Baby auto feeder

infant - Are there automatic dripping milk feeders?

Asked 9 years, 2 months ago

Modified 4 years, 2 months ago

Viewed 5k times

Does any device exist to automatically feed the baby milk, like how a IV (glucose line) continously drips glucose water? I have in fact seen a similar apparatus (not like how I want) in breast pump manuals as additional gear. I don't know what it is called, but it was connected to the breast for mothers who could not get the milk out.

Ideally I feel these milk bottles are very old technology and I would like to see a device emanating a pipe which the infant can hold with her hands and suck as and when required, so has anyone tried such devices or are there any similar devices to replace the plain old feeding bottles?

infant
feeding

For completeness, our baby was scheduled for a Continuous feed NGT tube, the tube from her nose to her stomach. Then was to be a slow drip feed, the equivalent of her normal feeding oz/per bottle feed now oz/hour.

The advantage to this, for her, was no big bump of food at any given time, so no chance of a big dose of reflux. The bad news, you have a tube down her nose. Uncomfortable, needs to be maintained if she pulls it out, and also the whole mechanism of feeding sucking and holding the bottle is part of her motor skills development.

Generalizing a bit, I think the convenience of any automatic feed system needs to be weighed by the bonding and observation parent/child as they feed. That and motor skill development as they hold the bottle and learn to deal with meals, since that's what they need to do as toddlers, adolescents, and adults. Unless you think you'll do a liquid drip feed diet with your teenagers.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean but this is what it made me think of:

While googling for that image, I came across this one which looks like the thing I think you're requesting:

I didni't think such a thing really existed, but hey, you can buy anything on Amazon!
$6. 99 & FREE Shipping on orders over $35.

I'm surprised.

I'd strongly discourage using such devices.

First of all, it introduces bad feeding habits. Your baby will learn that it can feed whenever it wishes. Once it grows out of the crib you're going to have a very hard time attempting to not feed it.

Secondly, and this is just an opinion, I think that the parent-to-child contact while feeding is very important. The very act of feeding should not be reduced to an automated task, it should be a process in which the baby bonds with parents. A bottle still requires closeness and reasurring touch. Baby should not only feel fed, it should feel safe and loved.

Lastly, when I see such devices I can't stop imagining farms and thousands of animals just being born, fed, growing, and then being slaughtered. A baby definitely does not fit this picture.

To answer your question: I can't imagine for a moment that anyone sells anything like that. I'm no doctor, but from my personal experience, an automatic drip milk dispenser doesn't approximate any biological function.

Bottles are old technology yes. But that doesn't mean it's outdated or can be made 'more efficient'. Millions of years of trial and error have lead to a human machine that you know and love. And the whole purpose for a bottle to begin with is to be a reasonable facsimile of the breast. The mother is then free to reset the bear traps or change the blade on the bandsaw.

After some search I got this podee bottle feeder which seems to be something similar to what I was searching for. Also the picture I saw on in the manuals was this , and is called SNS generally used by adoptive mothers:

The podee bottle feeder seems to be an interesting invention going by the reviews on amazon. Unfortunately this is not available in our country , hence still searching for DIY solutions for this.

Another one which appears to work well as shown in their videos, probably this can be done DIY:

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The Best Automatic Feeder for Cats and Small Dogs

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Pets
Cats

Photo: Michael Hession

FYI

We’ve reviewed this guide and stand by our picks.

October 2022

If you often miss your pet’s mealtime, an automatic feeder can dispense dry kibble, wet food, or semi-moist food on a set schedule. These machines are not perfect. But after using the PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder daily for years, we still think it is the best for most people. It dispenses the right amount of kibble at the right time. It’s also the easiest to operate. And it’s affordable and dishwasher-safe. This feeder works well with most kibble shapes and sizes, too, and it keeps food from spoiling for longer than most other models.

Our pick

PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder

This saucer-shaped feeder has five segmented bowls that you can program to dispense kibble at any time of day. It's more accurate than other types of automatic feeder, and difficult for pets to knock over.

The PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder is the easiest automatic pet feeder to program. It can handle a wider variety of kibble shapes and sizes than the competition, and it keeps kibble and semi-moist food fresh for longer (though you shouldn't leave semi-moist or wet food out for more than a day). Since you can store up to only 4 cups of pet food in it (1 cup per bowl, while the fifth bowl remains exposed), it requires frequent refills, so it’s not ideal for longer trips away.

