Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThank you, robot overlord!
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2014
My cat is 15 pounds of muscle and tenacity, with a bottomless appetite. He will happily eat an entire loaf of bread if it's left unguarded. Right after finishing his own dinner, he'll try to slap food out of my hand. My kitchen cabinets have baby-proof locks on them to protect the garbage and the dry goods from the sarlacc pit that is his mouth. I've never met another cat this food-motivated - and I could've dealt with it just fine if it weren't for the fact that he also demands breakfast four hours before my alarm went off and would wake me by any means necessary.
I've had the Pet Feedster for almost a month, and it has saved my sanity and my sleep. The Pet Feedster is set to dispense my cat's breakfast early in the morning and a snack in the afternoon, and then I give him his dinner. He's happy with the consistency, and I'm happy to no longer wake up to a cat ominously gnawing on my wrist in the wee hours of the morning. (I've come to terms with the reality that if the Pet Feedster ever breaks, I'll probably be devoured in my sleep. We all gotta go sometime.)
The Pet Feedster is my first automatic cat feeder. I opted for this product over the cheaper ones on Amazon because they all looked easy for my cat to break into, and I went with Pet Feedster over the competing Super Feeder because Super Feeder had representatives of the company leaving passive-aggressive comments on negative reviews.
Here's what I've found:
* Setup on the Pet Feedster took me around 20 minutes, mostly spent adjusting the hardware. Programming the device was no harder than setting an alarm on a digital watch.
* As others have said, the included chute attachment does seem like a cheap afterthought. That's my one negative - there aren't even screw holes pre-drilled in the machine for it. Fortunately for me, my cat has large paws that he can't fit into the dispenser anyway.
* Once it's set up, the Pet Feedster is just as reliable as advertised. I haven't had a single problem with its timing or portions.
* My cat cannot break into this thing! It's a bank vault for kibble. For the first few days we had the feeder, he'd spend several studious hours with it every morning, testing its weaknesses. He has since given up. It's bigger than him. It's smarter than him. It's his new robot overlord.
* Like I said, this thing is big. It's not one of those dinky cat feeders that can be neatly shoved under your coffee table. That's actually an upside for me, because it makes it harder for my cat to hack, but I could see it being a downside for some folks.
* If you're dealing with smaller amounts of kibble (only putting in a few cups at a time vs. the several pounds it's meant for), you might have to open the device every few days to check on the level of kibble left, because it's hard to gauge smaller amounts of kibble from the window on the outside.
* It doesn't have a programmable voice message to call the cat to the feeder, but at least with my cat, that hasn't been an issue. He hears food hitting the bowl and takes off running for the kitchen so fast he's just a gray blur.
* I haven't had to call customer service so far, but the feeder came with a hand-written "thank you" note from the creator with the phone number - it's a small detail, but it tells me this company makes their relationship with customers a priority. That's important to me.
Overall, I'm thrilled with the Pet Feedster and would recommend it to anyone who needs help keeping the peace with a clever, food-motivated cat. My cat and I are on way better terms now that he's getting breakfast when he wants it and I'm getting a full night's sleep.
EDIT: About 2 1/2 years into owning this device, I have a few notes to add:
-The dispensing mechanism occasionally gets kibble in it, which makes it either not dispense anything or dispense kibble at the slightest touch, whichever it feels like at the time. This can be solved by occasionally tipping the feeder over while it's empty, pulling out the rotating dispenser mechanism, and clearing out the kibble that was stuck under it. As the feeder ages, I've had to do this more often.
-At the year and a half mark, my cat managed to punch the plastic window hard enough to break it off inside the feeder and stick his toes inside to grab all the kibble he wanted. I covered the former window with duct tape, and it has been unfashionable but safe ever since.
Overall (again), I would absolutely recommend this device and will be buying another one when this one croaks. The fact that I am still standing, alive and not yet eaten by my cat 2 1/2 years later, is a testament to how well it works.
EDIT 2: About 3 years after buying this device, it stopped working. I'm not sure if it was a flaw in the device or a power surge from a storm, but the Pet Feedster has died. So it goes. I'm disappointed that it didn't last longer, but it was so helpful during its lifespan that I might just end up re-buying it anyway.
