Timed-feeders: types & how you use

[sehjak (Susan & Lanky)]

I hear many of you speaking about your timed feeders. Will you share what brand you use & how you like and are using it? I'd like to understand the pros/cons & if it would work in my household of 4 kitties - 1 diabetic, 2 CRD, 1 fat. Do they work with wet food?

 

[squeem3]

All timed feeders work with all type of food: dry, canned, even RAW. A timed feeder conists of a bowl/tray that you put the food into. The lid is closed and the timer programmed to open the lid at a specific time. Some brands have an ice pack feature to keep food cold long.

Using a timed feeder is great to allow your FD cat to eat portioned meals over the course of the day. It works well for healthy cats, too. For a multi-cat household, you may need more than one feeder so that the cats aren't fighting over one feeder and who gets to eat first, etc.

A lot of people here like the PetSafe 5 compartment feeder, http://www.petsafe.net/Products/Feed-an ... eeder.aspx It's cat-proof (ie, cats cannot pull the lid open to get to the food), runs quietly (digital timer), and works very well. The tray is divided into 5 sections for the food.

PetSafe also has a 2 compartment one http://www.petsafe.net/Products/Feed-an ... eeder.aspx but the timer is very noisy (annoying ticking that some cats may not like) and the lids are easily pried open by a determined cat. My cat has even flipped and pushed the entire feeder around the house in an attempt to get to the food :roll:

Some people here use the Catmate brand and like that.

 

[sehjak (Susan & Lanky)]

Very helpful & informative, thanks!

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

I picked up both of the two linked above to try out on my cats.

I like the 5 compartment one for its timer (all digital) and use it at night because I can have it move to an empty compartment long enough preshot to not let food affect the BG reading. Drawbacks? Currently all of my cats are afraid of it :lol: I was finding a lot of the food still in it because they were chicken to stick their heads into the dish to eat. You can also buy 2 of the 2 compartment ones for the price of this one.

I like the 2 compartment one for during the day because it keeps the food available to them until it is gone where the 5 compartment only lets one be open at a time, so if they don't eat a snak before the time for the next serving, its out of reach for them. That may be good for a lot of people, but for me I didn't want them missing their food while am out of the house. When I am home they'll tell me about it. The cats seem to prefer this one and are not afraid of it - its cleaned out whenever I come home. Drawbacks? Timer is not precise because it is a clunky dial not digital.

 

[Blue]

I have the 5 compartment feeder for Shadoe and love it!
You can set the timers so that there is no food available for the 2hrs pre shot which is pretty important if you are not going to be home until just before pre shot time.
Also, I can tell when Shadoe ate and how much she ate at those times.
I got small round glass bowls that fit nicely into the sections which makes it simple to freeze portions. At nite, I can fill the bowls with portions I want Shadoe to have, put the bowls into the freezer, then in the morn, I just drop the bowls into the sections and close the lid. Others just freeze portions in ice cube trays and then drop them into the sections.
I leave enough food so that she does not have to eat all of each portion or she will be starving; I put a bit extra because I have found that at certain times of day, she is napping, and often the afternoon portion is only partially eaten.

The feeder does make a quiet hum as it turns to the next section, but very quickly Shadoe learned the sound and that is meant FOODS! She comes running when she hears it. She was scared of it at first but I first got her used to it by putting food in the open section and did not have the batteries in it so it did not turn. There are different ways to get them used to the sound and eating from it; at one point I put her food bowl just in front of the feeder so she got used to eating near it, then eating from it, then recognizing the sound and still eating from it.

Regular feeding is very important to regulation I think, so when you are away for long hours, the auto feeder helps to ensure the foods are balanced and not eaten too quickly. I don't think you will be disappointed in using a feeder.