Portions that do not depend on your evening
The specification that matters on a feeder is the one nobody prints: which kibble sizes it will not jam on. A rotating drum handles round kibble and stalls on large flat pieces; a screw auger behaves the other way round. Everything else follows — portion consistency, hopper seal, and what happens in a power cut. We compare each of those, and the failure mode when a jam does occur.
4 L · 1–6 meals · 7–9 g (0.2 to 0.3 oz) portions · voice recording · battery backup
A 4-liter hopper with a semi-transparent body, portions of roughly 7 to 9 grams, a ten-second voice recording and a battery backup alongside the USB-C supply.
Best for: Anyone who wants to know what the feeder is actually dispensing, in grams, without weighing it themselves.
3.5 L hopper · 1–6 meals/day · 1–36 portions · LCD dial
A 3.5-liter dry-food hopper with a single dial and an LCD screen: one to six meals a day, one to thirty-six portions each, and a sealed lid with a rotor at the base.
Best for: One cat, a week away, and an owner who would rather turn a dial than install an app.
Two meals · 400 g (14.1 oz) per bowl · 48 h quartz timer · ice pack
A two-meal timed feeder with no app, no motor and no jam: the lid rotates on a quartz timer and each bowl holds 400 g (14.1 oz) of wet food, kept cool by the supplied ice pack.
Best for: A cat on wet food that needs one meal while you are out, and anyone who has had a hopper feeder jam.
≈ $30
Five meals · 330 g (11.6 oz) stainless bowls · digital timer · two ice packs
Five stainless bowls of 330 g (11.6 oz) on a digital timer, with two ice packs and a tamper-resistant lid. It is the wet-food feeder for an absence longer than a day.
Best for: A weekend away with a cat on wet food, or a cat fed several small meals a day for medical reasons a vet has set.
≈ $41
5 L / 20 cups · portion ≈ 10 g (0.4 oz) · kibble under 12.7 mm (0.50 in) · 5 GHz Wi-Fi · 10 s call
A five-liter Wi-Fi feeder that publishes its portion weight at about ten grams and its kibble limit at under half an inch.
Best for: Two cats on a weighed ration, where the vet gave the dose in grams
5 L · two steel bowls · kibble 2–15 mm (0.08 to 0.59 in) · desiccant + gasket · battery backup
A five-liter feeder splitting meals between two stainless bowls, with a sealed hopper, a desiccant, infrared anti-clog sensing and battery backup.
Best for: Two cats, in a house where the power flickers and the kitchen is humid
16 L stainless · 10–15 days for a large dog · wall or floor mount
A 16-liter stainless dispenser for large dogs, with four feeding times of 1 to 99 seconds each, mountable on a wall or standing on the floor. It is the only feeder here built for a big animal.
Best for: A large dog, a kennel, or anywhere two weeks of food needs to be held off the floor.
Hopper capacity decides how many days are covered. A hopper sized exactly right leaves no margin if anything goes wrong.
The number of programmable meals decides how finely you can ration, useful for animals that eat too fast.
A weekend power cut leaves the animal without meals if the unit has no backup cells. A stated backup power source is the only guarantee worth anything when you are away.
No. It feeds at fixed times and detects neither breakdown, nor jam, nor a sick animal. A long absence needs a human visit.
Without backup batteries the machine stops and sometimes loses its programming. That is a point to check before buying.
Accuracy varies with the size and shape of the kibble. Weigh what is actually dispensed before relying on it.
Only refrigerated models can, for a limited period. The vast majority of feeders handle dry food only.
Yes, with kibble that is too large, too small or greasy. Run it for several days while you are there before leaving.
Hopper emptied and washed regularly: greasy residue goes rancid. Dry it completely before refilling.
An alert for a missed feed can be useful from a distance. It depends on the connection and on the manufacturer's service.
Put it into service several days before the absence, so the animal links the noise to the meal arriving.
A feeder feeds at fixed times and sees nothing: it never replaces a human visit over a long absence. Run it for several days while you are there — jamming is real — and check that backup batteries are included.
There is no table here, and the reason is in the listings. The figure published most often across these 7 products is hopper, given by 5 of them — short of the four in five a column needs to compare rather than to display gaps. Each product page says what its own maker published.
Specifications: manufacturer sheets for pet devices and the matching Amazon product pages. Prices and availability: Keepa.
Most recent revision in this category: October 6, 2026.
