Petmate Le Bistro Portion-Control Automatic Pet Feeder

Rating:

Product Description

Great for cats and dogs, this fully automatic pet feeder features a tough plastic base that holds a food reservoir for food “on demand.” The electronic pet feeder’s simple, programmable electronics prompt the feeder to dispense portions from 1/4 to 2 cups at three selected times per day. The unit can be set to meet scheduled feeding times and amounts when caretakers are away, but it is not meant to replace human care–please be sure someone still visits the pet daily. The unit’s hopper holds 4-1/5 pounds of food and accommodates a full range of dry food sizes, shapes, and types. Required batteries, which are not included, sustain a long battery life of six months. The feeder measures 14-1/2 by 8-7/8 by 15-1/8 inches and carries a one-year limited warranty.

Great for cats and dogs, this fully automatic pet feeder features a tough plastic base that holds a food reservoir for food “on demand.” The electronic pet feeder’s simple, programmable electronics prompt the feeder to dispense portions from 1/4 to 3 cups at three selected times per day. The unit can be set to meet scheduled feeding times and amounts when caretakers are away, but it is not meant to replace human care–please be sure someone still visits the pet daily. The unit’s hopper holds 4.2 pounds of food and accommodates a full range of dry food sizes, shapes, and types. Required batteries, which are not included, sustain a long battery life of six months. One-year limited warranty.

Customer Reviews:

Does good job
By R. Mardis

I like many have read the poor reviews and had to think out whether the judgment of these dissappointed buyers was valid. It appeared to me that all of the complaints were oriented towards the interface involved in programing the thing and such.

I bought it. Amazon shipped it incredibly fast. It only works on batteries (3 D’s) That’s really a plus since it provides maximum flexiblity on placement and it’s not tied to commercial power, so pwr outages don’t mean that cat goes hungry!

I’ll say this. The programming is counter-intuitive and you have to work at figuring out what they want you to do. You must read the instructions and you’d better keep for when the batteries die, because I read the settings go with the juice.

I set it up to work in under 20 minutes. Feeds my cat twice a day without a hitch now in two weeks. You adjust the volume and how many feedings you want. Common sense is only dry kibble will really work best with this setup. I can see how soft kibble might gum up the works, due to the physics of gravity. The food sits in the bottle, upended over a paddle wheel that slowly rotates to allow kibble to flow. So soft food would probably tend to clump up in there.

I’m very pleased so far. It has solved a feeding problem for me and I am most satisfied. If the maker could install a watch battery backup thing to hold the settings between D battery changes that would be great and the simplicity of the setup could be better, BUT If that added too much money to the cost, it probably wouldn’t sell.

UPDATE: a little over two months of use and I’m really a big fan now. This thing works well. The main thing is… my fat cat is losing weight and she eats twice a day, same time, everyday, thus perfect routine for her. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to any cat owner that would like routine for their pet’s eating or has a pet with a weight problem.

Read the rest of this entry »