I usually consider myself to be pretty on top of taking good care of my dog. Every once in a while, I find my dog staring at me or following me around, and I ask him what he wants.
Then I realize I forgot to give my dog dinner because I was busy getting everyone else fed and taking care of family matters.
That is when I realize that I needed to take a look and see what is the best automatic dog feeder so this doesn’t happen to me again. Having a timer dog feeder would solve missing meals for my dog.
Have you ever wondered if you already fed the dog? I know I have and I am sure there have been times when he has gotten fed dinner twice.
I am going to provide you with timed dog feeder reviews of 3 feeders that I think are great automatic dog feeders. I am going to talk about a fairly basic feeder up to the smart dog feeders. Hey, many people have a smart home, why not include a smart pet feeder into that mix as well.
Table of Contents
Petnet Smart Feeder – 2nd Generation
This is a fairly new product that was introduced late 2017. It is a replacement (2nd generation) that is considered much better than the first one that was introduced. This model is unbelievable with what it can do for you.
If you purchase this product for your dog or cat, they will no longer be waiting for their dinner if you forget or get home late from work.
Features:
- Pet-proof self-locking lid which prevents air from entering the container and keeps your dog’s food fresh.
- Food level sensors. It will let you know when food is running low and needs to be refilled.
- Petnet App. This app will allow you to get alerts for a successful feeding, and when you are low on food. This app also allows you to input your breed, age of pet, weight and activity level. It will then recommend what the appropriate meal portions should be for your pet.
- It works with Alexa, Nest Camera and Google Assistant for voice commands for feeding your pet.
- The Petnet app also allows you to feed your dog when you are away from home.
- Removable food container which makes it easy to clean and keeps pet food fresh and free of bacteria.
- Aluminum bowl that is dishwasher safe.
- Portion size dispensers can dispense between 1/16 cup to 1 1/2 cups of food.
- Food storage stores 5 – 7 pounds of dry food.
- Bowl capacity holds up to 2 1/2 cups of dry food.
- Works best with kibble sizes of dry food 1/8″ – 5/8″ in diameter.
- Power is a built-in rechargeable battery and it also has a chew-resistant USB cable.
It does require you to have a compatible smartphone (iOS 9.0+ or Android OS 4.0+) and a WiFi connection of 2.4 GHz.
It is not recommended for pets over 60 pounds.
Feeder works great for both dogs and cats.
One year limited warranty.
The reviews are great on this product. 80% of the people who have purchased this product have given it a 5 star rating. If you have a cat or a dog under 60 pounds, this is my #1 recommendation for an automatic pet feeder.
Price is around $180.00. You can purchase here through Amazon.
PetSafe Smart Feed
This feeder has many similarities to the Petnet feeder, but it does have a few differences.
Features:
- Free Smart Feed App available for you to customize and schedule up to 12 meals a day with portions ranging from 1/8 cup to 4 cups.
- Slow feed option. This allows food to be dispensed slowly over a 15-minute period to help prevent your dog from gulping down their food. This can be helpful in preventing dog bloat.
- Dispenses most shapes and sizes of dry or semi-moist food.
- Lid, hopper, bowl and bowl holder are top shelf dishwasher safe.
- Requires WiFi 2.4 GHz.
- Compatible with iPhone, iPod with iOS 9.0 or later or Android Smartphone 5.0 or later.
- Stainless steel bowl with a 5 cup capacity.
- Works for cats and dogs up to medium size.
- Feed now feature. This allows you to feed outside of the normal scheduled times you have established.
- Hopper holds up to 24 cups of food.
- 1 year warranty.
- Does not work with canned food.
The reviews on this product are fairly good, but not as good as the Petnet feeder.
The feeder doesn’t alert you when the food level is getting low in the feeder. Also, people have complained that if your WiFi goes out, it won’t reconnect automatically. You will need to manually reset the feeder. This can be a problem if you aren’t going to be home for a bit.
The positives compared to the Petnet feeder is that it has a larger storage capacity, the slow feeder can be a plus, larger feeding capacity feeding larger dogs and being able to serve semi-moist food.
This feeder will work well for both cats and dogs as well. You can read a full review of the PetSafe Smart Feeder here.
Price is around $180.00. You can purchase here through Amazon.
Arf Pets Automatic Pet Feeder Food Dispenser
This feeder is one of the most basic feeders available. There are no apps for this feeder and it isn’t a smart feeder that you can feed your dog through your phone. But, you can automatically feed your dog.
This feeder would work more like a coffee maker that you set ahead of time from a clock on the product to work at the time you have scheduled ahead of time.
Features:
- Dispenses from 1 to 10 portions per meal, each portion is 24 ml, set up to feed your dog up to 4 times daily.
- Distribution alarms letting you know if there is a problem with the food distribution, but you need to be home to hear them, since it isn’t a smart feeder.
