PETLIBRO RFID Automatic Pet Feeder - Wi-Fi Control, 3L Capacity, Tag Activated Dispensing for Cats & Dogs

This is the second identical feeder purchased for a two-cat household. The first one was purchased because the 12 year old resident cat had inherited a two year old cat to help with his anxiety. :) The resident cat had a happy life of free feeding for 12 years until the spunky, two year old came in and started eating all the food and gaining some intense weight. The vet advised both cats to be put on a timed feeding, twice a day. The old man cat struggled with this SIGNIFICANTLY, as did the humans in the house trying to accommodate both cats - one now on a diet and the other being hungry and struggling with a lifestyle change. This type of feeder was proposed, purchased and LOVED. It worked great for the older cat so he could eat whenever he wanted. Because the cats are now on different cat foods, specific to their needs, we purchased another one of these feeders and all are living in perfect harmony - humans and cats alike!The price seems a little high at first, but it is definitely a life saver! We love knowing that no other animals can eat the cats food, and they can safely have their own diets without worrying about the other getting the food. The feeders need to be connected to wifi and paired with an app on a smart phone/tablet. From that app, the feeding schedule and amounts can be adjusted. That app also can control if a person wanted to manually add a feeding, though this can also be done from the feeder directly as well. Each cat will need to wear a relatively large "bell" type attachment to their collar. There is an included collar with it, or it can be removed and added to the cat's existing collar if they wear one. We were worried about the cats with the attachment, but they did just fine. It did take the older cat a little getting used to how to "operate" his feeder, but he quickly caught on. He also has EXTREME anxiety, but this was surprisingly good for him! There is a battery backup option in case you're going out of town or something and want to ensure the feeders will work in the event of a power outage. The electricity was recently out for 41 hours in a massive snow storm (Wisconsin) and the feeders did work during that time but since we were home with the cats, we just manually fed them and did not try the battery option yet. The internet lines were damaged so without wifi, the feeders have been randomly dispersing food, which is fine because then you know the cats will at least have food. :)One thing that was a little getting used to at first was forcing the fractions part of the human brain to operate in twelfths. Each feeding is measured in twelfths, so if your cat is on a specific amount, be prepared to know those fractions! For the free feeding cat, it doesn't really matter how much he gets since he self regulates.My parents struggled a bit with understanding the instructions to get the feeders connected to the internet and set up, but I was ok with them, so that may be something to keep in mind if a person isn't overly tech savvy.I have recommended this item to others and would purchase again if needed! It is such a relief to know your cats (or any small animal that can wear a collar since the bowl area may be too small for a large dog) will always have reliable access to food!

I had high hopes but this feeder just has a lot of problems. The parts don't fit together very tightly for one. The feeder, bowl, and rfid 'mat' are all held together by gravity. It wouldn't surprise me if a cat pushes the feeder and is able to get the bowl away from the main part, preventing the lid from providing any protection. The side guards take practically zero force to remove and the other cat removes them daily. The seal on the lid is pointless because the lid isn't pushed down hard enough for it to make contact. The silicone hinge in the lid adds too much play to the system, also not helping with sealing. The ONLY thing holding the front of the lid down is a hook at the very front center that is too short, so it overlaps maybe 0.5mm with the slot it fits in. With how much play the silicone hinge adds, it is very easy for a cat to just pull this open. The way the motor connects to the lid means the lid takes very little force to open. A cat can easily pull this open. The attached pictures show the result of this, with the other cat easily opening the feeder after a few days of learning. The feeder does not drop food when shoved around, but the portions are bigger than other petlibro auto feeders so it's harder to dose food for cats precisely enough. The rfid mat means that when another cat bullies the correct cat for food and they just stand aside, the lid will stay open. The primary cat needs to completely walk away to prevent this. But even when that does happen, the IR sensor that detects that a cat is in front of the feeders keeps the lid open for 10 seconds even though you set the lid timeout to the minimum of 1 second. So other cats can definitely steal a good bit of food in that time. The lid moves very slowly, even when set to max speed. The tag is kinda obtrusive and makes a lot of noise on the included collar. The capacitive touch buttons trigger randomly on their own.It's just a bad design. You aren't getting a Sureflap quality rfid feeder with autofeeding here.Edit: Dropping to one star because of a particularly egregious issue. The food hopper for this feeder is completely opaque, so you need to rely on the sensors that tell you if there is low food or you need to open it up often to check for yourself. Turns out the sensor is useless and doesn't trigger as soon as the "windows" in the hopper are uncovered. In fact, once this feeder tells you to add food, there are often anywhere between 0 and 5 portions (portions, not meals) left. This is such a basic necessity but even this is screwed up.

I went out on a limb and bought this feeder. One of my cats was diagnosed with IBD and has to eat prescription food. Now this guy is like a little vacuum if there is food he will find it and eat it. Both of my cats were used to food being out all the time. So my guy on the non prescription food was getting upset that his food couldn’t be out all the time. Meanwhile, the one on prescription food would play cat games and inevitably get to the non prescription food. Enter this feeder.The good:I love that it simply does its job. It only allows my nonprescription food boy to get his food anytime he wants it. I can set food times and the lid keeps his food fresh.The Meh:If your cat isn’t used to wearing a collar or tag I could see how they may have trouble with the tag. My guys have always worn collars since before I adopted them. The sensor tag for the feeder isn’t much bigger than a normal pet tag and is a little lighter. It is about the size of a quarter at the biggest point. My guy doesn’t have any issue but I could see how it could be one.My guy was very picky about standing on the sensor area. He wouldn’t stand on it until I put a dish drying mat over it.The ugly:My guy normally eats all the food from the front of the bowl so there are frequent blockages like twice a day. It’s not a huge deal since I can easily access the bowl, but still annoying.I would still recommend buying this. It has made life so much easier. I don’t have to worry about my little guy’s health as much. There are a couple things that aren’t perfect with this product but at its price point and the amount of weight it has lifted off my shoulders I would buy it again.