Cat Mate C500 Automatic Pet Feeder Cat or Small Dog Bowl with Digital Timer For Wet or Dry Pet Food, 5 Meal Carousel, up to 330g in each, with Twin Ice Packs for Food Freshness

Product Information

The cat's head kind goes into the compartment when they eat, and their whiskers will smush against the sides of the compartment. Although the compartments are very easy to wash, there's a bit of a design flaw - the bottom edges of the compartments are too right-angled and food gets pushed up to the edges and is hard for the cats to get at. It would be better if the compartments were designed with scooped edges. So the cats end up eating as much as they can get to, and then literally have to walk around the unit to eat more, then walk around the unit again to eat more - so they have to "work" for their food. If they don't want to work so hard, there ends up being uneaten food at the edges.

While we've pointed out some of the possible flaws here, it's definitely worth noting that the overall reaction to the Cat Mate C500 is overwhelmingly positive. Should you buy the Cat Mate C500? Before using this, I was getting up every 2 hours during the night to feed may 16 year old cat who has Kidney Disease. Now, I can set 4 feedings and he is good overnight and I get to sleep! :) Material-Plastic. Five food compartments will serve up to five meals, one initial feed and four further timed feeds while you are away. Each holds 11. 5 ounces wet food. Although a 5 day feeder, the carousel revolves underneath a lid that has an opening, and as there are only 5 compartments 1 meal is available as soon as the feeder is placed on the ground, so really its only 4 away days. Best feeder option for wet food– There aren’t many options for automatic feeders that can use wet food and this one is clearly the top of the list.Size of compartments. My beagle eats 1/2 cup of dry food each meal. This is the perfect size for that. You could probably fit 3/4 cup of dry food in there. Not sure about anything more than that. Cat gets half a can (size of the smaller tuna cans) and there is plenty of room in it - non issue. It has a close-fitting lid to help keep things fresh. It’s also fully pet-proof, but you could also fasten it to a wooden board for extra stability, in case your four-legged friends bump into it in their haste to arrive at their favourite food dish!

Initially, the cats are startled by the unit moving, and are, of course, curious cats but not sure what to do with the thing. If they don't get it, just kind of put their face by the food compartment and they'll realize it's food and eat up. I can't believe I'm getting this worked up over an automatic pet feeder. Maybe something should be changed about the scheduling if some people are having this hard of a time. Or maybe they just need to work on their reading and understanding skills. The Cat Mate C500 runs on 3 AA batteries, but unfortunately batteries are not included. There is no option to plug the feeder into the wall.Depending on use, quality alkaline batteries should last about 12 months. A low battery indicator will alert you when it’s time to change batteries. Rechargeable and 1.5 v lithium batteries can be used but the low battery indicator will only work correctly with standard alkaline batteries. Other than the digital timer the Cat Mate C500 doesn’t really have any high tech features, but it doesn’t really need them. So there’s less to go wrong with it. Cleaning/Maintenance/Care The Cat Mate C500 is easy pretty easy to set up, but some owners get confused at first. So you may experience a slight learning curve when programing it the first time. I think some of this stems from there being 5 storage compartments, but you’re only able to schedule 4 feedings per day. The Cat Mate 500 is a carousel of delights for your cat. It utilizes a sectioned-off food dish, with space for five individual portions, which sits on a rotating mechanism underneath. When activated, the mechanism turns, revealing the next portion through the wedge-shaped hole on top. The observant among you will notice that this only actually leaves room for four covered portions, so the first feed of five has to be an immediate one.

This unit is easy to clean. The food compartment tray is removable and the lid and bowl are dishwasher safe. The base of the unit can be cleaned with a damp cloth Safety When not in use you can turn the feeder off to save battery life and still keep the stored schedule. If you’re not going to use it for longer periods it is recommended to remove the batteries. So another example based on my timing above: if you enter all the times mentioned above and then first feed your pet at 10am, the next time it will rotate is NOT 6:30am but 4pm because that's the next time that will occur during the day because that's just how time works. They're like alarms you set on your phone.The biggest issue I had was that I really struggled to get this thing to work. I am not one for reading instructions, however even I had to admit defeat and try and get to grips with the manual. That was a complete waste of time. Thankfully, I found a Spanish YouTuber who thoughtfully uploaded the basics onto a 'how-to' guide. I'm guessing that she found the instruction manual as useful as I did as it was rather basic on how to program the damn thing. Cat Proof– It doesn’t take much for most cats to break into a feeder but this one is as cat proof as they get. La Cat Mate C500 est un véritable atout pour tout propriétaire de chat ou de petit chien. Cette mangeoire automatique a grandement amélioré la vie de mon animal de compagnie et la mienne. Voici pourquoi je la recommande vivement :

Easy-to-use digital timer allows you to programme up to four individual mealtimes with one bowl available immediately. The price of this automatic cat feeder seems like a good value compared to other models with similar features. It costs more than a basic gravity feeder but less than feeders including more advanced smart WIFI and camera features. Also, those other feeder types can’t use wet cat food so it has them beat. If you’re able to use this feeder to reduce the number of times a cat sitter comes it will probably pay for itself after one weekend. Missed Feedings– If for some reason your pet doesn’t eat a meal before it advances to the next feeding, your cat will miss that feeding.Designed to be tamper resistant to pets, the C500 may be easily fastened to a wooden board for extra stability, if required. It's a bit pointless having the always open segment, which makes it a 4 stage feeder instead of 5, but being able to do 4 different days worth of feeds at 1 specific time of the day is almost unmatched in this sort of product category.