Many pet parents worry if their cats or dogs are eating the right amount. Too much food and there’s the risk of diabetes and obesity. Too little food and your pet can be malnourished. We’d probably all love to be able to measure out the right amount of food at exactly the right time every day, but busy lives can get in the way. Pet tech to the rescue! An automatic pet feeder that doles out the proper amount of food throughout the day can take care of feeding problems. Here are our picks for the best automatic feeders for cats and dogs for 2019.
Best overall: PetSafe Smart Feed Automatic Dog and Cat Feeder
The PetSafe Smart Feed Automatic Dog and Cat Feeder is super high-tech and gives a bevy of options that keep you in control of how you feed your pet. It features a low food sensor and will automatically reorder food using the Amazon Dash Replenishment option. Using an Alexa enabled device, you can feed your pet from anywhere, or set up a feeding schedule of up to 12 meals using the Smart Feed app. Meals can be portioned out at one-eighth cup to 4 cups at a time. If your pet is a fast eater, you can pick the slow feed option to dispense a meal slowly over a 15-minute period.
Best affordable automatic pet feeder: Wopet Automatic Pet Feeder
The Wopet Automatic Pet Feeder is affordable, easy to use, and has a lot of great features. It holds up to 20 cups of food at a time, which means you won’t need to constantly refill it. And with the built-in programmable timer, it allows you automate up to four feedings per day for your fur baby. All you have to do is punch in the meal times on the LCD screen. It also has portion control. You can program it to release 2 teaspoons to 4.5 cups of dry food at a time. Want to feed your pet a little more in the morning and less in the evening? The Wopet Automatic Pet Feeder can have different portion sizes for each feeding time. You can make an audio recording so your pet is called by your voice when it’s time to eat, too.
Best for dogs: Dogness Automatic WiFi Smart Camera Feeder
The Dogness Automatic WiFi Smart Camera Feeder is perfect for canine companions because it can hold a larger amount of kibble and it can provide one-on-one attention that dogs crave. It can hold around 6.5 pounds (3kg) of dog food, so you’re not refilling it every other day, it can be programmed to dispense just the right amount of food throughout the day using its app. You can talk to your dog in real-time using the app. Even better, the HD camera and microphone on the feeder allows your dog to talk back.
Best for cats: PetSafe 5 Meal Pet Feeder
Let’s be honest, your cat probably won’t talk to you through a camera, and probably won’t care if it hears your voice during feeding time. It just wants food. So, something affordable, easy, compact, and automatic makes sense. The PetSafe 5 Meal Pet Feeder is ideal for the job. It has five dispensing slots that you can fill with up to one cup of food each. Its built-in digital timer rotates the feeding slots so that a full one is presented to your cat at the meal times you designate. No muss, no fuss.
Best for wet food: Cat Mate C500 Automatic Feeder
Feeding wet food using an automatic dispenser is tricky since the food will need to be refrigerated to prevent it from spoiling. So far, the pet industry hasn’t come up with a very high-tech solution. The best auto feeders for wet food require you to insert ice packs every few hours to keep the wet food cold. With this in mind, the best wet feeder is the Cat Mate C500 Automatic Feeder. It can serve up to five servings of dry or wet cat food (as long as you use the ice packs) and has a digital timer that serves the food at just the right time. Although it’s called Cat Mate, it can also work for small dogs, but the portions can’t be larger than 11.5 ounces each.
Best for multiple pets: SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder
Feeding multiple animals at once with an automatic feeder is hard because the feeder needs to be able to somehow identify each pet. The SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder has this problem figured out. It scans your pet’s microchip or RFID collar tag to identify who’s who and can remember up to 32 pet identities. When the right pet is scanned, the bowl opens up and allows the pet to eat.
