I got this for my 18-year old indoor cat, who we recently switched from dry food to moist food. The dish works, but there's a few glitches:
1) It's pretty big (sized for small dogs) and takes up a fair amount of room. Also, you need a few inches of clearance behind it, as the lid opens more than vertical (good for the critter, not so good for a wall behind the dish).
2) It only senses the cat's presence directly in front of the bowl, so if the cat approaches it from the side, it won't open. That leads to much complaining.
3) If, while trying to get the last morsel, the cat wanders around the side of the bowl, the lid will come down on her head. That leads to more complaining (especially if she's out of position), and eventually, anxiety.
4) There is a sensitivity adjustment, but cranking it up doesn't cause an out-of-position cat to be seen, and setting too high causes the bowl to open and close at random times as lighting changes. Our cat is fed in the laundry room, and if it's facing the washer, it also opens and closes when the sensitivity is set high. We can sometimes hear it open/close from the bedroom at night.
Of course, a less-senile cat with more than a 5 second attention span might not have these issues; a slightly larger animal (dog or cat) wouldn't either. We're keeping the dish in the hope that she'll eventually figure it out, as it does excel at keeping food fresh, containing the smell, and presumably keeping bugs from sharing kitty's meal.
Also, I'd suggest that this not be used to exclusively feed the cat when leaving for an overnight trip -if the battery dies, unless your cat is a tool-user, you'll have a very angry kitty when you return.
UPDATE: Purchased this 60 days ago and now the gears that raise/lower the lid are stripped. Not sure what happened but one morning the lid was propped 1/2" open and it makes a ratcheting sound when it tries to open, but the lid just kind of quivers and when I shake the unit, something inside rattles around. I don't know if it tried to close on the cat's head and she resisted, or if it banged up against the rear wall when it opened (the lid opens more than 90 degrees and while we keep it pulled away from the wall a few inches, the cat sometimes moves it when she's trying to get the last morsel of food out). I pulled the box and instructions from the attic and there is NO warranty information at all or manufacturer's information -in fact, the manual (which I skimmed when I got this product) was clearly written by a non-English speaker (my guess is Chinese) and half of it is devoted to information about the 4 AA batteries which are not even included (i.e. don't recharge batteries, remove so they don't leak, dispose of properly). Arrrrgh! I guess I'll contact the seller and update if there's a satisfactory resolution.
0 comments:
Post a Comment