The Cat Thread

I can heartily recommend this, had it for about 18 months now and havent needed to change the batteries, its his everyday feeder as well. At first he was a little nervous of the noise it made but now he hears it whirring in the morning from upstairs and runs down from his bed and waits for breakfast. I have a cheap wireless ip cam on it, which has motion detection, so we can always check that he's eaten and is coming and going, when we're away. He is a good little hunter as well, and eats everything he catches.

Andrew James New Large 90 Meal / Day Automatic Pet Feeder / Bowl with Voice Recorder: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago to save spending about 3 times as much on the cat sitters to come and feed our two over New Years when we are in NI. Got some really cheapo batteries (takes 4 x D cells) just to try it out and they're still going. Will stick some new duracells in there for when we actually go away. The only downside is that the dispenser is just a simple cylinder with a slot that rotates to pick up food and then dump it into the tray. If the level of food inside drops too low, it doesn't pick up as much on each cycle so the portion sizes are smaller. Not a problem if you keep it filled up though.

Currently set for 3 times a day but will probably do 4 while we are away so if the neighbour cat nicks one meal, there will be enough throughout the rest of the day.

You can also control the portion size (number of rotations of the cylinder) for each feeding.