Toppets Large Automatic Pet Feeder Electronic Programmable Portion Control Dog Cat Feeder W/ Lcd Display

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned this. My situation is that I am away from home randomly for a few days at a time. So I wanted a feeder that I could turn on when I leave, and off when I am back. I prefer feeding the cats myself when I am home, more accurate portion sizing and also wet food at times. Either way, once you turn the unit off, it loses all information. Time, feeding times and portion size. I am by no means a newbie to technology and can program even a radio scanner from Radio Shack (that means something if you know what I am talking about), but this feeder is pretty tough to program. So this is my point - every time I turn this feeder back on, I have to reprogram the time, the feeding schedule and the portion size. I guess if I do this often enough, I will learn the programming steps, but it's a huge hassle. I realize that I can program it to run for only so many days, but I sometimes don't make it home on the day I hope to, but the next day etc...I guess if you use this feeder 24/7, it does the job, but for someone who is in and out and wants to turn the unit off frequently, it's really not the perfect machine.Also, when I received it, one of the flaps on the bottom which are spring activated didn't seem to want to move. I discovered it had some extra plastic from the manufacturing process and was sticking. Had to use a knife to trim it down to the correct size. Now it works fine.Update:I have had this feeder for about 4 months now. I just changed the rating from 3 stars to 4 stars. I have to say, it really is a reliable feeder. The batteries are still going strong, they are the original ones. It has never failed to dispense food and even though I have never measured it scientifically, it seems to dispense more or less the same amount every time. I do have to say that I usually keep it fairly full though. I still hate the fact that I can't turn it off without reprogramming, if they were to fix that issue, this would be a wonderful machine.My concoction for feeding two cats is still holding up too, I did post a picture on this page of what that looks like. I used two pieces of rain gutter downspout and a pedestal I made. Both cats have lost some weight thanks to not having a never ending supply of dry food while I'm gone.Update:I made myself a little cheat sheet for the programming process, printed it out and stuck it on the fridge. Maybe it will help someone. I use two feeding times. Also I use the default "smallest" feeding portion, so I don't have to change that:1) Turn feeder on.2) Within 90 seconds, set time:3) Press "Clock" to set hour / press "Timer" to set minute4) Press "Set" to confirm.5) Press "Clock" to toggle between 12/24 hours.6) Press "Start" to confirm clock settings.7) Display now shows "1 07" (first feeding at 0700)8) Press "Set" for two seconds until display flashes.9) Press "Timer" to set desired feeding time.10) Press "Set" to program second feeding time.11) Press "Timer" to set desired feeding time.12) Press "Start" to save and exit.[To change portion size:]14) Push VOL key to display portion size.15) Press and hold the SET key until the digit blinks.16) Press the VOL key to set the portion size. [ 1 = 1/4 cup, 2 = 1/2 cup etc... ]17) Press the START key to confirm.Another update:Had the feeder for 15 months now. Still works perfectly. I've gotten used to its few quirks and am very happy with it. Yeah, still could use a better user interface, but hey... The four D cell batteries are finally getting low. They have been in the feeder for 15 months now and it has been on every day. Not shabby.One more Update:Had the unit for nearly exactly two years now. Still working perfectly twice a day without a break. Still on the second set of D cell batteries. I'm changing the rating to five stars. I really can't complain. Yeah, I still would love to be able to turn it off and not lose all the settings. I also wish that you could control the dispensing amount a little more accurately, but that wouldn't be easy seeing the way this machine is built. But for the money, you do get a good value. Still recommended, a little more highly now. We just took our two cats to the vet, our "bigger" cat went from 18 pounds to 12 pounds. The vet praised us telling us that most people don't manage to bring their cats back down to a healthy weight. We told her that the feeder did it... Now we have to make a little extra manual feeding when we are home so they don't lose more weight. This is where a smaller incremental increase in portion size would come in handy. Going from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup is just too much.Six Years Later:Wow, our feeder is still working. It has been running every day since I bought it in July 2011. It is now September of 2017. About a year ago I took the whole thing apart and cleaned it out. There was a lot of food dust stuck in the gears and such. I'm thinking about buying another unit, because at this point I can't imagine not having this feeder and I'm afraid that if this one were to break I might not be able to find another one. Also, any other feeder model would not work with my dual dispensing downspout. I see a lot of terrible reviews and wonder if we got super lucky with ours or why others are having such bad luck. I would still recommend it, how could I not after six years!Seven Years Later:It is now June 2018. I bought the feeder nearly exactly seven years ago and it has been running every single day. It just stopped working today. I tried several sets of new batteries and nothing helped. The display shows weird symbols and then fades away. The voice recording still works. So something inside finally gave up. Honestly, I'm ok with that. I would consider looking at other feeders, but since I still have the concoction made for two cats, I will just reorder this again and hope it lasts another 7 years. Plus, I kind of know how to program it now.No, it's still not the perfect feeder. Changing batteries is a pain as they are on the bottom and the flap opens towards the bottom. We all know now that programming is less than intuitive. But it does work pretty reliably, and that's what counts.

