Large Automatic Electronic Programmable Portion Control Dog Cat Pet Feeder

There are about three different companies selling this product here on Amazon and this one was the most inexpensive. I read the reviews on the others and was a little skeptical, but really wanted something to feed my outdoor cats when I am away from home. The product arrived quickly, brand new, and in great condition. I set it up quickly. From the customer reviews, there were many complaints about how difficult it was to program. The difficulty is in the instructions, not the set up. The instructions are confusing, duplicitous, and out of order. I read all the instructions first and figured out that section number 1 should be the very last step, section 6 was a duplicate of a previous section, etc. Once you figure out the instructions themselves, the set up is quite easy. The machine worked excellently and dispensed the proper amount. The reviews had many complaints about the machine dispensing smaller amounts, but for the price it does a fine job. It wasn't built by NASA after all and I didn't expect flawless precision! Bottomline, I am ordering a second one to set up at a different location. If you are away often and worry about an outside pet, this is definitely your solution. I am very pleased. Also, the fact that I am able to leave a voice message for my pets (which plays 3 times by the way!) is great and I know it is soothing to them to hear me calling them even when I am away from home. Great product for the price!

It's been nearly a month since I bought this machine and I'm pretty happy with it. Its lid is a bit difficult to close and programming could have been much easier. But it's a very sturdy machine. I have 10 cats and they cannot ever knock it over but it's been twice that they knocked over my other machine which is more expensive than this one. And it would have been better if it showed the number of meals served; I have to check the amount of food inside to understand whether it worked properly while I was away. But overall, it's a good product for the price.It's July now and I'm still happy with it. I must admit that at first I was afraid that it won't work properly because of some of the low ratings. But it's still working properly and with the same battaries. It gave "ERR" report and stopped working twice, but after I turned it off and then re-programmed it, it continued working again.--------------UPDATE--------------------AFTER USING IT 4 OR 5 MONTHS, THE FEEDER STOPPED WORKING and I couldn't get it start working again. And since I don't live in USA, I couldn't get it repaired. So, it was a total waste of money. But another feeder my sister had bought from a pet shop in USA at the same time is still working. It was a bit more expensive than this one, but is worth the money and I'm still using the same batteries on it - even though it's programmed to work twice everyday.

I put in new, high quality Duracell batteries and the feeder worked great.... for a week. Then it started feeding every hour for a day and a half then just quit working. Seriously? A week? 4 D batteries every week isn't going to kill me but they are still expensive and a hassle. The point of this thing was to make feeding LESS of a hassle. Also a minor complaint... my directions went through the first few steps and then reprinted those few steps before going on with the rest of the steps. Weird. Would get five stars - even with the weird instructions - if it came with a plug.

Here on Amazon we found this automatic feeder cheaper than in other websites or even petsmart. My wife and I were going to be away from home for the holidays and we really wanted two machines to feed our indoor and outdoor cats. The feeders were shipped fast and they arrived in excellent condition. It took us couple of hours to figure out how to set one machine up.The instructions are very confusing. The set up is quite easy once you figure out the instructions. You will be able to set up how many times your pet will be fed and the cups of food to be dispensed. Also, the machine allowed us to record a voice message for our cats (which plays 3 times at feeding time), this is a cool feature and we think our cats love to hear my wife's voice calling them. Then we set up the second machine identically. Both worked well delivering the food the times we determined but they were dispensing a huge amount of food (one cup every time it's a lot of food for a cat). We ended up stuffing the barrel in the feeder with aluminum foil so the machine is able to dispense only 1/4 cup every time. For the price it does a fine job. We're happy with it.