Also great

PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder

Holds up to 24 cups of kibble, so you’ll need to refill it only every few weeks. But because its accuracy varies greatly by kibble size, it's not good for pets on a diet.

If you don’t like the idea of refilling a pet feeder every day, opt for the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder. It has a 24-cup-capacity hopper for storing dry or semi-moist food, but it’s harder to program, and like most dispenser feeders, it doesn’t dispense a consistent amount of kibble bigger than ½ inch, which is bad if your pets are prone to overeating or if they need tightly controlled diets. It’s one of three feeders we tested that are designed to work with semi-moist food, but in our experience the kibble still got stale faster than we had hoped. It should run for about a year on a single set of batteries, or you can purchase a power cable for $14 (our main pick doesn’t offer that option). The bowl is stainless steel, and that piece, the bowl holder, the hopper lid, and the hopper are all dishwasher-safe.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder

Also great

PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder

Holds up to 24 cups of kibble, so you’ll need to refill it only every few weeks. But because its accuracy varies greatly by kibble size, it's not good for pets on a diet.

The research

Why you should trust us
Who this is for
How we picked
How we tested
Our pick: PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Also great: PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder
What about smart feeders?
The competition
Sources

Why you should trust us

I've written Wirecutter guides to several types of pet items, including automatic litter boxes, pet carriers, and dog boots, and I’ve cared for dogs, cats, fish, parakeets, and even the occasional caterpillar over the years. I once even created a pet food safety website for fun.

For this guide, I consulted Mary Emma Young who at the time was at the Pet Food Institute, a pet food manufacturer industry group, to learn how pet food is made and how to store it properly. I talked to Dr. Ernie Ward, a veterinarian and the founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, about how to create better feeding habits for pets. I learned about smart-feeder security from Jacob Ackerman, engineer at Pure Storage and leader at VMware User Group, and Michael Kaiser, president and chief executive officer at Defending Digital Campaigns. I asked sales associates at three pet stores (both independent shops and big-box chain locations) about what type of kibble worked best in an automatic feeder. Finally, I had my Maine coon mix Tanzie and my Chihuahua mix Sutton test which feeders were comfortable to eat out of and which ones were easy to break into.

Who this is for

Automatic feeders dispense a specified amount of food at a designated time so you don’t have to. They ensure that your pet's mealtime remains consistent if you’re stuck at the office late at night, if you want to silence your cat’s 5:00 a.m. “feed me now” cries, or if you’re traveling for a day or two and can’t find (or don’t want) a pet sitter who’ll stop by multiple times a day.

If your pet is on a restricted diet, you should consider only plate-style feeders, not dispensers.

But they’re not for every pet. Most models aren't suitable for dogs that need to eat more than a cup of food per serving, since they have limited kibble storage and bowls that are too small. In our tests, the designs with large-capacity dispensers frequently jammed when more than a cup or two of kibble released at once, because bigger kibble shapes were incompatible with the feeder or because the bowl backed up. Also, most feeders we tested were lightweight, so a larger dog could easily tip them over or break into them.

If your pet is on a restricted diet, you should consider only plate-style feeders, not dispensers. All the dispensers we tested were imprecise, overfeeding by just a teaspoon or two in some cases and delivering double the programmed amount in others—and even more frustratingly, they were inconsistent in how much over they went. “Even if you overfeed [your cat] by a few kibbles per day [per feeding], over a year that results in a pound of weight gain,” said Dr. Ernie Ward, who founded the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. A plate feeder like our main pick lets you portion out individual meals.

Ward said he didn’t think investing in an automatic feeder was the best way for most people to keep their pets slim. He told us he preferred a restricted diet that pet guardians could closely monitor, plus exercise. “If you can control the feeding, then you can help control the weight. I like where we’re headed with [pet food feeders], but we still haven’t quite locked it in yet.” (Ward has tested more than a dozen feeders in recent years and has found faults with them all. At one point he was on the advisory board for the Obe ProBowl, a smart pet food bowl, though he ended that relationship in January 2018. )

How we picked

Automatic pet food feeders come in a variety of designs, from large-capacity hopper feeders (rear) to plate-style feeders (front). Photo: Michael Hession

Look for an automatic feeder that’s easy to operate and clean, dispenses food accurately without jamming or making a mess, and can withstand sharp little teeth and claws.