- LCD clock and display that has easy adjustable settings.
- Magnetic lock lid to keep your pet out of the food storage.
- Runs on 3 D batteries or DC power cable. Helpful if there is a power outage.
- Capacity is 1.14 gallons.
- Great feeder for large dogs.
- Allows for you to set up a voice recording that can call your pet over when the food has been dispersed.
The reviews are pretty basic on this product, as this product is a much more basic feeder. It does not come with a stainless steel bowl, but you could use your own bowl in place of the bowl that comes with the system.
There really aren’t any bells or whistles that come with this product, but it will get the job done that you need.
Works well for both dogs and cats.
Price is around $90.00. You can purchase here through Amazon.
Summary
If you are looking for an timed dog feeder, any of these feeders will be good feeders for you. If you are looking for the best automatic dog feeder, I would highly recommend the Petnet Smart Feeder. This one is offering the most options with the highest technology available in a feeder.
The timer dog feeder reviews for the Petnet Smart Feeder are all positive reviews with 80% of the customers rating this product 5 stars out of 5 stars. If you are looking for state of the art, this is the one.
Once you have your new pet feeder purchased and set up, you will only get those stares from your dog because you forgot to take them outside, you missed their treat, or you aren’t giving them enough attention, but it won’t be because you forgot to get them their dinner on time. One less thing for you to worry about.
And no more getting tricked by your dog that you forgot to feed them when you actually didn’t.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below and I will get back to you. I am happy for any of your recommendations of feeders that you would like to share as well.
If you found this information helpful, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.
Some of the links within this post are affiliate links of which I might receive a small compensation from sales of certain items.
I work a tremendous amount and am in definite need of an automatic dog feeder. Some times my little boy has to wait until i get home from work after a longer than normal day.
The Arfs Pet Automatic Pet Feeder one looks perfect for me as he’s a larger dog and the voice recording would be amazing as I can be home before I’m home 🙂
Great post and definitely useful.
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Having an automatic dog feeder would be of great benefit for your dog if you get stuck at work sometimes or get stuck in traffic. It can also give you piece of mind knowing that your dog is being taken care of. The voice recording is also a big bonus for your dog not to miss you while you are gone.
Since you have a large dog, make sure the pet feeder can accomodate the size of dog food that you feed your dog.
Thank you for reading and I am glad the information was of value for you.
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Hi Marla, you’ve written a great article and one that is perfect for my friend who is currently looking for easy ways to ensure her dog eats when she is at work… one of these automatic feeders will definitely be useful for her to dispense food at set times and monitor if her dog has eaten it all! I will be showing her this article!
Thank you!
Janani
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Having an automatic dog feeder can help when we have to be away from home feel better knowing that our dog is at least being taken care of getting fed on time. It will also help your dog keep busy while they are alone, and they will quickly learn when it is feeding time if you keep them on a set schedule. Thank you for sharing my article with your friend who could benefit from the information I have provided.
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Nice Idea, Our dog is a bit of a pain, well not actually our dog hehehehe daughter keeping her dog at our place for a while. Anyways this dog is just under 2 and is so jumpy. I mean she doesn’t try to hurt you but yeah she has a little weight and strong hard claws. So feeding is not so fun. Curious can this be used for cats too? Our youngest cat, which we call fatty (real name JJ stands for Jinx Junior, another pet we got from same daughter) Is the lovest cat in the world bar this one problem. Is a maniac eater, hence the nickname. slowing down the eating for that cat would be great.
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First of all, I am sorry that you have extra, perhaps temporary. Long ago I also left a dog for my parents to take care of, so I guess daughter’s do that to their parents.
The automatic feeder will help with slowing down fast eating pets, be it a dog or cat. You can control how much comes out and spread out the timing. The automatic feeder will work for either dogs or cats. The only thing you want to check on before purchasing is the size of food you feed your pets to make sure it will fit in the feeder you are looking at. It is easier to change the feeder before purchasing then changing your pets food you are feeding them.
Good luck with all those pets!
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Absolutely love this website I spent too much time I thought was great full of good health tips learnt a little bit that will help me I Love your advertised products As a Dog lover this website is a pet saver you can see a lot of work has gone into the website the red drop downs little hard to see for the color blind but over all 5 stars from me
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I am glad you found my website helpful. My intent is to have everything that you could need for you dog all in one location. I do need to work on the drop down boxes to make them easier to read. Thanks for pointing it out. Please visit the site again.
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The automatic pet feeder is one of the best ideas!! I used it for my dog. Thank you for sharing those tips! I will follow you on fb!
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Tiana, I am so glad you found my article and that it is of value for you. Glad you are going to follow me on FaceBook, and if there is any particular information that you are looking for that I haven’t written about, please let me know and I will get you the information.
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