Cat Mate C500 Digital 5 Meal Automatic Dog & Cat Feeder

I practically broke my arm patting myself on the back for getting this sweet little automatic feeder. We are going to be gone for a night and wanted our two cats to get their regular meals on time. They get both canned and dry food. So today I did a test run. It was fairly simple to follow the directions regarding setting the feeding times. The first meal went well. The cats did seem to try and get into device to get the smellier canned food, but weren't successful ... at first. But when it was getting close to their normal dinner time, they made a full on assault and ripped the cover right off the top--thus exposing all the rest of their meals. These are two 9 month old girl kittens, I practically broke my arm patting myself on the back for getting this sweet little automatic feeder. We are going to be gone for a night and wanted our two cats to get their regular meals on time. They get both canned and dry food. So today I did a test run. It was fairly simple to follow the directions regarding setting the feeding times. The first meal went well. The cats did seem to try and get into device to get the smellier canned food, but weren't successful ... at first. But when it was getting close to their normal dinner time, they made a full on assault and ripped the cover right off the top--thus exposing all the rest of their meals. These are two 9 month old girl kittens, weighing about 7 pounds each. They are small but mighty! Looks like we will just be leaving a big bowl of kibble out while we are away. … more

I ordered this on impulse after several mornings in a row where my cat yowled at 2am, or 4am, or 6am, until I stumbled downstairs to feed him. Having this has made a huge difference. It took a few nights to figure out what his ideal feeding schedule is, but now this feeder gives him a fresh portion of wet food at 12am and 5am and prevents him getting hungry while I'm sleeping. He alwalys has a separate dish of dry food available but seems to need the wet food and it has to be fresh. The biggest problem I've had is remembering to take the ice packs out in the morning because they need several hours to re-freeze before I put them in again. Maybe at some point I'll look into getting an extra I ordered this on impulse after several mornings in a row where my cat yowled at 2am, or 4am, or 6am, until I stumbled downstairs to feed him. Having this has made a huge difference. It took a few nights to figure out what his ideal feeding schedule is, but now this feeder gives him a fresh portion of wet food at 12am and 5am and prevents him getting hungry while I'm sleeping. He alwalys has a separate dish of dry food available but seems to need the wet food and it has to be fresh. The biggest problem I've had is remembering to take the ice packs out in the morning because they need several hours to re-freeze before I put them in again. Maybe at some point I'll look into getting an extra pair of ice packs. The feeder is not insulated so the ice packs are at room temp by the morning but they do seem to keep the food fresh enough from 8/9pm when I usually put them in until the 5am feeding. … more

Although some have given good reviews on this product I cannot. It was very difficult to do the initial programming, that is, setting the correct time. Once the clock was finally set I selected the feeding times which again took several attempts that had repeated failures while setting them. After finally getting two of the four times set I waited for the first rotation and the feeder defaulted to 12a.m. and dropped the feeding times. It is not difficult to understand how to program the clock or the feeding times. It simply did not work correctly for me. Chewy customer service was very fast in responding to my message to them about my problem which has been resolved satisfactorily.

Bought this auto feeder so Julian the Cat would be able to eat at night without bothering us. Worked well for about 5 months and then it started having issues with alignment. Followed the instructions to try to fix it, which worked for about two weeks. Once that no longer worked, we replaced the batteries, but that still didn't work. Online searches didn't help. It's great for 5 months, but not a long term solution

The pictures make it look a bit better than it actually is. It's basically just a really plasticy-turntable. The programmer is so 1980's, not useful unless you have the manual handy to see what buttons you need to push. It is actually a 4 meal dispenser. The current bowl is always open so it's a "eat now" bowl. I have not tried the icepacks (why we bought it). They are pretty thin so I really don't see them lasting too long, I would not rely on them for a whole day, especially if it's hot. Also being plastic, you are exposing your pet to chemicals. Pros: has icepacks/price/can clean out all parts that are exposed to food. Cons: plastic/cheap/programming not clear without manual The pictures make it look a bit better than it actually is. It's basically just a really plasticy-turntable. The programmer is so 1980's, not useful unless you have the manual handy to see what buttons you need to push. It is actually a 4 meal dispenser. The current bowl is always open so it's a "eat now" bowl. I have not tried the icepacks (why we bought it). They are pretty thin so I really don't see them lasting too long, I would not rely on them for a whole day, especially if it's hot. Also being plastic, you are exposing your pet to chemicals. Pros: has icepacks/price/can clean out all parts that are exposed to food. Cons: plastic/cheap/programming not clear without manual I was actually very disappointed upon receiving this purchase. I would have returned it but Chewy normally just asks you to donate goods. We really like Chewy and don't want to take advantage. I would rather pay more money for something similar but of much better quality. I am not sure if that exists. We didn't want a dispenser because it's not possible to clean out the mechanisms that deliver the food. In this case, you can wash the dish. … more

