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

Featured in Seven Days: http://7dvt.com/2010tubby-tabby

There are 3 sizes of the Oasis: 2,3 and 5 Gallons. The 2 and 3 Gallon units are good for single or multi-cat homes, and the 3 and 5 Gallon for homes with small or large dogs.

The waterer comes neatly packaged and requires a small amount of assembly.

Contents are: The base unit, Blue water bottle, 1 filter, bowl, gaskets for the bowl connection (Already installed and one extra set under the bowl).

Assembly is easy, simply push the bowl on to the base (Making sure it’s flush with the base) and attach/tighten the 2 screws that come on the bowl. Becareful not to over tighten the screws as they are plastic, but can handle hand tightning.

Installing the filter was easy. After rinsing the filter, it screwed on to the white top very easily and lowered in to the small space in back of the base very easily thanks to a small removable cover. The filter needs to replaced every 45 – 60 days. 

There is a nicely thought out removable screen filter just before the pump that catches hair and large particles. This does need to be checked every so often so the water flow doesn’t slow to a crawl

Finally, simply fill the bottle with water (I used bottled water) and let the water drain in to the base for a minute or so before plugging in the pump. This will prevent the pump from running dry and ruining it.

If anything should go wrong with the unit, or something is broken – It’s ok! There’s plenty of easily replaceable parts that you can buy from the manufacturer or distributors.

Conclusion: This is a nice waterer that deserves more recognition. It’s well built and well designed. It is a little more pricey than other waterers, but the quality and features make it a well worthwhile buy.

PROS: High Quality Construction, Easy to refill bottle, Replacement parts easily available
CONS: A bit higher priced, but well worth it for the quality

Average Prices: Small: $75, Medium: $81, Large: $90
Replacement Filters: 2 for $15

My Distributer: www.nekofeeder.com
AutoPet Oasis Technical Information Page: http://www.nekofeeder.com/APpetoasis.htm
Manufacturer Home Page: www.autopetfeeder.com

There are 3 sizes of AutoPet Feeder: Small, Meduim and Large. The Small and Medium are good for Cats and Small dogs. The Medium and Large are good for Medium to large dogs. Each version of Pet Feeder handles a different size of food Small pet feeder: 3/8″ diameter, Medium feeder is 3/4″ diameter and Large feeder is 7/8″ diameter.

The box comes neatly packed with the base, detachable bowl (Easy for cleaning), cover, and electronic timer. Assembly is very easy, simply attach the bowl to the front, and plug in the power cord to the side of the electronic timer marked “TIMED”. On the other side of the timer, there is an outlet marked “POWER” – if you plug the feeder in there, it will just run and run and run!

Setting the timer can be a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it’s just fine. The timer can be set to dispense food up to 8 different intervals. This could also be daily, weekly, M-F, weekends only. The flexibility of this timer is VERY impressive.

I found that the best way was to manually start the dispensor and time how long it took to dispense the amount of food I wanted. For example: I wanted a 1/4 cup of food to dispense, 3 times a day. So I manually turned on the timer and timed how long it took to fill my 1/4 cup which was 40 seconds. So I set the timer to turn on for 40 seconds at 7am, noon and 7pm. Perfect! Every food needs to be timed because each brand of food has a different size causing it to be dispensed at a different rate.

If your cat is aggressive in foreging for food like mine is, you will want to get the “Tube Style Auger Cover”. This prevents the cat from being able to lift the original cover and using his paw to generate unauthorized food gathering!

Conclusion: This is a great high end feeder. It’s features are very practicle and easy to understand. I found the timer took a little time to learn to program, but it was easy to get used after programming it a few times. The construction is high quality and I’m very pleased with the performance.

PROS: Great quality of construction, works well, timer is VERY powerfull
CONS: Top cover can be a bit hard to take off, Timer takes a little learning but well worth it, a bit expensive but worth it for the quality.

Due to it’s higher quality and features, it is priced a bit higher and the others, but very worth it in the long run. Average pricing: Small: $108, Medium: $117, Large: $126.

Links:

My Distributor: www.nekofeeder.com
Autopet Feeder Technical Information Page: http://www.nekofeeder.com/APpetfeeder.htm
Manufacturer: www.autopetfeeder.com