The pet shops and online shops are flooded with automatic pet feeders from a variety of known and unknown brands like Sure Percare. If you have no prior experience of buying an automatic pet feeder, you might get confused to choose the right automatic pet feeder for you. Choosing the right pet feeder for you might be tricky and difficult. But, once you know the characteristics you should see while buying an automatic pet feeder, it will get easy for you to come out of the puzzle.
To help you get the right automatic pet feeder, we have come with some important aspects you should never forget while you go to buy your automatic pet feeder. However, before going to the main discussion, we will also talk about the benefits of an automatic pet feeder. Let’s go ahead.
However, if you have a good budget and you are interested in quality auto pet feeders to buy, you can see our recommendations here. If you don’t have the time to see all, here is our best pick SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder for an automatic pet feeder.
Benefits of Automatic Pet Feeders
An automatic pet feeder lets you schedule the food serving time and intake quantity. You do not need to be present all through the day at home to feed your loving pets. Be it hamsters, cats, rabbits, or chinchilla, an automatic pet feeder is ideal for almost all kinds of pets.
Among the automatic pet feeders, gravity type feeders are low in cost and serve food as soon as the food bowl requires. These kinds of pet feeders are good for you if you have many pets to feed together. On the other hand, electric pet feeders are more costly but easily programmable. You can schedule time and set the quantity of food for a day. It prevents your pet from overeating.
However, automatic pet feeders are for you if you are a busy person and do not want to waste your time to serve food twice or thrice manually in a food bowl.
Automatic pet feeders are also good to control the food intake, maintain hygiene, proper nutrition, training to take meals at the right time, and easy cleaning.
On the contrary, if your auto pet feeder is of poor quality, the program might not work correctly all the time and thus your pet might get underfed or overfed. That’s why it is so important to buy the right auto pet feeder for you to get the best out of the feeders.
Choosing the Right Automatic Pet Feeder: Features to Consider
Compartment Capacity: There are two common types of auto pet feeders when it comes to the compartment capacity. One type of automatic pet feeder can be refilled every week while the other type might need to be refilled every day or twice a week. The auto pet feeder with much storage capacity is good for you if you have multiple pets to feed. On the other hand, if you have a single pet, you can go for a low storage capacity.
Size: Besides the storage capacity, the overall size of the automatic pet feeder is also an important feature. There are small, large, and medium-sized auto pet feeders out there to buy. If you have a stable home and you do not travel with the feeder, you can buy a medium or large one. On the contrary, a small auto pet feeder is ideal for you if you frequently take the feeder out while traveling with your pet.
Number of Feedings a Day: Generally, most of the advanced automatic pet feeders should have options to let you set the numbers of feeding per day. You can set up to 12 feedings a day while 5 feedings are considered as ideal.
Serving Size: You can define the serving size for each feeding or meal. It depends on the type of animals you have and also the number of pets.
Type of Food: Most of the automatic pet feeders let you offer dry meals through the feeders. However, some advanced feeders let you serve wet food as well with their dispenser.
Power Type: Updated automatic pet feeders are generally run by batteries and safe for pets. However, plug-in models are also available in the market. We do not recommend you go for plug-in models as your pet might chew the cords and fall into an accident.
Water: It is highly discouraged to put water inside the food container if your automatic feeder does not mention that you can do so. It can damage the feeder if you pour water instead of dry food inside it. However, as mentioned above, there are some pet feeders designed for water. You can either buy them or get a separate watering bowl for your pets to place beside the pet feeder.
Choosing the Right Automatic Pet Feeder: Important Things to Remember
Other than having a careful look at the features, there are also some important aspects to see while you go for buying the right automatic pet feeder for your pet. Here are some of them:
- Make sure that the auto pet feeder you are going to buy is easy to disassemble and assemble again. It will help you to clean the pet bowl and the food container easily.
- Choose the size of the feeder as per the number of pets you have and the space you have in your home to place the feeder.
- All feeders are not suitable for all kinds of pets. A feeder that might be excellent for your cat might not suit that much for a hamster. It is because of the difference in the size and of the pet and also the eating positions. So, study the auto pet feeder that is designed for your pet.
- If you remain absent for more days from your home, you should get a pet feeder that is large and comes with a high capacity food container and bowl.
- If the auto pet feeder is noisy, that can scare your loving pet. So, stay away from noisy pet feeders especially if you have got a shy pet.
- If the auto pet feeder you buy is too light, the hungry pets might knock that down. On the other hand, too heavy pet feeders might injure your pet if your pet gets down of it. So, choose a pet feeder that is in between too heavy and too light.
- Buying a fully programmable auto pet feeder is way better than ones that come with preset functions to get more control over food and time.
- Get a high quality, durable, strong-built automatic pet feeder from a reputable brand. Don’t get allured by cheap products with low quality in case you are a fan of durability.
- Place your auto pet feeder in a place that is dry, cool, and easily accessible to your pet.
- Using feeders while traveling is possible if your feeder is small and easily configurable. On top of that, having a spare set of battery is also important to make sure your feeder keeps working even if the primary battery goes down. You should check the battery frequently to avoid issues.
Final Thoughts
Finding and buying the right automatic pet feeder is a great blessing for your pet. It will save your time, energy, and brain to get engaged in feeding throughout the day. We hope that you now know how to choose an automatic pet feeder.
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