Qpets 6-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder

Insanely stupid electronics – I have a new cat from a shelter. Since he was probably born feral, his drive for food is insatiable--he will eat everything placed before him, then continue to demand more. An automated pet feeder is a recommended method of spreading dry food through the day, and by gradually changing feed times and amounts I had hoped to alter his behaviour. … Read more

This cat feeder is offered by Amazon under the QPet brand, but in Australia it is imported without a brand name from China. It is available on Ebay and GumTree. Based on commentary on the Amazon site, the non-branded unit is identical.

The LCD panel lets you set the current time and then six times (on the hour only) when the trays rotate to avail dry food for your pet. These could be six in one day, three in two days, or two in three days. There are two start buttons. "Start Tomorrow" immediately rotates to tray #6, suspends the unit until midnight then assumes the next feeding time is in tray #1. "Start Now" is the same, but it will advance to tray #1 as soon as its time passes.

So think about how this works. You prepare the trays at 7pm after you have fed your cat its evening wet food. If you want to skip any feed times left in the day, press "Start Tomorrow". If you have a late evening feed programmed for tray #1, then press "Start Now".

First stupid thing: the unit issues its recorded call-out when you set the unit up. Why? I don't want my cat to come then, he just gets upset that I am not feeding him!

Second stupid thing: there is only one queue position and that is at tray #6, which you must keep closed when you set up the unit unless you want your cat to eat right then.

What if you are unable to set the unit up at 7pm? Maybe you didn't get home until late, or you missed the first feed time of the day, and you haven't set it up yet. There is no way to queue the unit at anything else but tray #6.

If you missed your time for tray #1, the unit will sit idle for a whole day and your cat will not be fed, until the time for tray #1 comes around! You might not realise your cat is being starved until he nips you in the leg (mine did).

The only option is to reprogram every time, and then do it again the next day when your regular schedule returns. This is insanely tedious and stupid.

It would not have taken a rocket scientist to program the controller to queue the tray that precedes the next feeding time that you have set. That is what "Start Now" should do. But it doesn't. This is so stupid and frustrating. If you think you are getting a "set-and-forget" unit, you are in for a big surprise.

The physical unit is actually quite well designed. It is a shame that it is let down by its insanely stupid electronics.