Hungry, hungry kitties

April 26, 2009 6:50 PM

Anyone have suggestions for a good timed feeder for cats?

My sister is going on a trip and her usual catsitter cannot come by this time. She has another person who can come by, but not in the mornings when the cats eat. She would like to have a good automatic timed feeder so that the persom could come by after work, load up the feeder for the cats, and then have the food ready in the morning.

She has a triangular-shaped cat feeder, which she recently bought, but apparently the food somehow gets caught in the mechanism somehow and it does not work. Anyone have suggestions for feeders which are well-designed, sturdy, and able-to-withstand-"big boned"-kitties?

posted by oflinkey to pets & animals (8 comments total)

Ooh, sorry. Wine and proofreading. Not such a good mix.
posted by oflinkey at 6:51 PM on April 26

I've been happy with the Hammacher Schlemmer feeder. For wet food, I've used the PetMate C20 automatic feeder.
posted by candyland at 6:58 PM on April 26

Here's a previous question that might be of assistance to you.
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:34 PM on April 26

I have the LeBistro series (linked in the previous question) and recommend it wholeheartedly. You can pile it full of dry food to a ridiculous degree, so she wouldn't need the catsitter to reload it on a daily basis. And, as the owner of a 15-pound cat, I can say that it withstands the tortures of a hungry behemoth quite well.
posted by mykescipark at 12:15 AM on April 27

I got a feeder from Super Feeder.

Not cheap, but it was designed for outside use and it's very sturdy. I've had no issues with food getting caught or food being yanked out.
posted by dragoon at 1:01 AM on April 27

I have one of the LeBistro "portion control" automatic feeders as well, and it works quite well, holds up against my cats trying to learn how to work it, and holds quite a lot of food.

I was out of town recently and my cat-sitter accidentally locked himself out of the house for the last day and a half of my trip. I was really glad I'd gone with a model that holds several days' worth of food, so I knew they'd continue to be fed and I didnt' have to cut my trip short or risk them going hungry and committing a destruction rampage on the house in retaliation.
posted by Stacey at 3:25 AM on April 27

I have the LeBistro one (similar to the H.S. one, if it's not just the same thing rebranded), and it worked reasonably well, with one or two caveats (no AC power source, programming reset every time you changed the batteries, a pain to wash). Caveats aside, it worked well, but we stopped using it because the smallest portion it would dish out was slightly over 1/4 cup of dry food, and the cat would gorge and then immediately expel the food messily from one (or both) ends. Going back to manual feedings of a smaller size prevented this, but this requires more frequent feedings, which is a pain.

The one linked here looks like it will do smaller portions, which might help - has anyone had any experiecne with other feeders for smaller (portion) pets?

There's also the ULTIMATE dry feeder, linked here... stainless steel replaceable parts (so you can put spares in while some are in the wash), AC Power, Battery Backup, 1 or 2 cats... but it's pricy ($500).
posted by GJSchaller at 8:02 AM on April 27

Follow-Up - I've gotten the one I linked above, and it's well worth the expense. The thing is so well designed, and easy to program, that it's almost effortless to set up, and just as easy to maintain. And the internals make it tamper-proof, even to kitties.
posted by GJSchaller at 7:22 AM on June 4