ISO automated/timed feeder for cat (difficulty: in Canada)

March 24, 2018 1:42 PM

My cat eats too fast and ends up vomiting later. If you had a similar problem, what timed/automated feeder do you and your cat(s) love?

My 1.5 year-old, 8-pound cat (pics 1, 2, 3) is a voracious eater who, even with a slow-feed bowl, scarfs down her meals and often barfs up undigested food later. (Yesterday, I cleaned up regurgitated food twice.)

I currently feed her three times a day, but would prefer smaller, more frequent meals. I plan to use the feeder only for dry food, with wet food being the meal she eats when the humans are eating their own dinner.

I am looking for an automated feeder with the following features:

- can set 5-6 timers per day
- can accurately dispense very small portions
- small footprint
- battery-powered
- available in Canada, including amazon.ca
- sturdy and secure, impervious to playful/ninja cat

These are nice-to-haves, which I would pay more ($500?) for:

- wifi support
- Alexa support in Canada
- built-in camera

Any suggestions, opinions, best practices?

posted by methroach to Pets & Animals (9 answers total)

Best answer: As an alternative, have you explored the food dispensing ball route? The one linked above worked for me to stop a voracious foodmonster cat from scarf and barfing on the regular.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 2:12 PM on March 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I got these feeders for my two cats and they seem to work well. The footprint is a little larger than I would like but having the automatic feeders saves my sanity for early morning feedings. It's also a benefit to portion out their food, since my two have shown to not be capable of free-feeding without overeating and barfing...

I'll add that these are perhaps more basic than the ones you seek, but I figured it doesn't hurt to mention them!
posted by galimatias at 3:01 PM on March 24, 2018

I bought a cheap(ish) one from Walmart (69$ I think). It is adequate. Barely. I would not recommend it unless money is the primary concern. That said, I'm looking for a better one too because not free feeding and having smaller meals often has dramatically reducing the scarfing and barfing problem in our house. Look for a plug in model if you can.
posted by Northbysomewhatcrazy at 3:29 PM on March 24, 2018

We have had a LeBistro for a decade and it is still going strong, but only does 3 servings a day and the minimum serving size might be too large for your needs. It was about $100 and was originally for 48-hour weekends away rather than strict portion control. Steadfast but may not meet your needs.
posted by Shepherd at 4:22 PM on March 24, 2018

I asked a similar question a while back. I never found the holy grail of automatic feeders. I eventually just switched her to all wet food, which stopped the vomiting, regardless of how fast she eats it.
posted by Weeping_angel at 5:55 PM on March 24, 2018

Best answer: Seconding the food dispensing ball, or other options that require the cat to move, hunt, dig, etc. in order to get to kibble, which means the cat eats it one piece at a time. It encourages their natural hunting instincts, gets them moving around, and lets them eat as much as they need/want without risk of scarf-n-barf.

I have this one and this one. I put them at opposite ends of the condo. They work when nothing else would for my former puke-master.
posted by tzikeh at 9:07 PM on March 24, 2018

Best answer: Why battery powered? I don’t see any way you’ll find that and WiFi.

My setup is a Super Feeder, which is awesome at dispensing small, accurate amounts + a Wemo programmable switch that lets me automate a schedule or manually trigger when away from home.

There are lots of cheap WiFi cameras you can add. I’d suggest getting that separately or else you’ll pay a lot more.
posted by Cogito at 7:20 AM on March 25, 2018

Best answer: Seconding the Super Feeder + Wemo. It's been pretty bullet proof for me. Hits all your must-haves except battery power (and maybe small footprint? You can set it up however you want though...), and two of your nice to haves (Wifi/Alexa).

I used to have a battery powered feeder, but it was a PITA to program, and I had to do it whenever the batteries died, which was frequently.
posted by natabat at 5:47 PM on March 25, 2018

Best answer: Thanks for all the replies. I have been looking at the various products/solutions mentioned, and though Super Feeder looks great, I can't get seem to get it in Canada. However, while looking into that, I came across a feeder called Instachew, which might work for me. (I think it was developed in Canada too.) Its smallest serving size is just small enough for my kitty.
posted by methroach at 7:33 PM on April 5, 2018