Neko Feeder - Help for overweight cats in multi-cat homes or homes with atleast 1 dog and 1 cat
NekoFeeder is a feline weight management system which offers help for controlling cats’ weight, overweight cats food intake, and offers separation of feeding for homes with multiple cats and/or homes with at least one cat and one dog.
NekoFeeder can be ordered in 4 different ways: NekoFeeder Regular (and lite) door add-on, NekoFeeder Regular (and lite) door and carrier as a complete system.
The NekoFeeder regular system works by allowing an authorized cat wearing a key collar to go through the locking door in to the carrier to available food or even a litter box (To keep dogs from cleaning out the litter box).
NekoFeeder Lite works the same way except the door is non-locking and there is no electronic key collar.
NekoFeeder Regular
NekoFeeder Regular arrives in a box with a carrier (If ordered with carrier), Door assembly, collar key and a instruction book.
Assembling the carrier and door system took just a minute. Putting the carrier together by combining the 2 clamshell halves and inserting the NekoFeeder door assembly in place of the normal door was easy but did take a minute to figure out how it fits together.
After making sure the batteries are installed in the key collar and the door assembly, the door recognized the key right away and unlocked whenever the key was in front of the door. The idea is that when a cat with a collar arrives in front of the door, it will unlock and not allow kittys’ without the collar through the door.
Now that the door was working, it’s time to see if our cats would use it. The instructions include a time table for training your cat(s) to use the feeder. The idea is that if you leave the large door open, they would get aclimated to going inside the carrier to eat. After a few days, close the large door but leave the small door open. A few days later, the last step is to close the small door and encourage your cat to push the door open to go inside. The clicking will concern your cat at first, but as ours did, will get used to it after a couple days.
Switching the carrier between Nekofeeder and Regular carrier use and back is as simple as replacing the NekoFeeder door with the regular grated carrier door. When you arrive back home from the Veterinarians, simply re-install the door assembly!
The batteries in both the collar key and the door system last about 11 months. Not to bad.
NekoFeeder Lite
NekoFeeder Lite is the same as above except the door has no electronics, locking mechanism or key collar. The purpose for this is if there is a dog or a REALLY large cat in the house. The larger cat or dog would not be allowed in the carrier simply by not being able to fit through the door!
Assembly, Training and use is very similar to NekoFeeder Regular.
Conclusion
NekoFeeder is a great product if you have more than one cat in the house, have atleast one overweight cat, a multiple cat household with one on a special diet, or a cat and a dog in one household. If you have one cat or are looking for automatic feeding, then you may be better off looking at one of the automatic feeders and/or waterers on the market.
PROS: Good concept for helping with multi-cat feeding issues, works well but clicks when the cat is near, easy maintenance or conversion to regular carrier and back
CONS: Takes up the space of a medium size carrier, Carrier can be hard to fit together sometimes, new version does not have hinges due to carrier design requiring door to be removed when accessing the inside. These are relatively small issues.
Pricing
At the time of this review -
NekoFeeder Regular with a carrier was about $215+$39 shipping. Without carrier: $154
NekoFeeder Lite with a carrier $159. Without carrier: $104
The “Deluxe Carriers” have been discontinued. NekoFeeder still has them in stock and will continue to sell them until they are gone. The new NekoFeeder Ultra will be announced shortly. No pricing estimates yet on the new models. NekoFeeder Ultra will fit several different carriers
My Distributor: www.nekofeeder.com
Technical Information Page: http://www.nekofeeder.com/faqs.htm
Manufacturer: www.nekofeeder.com