You can find four main categories of pet feeders: traditional models that use gravity to pull kibble down into a bowl, programmable designs that use a timer to release a premeasured amount of kibble from a hopper, programmable plate feeders that store kibble in segmented bowls and rotate to expose one section at a scheduled time, and smart versions of the above that let you schedule feedings using a smartphone.

We axed traditional gravity-fed devices because they’re easy to tip over and break into, and don’t allow you to customize feeding times or amounts, instead just constantly releasing kibble until the bowl fills. So we stuck with programmable and smart feeders that were widely available and reasonably priced, had good long-term reviews, and offered a variety of features (such as quick-program buttons or a manual-feed option).

How we tested

Sutton loves a good meal. But the sound of kibble clanging into the PetSafe hopper model’s stainless steel bowl can be a little jarring at first. Photo: Michael Hession

While researching automatic pet food feeders, I found that most online reviewers had the same complaints about their machines: The feeders were hard to use, easy for their pets to break into, or prone to jamming on kibble. The experts I interviewed echoed those concerns, adding that feeding accuracy, food storage and freshness, and a backup power source were also important considerations. With those points in mind, I created the following testing criteria.

Ease of use: I followed the manufacturer’s instructions to assemble and program each feeder, and I noted how intuitive each system was.
Pet-proofing: After filling each feeder with kibble, I unleashed my cat and dog on them to see if they could easily steal kibble from the hopper or spout. I also tried breaking into them myself by using my fingers and various kitchen utensils.
Stability: I took a 10-pound bag of rice and banged it against each feeder to see if it would stay upright when attacked by a hungry pet.
Kibble compatibility and dispensing accuracy: I tested how easily and accurately each model dispensed pet food of different sizes, shapes, and moisture content. I tested four dry-kibble labels, two semi-moist varieties, and one wet-food brand: Meow Mix Original Choice, Merrick Backcountry Raw Infused, Pedigree Adult, Hill's Science Diet Adult Oral Care, Purina Moist & Meaty, Purina Beneful Healthy Weight, and Fancy Feast Medleys, respectively.
Ease of cleaning: I followed the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions and noted any challenges associated with cleaning each dispenser.
The fresh test: I added wet and semi-moist food to the dispensers that supported them and observed how fresh they kept the food over 24 hours.
Power outage protection: I connected dispensers that required a power adapter to a surge protector, and then turned off the surge protector to see which feeders retained their programmed settings.
Wi-Fi outage protection: For smart feeders, I turned off the Wi-Fi connection in my home to see if each one still dispensed the programmed feedings without a signal.

Our pick: PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder

Photo: Michael Hession

Our pick

PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder

The PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder is the easiest dispenser for humans to operate, and one of the hardest for pets to break into. It’s accurate, because it relies on you to portion the meals in advance rather than using an automated scoop or dispensing system. Its bowl has five segments that you can load with up to 1 cup of kibble each, and in our experience it kept semi-moist food fresher than most other dispensers we tested over 24 hours. It’s also battery powered (though it gives you no way to tell when the batteries are running low), and the bowl is dishwasher safe.

This programmable plate dispenser is a little larger than a Roomba, at 15 by 5 by 18 inches and a little less than 4 pounds. It’s easy to program, with a digital interface beneath its cover that lets you set the clock and timer, suspend the feeding schedule, or advance to the next bowl segment.

If you do plan to use the Petsafe 5-Meal for wet or semi-moist food, put only a day's worth of food in at a time.

The internal tray is divided into five segments that can hold up to 1 cup of dry kibble each. (In our tests, it managed to hold 1⅓ cups of Meow Mix Original Choice, but PetSafe warns that overloading the feeder could jam it.) The tray cover stores kibble in each segment, and a cutout lets your pet eat the food in the uncovered segment at their leisure. When the timer goes off, the tray rotates clockwise to reveal a new segment. (Although it has only five trays, you can program up to nine timers, which is useful if your pet needs to eat more frequently and you’re available to refill it twice a day.) The tray is dishwasher safe; the body isn't, however, so you should only wipe it with a damp cloth.

Unlike with the other tray-style feeders we tested, kibble doesn’t fall out of this PetSafe machine when it's shaken or tipped—but food can move between segments and fall beneath the tray. So when it’s time to open the feeder for refilling or cleaning, trapped kibble or even wet food can spill from under the bowl.

The PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder’s lid opens like a clamshell. Photo: Michael Hession

The program screen is hidden beneath the lid, so a pet or a small child can’t accidentally change the settings. Photo: Michael Hession

We tested each feeder with several types of kibble. Plate feeders work with wet, semi-moist, and canned food, not just dry kibble, so they're more flexible than dispensers. Photo: Michael Hession

The PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder’s lid opens like a clamshell. Photo: Michael Hession

While the PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder isn’t designed to work with semi-moist pet food (often served in pouches or found in the refrigerated section) or canned food, many owners do use it for that, so we tested the covered tray segments with Fancy Feast Medleys canned cat food and Purina Moist & Meaty semi-moist dog food. After 24 hours we saw no discernible difference in the canned food, while the semi-moist food was a bit crumblier.

If you do plan to use the Petsafe 5-Meal for wet or semi-moist food, put only a day's worth of food in at a time. “Leaving moist [or] semi-moist pet foods out for greater than 24 hours runs the risk of spoilage or bacterial contamination,” said Dr. Ernie Ward, a veterinarian with decades of experience. It could also grow mold, which can be toxic to pets. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Pet Food Institute both suggest promptly refrigerating unused pet food or throwing it out.

The PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder is one of the most affordable plate-style feeders we found, and it comes from a well-established pet-supply company with a proven track record of making reliable items. It comes with a one-year limited warranty, and currently this model has more than 10,000 reviews on Amazon with an overall rating of 4.4 stars out of five.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder’s tray doesn’t seal, so shaking it can cause quite a mess.

Photo: Michael Hession

This PetSafe feeder’s tray is made completely of plastic, a material that, as we note in “The Best Water Fountain for Cats and Dogs,” can harbor bacteria. It may be an issue if your cat is prone to chin acne.

Although the lid exposes only one tray segment at a time, determined pets could make it advance to the next segment ahead of schedule, though this problem is a rarity. As we mentioned above, it’s also possible for food to fall out of the bowl if the feeder is jostled while in use.

As a plate feeder, this model’s low profile makes it harder for pets to knock over. But in our tests it took little effort for our simulated pet (a 10-pound bag of rice) to scootch it across a floor—which suggests that a pet could possibly tip it if it’s near a ledge, like a staircase. We recommend keeping this feeder away from ledges and lips.

Like most plate-style feeders, the PetSafe 5-Meal feeder doesn’t run on a power adapter; it needs four D-cell batteries. While it’s nice knowing this plate feeder will work even if your power goes out, you’re still stuck reprogramming the machine when the batteries eventually die, and it has no low-battery indicator to warn you before that happens. (PetSafe says the batteries will last up to one year with regular use.(Wirecutter lead editor Signe Brewster, who only schedules one feeding a day, says the PetSafe 5-Meal has run on the same set of batteries for the last two years.) Another annoyance: It’s the only plate feeder we tested without a power switch, so if you want to pause the timer to clean the machine, you need to hold a button for seven seconds.

Also great: PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder

Photo: Michael Hession

Also great

PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder

Holds up to 24 cups of kibble, so you’ll need to refill it only every few weeks. But because its accuracy varies greatly by kibble size, it's not good for pets on a diet.

Dispenser feeders are great if you have a pet that doesn't need strict portion control, and if you like the idea of filling the dispenser only every few weeks. The PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder is the best set-and-forget dispenser feeder we found, though it still has major drawbacks. It’s easy to program (although slightly more difficult than our main pick, the PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder) and harder to tip over than most of the feeders we looked at. This model’s hopper holds more kibble than most, up to 24 cups, and since it's translucent, you can easily see how much is left. It keeps semi-moist food from spoiling for longer than the competition, too. It also comes with a stainless steel bowl, so it’s less likely to trap bacteria that could cause chin acne. Yet like all dispenser-style automatic feeders we tested, it often dispensed too much food, sometimes overshooting by ¼ cup to 1½ cups. The food hopper doesn’t have an airtight seal, so a determined pet could break in, and if you want to plug it into the wall rather than run it solely on batteries, you have to buy a separate power adapter (or the feeder model packaged with the adapter for about $14 more).

The Healthy Pet Simply Feed’s packaging says it’s designed for cats and small or medium dogs, but PetSafe told us any size dog could use it. However, it's not great for huge dogs or multiples—we found that programming a 4-cup feeding (the maximum amount) dispensed 5¼ cups of kibble, clogging the dispenser chute (and, of course, overfeeding the pet). At 9 by 19 by 12½ inches, the Healthy Pet Simply Feed has a similar footprint to the PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder but is much taller.

