PATPET PF03 3L Timed Automatic with Freshness Preservation Cat & Dog Feeder, Medium

I recently adopted a young adult cat who is the most food-obsessed cat I've had in decades. I had always left food out for my cats to graze on at their leisure, but this one could scarf down a full day's worth in 10 minutes and then beg every time I walked near the kitchen. The Patpet caught my eye because of its price point, and it won me over with its ability to dispense up to 6 times/day and its small footprint. As a few other reviewers have mentioned, the instructions seem confusing at first but once I started programming, it went smoothly. It has been running perfectly for 10 days now, and I could not be happier with how my cat has adapted to it. Here's what I love: -It keeps excellent time. I like the battery back-up in case the power goes out. Little Miss is much calmer with her predictable and perfectly timed meals. -The instructions said 12 portions = 1/2 cup. To test that, I used the manual-feed button to dispense 12 portions, and the measurement was spot on (the shape/size of Science Diet kibble seems to work really well with the mechanism). You can tell the feeder how many portions to dispense with each feeding, and you can set different numbers of portions for different times of day. For example, Little Miss gets three portions at breakfast, one portion for her mid-afternoon snack, etc. -You can set the machine on "slow feed" so that for every multi-portion meal, you can pause dispensing between each portion for your choice of 1 to 10 minutes. It's a global setting, so the same amount of pause time will apply to all meals. It's helped my little gobbler to stretch out breakfast across 10-15 minutes. -There is a beep alarm to alert the cat when food is dispensed, but I have turned the alarm off. Between the hum of the motor and the sound of the kibble falling into the stainless steel bowl, Little Miss always knows exactly when food is being served. If she isn't already staring at the feeder in anticipation (how can they tell time?!), she goes tearing into the kitchen as soon as she hears the motor. She still likes to beg me a little, but this feeder has made both of us much less anxious. Well worth it!

Works great for cats and dogs. A bit tricky if the pets do not eat the same amount or one tends to overeat and eat the other's food. But having one for each pet should solve that problem. All buttons are working.