HoneyGuaridan A26 Automatic Pet Feeder Food Dispenser - Removable Food Container, Portion Control & Voice Recording - Timer Programmable 6-Meal for Dogs & Cats & Small Animals - Double Power Optional

Not only is this very cute and modern-looking, but it actually works. So far the food has not failed to be distributed, and our one cat who used to eat too quickly and get sick appears to have slowed down since we got this feeder. The former automatic feeder we had by another vendor often let the food loose but didn't actually push it into the bowl, leaving the cats with no way to get at it.There are a few niggling issues which, while not deal-breakers, are notable. The first is that it's very hard to tell at a glance whether the hopper needs to be refilled. It is possible to tell if I get close in bright light, but just looking at it from across the room and/or in low light, it might as well be opaque. Another is hopper size. Our former auto-feeder had a clear hopper that held nearly a full medium-sized bag of food. This one only holds about a third of a small bag. Finally, the instructions are in grams. All arguments about how backwards it is to still be using Imperial measures and measuring in weight vs volume aside, it would have been helpful to have an equivalent in cups. I got around this by manually filling the bowl to what looked like a reasonable portion and counting the clicks.I haven't yet used the recording option, though I might when I have to travel. There are a lot of other nice touches, like the anti-jamming feature. I would definitely buy this again or its larger sibling, if such became available.

Excellent purchase, 10/10 would buy again with some adjustments.Pros:* all the options for timing (6 timeslots available) and meal size (from 1 to 99)* helpful and clear instructions for set up - there is even a sticker on the back that shows how big the food pellet can be.* successfully redirects hungry meows (except when it's time for wet food)* The top lid is a twist lock and the storage portion cannot be disconnected in any way, so knocking over the whole thing will not result in a giant spill.Cons:* clock will fall out of sync after a while. I've had this 4 months now and the clock is about 10 minutes fast. Not a deal breaker but just so potential buyers are aware.* not fully cat proof. My cats figured out recently that they could stick a paw up the chute to get food to drop out. I attached a picture to show what I did to solve that particular problem - it involved a half food container and both packing and duct tape. So far they have not been able to get through.* too lightweight and loose components. If you knock it around, small amounts of food will drop through. Even if filled up all the way, it is too easy for my cats to move it around in their attempts to knock food out of it.However, overall this has proven to be a much better alternative for my cats than free eating and mealtimes linked to human's presence.

This feeder has been really great to help my overweight cat lose weight. The controls can be a bit confusing, but if you read the directions carefully it's not too hard to figure out. I will also say, don't throw away the directions! It allows you to program up to 6 meals a day, you just say what time and how much. You set the amount by number of "grids". One grid equals approximately 1/2 tablespoon, which is the smallest size meal you can feed. My cat gets 1/3 cup of food per day, which I measured out as 11 grids. (You can just press one of the buttons to have the feeder deliver one "grid." I did this repeatedly, filling up my cat's food measuring cup each time, until it filled to the level that I feed her.) I divided this up roughly equally into 6 meals so my cat can eat small meals throughout the day instead of gorging herself and then vomiting like she usually does. There is a function where you can record your voice and it will play it before dispensing the meal to call the cat over, but I opted not to do this. The feeder is kind of loud when it goes off, so my cat always knows immediately when it's meal time and runs to the feeder, so I didn't see any point in doing the recording. In fact, the noise startled me the first few times I heard it. My only other complaints are the adapter on the wall plug has a very bright blue LED light, it would be nice if it had a removable bowl so I could wash it, and it would be nice if the chamber that holds the food were more airtight to keep the food fresher. I don't feel any of these shortcomings warrant giving it less than 5 stars though, I think it works perfectly and the flaws are minor.

**UPDATE 25 April 2017**After honeyguardian emailed me asking me to give this product another shot I did. I can happily say this feeder is pretty awesome! I may have went overboard with my previous review however the customer service was great when they contacted me! The feeder itself is amazing and it's cat proof so he can't stick his paw in there and get more food! Thank you honeyguariden again for the great product!**Below is my old review just so you know how disgruntled I was, but this is proof that their customer service is amazing**If I could rate this lower I would. I was extremely excited about this product, but soon came to realize that this is just a scam. First off there is no contact information to get in touch with this company. No number to call no email address to send to. Second this product came to me defective. This product only runs on D batteries. How I know this is because when I went to plug the power cord into the pet feeder the pet feeder didn't turn on at all. So I went to target and got some batteries. As soon as I got home to install the batteries came to find out that this pet feeder wasn't working at all even with the batteries in. So I am now returning it and getting my money back. I needed this feeder because I will be gone for military reasons and needed my cat to be fed. Now I am screwed and have to figure out a way for someone to come over to my house and feed my cat. Thanks for nothing HoneyGuaridan. Sorry for the rant but I am extremely disappointed.

