The Wireless Whiskers Automatic Pet Feeder is an extremely stylish and sophisticated pet feeder, with unique features to cater to your pet’s feeding needs.
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Wireless Whiskers Automatic Cat Feeder Review
The feeder works through a wireless tag which is attached to your pet’s collar. The feeding unit contains a bowl where the food is covered with 2 clear doors, these doors open when the cat feeder is activated by the wireless tag and shuts once the allowed portion is consumed. If you have more than one pet then each tag acts as an identification card, allowing the feeder to know which pet is trying to access the food. If one pet has already consumed its share for that time period the feeder will not open. This essentially puts your pet on a diet and prevents weight gain.
It comes with the following:
- Feeding tube
- Wireless whiskers unit
- Ac adapter
- Top cover
- 2 Wireless tags
- Manual and warranty
Features
This product has the nifty ability of being able to measure and record just how much your pet consumes daily, and it also calculates and then sets a daily intake automatically. It allows you the ability to divide the daily feed into portions by setting feeding at intervals. The AC adapter as well as the backup 4D batteries ensures that the feeding is operational for extended periods of time, so you have little to worry about if you run a bit late in getting home. However, if you have a power outage, the feed doors will open and stay open until the power returns.
The feeder can either be set automatically or manually and the ability to regulate pet feed ensures that you can prevent your pet from overeating. The total feed capacity is 5 pounds which amounts to about one month’s worth of food for a small dog or cat, and a few days worth if you have multiple pets.
Most feeders can feed up to 8 small pets at a time and 3-4 bigger pets. It is programmable to each pet and can greet each by its own name. This ensures that if you have two different types of pets or more than one pet, they will not be eating each other’s food. It also alerts you if your pet is eating too little, a handy feature to help you figure out when your pet is sick especially if you spend most of your day away from home. The food intake can be set with the Autodiet wizard mode, which is what monitors and regulates food intake.
It also come equipped with the feature to shut the feeder down at nights to stop your pet from night snacking. It has a 30 day guarantee for replacements and repair with free shipping and a 31-90 repair or replacement but for this time frame you have to pay for shipping.
Modes
This device has four (4) basic modes:
- Automatic: The compartment for feeding will open by default and close when the day’s feed is consumed or an unauthorized pet is detected. It is only recommended that you use this mode if you have only one pet that uses the feeder at home
- Advanced: The doors to the feeder are kept shut and will only open if the allowed pet tag is activated. Recommended if you have multiple pets that will use the feeder
- Always Shut: This is where the feeder is always closed, until activated to do otherwise
- Always Open: This is where the feeder is left open, until activated to do otherwise.
How to Adjust Auto Diet
This is the feature you will use to manually set feed intake for each pet per day, and it comes with a portion control option which allows you to divide the feed portions into 1/4/24 per day. Again, if your pet eats too fast or too much, this feature is extremely handy.
The Autodiet Wizard mode is activated whenever a new pet is detected. This purpose of the mode is to tabulate, calculate and then regulate the normal feed intake of each pet. It starts at the beginning of the day and goes for a 24 hour period, recording how much time your pet spends eating. After doing this for three days, the feeder will automatically set the proper intake per day for each pet. This will be the intake they are allowed until you go in and manually increase or reduce that intake amount.
What are the Pros and Cons of Wireless Whiskers?
Pros:
- It is easy to set up, monitor and add pet systems.
- One unit feeds multiple pets and automatically customizes a diet to each, without a crossover of feeding.
- Allows you to prevent one pet from stealing the food of another.
- By using two feeders you can stop your dog and cat from eating each other’s food.
- If your cat takes prescription or has a prescription diet it is an easy way to feed them medicine and keep others out of it.
- It displays a record of how each pet feeds and helps you to monitor your pet’s health.
- Holds a good amount of food.
- Takes away your need to worry about your pet being hungry if you are hours behind getting home.
Cons:
- The bowl cannot be removed for cleaning and the doors are not airtight.
- Some extra smart pets can beat its feeding regulation system by leaving a paw or head inside and preventing it from closing.
- If your pet is intent on getting fed when it wants and not when it should, then it can feed around the plastic doors. Ensure you place the feeder in a corner where walls block access to the sides will remove this issue.
- The manual is not easily understood.
- Higher price tag
Tips for Using Whiskers Pet Feeder
A few things to bear in mind when using this feeder are:
- Never leave it to stand on metal surfaces
- Do not under any circumstances place the feeding tube in the dishwasher
- Make sure the collar on your pet is not always tight. The wireless tag needs to be angled down and facing the feeder in order to open its doors.
- if by any chance the feeder becomes stuck on a particular date or time, you simply need to do a factory reset. Hold down the center button to power it down, then once again push that same button and hold for a count of 10 to reset. Then you can go ahead and re-program it.
Verdict:
This feeder offers up an excellent solution for feeding pets, and especially multiple pets, in the home. It arguably does a more efficient job than even the pet owner would. If you want your pet to be placed on a weight loss program, then this is your solution. If you want them to stop fighting for food, then this is your solution. If you are always worried about being home on time to feed your pets, then this is your solution. The benefits of this feeder seem to far outweigh the problems you might encounter.