The media could not be loaded.  OVERVIEW: I purchased one of these to take care of my two cats during 2-4 day trips away from home, and so far it has handled that task well. It is designed to be programmed to deliver scheduled servings across 1 or more days. I decided on this particular feeder because its price point is good and reviews indicated that unlike other feeders it would be fairly easy to devise means for splitting a serving to fall into two bowls. The way the unit delivers food is via a rotating drum. Each rotation is supposed to deliver 1/4 cup of food but the amount is in fact almost 1/2 cup, at least for the dry food I feed my cats. You program for 1, 2, 3, or more revolutions per feeding (corresponding 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, etc cups). The amount applies to all feedings, annoying since my cats are used to a small snack before lights out. Rated capacity is 45 cups of dry food, but food will stop sliding into the drum well short of that number.PROGRAMMING THE UNIT: The unit's programming capabilities are very limited and the interface is crude, but no worse than for the typical clock radio (caveat: I've had a lot of programming experience). Programming is based on pressing the "Set" button until the item to change (clock, feed time, feed volume, number of days) begins flashing. You then simply use the "Clock" and/or "Timer" buttons to change the value. Since change only goes in one direction, you may have to do a lot of presses (e.g., to set a feed time back one hour requires 23 presses). When done you press the "Start" button to set the program. The only thing that is at all tricky is getting the feeding times in, since you can have anywhere from 1 to 4. Once you have set feeding time 1, you press "Set" to move to the next. For the last time you set, you press "Auto" to skip the rest of the 4, which sets the program to use the times entered up to that point. If you mess up, reprogramming (initiated by pressing and holding "Start" when the display is showing feeding times) starts you over with feeding time 1. Feeding times have to occur in order and have to be on the hour. If the programming aspect concerns you, read the Amazon review which provides more complete directions than either my quick sketch or those in the manufacturer's manual.RECORDED MESSAGE: You can record a message that is up to 6 seconds long, and which plays right after the unit finishes delivering food. It's not loud enough to be particularly useful. At the start of food delivery the unit vibrates for a bit to help get the food into the drum, and that is the signal which attracts my cats.OTHER: The unit uses 4 D-cells, is all plastic, and has a warning light for low battery. One of my cats is subject to feline acne when eating out of plastic, so providing him with a ceramic bowl is necessary for me. The detachable tray for the unit permits that, another plus for this particular feeder.MODIFICATION FOR USE WITH 2 CATS: I have included a video for the construction I devised to separate the serving into two bowls. My construction comes close to doing exactly what I want (1/4 cup in each bowl). At 3 feedings per day that provides a little more than I normally feed my two cats. The key component for dividing a feeding is an 8" section of plastic gutter, which is cheap and is easily cut using scissors to split it into 2 chutes. By trimming one end of each chute at about a 10 degree angle, the chutes will fit flush under the food drop with approximately a 20 degree separation. Once you have the chutes, if sawing wood isn't your game to form a bracing wedge between the two chutes, I think you could do a pretty good version using modeling clay and one of those plastic under-the-bed boxes, securing the chutes using tape or stick on velcro (velcro would allow easier repositioning). Perhaps some day the company will offer single/dual chutes that clip in place of the tray so you can use your own bowl or divide the serving into two bowls. There are two other modification you might want to consider: 1) some kind of stop in the feed drum to reduce the amount of food delivered per rotation (not necessary in my case) and 2) addition of a slope inside the bin to better channel the food to the drum (sacrificing about 15 cups of the full capacity).PROS:1) Unlike the design of some of the more expensive feeders, pets cannot get at the food between feedings, since the lid on the bin has a positive lock down and the drum mechanism has to rotate for food to get out of the bin.2) Feed amount per serving is accurate.3) The unit will run a long time on a set of batteries since the power source is 4 (alkaline) D cells.4) The weak battery indicator is a very bright red LED.5) The feed tray is detachable and it is a minor exercise to replace it with means for splitting the serving to 2 ceramic bowls - no modification to the unit itself is required, a big plus for me.CONS:1) Programming capability is very limited and the interface is non-intuitive.2) If the unit is switched off, the unit loses all programming, including the clock.3) There is no means for adjusting the amount of food the drum delivers per rotation without devising your own means.4) Effective capacity is well short of 45 cups (suggesting another design modification).5) No accessories are offered to replace the existing feed tray with a chute or chutes.6) The sound recording is well-intentioned, but poorly implemented.All of these are design shortfalls that could be corrected without adding appreciably to the unit's cost.RATING: Although I've listed a number of cons, my overall rating is 4 stars since the unit does a reasonably good job for what I need it for. Amazon's description for the unit is that it is an OEM unit, but the first one I received had a brand name (SKY) and was defective. Its clock lost over 8 hours per day, making it impossible to set a daily feeding schedule. I exchanged that unit for a new one, which is indentical except that it is OEM and its clock works as it should. For me it is a big plus that a user can modify the unit to feed more than one cat without making any modifications to the unit itself. From what I saw of other automated pet feeders, this one is best buy and I am happy with my purchase.I'll try to update my review after a few months of use to report on how it is holding up.

