HoneyGuaridan 3.5L Automatic Cat Feeder for Two Cats, Food Dispenser with Stainless Steel Bowl,Timed Cat Feeder Programmable 1-6 Meals Control, Dual Power Supply,10s Meal Call Black

I've been very happy with this automatic feeder. It has a lot of well thought out features for the price. It handles my cat's kibble with no problem. I like that I can record a message because I call my cats to eat. So now even when I'm not home, I know that they are getting fed. I also liked how granular the portions are. There are 25 different levels of portions. I have another feeder and it only has four levels. That feeder either feeds too much, or too little. But this one I can set exactly to what I need. I also like that it has a backup battery in case the power goes out while I'm gone. It only took a few minutes to set up and it holds quite a bit of food. I haven't really found a downside yet!

I originally bought this feeder for our 8 feral cats because I was planning to be away from the house for up to a week. I needed a large capacity hopper and this was about the largest one I could find. I’m happy to say that this feeder exceeded my needs and expectations.It just holds a complete 6.3 pound bag of cat food. I’ve set it to discharge 6 times a day, with a pause from 9PM to 6AM. That schedule was set as an attempt to avoid feeding the raccoons that come around most nights, and for the most part, that logic has worked.I set this under a picnic table with a plastic tablecloth so that the feeder can stay out of the direct rain. It’s close enough to an electrical outlet that I could plug it in and then use the battery capability as a backup. I decided, however, to use only the batteries and not plug it in. I put it out in early September 2021. The batteries finally died on February 5th. That’s 5 full months on battery power alone. What a pleasant surprise that was!The first problem I ran into was those previously mentioned raccoons. Three of them came around after a couple of nights and knocked the feeder over, dislodging the top and exposing all those goodies for them to devour completely. BUMMER!I then tried putting a weight on top of the hopper, thinking that they wouldn’t be strong enough to dislodge that and steal the food again. WRONG. They are both clever and strong. Next I tried duct taping the top on. Another failure on my part. They just chewed right through the duct tape and feasted on the kibbles again. Twice they actually pushed the spring loaded button that retracts the pin holding the top in place right into the hopper! Man, are they persistent. But not as persistent as me…….I found a piece of thin metal and duct taped that over the spring loaded button. I also duct taped all four sides of the top onto the hopper. Then I bungeed the whole machine to the picnic table supports so the little rascals couldn’t move it or tip it over.SUCCESS!!!After a few night of unsuccessfully chewing the duct tape in their attempts to get to the treasures inside, they finally gave up. I won. They lost.The flexibility in setting the individual portion sizes and discharge times are great. Some reviews have commented that there is no “back” button for either of these settings, and that is correct. It’s not all that hard to accidentally go past the setting you desired, but it’s also not that hard to hold the button down to quickly cycle through the settings to get back to where you wanted to be again. No big deal to me.In summary, I love this helpful machine. And so do my cats/kittens. I found the battery life to be such that I wouldn’t hesitate to say you don’t need to plug this feeder into house power. 5 months on a single set of 4 batteries is a pretty long time.I set a voice recording (you DO NEED to do this, even if you chose to record silence instead of your voice) before the feeder will work. A number of reviews claim the feeder was junk and never discharged anything, only to find that they needed to record some kind of message first. Be forewarned.UPDATE: Another 5.5 months on the second set of batteries. It looks like this should be the expected life of the 4 C cells it holds.April 2023. After 14 months of reliable service, the machine just stopped feeding ANYTHING.Why? After about 4 months of flawless service I switched the brand of feed over to Kit ‘n Kaboodles. The cats all liked this food better than the store brand I had initially used, but the kibble size is larger. Unfortunately. The larger kibble sometimes resulted in jamming of the plastic feeder mechanism. Tipping the unit upside down then back up usually freed the jam but sometimes I had to remove all the food, then manually operate the feeder a few times before refilling it.BUT here’s the problem. The jamming on the larger kibble has eventually caused the plastic fins on the feed rotor to break off. There are a number of these fins on the rotor so the feeder had been able to continue dispensing some food even though it was slowly destructing. This week (April 2023), when it stopped dispensing completely I took it apart and found that all of those plastic fins were gone. The Amazon website for Honeyguardian does show a replacement rotor assembly for under $10 so I ordered that, believing that my cat food feeder could be brought back to life again.It appears that I am wrong about that. The only rotor design shown does have those plastic fins that I had broken off, but it does NOT have the extension of the rotor piece required to engage with the drive motor. As a result, THE REPLACEMENT ROTOR DOES NOT ROTATE, AND CANNOT FEED.Honeyguardian does NOT have a website and the only places that I could find a replacement rotor assembly all look like the one from Amazon. There are a few reviews on this replacement rotor that all say the same thing that I’ve said here, so I’m not alone.Lesson? Pay attention to the kibble size. Binding on too large a kibble will cost you $80.

