Recently we reviewed the excellent Andrew James 90 day pet feeder here.
Now we’re going to take a look at its smaller brother, the 6 day feeder. Rather than a central storage for the food, this feeder has 6 separate bowls that can be filled with various foods at different levels which allows for a bit of variety if you have a fussy kitty like our two. The feeder can be programmed to provide anything from 6 meals in 1 day for 1 day or 1 meal once a day for 6 days making it ideal for when you are away for a short break.
The feeder came pre-assembled but I decided to see how easy it was to disassemble and reassemble. Although it looked fairly straightforward it was a little bit tricky to get things lined up but I’m sure it will become second nature if you regularly take the feeder apart to clean it. The unit is constructed from tough easy clean plastic. As for the 90 day feeder, programming needs to be done after reading the instructions to prevent wasting time and getting frustrated. Recording of the message was simple enough. I’d decided to use the feeder to provide 2 meals twice a day for 3 days. The first meal was a little snack so I only put a small amount of food in the 1st, 3rd and 6th bowls. On the Andrew James website, there is an option to buy trays to reduce the portion size for the 4 day feeder. That could come in handy for the 6 day feeder though not essential. I guess our cats will have to feel a bit short changed when the lid opens and the tray is only half full. According to the manufacturers, the 6 day feeder is “compatible with wet and dry disposable food packs”. I’m not sure I would be happy to leave wet food in the bowls as although they are covered, they are not airtight so food may become dry and stale over a 24 hour period. If you prefer to use wet food then the Andrew James 4 day feeder may be a better option as it has an ice chamber to help keep food fresh as well as a tray for foil containers.
Our kitties took to the feeder fairly quickly and soon realised there was food to be had from the whirring machine on the floor. They were not fazed at all and were soon crunching their way through the contents of the first section. Judging by the empty bowl on our return they were quite happy to help themselves to the snacks left for them too.
Overall, the 6 day feeder offers a good option for when you need to ensure your kitties are provided for over a short break or weekend. The individual bowls offer flexibility in the amount of food given for a specific meal. The programming is fairly easy as long as you read the instructions first.
Please see below a video of the feeder in action:
To find out more about the feeder or to purchase it please click here to head over to the Andrew James website and shop. You may also wish to check out these other best automatic cat feeder for further feeder ideas.
You can also find Andrew James on Facebook by clicking here or on Twitter by clicking here.
Thanks,
Iain
I love that you can record a message to call your kitties to the feeder! We have a lovely friend who comes over twice a day to feed Mia when we’re away, but there have been a couple of occasions she’s been unavailable and we’ve had a mad scramble to find an alternative kitty-sitter. I’ll have to look into getting one of these.
Hi Emily,
Glad you liked our review! And yes those feeders are most certainly a blessing for those situations.
We have the same thing with kitty-sitting and find its far better for the person to come around and play with the cats than dealing with all the necessary things.Hence why we have an automatic feeder and automatic toilet for holidays! 😀
Marc
Indeed good
Reblogged this on Home Sweet Home WY and commented:
~~
<3 thanks
?? Good morning from WY (MST) Not early, but almost Noon for you!
Haha. Thank you! Totally missed this sorry. So good night from me now 😉
😉
Reblogged this on Dim News.
It is a good review of an interesting product. Having multiple cats myself, the concern I have with the automatic feeders like this is that some cat may miss out on the feeding times, or the other more agressive cats empty the tray before every cat has a chance to eat. I do not want a cat to go hungry. Are my fears unfounded?
Hey Greg,
Thank you very much. We are glad you liked our review 🙂
As for your fear in our two cat house hold it hasn’t been an issue but if you have more than that it is probably a good idea to place two feeders in different locations to ensure that one cat doesn’t eat everything.
Thanks,
Marc
Great review and a great idea for short breaks too. Thanks!
Most welcome 🙂
How long before your cats learned how to manipulate the motor to get more food? 🙂