One of the dilemmas for pet owners while vacationing or traveling is arranging for your cats, dogs, chinchillas or whatever pet friend you may have, to be fed regularly while you're away. We're fortunate to have some good friends who live in close proximity to care for our animals while we're away, but we've also invested in automatic pet feeders in the past for short weekend jaunts. The problem is many of these feeders are constructed so poorly, our ever hungry feline Eero has proven herself adept at breaking open any feeder and gorging herself into a tub of lard while we're away. Recently we were fortunate to have Eero meet her match: the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe...
The Perfect Petfeeder Luxe in the Test Lab
As the name implies, the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe is the Bentley of pet feeders. The review unit we received immediately impressed us upon unpacking with its size and weight; the unit weighs 19 lbs empty with a 10 lbs of food capacity (22h x 12w x 12d). Stainless steel parts with an ABS base makes for a feeder that can withstand the battering ram technique of our hungry felines. There's no mistaking the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe was built with serious consideration of long term durability, but we were still suspicious of it's ability to withstand the kibble criminal of our cat, Eero, whom we often call the "Grey Bandito".
Putting the unit together takes no more than 10 minutes from unpacking to setting the automatic feeding program at the top of the unit. The Perfect Petfeeder Luxe includes three bowls, one large 7" stainless steel bowl for a single larger pet like a dog (or for the porcine appetite of Eero) or two smaller bowl attachments for a two cat/dog household. The automatic feeding schedule is input via a three button LCD display, using "yes" and "no" questions, allowing customization of how many pets are fed, how often throughout the day, at which time and specifically how much is dispensed with each feeding. We set our unit for 2 feedings, one in the early morning at 5:15am, about the hour our cats begin their chorus of "oh-so-hungry" pleas, and at 5:15pm when the same chorus is repeated for an encore presentation.
An optional bell ringer can be set to notify your pets that their meal is about to be dispensed, a sound we've already accustomed ourselves to loving, because it means we can sleep an extra hour without having to get up ourselves. The bell also helps acclimate pets with being fed by their new best friend, as our normally more shy cat, Eames, took a quick liking to the "come and get it" bell ring. And unlike other pet feeders, the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe has proven to be Fort Knox tough; our resident food robber initially tried to open the lid and also reach under where the food is dispensed to no avail. The unit is too large to be tipped over and the parts attached with sturdy assurance that food is dispensed only at allotted times and not when Fido or Trixie has a craving. For this reason alone, we're very pleased with the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe.
During our recent trip to visit family in Texas, the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe worked flawlessly, keeping both cats happily fed (perhaps too happily, as we set one of the feeding amounts a bit too high). Our friends just made sure the unit was dispensing correctly every other day, while checking/replacing water and cleaning out the litterbox, but otherwise making our absence a lot less worrisome.
The Perfect Petfeeder Luxe operates plugged in or using a battery for cordless operation; the battery will operate for 5-7 days with 5-6 daily meals. The battery pack and how it fits into the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe is one noticeable deficiency, as the pack doesn't always lock into place, thus we kept the unit plugged in. The unit also automatically notifies you when you need to refill the feeder with additional kibble. An impressive three year replacement warranty covers the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe from mechanical failure and is constructed in the USA.
So what's not to love? The Perfect Petfeeder Luxe deservedly has earned the title of the best automatic pet feeder we've ever used. It's a product that rewards owners with the luxury of sleep, a system which accurately doles out controlled portions for your pets (since pet obesity is now as much an issue as a human one) and one constructed with an obvious eye for quality. We can't recommend it enough, as it is a product we recognize benefits owner and pet alike. Well, except for the notable and important issue of price, which cannot be described by anything but "luxe". The $499 price tag is well outside our own budget, which makes us a bit sad because we'll have to soon return our new best friend after the review period to return to doling out kibbles the old fashioned way, with sticky eyes and groggy heads. This is one of those cases where the price may be justified in construction and features, and we're convinced with the product itself, but our own wallets cannot comply. We hope to see a smaller feline unit at a more modest price be released by Perfect Petfeeder in the future, as believe we'd undoubtedly be customers ourselves, but also hope some of our more affluent pet owning readers find themselves enjoying the Perfect Petfeeder Luxe in their homes. You'll love that bell.
Comments (18)
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If only I had easy to feed cats. Until we find an auto pet feeder that can combine two types of wet food- mixing them well- for every feeding time, we'll have to stick to pet sitters.
Sadly.
view KimH's profile
Love the idea, hate the price tag.
view pier723's profile
I agree with pier and kim!
I need to keep my cats extra hydrated so the vet tells me to put water in their food if not just switch them to wet food- this isn't really an option for me but I wish it was. And the price tag is a minor boo hoo- Id rather stick with my current autofeeder that I got prior to one of them needing water have him gain a bit of weight from being able to break into it a bit then shell out that amount.
view frozenemotion9's profile
Oh no you did *not* name your cat after Eero Saarinen.
