I love these feeders. I have one greedy little piglet kitty (Dexter) & one who’s timid & eats slowly (Icy). Previously, the piglet would gobble down his food, then gobble down his cat sister’s food, too. Then he’d vomit from eating too much & too quickly. Every single time. Separating them for all feedings gets difficult when you have work/kids/other activities.
These feeders are perfect. They limit portion sizes & access, which prevents the fat cat from eating both cats’ food & keeps both cats a healthy weight. Plus, if we go away for a few days, we don’t have to worry about Icy starving or cleaning 15 cat vomit stains out of the carpet.
Also - my cats used to harass us (usually me, but sometimes my husband) when they wanted to be fed - which for Dexter was always. They’d get underfoot, yowl loudly, & make a general nuisance of themselves if they thought there was a chance we’d give them food. Now that they’re used to the feeders, they don’t harass us anymore because they know their food comes from the feeder & only at certain times. Dexter sits in front of his feeder & glares at it when it gets close to feeding times, but they no longer assume we’re in the kitchen for the purpose of feeding them so they have no reason to badger us for food.
In an ideal world, I’d love to have a battery backup option for the feeder so it would continue running even if the power goes out. I’d also love to see the UI for settings be a little more efficient to program & more customizable.
Specifically, I’d prefer to be able to nudge the amount given per day up or down a little rather than selecting only from the options given. As it is now, I have to weigh both cats every week or two & increase or decrease the amount given per day if they weigh too little or too much. If I could nudge it up or down until it’s at a good level, then I could weigh them much less often and not feel like I’m starving them or overfeeding them.
Also, being able to program the feeder online or from a device via bluetooth would be amazing, but that’s probably a big ask.
I was already recommending this feeder to everyone I talked to about cats - my vet even bought some for her cats & probably recommended them to other cat owners with piglet pets ;). I love them even more now that I can replace batteries in the collar tags rather than throwing them in a landfill and buying a new one every few months.