I wanted to like this, but my cat and I do not. 1) The opening isn’t very big and it’s semi-triangular so he tends to leave the food that’s towards the top of the opening. He’ll sit next to the machine and meow at me even though there’s food in it, completely defeating the purpose I got it for. Maybe it hurts his whiskers, I don’t know. 2) Depending how many times a day you feed your cat (for me it’s dry food 2x a day, and wet 1x)), it’s not even a full 2 days of auto-feeding. Not very convenient. 3) It’s way bigger than I thought. I don’t have a lot of space in my kitchen and already have a water fountain for him which takes up a lot of space. This thing is the size of a roomba and is pretty I wanted to like this, but my cat and I do not. 1) The opening isn’t very big and it’s semi-triangular so he tends to leave the food that’s towards the top of the opening. He’ll sit next to the machine and meow at me even though there’s food in it, completely defeating the purpose I got it for. Maybe it hurts his whiskers, I don’t know. 2) Depending how many times a day you feed your cat (for me it’s dry food 2x a day, and wet 1x)), it’s not even a full 2 days of auto-feeding. Not very convenient. 3) It’s way bigger than I thought. I don’t have a lot of space in my kitchen and already have a water fountain for him which takes up a lot of space. This thing is the size of a roomba and is pretty ugly to look at. I will say it’s easy to program, but I’m just not a fan. … more

So far I am very happy with this purchase! I have only had this feeder for about two weeks and it has been working as expected. I use this to feed my cat a daily meal (she grazes and is the only animal in the home). It rotates at the same time every day and I have not had any issues with that. Programming was easy after reading the manual. Thankfully she has not tried to break into it as many other reviews have noted. She also doesn't appear to have any issue getting at the food (good depth of the container).

I'm a new cat owner and this little one has an unhealthy obsession with YOU feeding her. She can portion herself with open feeding but once that runs out, your 4am asleep self better watch out for kitty dive bombs. Thus, I needed to disassociate myself from the feeding process in her kitty brain. This feeder has mostly saved my life. Personally, I do not understand the concept of an auto feeder with 5 slots but only 4 programmable times for feeding. I realize the 5th slot is for "immediate feeding" but it makes it very difficult to schedule a 24 hour cycle where each slot has a portion of her meal throughout the day. Even if there were only 4 slots to 4 programmable times, I'd be fine with that I'm a new cat owner and this little one has an unhealthy obsession with YOU feeding her. She can portion herself with open feeding but once that runs out, your 4am asleep self better watch out for kitty dive bombs. Thus, I needed to disassociate myself from the feeding process in her kitty brain. This feeder has mostly saved my life. Personally, I do not understand the concept of an auto feeder with 5 slots but only 4 programmable times for feeding. I realize the 5th slot is for "immediate feeding" but it makes it very difficult to schedule a 24 hour cycle where each slot has a portion of her meal throughout the day. Even if there were only 4 slots to 4 programmable times, I'd be fine with that. 1 feeding of dry at 0300, 1 at 0700, 1 at 1100, and 1 of wet at 2300 at which point I could refill the feeder assured that her next meal would be not an empty try but a filled one at 0300. On the whole, this is an excellent feeder. Just some notes I guess. … more

I was hesitant to buy anything like this because my cat is good at opening doors and just getting into things. This product had good reviews so I thought I would give it a try. Mainly, we are trying to get our cat from waking us up early every morning. We are still working on this. We have trained him to the sound and that it means food, mainly at 6pm. However, he still hasn’t been trained by us to stop jumping on us at 3:30am meowing and begging for food. He does hear the sound (we bring it upstairs outside our room at night) and goes to it but needs to get used to the time. I hope he will. My biggest thing was worrying about him getting into the machine. He’s not done this at all. The shape I was hesitant to buy anything like this because my cat is good at opening doors and just getting into things. This product had good reviews so I thought I would give it a try. Mainly, we are trying to get our cat from waking us up early every morning. We are still working on this. We have trained him to the sound and that it means food, mainly at 6pm. However, he still hasn’t been trained by us to stop jumping on us at 3:30am meowing and begging for food. He does hear the sound (we bring it upstairs outside our room at night) and goes to it but needs to get used to the time. I hope he will. My biggest thing was worrying about him getting into the machine. He’s not done this at all. The shape of it and the locking clip keeps him out of it just fine. Also, I really like being able to be out running an errand and knowing he’s going to be fed on time. Great product, it’s working well and is dependable. We just received it so we’re still working on training him. … more

I’ve had this for almost a year now and stopped using after a few months. My cat knows how to jab at it to get it to malfunction and completely erase the schedule. Kind of frustrating to constantly reset. While efficient when I’m home, because I can watch her, during overnight trips when I would return, it would be completely filled with food because it had stopped at some point. I hate the thought of my cat skipping three meals. Maybe I just have a bad one but I need something that’s actually cat proof. Everyone knows they are very crafty and can easily push buttons and waste all your money. ;) *also, I have tried with brand new batteries and it doesn’t even move in the correct order and sometimes I’ve had this for almost a year now and stopped using after a few months. My cat knows how to jab at it to get it to malfunction and completely erase the schedule. Kind of frustrating to constantly reset. While efficient when I’m home, because I can watch her, during overnight trips when I would return, it would be completely filled with food because it had stopped at some point. I hate the thought of my cat skipping three meals. Maybe I just have a bad one but I need something that’s actually cat proof. Everyone knows they are very crafty and can easily push buttons and waste all your money. ;) *also, I have tried with brand new batteries and it doesn’t even move in the correct order and sometimes jumps around. Cat & I are both confused now... … more