That's freaking AWESOME.
view amandacollier's profile
The other one is Eames....
I'll withhold comments.
At any rate, I find it really mean to talk about these awesome products then hit us with the price tag. It's mean! :( Any reasonably priced items??
view grafxnerd's profile
$499?!?!?!
You could pay the local 12-year-old neighbor kid to come in and feed the cat for 6 months with that kind of money...
view bepsf's profile
Reasonably priced alternative: SuperFeeder
From Amazon.com....got it a few months ago and absolutely love it. We're trying to get our cat to drop a few pounds, and now that she has learned that we don't control the food, she's not waking us up for breakfast at 3am every day.
It's admittedly not pretty, but doesn't take up much space. And it's still many times more expensive than a regular food bowl, but for us it was totally worth the cost.
view michelle123's profile
grafxnerd: trust me, if I had a reasonably priced feeder I could wholeheartedly recommend, I would. This is a case where you get what you pay for, and I note that the feeder is also out of our own budget, so we're even more bummed about having the joys of living with one for a short while only to have to return it now we're done evaluating. This might be a case where saving up for one might be worth it in the long run.
view gregory's profile
bepsf: I don't think we're paying our local 12-year old to feed the cats at 5:15am each morning while we're here, lest we find ourselves being nicknamed Michael Jackson. The great thing about the feeder is it can be used regularly, not just while you're away; it has reduced the chorus of cries because the cats know breakfast/dinner is coming from the machine and not us (the cats don't seem to bother begging toward the pet feeder). But yeah, the price is prohibitive for the majority of us pet owners.
view gregory's profile
wow... I never thought this was an issue with cats. I guess I've always been lucky to be able to leave out a bowl of food and have them eat only what they need at will.
view foodefafa's profile
Sigh, if only my cats didn't eat different foods and steal from each other...
view Hollie's profile
frozenemotion9- did the vet tell you to add water for a weight issue or for a kidney issue? For weight problems, it's actually better to switch them to high protein food, with minimal fillers. Such as kitten food, or some of the grain-free foods on the market. I just found that out, I wish someone told me that BEFORE my 4 year old cat was 20 lbs. ;-)
My older cat developed an allergy to grain products and all foods containing fillers so I stumbled upon that information by accident.
view KimH's profile
Man, now I want cats, just so I can name them Panton, Bertoia and Corbusier.
I probably would shell out for one of these if I had cats...or at least if I had cats that woke me up in the wee hours for food. But the pug gets stuff mixed in with her dry food, and she never bugs me about feeding time, anyway. I just get The Stare.
view amandacollier's profile
Gregory - Sorry, I didn't notice the 5.15am note...
...it's too bad pets don't "get" Daylight Savings Time.
view bepsf's profile
Love the product, can't afford it, but I'd consider saving up for it if only my cats could eat the food that way.
My elderly cat (18, bad teeth, allergies) MUST eat only moist food with no grain and no chicken. Or the chronic diarhhea might come back. (Nooooo!)
My younger cat (10) can eat anything, but trying to prevent problems, he gets grain free food, too, chicken ok at this time, and nearly impossible to avoid. He gets Taste of the Wild dry food (mainly dehydrated meat products and veggies) and moist seafood varieties, his favorite. (They contain chicken, too, so his big sister can't share.)
It ends up being easier to just feed them by hand!
(For trips, Talia, the pet sitter, comes by to play, feed and clean up for the cats and two house rabbits for about $20 a visit twice a day. The $500 sounds more affordable knowing that, right?!) (But there is the "playing with" and the "cleanup", so we'd still need help, even with a feeder. Be nice for short weekend trips, though.)
view SherryBinNH's profile
I bought the Petmate Le Bistro Portion-Control Automatic 5-Pound Pet Feeder off of Amazon. It was sort of mysterious to program, but I got it going. It works great for my easy-peasy dry-cat-food-eating male cat.
BUT I don't recommend the accompanying water cooler style water dish. I was a numbskull. The bottle is so big, I filled it. I left it. My cat didn't like the water when in got stale, stopped drinking. $500 mistake after treating my cat for a UTI. Fresh water lesson LEARNED.
view Loosetooth's profile
Here's my issue;
What if it breaks when you're on vacation?
I'd rather pay more for the piece of mind that my cat is getting human contact everyday and someone has seen, fed and played with the cat and can report to me that she is ok.
view Ana's profile
Glad to hear it can withstand Eero's stealth moves. However: do you think it can foil a cat who can reach UP into the dispenser with deft kitty paws and get kibbles? This is the problem with a friend's current auto-feeder. She has yet to find a feeder that is kitty go-go-gadget-paw proof.
view SkippyB's profile