The control panel is located on the front top, where it's easy to access; several other machines we tested had theirs on the side or under a panel. The Healthy Pet Simply Feed also has a pause button, quick-start preprogrammed kibble measurements for a cat or dog, and the ability to program up to 12 feedings per day, more meals than most of the feeders we tested were capable of handling. It has a slow-feed mode that’ll dispense each serving of kibble over a 15-minute period to help prevent pets from eating too much too fast. You’ll also find a manual-feed option that immediately dispenses the next scheduled meal; it’s a handy feature, but you can use it only once per scheduled meal cycle, unless you go into the setup menu, which resets the counter.

The PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed Automatic Feeder’s control panel is located on the top for easier access. But the lid isn’t airtight and is liable to be pried open by a curious child or pet, so it might pinch them or break. Photo: Michael Hession

The Healthy Pet Simply Feed’s hopper can hold up to 24 cups of food, more than almost any other model, which makes it heavy and hard to tip over. You can easily tell the food level thanks to the translucent walls. Photo: Michael Hession

The inner chamber and conveyor belt transport pet food to the bowl. Photo: Michael Hession

This model was one of three feeders we tested that were designed to dispense semi-moist food (the PetSafe Smart Feed and the Gempet Automatic Pet Feeder were the other two), but since it didn’t make an airtight seal, it didn’t keep things perfectly fresh. We left Purina Moist & Meaty in the hopper for 24 hours and checked on its consistency every few hours, and although most of the pieces in the hopper remained pliant (like Play-Doh), those near the top dried out a little.

This PetSafe model’s hopper holds more kibble than most, up to 24 cups, and since it's translucent, you can easily see how much is left.

The Healthy Pet Simply Feed can handle a wider variety of kibble sizes than most hopper machines we tested. While it easily poured kibble less than ½ inch in diameter into the bowl, it jammed while dispensing our larger test kibbles, Hill's Science Diet Adult Oral Care (1 by ¾ inches) and Merrick Backcountry Raw Infused (⅜ by ⅞ inches).

Like the Petnet SmartFeeder and PetSafe Smart Feed, the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed comes with a stainless steel bowl. The bowl, the bowl holder, the hopper lid, and the hopper are dishwasher safe, while the conveyor requires hand washing. And don’t break the thin plastic loop PetSafe calls a bowl holder. Without the holder, the stainless steel bowl will slide around, said Wirecutter’s Tim Barribeau. If that does happen, just place a food mat underneath the bowl to keep it from moving.

Every dispenser feeder we tested, including the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed, was inaccurate. This system’s hopper funnels food onto the conveyor by volume. How much food it loads onto the conveyor basket varies depending on the kibble’s shape, size, and bulk density. Typically, it more accurately measured smaller and rounder kibble pieces than it did larger or tubular pieces. Likewise, on smaller measurements of kibble, like ¼ cup, it was more accurate than on larger measurements.

Programmed feeding (cups)	Actual amount dispensed (cups)
¼	¼
1	1¼
1½	2
4	5¼

The PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed had trouble accurately dispensing even the smallest of kibble shapes and sizes—in this case, Meow Mix Original.

The PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed uses four D-cell alkaline batteries, which should last about a year. The screen features a low-power indicator so pet owners can quickly track the battery life. But Wirecutter’s Tim Barribeau said this model’s low-power indicator isn’t reliable, and that he’s had to replace the batteries more frequently than what the screen suggests. “It was losing time on the clock despite the battery indicator being okay, but swapping the batteries fixed that,” he said. As a backup plan, you can buy a power adapter for $14 on Amazon, Chewy, or PetSafe’s site.

What about smart feeders?

You control smart pet food dispensers through an app on your mobile device. If the app fails, you’re out of luck, as there’s no website interface. Photo: Michael Hession

We tried two smart feeders, the Petnet SmartFeeder (now discontinued) and the PetSafe Smart Feed (now upgraded to a 2. 0 version that wasn’t available at the time of testing), which let you program and control your pet feeder over a smartphone app and a Wi-Fi connection. But they suffer from the same accuracy errors as their dumb counterparts, have confusing app designs, can't be controlled without an app, and are even more expensive—so they’re not right for most people yet.

