HICTOP Automatic Pet Feeder | Auto Pet Dog Timed Programmable Food Dispenser Feeder for Medium Small Pet Puppy Kitten - Portion Control Up to 4 Meals/Day 7L(Black)

We have 4 cats. We got one to test so we would be prepared for a trip in a few months.One cat is in a separate part of the house so she is the test subject.The cats get wet food morning and evening and crunchies at night.The test cat is really annoying because she wakes me up several times a night.Perfect test subject!We set the feeding to 2 units, which is a small amount.Set the time for 2AM and 4AM - her favorite wake me up times.The unit works great! It dispenses a uniform serving reliably.It took a couple of days to retrain her to go to the feeder, but last night she didn't wake me up once.Notes -It comes with the large dispenser mechanism installed, we changed it out for the small one.My husband did the swap, but it didn't look difficult.The plastic dish it came with is a good size, easy to clean, etc., but it is a tad noisy when the kibbles hit it.We swapped in her regular ceramic plate and it is less noisy. It is also more familiar as the "point of yummy deliverables" This will probably mess with the "full bowl" sensor because it is a shallow plate. That is not an issue as I am sure all crunchies will be consumed.When you use the manual dispense button it delivers the single unit of food, not what you set the meal for.This is actually preferable for us. When we use the manual, we only want a small bit. I use the manual when I put down the plate with wet food to reinforce that this is the new food location. This cat prefers kibble to wet food but is healthier on wet food.The dispense sound is very quiet, it does not wake us up at night. But the cat appears to hear it fine!The settings use the 24 hour clock, which many find annoying. It is OK with us. The biggest challenge when setting is that you can only go one direction on the time or portions. So if you decide to change from 5AM to 4AM you need to cycle all the way around past 5 to get back to 4. Same with the portions if you want to go smaller.Certainly not a show stopper, but it might be confusing to some.The lid latch for the hopper is good. If your cat or dog can activate it they are way smarter than our pets.The unit shape is pleasing and it seems stable. One of our boys is a big guy - around 20 pounds. I don't think it will be easy for him to knock over.We will be buying 2 more of these for the other set of cats. Since the big guy is overweight as well as big we will set the other two to dispense at the same time. One for him and one for the other two to share. They all share, but it will be easier to make sure everyone gets some when we are not there to monitor it.We did not set up the voice recording, and will not be doing so. I think the motor activation is all we are going to need. To be clear - the motor is very quiet, but our cats can hear a single kibble drop from another room. Kind of like my mom always said us kids could hear the clink of a spoon in an ice cream dish when we had been asleep for hours.

We have grown to love this feeder. We use it for our cat. I have it scheduled to disperse food twice per day (morning and evening). There are a lot of customized controls! We only need to use 5 "portions" out of a total of 29 available. In other words, my cat gets 5 portions in the morning and 5 portions in the evening. I don't remember what the measurement is for each portion but you'll just have to do the math to figure out what your dog or cat needs.I like that you can either use the included power cable or batteries. We use the power cable and therefore I can't comment on the batteries feature. We haven't experienced any issues at all. My only complaint is that the LED control interface is very small and hard to see. I recommend programming the controls for your preference in a well lit area first before placing it in its final location. I have pretty good eyes but I had to use my reading glasses for this one. Fortunately, once you have set it up the first time, you shouldn't have to touch the controls again unless you want to tweak it here and there.The only feature I think is useless is the ability to make a recording. I recorded my voice to tell my cat that it was time to eat. While I think it is a cute idea, the sound quality is really bad. The instructions state that "your animal can hear it" but I disagree. Fortunately, I think the vast majority of people purchasing a feeder for their pets aren't looking for this feature.Bottom line - If you are looking for a reliable feeder with lots of customizable controls, I highly recommend this model. Our cat certainly loves that we'll never forget to feed him again. :-)

Ok, so I was hesitate at first because it seemed like a lot to deal with. Everything was quite easy actually! The set up was incredibly easy, easy instruction book, and easy to set up the time. The time is in the 24hr format so make sure you calculate your time correctly. Another perk I found out which I didn't know when I purchased it, was you can record your voice! When the food comes out it plays your recording, and it will play it two times again before it stops. We set this up for a small weekend getaway and when we can back I tested it, (by holding down the manual button for 3 sec) and when my voice started and the food came out our cat came running! She already had gotten used to it in only 2 days! It comes with the option of using batteries (not included) or a USB cord. The cord is a bit long which is nice. It was easy to take apart and clean. The dish is quite large so perfect for any size pet really. We have 2 cats and 2 90lb dogs so this will fit any amount of their food. We bought it to use for the cats since we take the dogs with us. Wish we had more color options to order it from. The box had a white one displayed which was nice. :)

These feeders have helped me change my relationship with my cats for the better. Both my kitties have become neurotic about meals over the years and have taken to pestering me every morning and evening about 1 - 2 hours before their typical feeding times. This included scratching and meowing at the bedroom door at 5 am every day-- the door has to be closed in the first place BECAUSE they started climbing in bed and doing this in our faces. Now, the automatic feeder has changed the game. The kibbles hit the bowl right before I wake up, and right before I walk in the door at night from work. The cats are happy, and have re-associated feeding from humans to the feeders, so they now patiently wait for them to dispense. And now I know when they seek me out for affection, it's because they want my company, not because they are neurotically fixated on their food. I took one star off for a lack of two simple features-- it only allows you to dispense portions in grams, so you have to do your own math conversion to cups if you're using the standard system. And two, it only shows time in 24 hour cycles (military) instead of 12 hour cycles. Again, both are minor inconveniences and even still I offer a full-throated endorsement of this product.