Cost – aside from buying food, is feeding the cat really something you wish to spend money on? If meal time is a job which you can get done, by hook or by crook, an automatic cat feeder might be low down on your list of priorities, and understandably so.Jams – use the wrong food with certain dispensers and you might find you have a jam on your hands.Stability – depending on the model, and the strength of your cat, a dispenser might be easily tipped over and spilt or opened in the process.Then again, if they associate it with mealtime, it might bring about feelings of happiness rather than resentfulness. If your cat is sensitive to noise, they may develop a dislike for the device. Noise – while there have certainly been some models which have sought to address the problem, automatic cat feeders can be noisy.This control influences behaviour, so ceding the dispensing of meals to a machine could see your cat’s behaviour change. Rather than just an insignificant daily routine, mealtime is a form of training which lets your cat know you are the person with access to food. ‘Dehumanisation’ – it may not have occurred to you, but one of the reasons your cat can see you as the ‘leader of the house’ is your role of personally feeding them.This can come in handy for owners with multiple cats, or multiple pets. ‘Pet detectors’ – we will cover them in more detail further on in this piece, but many automatic cat feeders come with a microchip detection system which ensures that only the cat you intend a meal for gets their lips around it.Complete personalisation – if you are a cat owner who wishes to have control of every detail, automatic cat feeders allow you to dictate both the size and regularity of your cat’s meals, giving you complete control at the press of a button.Medical value – automatic pet feeders have even made it onto the recommendation list of some vets, who can suggest that automatic cat feeders are a good way to regulate food consumption in cats suffering from medical conditions eg Diabetes.This may be more beneficial than the ‘vacuuming’ of one big meal when you come home. Preventing bloat – the unwanted side effects of your cat being bloated can be avoided by the automatic feeder’s ability to dispense smaller meals.

Convenience – the standout benefit of the automatic pet feeder is its convenience, allowing your to feed your cat in the middle of the day when you aren’t there, negating the need to rope in a friend or neighbour to do the honours.

In this article, we take a look at some pros and cons of the automatic cat feeder, differentiate between the different types, and examine the effectiveness of some of the latest technologies. Features vary from device to device, from fully digital, technological wonders, to more rudimentary versions which do the job adequately. The typical automatic cat feeder is capable of storing and dispensing controlled portions at the time of your choosing. In come automatic cat feeders, which, like so many other modern inventions, are designed to save time by fulfilling a daily task on your behalf. All it takes is a meeting which drags on, that post-work ‘drink’ which turns into a few, or an unexpected invitation, and your cat can be left alone and food-less because your busy lifestyle prevents you from serving up their next meal. Our system of access control could not work successfully without utilizing our patented RFID system and food motivated thieves would easily win.However selective they are with their own affection, we love having cats around, but like many other duties during the average working day, sometimes it is hard to make time for feeding them. This extra distance gives the feeder the chance to react accordingly by either opening (or staying open) for an approved pet or closing if an unapproved pet is approaching. Using our active RFID tags, we send out a signal to the feeder from the tag that is recognized at approximately 2 feet away. In our testing of other feeders, we have found that pets need to be within just a few inches for the feeders to react. This method is known as passive RFID and only allows for a very short range.

They work by having signals sent out of an outside device that then bounce off the microchip and return to be recognized by a receiver (think echolocation). With embedded microchips there is no battery and nothing that emits an independent signal. This allows the feeder time to close the bowl door before the food stealer can get even a mouthful. In order to properly control access to food in an automatic dispenser, pets need to be recognized in advance of their arrival to the feeder. Why does the PortionPro Rx use RFID Tags instead of the embedded microchips in most pets?

Cat rfid feeder