One of our main concerns during our tests was how these things act if the Internet goes down. Both smart feeders released their next scheduled meals even without Wi-Fi in our tests, but neither model is designed to alert you via push notification, so you need to open the app to see if the feeder has an issue. In our experience, when the Wi-Fi came back, the dispensed meal showed in the Petnet app’s history page, but not in the PetSafe app—so if the Wi-Fi goes down, PetSafe Smart Feed owners could end up overfeeding their pets.

Smart pet feeders suffer from the same accuracy errors as their dumb counterparts, have confusing app designs, can't be controlled without an app, and are even more expensive.

While a missing notification isn’t the worst thing in the world, connected devices have other immediate issues: the reliability of their servers, feeders, and smartphone apps. PetSafe regularly updates its app, but it’s hard to know whether it will continue to do so two or three years down the line. You have no way to program this feeder without the app, so if support ever disappears in the future, it will become useless. We saw this prediction play out in 2020 when Petnet’s services went offline. The company briefly went back online in March, but then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and they closed their operations indefinitely. Currently, it appears the company no longer operates, but continues to sell its product without a functional app, which effectively makes the Petnet SmartFeeder useless.

We asked two cybersecurity experts for their take on these apps and whether they posed any security concerns—either for the regular feeding of your pet or for being drafted into a botnet. Michael Kaiser, president and chief executive officer at Defending Digital Campaigns, was heartened by the fact that the apps appeared to be getting frequent updates, saying, “At least you’re seeing activity into the security of your device.”

Jacob Ackerman, engineer at Pure Storage and leader at VMware User Group, drew a harder line: “It’s not just trusting the manufacturer—it’s your home, your power, your Internet, the device not failing, your mobile device, and their servers. There’s a lot of spots where a failure could prevent you from feeding your pet.” If you’re worried about the security of a smart pet feeder, we have some concrete steps you can take to make it more secure.

Experts like Kaiser and Ackerman suggest having a backup plan in the event of an emergency. Have a trusted friend check on your pet if you’re away, change the feeder’s batteries before taking a trip, or just leave some extra kibble in a traditional bowl if you know you’re pulling an all-nighter at work. “Just assume that some of these devices may have a flaw in it, and use accordingly, and everything will be okay,” Ackerman added.

The competition

2020 update

Programmable hopper feeders
The PetSafe Six Meal Feeder is the reinvented version of the PetSafe 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder. It holds up to six cups of dry or semi-moist food, provides a sleep mode, and has a low-battery indicator. But it’s twice as big as the PetSafe 5-Meal feeder and costs $35 more. We think the PetSafe Healthy Pet feeder is a better deal at about $110 because it holds up to 24 cups of dry or semi-moist kibble, and has programmable features, a low-battery light, and a stainless steel bowl.

Smart hopper feeders
We planned to test the Petnet SmartFeeder 2.0 in early 2020, but Petnet stopped offering support to its customers and its services went offline. The company briefly went back online in March, but then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and they closed their operations indefinitely. As of writing time, Petnet told its customers that “we are still working diligently to restore full capabilities to our user experience for our devices,” and their “SmartFeeders should now be operating with at least some partial app functionality.” We don’t feel comfortable reevaluating a product line that isn’t reliable for our readers and their pets.

2018 testing

Programmable plate feeders
The Gempet (Jempet) Automatic Pet Feeder (no longer available) is easy to program and has a voice-recording feature so you can call your pet to mealtimes—but it usually costs almost twice as much as our pick, and the control panel isn’t as intuitive. This model is the only plate feeder in our test group that uses a power cord with a battery backup.

The Qpets Automatic Pet Feeder also has a voice recorder, as well as six segmented bowls, one more than the Gempet and PetSafe plate feeders. You can set the timer only on the hour, however, so it's not as flexible as the Gempet and PetSafe models. The interface also isn't as intuitive as that of other plate feeders, which potentially means spending more time troubleshooting this model. And if the battery dies or the feeder is turned off, the settings are wiped out and you have to reprogram it.

Programmable hopper feeders

The Arf Pets Automatic Pet Food Dispenser looks like a design created by a single manufacturer and rebranded and sold by several companies. It’s hard to determine the long-term reliability and the quality of customer service with these machines, since the sellers are often smaller companies that distribute only through Amazon and don’t have a history of customer care that we can look to. This feeder’s instruction manual is unclear, but once you figure out the control panel’s one quirk (it enters sleep mode quickly), it’s easy to operate. This design has a smaller and slimmer profile than all of the other dispenser feeders we tested, but that also means a cat or dog could easily knock it on its side, and larger kibble shapes could clog up the machine. It comes with a power cord and accepts three D batteries as a backup. The plastic bowl is smaller than those of most feeders we tested, and none of its parts are dishwasher safe.

