My cats tested two smart pet feeders — this is the one they thought was purrrfect
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Michael A. Prospero is the U.S. Editor-in-Chief for Tom’s Guide. In his spare time, he also tests out the latest drones, electric scooters, and smart home gadgets, such as video doorbells. Before his tenure at Tom's Guide, he was the Reviews Editor for Laptop Magazine, a reporter at Fast Company, the Times of Trenton, and, many eons back, an intern at George magazine. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College, where he worked on the campus newspaper The Heights, and then attended the Columbia University school of Journalism. When he’s not testing out the latest running watch, electric scooter, or skiing or training for a marathon, he’s probably using the latest sous vide machine, smoker, or pizza oven, to the delight — or chagrin — of his family.
Whether you’re going on vacation, or just want to simplify the act of feeding your cats, automatic feeders are a real help. In our house, we’ve been using the PetSafe Smart Feed 2.0 for about six years, but recently, it started acting up, so I took it as a good opportunity to try out two new feeders for our two cats, who never seem to get enough food.
Both of them are “smart” feeders, in that you can control them with an app, and they both have cameras, so you can watch your kitties as they eat. Even better: Both have battery backups, so you don’t have to worry about them going hungry if the power goes out.
The first feeder I tried is the Molly&Cody Smart Feeder 6L Camera. This $99 feeder’s standout feature is that it has a small camera right above the bowl, so you can get a live view of your furballs eating.
Smart Feeder 6L Camera: was $69 now $62 This smart feeder has a camera, battery backup, and can hold up to six liters of food. View Deal
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While the feeder’s camera (720p, 120º field of view) isn’t going to rival the best home security cameras , it was more than clear enough for me to see my little furballs as they chowed down on their food.
Of course, when they’re eating, you pretty much see just the tops of their heads and ears. From the live feed, you can also press a microphone button to talk to your pets, though it mostly confused my cats.
In addition to the live feed, you can also record photos and videos of them eating, though you have to manually perform this action — you can’t have it automatically take a picture every time they come to get a bite.
The other feature I really liked was that it has a battery backup. While you need to supply the three D-cell batteries yourself, it ensures that your pets will continue to be fed even if the power goes out.
I also liked the simplicity of the feeder mechanism. The food sits in a hopper on the top, and is fed into the bowl via a small wheel with spokes that turns, not unlike a gumball machine. PetSafe’s mechanism is essentially a large conveyor belt that looks like an escalator; it’s more complex, and while it worked well for several years, it’s been jamming more frequently, which means our kitties haven’t been getting their food.
The biggest pet peeve I have with the Molly&Cody Smart Feeder is that its bowl is pretty small, and is more suited to a single pet. As a result, my two cats constantly pushed each other to the side to eat. Generally, this meant that the younger cat chowed down while my older cat waited his turn.
Feeling bad for my older cat, I then called in the OneIsAll dual-bowl feeder. This looks a lot like the Molly&Cody model, but it has two bowls on either side of the base.
I liked this one even better. For starters, the app will give you notifications when your cats are actually eating, rather than just when it dispenses food, and it also has a sensor that lets you know if the hopper is running low.
Automatic Cat Feeder with Camera for 2 Cats: $99 This feeder has dual cameras with a resolution of 1080p, and a 5 liter hopper to store food. View Deal
The OneIsAll app is a bit more polished, too — it’s a more intuitive design, showing when your pets ate, and you can also create profiles for your pets. There’s even a microSD card slot, so you can have it automatically record and save videos. You can also save videos to the cloud, but that requires a subscription; I’m not sure it’s quite worth that investment.
OneIsAll says that the cameras on the feeder deliver 1080p night vision; It’s plenty fine, but as with the Molly&Cody, once your cats start eating, all you get is a super-closeup view of their head. If they’re eating from the side, you can look straight into their ear canal.
I also found it was easier to clean the hopper of the OneIsAll model; it has two simple push-button latches to separate it from the rest of the machine. Like the Molly&Cody, it also uses the pinball machine-like method to dispense food.
Ultimately, my cats were pretty indifferent as to which one they liked better, so long as they were getting fed. From my perspective, both feeders worked well. One fun feature with each is that they have a built-in speaker, so you can talk to your pets from your phone. When I tried it, it mostly confused and startled my cats.
I’d have to give the nod to the OneIsAll model for its little extras, like the nicer app, the low food notification, and the fact that it’s easier to save videos. The company also sells a single-bowl model that’s only $50. It lacks a camera, but does have a battery backup, which in the end, might be the most important feature of all.