I've been using this petfeeder for 5 years now, and it's still really well working. I unplugged it many times, and it works perfectly.The only thing is the white color becomes yellow with time, but it does not affect the functionning.I'm really happy with this product!

TLDR; Convenient for keeping pets fed throughout day, but the setup experience felt like I was getting my teeth pulled, luckily you can do it once and leave it forever.Fave feature: Option to use 3 "D" batteries as well as wall plug, good incase of power outages.The feel of this product is cheap. Thin plastic makes it feel like one bad drop would be the end of its life.The way that the lid closes and locks is great, cats and dogs will not be able to open it unless they break the lid.Being able to record a sound whenever food is about to come out is great, personally we set it up with a sound our cat recognizes whenever he eats. Becomes more of a novelty once your pet clues in to where the food comes from.Now, actually setting things up with the buttons is a little ridiculous. Most buttons do not function as main buttons but only work as subfunctions, meaning you need to press and hold something else to use them. Now following the manual it guides you through setting up the main clock and then setting up your 1st meal (total of 6 presets) time and the portion size (referred to interchangeably in the manual as appetite and portion size, on a scale of 1 to 99). and finishes this setup by telling you to "lock" the preset.Now if you are like me, you want to test this bad boy now rather than wait and see if it fails in the morning. and this is where i realized how silly things are on this device. I had the time setup wrong (turns out it's a 24hr clock but i treated it as a 12hr clock), and it turns out if you keep reading the manual there is another section that says that your preset meals must be set to "unlocked" for them to work.One simple cheap thing that the manufacturing can do to help is remake the instruction manual with clearer steps and more information.

This was fairly easy to setup and program, still not sure whether it feeds enough or too much for my 2 cats but will continue to experiment.Seems to be a solid design, it’s been a few days and the cats haven’t knocked it over yet or figured out how to open it.Edit:I just purchased and set up my second feeder, I was so happy to see that this feeder was back in stock after having a slightly different style for a while (I didn’t like the look of the other one). The newest one was just as easy to set up, however it is no longer a shiny plastic but rather a matte textured plastic which will definitely be harder to clean. It does however come with a bowl for the feeding area (something the first one didn’t have) that will make cleaning a bit easier (being able to remove it to wash in the sink rather than wiping down the feeder.Also if anyone is interested rather than feeding based on the package directions (my cats we’re getting really fat) I started feeding based on their caloric requirements (based on their perfect weight). It can be difficult to find calories on the bag of cat food itself, but it should be listed online. Based on that I was able to determine how much food they need per day and adjust the feeder to feed the appropriate amount of food per day in 4 intervals. So they don’t eat it all at once and are fed regularly throughout the day (even when I’m not around)

This product is working quite well. We keep a cat each winter for a friend who goes away. The cat is lovely, but always shows up a bit heavy and we work to try to trim her up. The feeder allows me to parcel out several meals during the day at predetermined times so she doesn't bug me all the time (particularly in the morning). I could take the trouble to program the voice thing, but, really, she just quickly learned the sound of the machine when it dispenses, so I didn't bother. The only reason I didn't give it all the Stars is that the operating instructions are not great (as is so often the case with stuff from China). However, there are a couple of videos I found on YouTube that really helped me negotiate the setting up of the machine.

We got two feeds and they work very well. After a few days our cats got used to it, they would wait around the feeder 1/2 hour before the meal times. It helps us tremedously when we are away for a couple of days, one of the cats is not binge eating. Only that one feeder has red light flashing after a few months. We initially thought it was because the battery low, but after changing betteries, testing batteries, it turns out it is the feeder. It still works but the red light kept flashing, while the other one works perfectly. We wonder if there is 1 year warranty on it and if there is, what should we do to get the waranty? Thanks.