The Cat Mate C3000 Automatic Dry Food Pet Feeder is the cheapest dispenser feeder we tested, but we can’t recommend it because it’s extremely light and easy to knock over, with no way of securing the storage container to the base. (The manufacturer even recommends securing the feeder to a wooden board with screws to keep it stable.) If you try to pick it up by the storage unit rather than the base, it’ll disconnect, and kibble will spill out. And when it dispenses more than ½ cup of kibble, the plastic bowl clogs.

Smart hopper feeders

The Petnet SmartFeeder (now discontinued) seemed promising with its modern design and good-looking app. But in our tests it didn’t work well with odd kibble shapes and was inaccurate at dispensing even the simplest of shapes—in some cases, it dispensed twice as much as it was supposed to. The company is now out of business.

The PetSafe Smart Feed has the same conveyor design as the PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed, but is substantially more expensive for limited added functionality. It has the same feeding-inaccuracy issues, and it costs $40 more than the Healthy Pet Simply Feed for the Wi-Fi connectivity, yet the app’s unintuitive design and suspect reliability are problems (as we outline in the What about smart feeders? section).

Sources

Jacob Ackerman, chief technology officer, SkyLink Data Centers, phone interview, December 4, 2017
Kimberly Alt, writer, Canine Journal, email interview, November 30, 2017
Sarah Beene, category manager for water and feed solutions, PetSafe, email interview, February 13, 2018
Michael Kaiser, executive director, National Cyber Security Alliance, phone interview, December 7, 2017
Jillian Spitz, spokesperson, PetSafe, email interview, December 8, 2017
Ernie Ward, DVM, founder, Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, phone interview, December 6, 2017
Mary Emma Young, director of communications, Pet Food Institute, email interview, December 26, 2017

About your guide

Kaitlyn Wells

Kaitlyn Wells is a senior staff writer who advocates for greater work flexibility by showing you how to work smarter remotely without losing yourself. Previously, she covered pets and style for Wirecutter. She's never met a pet she didn’t like, although she can’t say the same thing about productivity apps. Her first picture book, A Family Looks Like Love, follows a pup who learns that love, rather than how you look, is what makes a family.

Goods, automatic feeders for dogs, cats and other pets

For home and recreation

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Material

EVA, ABS

Manufacturer

ANYSMART Bradex Hoison Miteless Sitetek

Display

LCD Doesn't matter

Length cm

16 26 28 39

Width, cm

22 24 31 32 37

Country

Italy China USA

Fast delivery

Yes

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Product code: 112980

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Scratching post with brush CAT PLEASURE

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Product code: 211956

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Automatic feeder for fry.

Eleventh Story of the Inventing the Future Project | EDUCATION

02.03.2023 16:59

Tatyana Titova

Story Inventing the Future

Andrey Kuzyakin, a 9th grade student of school No. 93 in Perm, became the eleventh hero of the Inventing the Future project. The young man created a prototype apparatus for feeding young fish. In February 2023, he, among 15 schoolchildren of the Perm Territory, received the “Geniuses of the Kama Region” award for personal achievements in the field of scientific and technical creativity.

Andrey's mentor was his father, a teacher of additional education and head of the Bio- and Nanoquantums of the Quantorium Photonics children's technopark Dmitry Kuzyakin. Read the story of Andrey's invention and his father's advice on raising inventors at the link: perm.aif.ru/izobretaembuduschee/#12.

Automatic feeder for fry

Andrey Kuzyakin

The prototype of the device is already ready. But it needs to be improved, namely, the replacement of a cardboard case with a case made of plexiglass or plastic. Andrew is working on it now.

Andrey is currently working on several projects at once.

His father, Dmitry Kuzyakin, helps the student to implement projects.

Automatic feeder for fry

Andrey Kuzyakin

The prototype of the device is already ready. But it needs to be improved, namely, the replacement of a cardboard case with a case made of plexiglass or plastic. Andrew is working on it now.

Andrey is currently working on several projects at once.

His father, Dmitry Kuzyakin, helps the student to implement projects.

AiFunny inventors project

A schoolgirl from Perm created a prototype milking machine for rabbits
inventors of the future.
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