TL;DR: Works as advertised, 12-month warranty, good programming options. Even more options might be nice, compartment could be larger for a large pet, and the dispenser hole is probably not cat-paw-proof for a really motivated cat. I will update this if the feeder quits working - otherwise, it seems like a great choice for my needs, as detailed below.I've used automatic feeders for a number of years, and I am thrilled that the available options have finally increased quite a bit! Of course, many of them are fairly cheap, so they are hit-or-miss in terms of how long they will continue to work (the Pet Safe one seems to be the best bet for reliability, but is less flexible in terms of feeding very small portions). I have another cheap model that has been working for several years to feed one of my cats; one prior to that quit after a few months, while another of that same model worked for a couple of years (all models that are no longer available). One of my cats has been using an automatic feeder for a few years for weight control, while the other used to semi-free-feed out of a puzzle ball, but he's made it clear that he no longer wants to do that. He needs small frequent meals to keep his stomach happy, so an automatic feeder is a perfect solution to keep him fed overnight and while I'm at work.I selected this feeder because 1) it has a 12-month warranty and 2) it can feed fairly small portions up to 6 times per day. I had a few reservations about the fact that this is a new product with few reviews, but hopefully the warranty will suffice for any problems. I would prefer something even more flexible (my old feeder can dispense a teaspoon at a time if you want, multiple times per day), which is why I gave this only 4 stars, but this is sufficient for my cat. One portion is about 1/12th of a cup (maybe a bit more) with my cat food, so I'll feed him 1 portion every 4 hours, and 1-2 of those will be double portions to add up to about 2/3 cup. It's easy to try a few manual feedings with the machine to measure how much is dispensed with each portion for your type of food - then watch your pet's weight to make sure the amount they're getting is right for them.The feeder is only 11.75" tall (shorter than advertised, I think), and I was happy to find that it fits perfectly inside the cage I'd already built! My cat Merlin enters the cage through a cat door that is tuned to his microchip, which keeps the other (piggy) cat, Rea, out. Rea is fed out in the open room with her respective food bot, because she is food-dominant and Merlin won't poach her food. Merlin can then eat in peace inside his food cage. It's not a cheap setup (now 2 food bots + smart door), but well worth it to ensure my cats are both healthy weights (and no "hunger pukes") without me having to manually feed them every few hours.The feeder was pretty straightforward to set up once you get the hang of it, though it would be nice if it timed out (from "set" mode) less quickly while you are reading the instructions for the next step. The times are changed with +/- buttons, so adjusting the clock for Daylight Savings will be easy. The motor is audible when it runs, but it's not loud - the food falling onto the metal bowl is much louder. You can record a message if you want, but trust me, your pet will very quickly learn to go running over when the motor starts (and until they learn that, food hitting a bowl is a universal signal for "meal time!"). I like the stainless steel bowl (it is loud, but you can take it out and use only the plastic base if you prefer) and the removable compartment that stores the food. I also really appreciate that it doesn't forget any of your settings if you unplug it to move it to a new spot after painstakingly setting it up - even without batteries in it. I haven't tried it with batteries yet, but assuming it works properly, the battery backup should ensure the pet is still fed if the power is out (or will allow you to use the feeder away from an outlet or with a pet that would chew the cord). The provided power cord is pretty short, so you might need an extension cord depending on your setup. The "off" switch on the bottom will allow you to shut off the feeder if it's not needed for extended periods, without having to reprogram.One potential problem is whether your cat will learn how to reach up the dispenser and pull out extra food. Piggy Rea learned to do that with her other food bot and quickly gained a lot of weight, which is why her bot now lives on the top closet shelf with a long chute (gift wrap tube) to dispense her food! Merlin is not nearly food-motivated enough to put in the effort to steal extra food, but if I left this feeder out for Rea, I bet she would figure it out. She'd have to lie on her side and contort herself to get a paw in there, but she would happily do that for extra snacks. So be prepared to take extra measures to guard against that if your cat is really greedy (put it up out of reach, or possibly add something to reduce the size of the hole). I have yet to see a feeder that is truly impervious to a cat paw going up the spout, unfortunately. Otherwise, and assuming no mechanical failure, it seems like this feeder will be a good fit for my needs.

I recently purchased the HoneyGuaridan 3.5L Automatic Cat Feeder, and it has completely transformed mealtime for my cats. Before using this feeder, my cats would constantly fight over food, creating a stressful feeding routine. Even though we have separate bowls and place them in different rooms, they still continue to fight over food. Now, with the ability to schedule multiple feedings throughout the day and control portion sizes, each cat gets their fair share without any drama.The settings are incredibly easy to customize, allowing me to disperse food at set intervals, which helps prevent overeating and food aggression. The portion control feature is perfect for maintaining a healthy diet, and I love that I can ensure my cats get just the right amount of food at the right time—even when I’m not home.If you have multiple cats or a pet with specific feeding needs, this feeder is a must-have. It’s reliable, easy to set up, and most importantly, keeps the peace at mealtime. Highly recommend!