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Dogs with medical issues or dietary needs may require specialized feeding schedules or restrictions on what they eat. Talk to your veterinarian about your dog’s eating habits to make sure you’re meeting their nutritional needs and healthcare requirements. For the dog who would never stop eating, use the portion control method. If you are using a commercial dog food, feed your dog the amount printed on the bag that fits with its ideal weight.
However, our testers disliked a number of design choices, including its short power cable, strange button placement, and how the two bowls don't snap on to the feeder, necessitating finicky adjustments. Described as looking like a "sleek coffee maker" by one tester, the PETLIBRO has a power adapter and a battery backup (which uses 3 D-cell batteries). It has a decent interface for programming a feeding schedule on the LCD screen on the front of the device. You can also record a short message to draw your pet to the bowl for feeding time.
Cat Mate C500 Digital 5 Meal Dog & Cat Feeder
We tested and researched 13 different models to find the best automatic cat feeder for a variety of situations, evaluating them for accurate timing, portion control, software, and other features. You can learn more about ourtesting processin our "How We Tested" section further down the page. Whenever you need to feed multiple pets, make sure you have the necessary tools and procedures in place. Decide who will be fed what diet, how much he’ll get and where he’ll eat.
You can do this by making sure your dogs aren’t in positions where they feel like they need to compete for valuable resources, which can lead to tension between pets and even fights. If your cats have feeding habits that aren't conducive to sharing a bowl, consider a separate feeder for each cat. There are also feeders that dispense food into two separate bowls, including one recommended in this roundup. Most notable is the clever all-in-one design, which rotates to reveal the next portion of food on a set schedule rather than dispensing food into a separable bowl. This means you can't clean the bowl separately from the five-portion carousel, but it also makes the Eatwell a cinch to pick up and move around.
Teach your pets what to expect.
For most feeders, this means programming buttons and a small LCD screen, but several of our picks can also be programmed through a phone app. We looked in particular for our tester's design impressions, plus their thoughts on useful features, programming interfaces, software, and how easy each device was to clean. Testers were mixed on how difficult programming the PETLIBRO could be, with some wishing for an option to set the feeder using a.m./p.m. Split, programming with a 24-hour clock eliminates any ambiguity and makes it less likely you'll set the device to feed at the wrong time. You can schedule up to 4 feedings a day, which can each be customized to serve your preferred portion size.
This makes it ideal for semi-wet or wet food since you can load each compartment yourself and schedule when it's "revealed" to your cat or cats. Butwet and canned cat foodspoils more quickly than dry food and should be refrigerated after opening, making it harder to set out in advance. The Cat Mate C500 solves this problem by including two ice packs beneath the rotating tray.
How Much Should Adult Dogs Eat?
You can also make a recording of your voice calling your cats to their mealtime, a feature included in several other feeders we tested. Our favorite automatic cat feeder is the Whisker Feeder-Robot, which had the most useful app and easiest programming of any feeder we tested. Although free-feeding is convenient for us, it can prove troublesome for our dogs and cats.
If you’re not worried about your dog overeating but don’t want to leave the food out all day, use the timed feeding method. This means you give the dog a certain amount of time, like 30 minutes, to eat. "It's a really solid cat feeder," one tester said, while indicating they would recommend it to a friend. "It's sturdy, well-designed, and is easy to assemble and use." With the WOPET phone app you can check food reserves, see the back-up battery status, and schedule feedings. If you're not against keeping spiders as pets, a tarantula might be a good addition to your family.
Whether a schedule is established using the app or on the control panel keypad, the Feeder-Robot stores the schedule locally and will continue to maintain the schedule even if it's offline. An easy-to-read blue indicator light highlights whether or not the unit is currently operating on a programmed schedule. Snakes are not everybody's cup of tea, but they do make for an easy-to-care for pet.
This roundup was written by Andrew Whalen, an editor for The Spruce Pets with hours of experience testing pet products in our labs. Andrew lives with two rescue cats, Church and Wally, who have wildly different feeding schedules and eating habits. Their input and emotional support was crucial to the automatic cat feeder testing process. The PetSafe automatic feeder isn't the most fully featured feeder on this roundup, but its combination of easy programming, useful features, and tactile buttons makes it a sturdy, reliable option. Feedings can be programmed to any time of day (in 15-minute intervals) on the LCD screen. Or, set one feeding time, and the PetSafe carousel will dispense one of its six meals into the bowl every day at that same time.
If one dog doesn’t finish a meal, pick up their bowl and don’t let another dog finish the other dog’s food. When you're ready to start transitioning your pets to a schedule, you should reduce the amount of food available during the day. If you have gravity feeders, remove them and instead use normal sized bowls, or automatic programmable feeders. Does your pet have a little extra padding around their midsection? Has your vet used words like "overweight" or "diet food" when referencing your fur baby? It might be time to consider switching your pet from free-feeding to a set feeding schedule.
We believe it is the better pick for anyone who would prefer a feeder that provides a separate bowl for each cat. Plus, those separate bowls are both stainless steel, which we prefer to plastic bowls. While we found the WOPET 6L Automatic Feeder to be reliable when testing scheduled and overnight feedings, in our first test, it only dispensed five pieces of kibble instead of a full serving. In subsequent tests it dispensed the correct amount on time, but it was a worrying introduction to a machine that must be trusted with our pet's health when we're away.
