PetSafe Automatic Cat Feeder - Healthy Pet Simply Feed - Automatic Pet Feeder for Cats & Dogs - Timed Pet Feeder with Programmable Portion Control - Holds 24 Cups of Dry or Semi-Moist Dog or Cat Food

I read tons of reviews. But didnt want to buy 3 devices. Found a 3 way splitter (mentioned in other reviews). saved my sanity and made us get this auto dispenser. I'm due with my first in July. I cant free feed my cats because they will get fat (they never used to bother us for food when we free fed them-sigh). They have lost a combined 4 lbs since we started scheduling thier foods & are no longer obese!! But this scheduling came with them bombarding us in the am. Cant have that with the baby coming!So I took a chance on an open box like new with slight scratches. I'm very pleased to say even the open boxed device works!I got it a day or 2 before my splitter and adapter, so I used that time to clean and air dry. Install took maybe 12 minutes? Make sure all items/components are tight, secure, & dry!The programming was prob the most difficult, but its so worth it for the benefits! Now it find it fairly easy! It would be nice if the screen had a blue back light or something so it's easier to see. Think grey screen with black letters; that's what this display is like. When programmed and ready, it shows the buttons are locked and the next time for feeding!I've heard some say they had issues.I did buy the adapter separately. I've since had 2 power outages and all I have to do is set the time and then set to custom (vs the preprogrammed cat or dog) and it remembers the feeding schedule without me having to reschedule the feedings! Very thankful for that lil feature since power outages are very common in the summer here!You will have to force feedings a couple times because the conveyor doesnt have food on it! At first I was like wth! But after doing a couple force feedings, it worked perfectly.TIP: dont use slow feed unless you have larger portions. Since you can schedule up to 12 feedings with 1/8c as your lowest, I just do multiple 1/4c feedings. The smaller amounts just take way too long to dispense on slow feed!We use blue buffalo cat kibbles and have no issues with jamming.It took about 2 months for my cats to correlate the feeder with feeding rather than us making it magically happen. They have now completely stopped tormenting me in the mornings for food!I give them wet food at night so it's just for morning breakfast and afternoon snack!I will say we have messes because I cant secure the bowls and the cats drag the bowls, but honestly the cats love the hunt... they go nuts.Make sure to read the cleaning recommendations! Def dont want to ruin your new life saver!My cats are brutes! They even tried to bite the lid off. They haven't been able to open it no matter how hard they try. I do see that some say it could be tipped over. Ours is on the floor. They would have to use some serious skill to knock it over with full food for sure. Since I have the splitter, my cats cant stick their paws up for treats.The only negative I have is that now my cats associate the sound to cereal pouring into a bowl, and they run in all excited and confused lmao

After having had this feeder for a full year, I felt it was time to write a review, and I have to say, this thing changed our lives. Before this feeder, our 2 cats would wake us up in the middle of the night to beg for food. Inevitably one of us would relent and get up, just so we could get some rest. We were tired, cranky, and we knew something had to change.I picked this particular feeder because of the optional separate splitter attachment. I was a little nervous about some of the negative reviews, but after a full year of use, I'm glad I ignored those and bought this anyways. We needed something that would dispense food to both cats and let us sleep in peace.Admittedly, set up was a little bit tricky, you HAVE to read the instructions fully and carefully. But once we had it set to the right times and amounts, we were golden. The splitter attachment was a bit tough to get right, but after some fiddling, we got it in correctly. The splitter sits in such a way that when you get it right, you know it's right, because if how it fits together. This was helpful, as we weren't afraid it would fall out.It did take some time working with our cats to get them used to the feeder, finding the right bowls was tricky. The feeder comes with one gigantic bowl, but this was way too big for our needs. We ended up swapping out for some high sided ramakens. This allowed the kibble to make it into the bowl without popping out. Our boys do have to dig around a bit to get kibble out of the edge of the bowl, but this is actually an added benefit as it slows down their eating.The big thing we were worried about with an auto feeder was how secure it was. Our cats are Houdini's who can get into anything. We have put child locks on all the cabinets to keep them out. But they have never been able to crack into this feeder. It's secure, and fairly heavy, so they can't knock it over. We haven't had a single incident of them getting inside it. I do need to warn you though, our smarter cat has figured out if he jumps on top of it from the counter, sometimes he can knock out 1 or 2 pieces of kibble, but it's very minimal.I do recommend if you buy this feeder to also get the adapter. We keep batteries in ours for backup, but constantly replacing them would be an expensive hassle. Get the adapter, yea it kinda sucks its sold separately, but we found it's completely worth it.Most of the negative reviews I have read about this feeder seem to be related to set up, but we found them to be baseless once we read the instructions thoroughly and played around with it a bit. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that the internal clock is a bit slow, and we noticed after a few weeks it was off by several minutes. We have gotten in the habit of resetting the clock every now and then to get it back on track. Not a big deal.This feeder has been a godsend. We are completely happy with it. If you're thinking of getting an auto feeder I cant recommend this enough. You need some patience at the start with set up and getting your furry family members used to using it, but after the initial hurdle, our experience is that it works like a dream. We can finally sleep through the night, no one has to get up, kitties get the food they want and everyone is happy. One year later, it still works perfectly and we are finally resting easy.

Most of these are made for small pups or cats and don’t accommodate large kibble or have a bowl do small and close to the feeder a large dog can’t use. This one accommodate both. Doesn’t tip over and has a locking top for curious pups. The conveyor belt design was great and the programmable function for multiple meals was a must as was the need to regulate meal size and timing of feeding. Replaced the cheap thin bowl included with a porcelain one the dog is use to with a wider circumference which is more appropriate for a larger dog.The directions need to be rewritten. Not logical progression for setting up testing and use so have to back track. Programming is not intuitive and you really have to read the directions and don’t throw out as you’ll need them to adjust for various circumstances. Battery life is good. Took away one star as the cord is sold separately and is not cheap given the cost of the unit. Batteries are great but an electric backup is necessary for dependable use.

We bought two of these: one in 3/2020 & one in 12/2022. We bought the adapters and always keep them plugged in. However, we do have batteries installed in case the power goes out. Zero complaints. They’ve worked perfectly for years and keep food in our cat’s bowls. We have the two bowls on one feeder and a single bowl on the other. We use the smallest 1/4 cup option, which is a little too much for the amount of times we feed our cats, but that’s on us. The feeders are relatively easy to program, but we always keep the manual on hand. My only complaint is that the time needs updated every once in a while because it doesn’t keep up. In a year it falls about 1/2 hour behind the actual time. I’d gladly buy another.