Es muy práctico, solo que no trae instrucciones en español tuve que investigar en Internet como programarla.

This thing works really well. I've had it for about three weeks now and it hasn't missed a feeding yet. The only real downside, as others have mentioned, is that the smallest portion size is supposed to be 1/4 cup, but in reality it's closer to 1/2 cup.Also, as others have mentioned, the lid is a bit tricky, but not enough for it to really matter and the programming is definitely strange, but if you use the instructions you can figure it out fairly quickly.

Here is what I found after about a year of use feeding our one cat:Cons:-A bit complicated to program. It seems like the interface could be a lot easier, but I managed to figure it out with the instructions. It took a few tries though. Also, you can only program the feeder to go off at an hour mark (e.g. 6 a.m., not 6:30 or 6:50), although you can get around this by changing the clock time, it is just a bit complicated.-Smaller food pellets causes the programmed amounts to be incorrect. We started with larger food and switched to smaller food and really noticed the issue. The feeder has two sections that it pulls food from, so I "fixed" the issue by covering one of the sections on the inside of the food container with some cardboard (cutout from a cereal box). This is probably my biggest issue with the machine, but it may not be an issue with bigger pellets (dog food?)-The lid doesn't easily line up to close, but once it is closed it is solid. Our cat poked at it a bit when we first got it, but has since given up. If you don't need to grab food from the container for any reason, you can lock it and leave it for a good chunk of time until it needs to be refilled.Pros:-Once it is programmed, the machine chugs along great! I could have mentioned that this machine takes a bunch of D batteries as a con, but I haven't had to change them yet, so it really isn't an issue. And I guess it would keep working if the power went out.-Feeding amount is consistent - Although the amount it says it is set to may be off (e.g. 1/4 cup produces 1/2 cup), once you figure out how much IS coming out, that amount is very consistent. Once i covered up one of the areas it pulls from, it always spits out 1/4 cup.-This machine is a lot cheaper than some of the other automatic feeders I found.-The noise it makes while feeding is reasonable. It isn't super quiet or super loud, it just vibrates for 10 seconds or so.I realize I've liad out a few cons, but I'm still giving this machine 4 stars because it gets the job done. Once you've fought with the programming a bit, and once you've figured out the proper feeding amount, it works great! It has saved us from our cat meowing at us in the morning to feed him. An easier interface and a slightly better build would push this up to 5 stars, but it is also a lot cheaper than other automatic feeders I found, so I would definitly recommend this machine, just with the few notes above in mind.

I was so excited to buy this for our dog. Once the setup was (finally) completed, it worked well for about a week, but now we have to reprogram it almost once a day because we keep getting an error message. At first I thought the batteries needed to be replaced, but even after we replaced them, the same error message appeared after one or two successful feedings. We're using the appropriate sized kibble so it shouldn't be jamming. It's quite frustrating. What's the point in having a programmable pet feeder if you can't program it? Waste of money.

I absolutely love this feeder, I wouldent recommend any other one!We originally got the same idea from pet mate which is sold in Petsmart stores in Canada. That feeder was unreliable. Some times it would only dispense a few pieces of food instead of 1/4 cup. Also this thing was not cat proof, the bowl unhooked from the base easily (my cat literally took it across the room one day for her enjoyment) also being the smart cat she is managed to be able to reach up into the hopper and get food at her pleasure. Not to mention the annoying sound she would make trying to get at the food.The feeder we originally got from Petsmart was the only one you could find in stores in canada. We searched every pet store, even Canadian tire and walmart. So of course I took to Amazon.ca to find another.This new feeder is the exact opposite. First off it applied for free shipping and arrived in 2 days! It's completely reliable and cat proof, I can even record a cute message for my cat so she knows it's ready. It dispenses the correct amount of food you set, and the bowl locks into place so it can't be dragged around the house. Also this thing holds a whole medium/regular bag of food.The only negative points I would say is that it is a little finicky to program, if you follow the directions exactly you will be fine.The other thing is that the unit vibrates before dispensing so that the true amount of food gets placed in the channel. If you have it on a hard surface like a counter or wood floor it can be loud and scare the kitty. We fixed this simply by purchasing a padded mat for it to sit on top of, and it reduces the sound of the vibration substantially.To end off I feel comfortable leaving the house knowing my cat will be fed on time, and would strongly recommend this product to anyone!