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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Do any of you use those automatic cat feeding machine thingys? Are they any good?

25 replies

SmurfPants · 27/03/2017 17:24

Do they actually work?

It'd be good to not have to get people in to feed them when we go away overnight. Any thoughts for or against?

OP posts:
pilates · 27/03/2017 17:59

Yes I have one for when I'm out at work, use it all the time.

Would thoroughly recommend.

Original poster
SmurfPants · 27/03/2017 18:33

Which one do you have Pilates?

OP posts:
PinkSparklyPussyCat · 27/03/2017 18:37

We've got a Cat Mate one with a basic timer and 2 dishes. I find the timer a bit fiddly but it does work. His Lordship will eat out of it, although I think he was a bit offended that I was feeding him in plastic bowls!

Mamagin · 27/03/2017 18:40

We have the catmate one too, it has only let us down once, when I think the battery ran out. I always leave dried food out, so he didn't starve!

Fluffycloudland77 · 27/03/2017 20:28

We had the same as Pink but ours worked out how to open it (you hold the lid up with a paw & use your canine to pull the tray) so I binned it.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 27/03/2017 20:50

Aaah, Harry has no canines so he's at a disadvantage there!

Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes · 27/03/2017 21:29

I bought the Andrew James 4 dish one last week. Used it over the weekend after a trial run while we were at home. It's quite fiddly to set up, but has worked well so far.

ElizaDontlittle · 28/03/2017 06:56

I use them for a single night or if I know it's going to be a long day out at work. Crazycat has no teeth and is not the brightest spark so she's never got into mine. Another recommendation here.

Original poster
SmurfPants · 28/03/2017 07:34

Great thanks, I might invest but need to feed two cats so will need two machines. Or are there any that could do two cats twice a day for 24 hours?

OP posts:
bangbangprettypretty · 28/03/2017 07:43

There's a catmate with four compartments, they are about £48 but you'd make that back in what you'd have otherwise had to pay with a cat sitter - you'd need one for each cat though.

BangCat loves his and it's never let us down, we have a ball for biscuits too so it's entertainment for him.

Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes · 28/03/2017 07:43

I actually bought two, one for each cat. Only one compartment at a time opens on the Andrew James and it's a minimum of an hour between openings, so it wouldn't work for two cats unless they were prepared to share from a pretty small opening, I wouldn't trust my two to do that.

KatyBerry · 28/03/2017 07:45

The catmate with 4 compartments is so complicated that I was glad when it broke. The 2 compartment Ines are still going strong after 15 tears

BikeRunSki · 28/03/2017 07:49

We've been using a Catmate one when we go away for a couple of days for years. Sometimes if it's really hot the ice packs melt, and occasionally the timer gets stuck, but largely no problems.

bangbangprettypretty · 28/03/2017 07:53

That's really good to know the four compartment one is 't as good, Katy, as we have two of the two-compartment ones and it felt like a waste of money to have to buy a second one! Used the first one loads though!

pilates · 28/03/2017 18:15

Op, Cat Mate here too, sorry for the delay in getting back.

Original poster
SmurfPants · 28/03/2017 19:38

great, thanks guys! I've ordered a cat mate one with 5 slots (so 4 timed) to have a play with. If we like it I'll buy another.

OP posts:
TheWayYouLookTonight · 28/03/2017 19:44

I've got the cat mate one with the 5 slots, it's great! (I only have one cat though). It does take a bit of figuring out how it works, but DCat hasn't managed to mess with it so I'm happy.

If you get a spare moment, there's loads of funny YouTube videos of cats destroying automatic feeders. I got my auto feeder specifically because i couldn't find any videos of it getting broken!

didireallysaythat · 28/03/2017 19:45

We have one we use to feed the cat at 5:30am to stop the beast waking us up meowing for food....

Watto1 · 28/03/2017 19:48

We use the 2 compartment Cat Mate when we have the odd night away. Couldn't live without it really. However, remember to remove the battery when not in use otherwise it just carries on and eats the battery power!

Ruhrpott · 28/03/2017 19:59

We have the 5compartment c50 catmate and it works great. Really easy to set and got two cool packs and each compartment holds two packets of food. Definitely recommend

Ruhrpott · 28/03/2017 20:00

And yes to remembering to take the battery out

Ruhrpott · 28/03/2017 20:01

This one

Do any of you use those automatic cat feeding machine thingys? Are they any good?
Original poster
SmurfPants · 28/03/2017 20:22

oh great, good to hear it works. Thinking about it, we might actually use it every day to avoid the cats mithering around our ankles at different points of the day!

Good tip about the battery, thanks Flowers

OP posts:
Ruhrpott · 29/03/2017 10:25

We use one for two cats and just fill each compartment with two packets and leave out dry food too. Did that this weekend for two nights (went late Friday evening and came back Sunday afternoon).

Oldraver · 29/03/2017 10:45

I bought a two compartment one for Ernie and had a trial run. You can set it for up to 48 hours but anything less than 4 is a fiddle. We occasionally use it if we want a lie in

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