PetSafe Electronic Pet Feeder

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $59.99
Sale Price: $44.41
Today's Bonus: 26% Off

This feeder is exactly what I expected. High quality, easy to use, and reliable. I previously purchased the two sided feeder by Petsafe and was very happy. It still works great, but I needed to go away for 4 days and it just didn't have enough slots. It took my cat about a week to get used to the whirring noise that the feeder makes when it rotates the dish; He wouldn't go near it if I didn't stand next to him while he ate. I made it a positive experience for him by putting a small meal in each of the slots (even just a few kibbles) and for a week he got a food reward everytime the machine made the whirring noise. Now he runs to the food dish everytime it whirrs because he knows it means food. I definitely would recommend this product to a client (I am a veterinarian). My only advice is to make sure that you give a few weeks for your pet to adapt to the whirring noise before you leave them alone with the food dish. This also allows you to make sure that you learned to program the dish correctly. As for batteries it takes four. I bought this product in August and it's now November. I have not needed to replace the batteries yet. Some purchasers complained that their pets were able to manipulate the machine to get to food ahead of time, but I have not had this problem. This product would be great for anyone working long hours and needing to feed their pet multiple meals per day, which is recommended for pets needing to lose weight and diabetics.

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The low rating is due to the fact that my determined 10-pound cat merely turned the inner compartmentalized tray with her paw, within 5 minutes of seeing the unit for the first time, thus, revealing the food-filled adjacent compartments. When she found the automatic feeder, the first day I set it up, it was 8 hours before her next regular feeding (she was not hungry), yet after smelling food in the unit, she dutifully used her paw to turn the food tray ahead one compartment.

The fatal flaw is that the fully enclosed compartmentalized tray does not lock into position when resting between timed feedings and is incredibly easy to rotate; no real physical force is required to advance the tray to the next one or several (food-filled) compartments. Only some level of interest in the enclosed food, in conjunction with a slight amount of determination is required for the animal to rotate the tray, at will.

Years ago, we did use another automatic timed feeder with this same cat, the Cat Mate C20, which is a 2-meal, flip-lid type of feeder. We would fill up both compartments for the day, and she would immediately lift up both lids with her paw within minutes after it had been filled. That unit also was no match for our obsessive eater.

Our cat is not large in size, nor has she provided any evidence that she is particularly clever, particularly strong, or particularly intelligent, she's just one obsessive (determined) cat regarding her food. My cat joins the ranks of the other reviewers, whose animals very simply pushed the tray around, at will, with little force. We had the identical problem as the 10/1/07 reviewer named E. Genzoli, whose Boston Terrier, moved the inner compartmentalized tray around with his face after 3 months of use and the 9/11/07 reviewer named NashvilleLady333 whose Australian Shepherd, also moved the compartments ahead at will after only "days." My 10 pound cat moved the inner tray around at will with her front paw within 5 minutes of our ownership of the Petsafe PF5-11. This unit has a design flaw which is fatal if your pet's history regarding food intake reflects even a slight level of determination.

In summary, if your pet is somewhat determined and/or intelligent, then this unit's design failure (the non-locking compartmentalized food tray) will become apparent in no time, making the unit completely useless for its intended purpose of timed feedings. The pet need not be strong, heavy, clever, brilliant, nor be a dog in order to exploit the fatal design flaw of the non-locking compartmentalized tray. We have ordered the Super Feeder CSF-3; it may be our only hope for sleeping in, in the morning with our adorable, but food-obsessed cat.

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I got this when I went on vacation. My cat has to eat small portions or it comes back up, and of course my cat sitter can't stop by 5 times a day. Enter the PF5-11. It delivers equal portions 5 times a day (or 1 meal every day for 5 days, or 2 meals every day for 2 and a half days, or whatever). So the sitter came by once or twice a day and just refilled the hoppers. Now I use it all the time. Phoebe Cat now anticipates the feeding times and has stopped bugging me to feed her. It's pretty easy to program, very accurate, and seems to run a long time on the D cells. The motor only really runs for 5 seconds a day. Highly recommended.

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The last review was great. I'll try to restrict this to additive comments.

Pros:

the five food chambers are deep; our fat cat makes less to no mess with this setup. It is amusing to see him bury his huge head in the chamber.

no assimilation problems at all; in fact, he didn't realize the relatively quiet chamber rotation meant no food was available. He's figured it out now.

setup was a breeze and took about five minutes; hardest part was cutting the super-tight plastic packaging away from the gizmo.

feels like a quality product and takes rechargeable batteries

has good grips on the bottom so our Roomba vacuum doesn't push it around

Cons:

takes up some space; we stuck it under our kitchen island with just the open chamber sticking out.

Overall big five stars as its reduced our food refill time by 2.5x (we feed him twice daily)

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