens if you don't set the tray on the rotating thing correctly. What I do is set the tray on the thing with the compartment containing the food two spots away from the lid opening. Then I press the button to rotate the tray and make sure that it works. If not, I readjust the tray on the thing and try again.

I've never had any problems with my feeders. Somepeople do say that the tray only partially rotates or a cat can push the tray to get to the food.
 
Thank you everybody for your advice! This was the feeder I was looking at. I always read as many reviews as I can and found that people either loved it or hated it, so I figured I'd ask here. Again, thanks. I'll give it a try and hope Sam catches on quick so I can stay in my cozy bed at 3:30 am!!
 
I did read that people reported it would stick and not completely rotate to the meal. Apparently, the instructions used to be on a sticker on the underside of the lid. Ours has a separate instruction sheet and it is no longer on a sticker, so that problem is solved.

Hope it works out for you!
 
I also have TWO of those 5-meal feeders, and love them! You do have to make sure you get it fit right when you put it in there, so it rotates correctly. You can always push the button that rotates it one meal to make sure it's sitting in there correctly. Purely digital, so you set the feeder times to any times you want it to rotate. Can have it rotate 4 times during the day if you're at work if you want them to have a LOT of tiny meals if you wanted to.. ;-)
 
I don't know what kind of problems you guys are having with the Petsafe auto feeder, but I found it to be a lifesaver for Shadoe. I never had a single issue with the feeder, it turned on times set, and Shadoe was able to eat from the sections with no problems.
 
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions on the auto-feeder. Ordered it last night. Hope Sam gets used to it soon cause Mommy is already tired of getting up every night! Of course I'll do it for my little buddy, but Daddy knows how cranky Mommy can get without her sleep! :lol:
 
Gayle Shadoe & Oliver said:
I don't know what kind of problems you guys are having with the Petsafe auto feeder, but I found it to be a lifesaver for Shadoe. I never had a single issue with the feeder, it turned on times set, and Shadoe was able to eat from the sections with no problems.
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You know, now that I think of it, the first one I got works great! The 2nd one, I noticed rotates most of the way sometimes, but not 100%. So they can still get the food, but it's not 100% rotated. If I stick my finger in there & push it the rest of the way, it moves the rest of the way.

So I'm guessing like a lot of things, you can get bad units of these as well. My suggestion is to keep exchanging until you get a good one.. the ones that work are GREAT! (I bought mine at Petsmart, but they're around $50 I believe. Or at least they were when I bought them. The last one I bought was at least a year+ ago.)
 
I went through Bandit ripping apart 2 feeders (a Lentek and the PetSafe 5) before I found This Feeder. You can program it up to 4 times in a 24 hour period. It's really sturdy--try as he might Bandit cannot rotate the trays with his paws or rip it apart. It also has a compartment for an ice pack, and let's you play a recording when the food releases.

My boyfriend has complained that it's little hard to learn how to program--but I've never had problem. If you could program a VCR or an old school digital alarm clock back in the day you can program this no problem.

Back when I bought mine 4 or 5 years ago they were like 70 bucks on Ebay--which was the cheapest place to get them. Now they're $32 on Amazon with free shipping! At least if mine ever does break down I'm not going to get upset about replacing it like I did with the other two feeders (which were also more expensive a few years ago, so I was not a happy camper when Bandit kept ripping them apart).
 
I forgot to mention one thing.... I have little glass bowls that I got to fit into each of the 5 sections as some cats have acne issues or a reaction with plastics... Shadoe had one bout with chin acne ....

Just take the insert with you to find some little bowls that will fit in and allow the feeder to turn, plus Shadoe had an easier time getting all the food from the bowl in each section.
 
Gayle Shadoe & Oliver said:
I forgot to mention one thing.... I have little glass bowls that I got to fit into each of the 5 sections as some cats have acne issues or a reaction with plastics... Shadoe had one bout with chin acne ....

Just take the insert with you to find some little bowls that will fit in and allow the feeder to turn, plus Shadoe had an easier time getting all the food from the bowl in each section.
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I make little bowls to fit inside my feeder out of tin foil--although, my reasons are pure laziness--I don't like taking the feeder apart to wash it every time.
 
squeem3 said:
SabrinaFaire said:
The bad part is that the only way to turn it off is to remove the batteries which resets the clock.
Click to expand...

You can cancel a scheduled meal with one of the buttons. I have two of the PetSafe 5 compartment feeders and rarely use it these days but I still have a meal scheduled in both feeders just in case. Both feeders are currently set to cancel the meal. The feeder is still on (clock still runs) but it doesn't rotate.

One you program the feeder with the times, you can pretty much forget about it :smile:
Click to expand...

ORLY Interesting. I must have missed that part in the instructions. I'll try that out this weekend. Thanks!!
 
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