Once I added another pet to the family, the constant feeding in small bowls started to get to me. Cats for the most part are self controlling when it comes to eating (especially when it comes to dry food!) So I followed foot of my newly pet parent friends, and got Murray and Teenie the small (3, almost 3.5 lbs capacity) Petmate LeBistro Feeder.
The Base/Bowl:
From the get go, little Murray (the family extension I mentioned) insisted on eating only out of the "real" kitty bowl. He wanted nothing to do with anything I had placed on the other end of the house for him, trying to keep the two newly joined animals from fighting. Lucky for Teenie (the more "violated by the invasion" pet,) even the small Petmate LeBistro Feeder has a base bowl large enough for the two of them to squish their heads in together as they devour their tasty morsels I leave for them. I've even taken a picture to prove this fact!
The Container/Dispenser:
According to the raised lettering on the side of the clear holder, this item holds "3 pounds". Yet, I kid you not, I consistently have poured 3.5 lb bags of food into the feeder without trouble... (maybe someone's measurements are a bit off!?!) Perhaps the bowl makes up for the rest, or I'm just a good food packer.
Made of a transparent plastic, you can see what level of food is in the feeder at any given time, even from across the room. You don't have to do any weird contortions or filling tricks, thanks to the handy little snap of lid at the top of the actual container area!
Cleaning:
Since the entire feeder is made of very durable plastic, and completely simple snap together pieces (3 in total,) cleaning is easy. I'm not sure about dishwasher safe-ness, since I don't have one myself, and failed to check before removing the one sticker label that came with the package. I wash each piece by hand. The bowl/base has no small crevices, so a simple rinse and wash does the job. The clear dispenser/container is grooved (possibly for style and funk?) so it requires a more attentive wiping and reaching into to clean, yet still not hard since all you're putting into it is dry food! The lid couldn't be easier, it's very similar to any butter tub lid with a thicker presence... simply said, 'easy washing!'
My Experience/My Silly Pets:
I learned long ago to place both the feeder or bowl, and water fountain (yes... I said fountain, I'll explain that more once Epinions adds the Drinkwell Pet Fountain into their data base) on a rubber backed, semi-thick, bathroom sized carpet piece. You see, Teenie learned long ago to tip everything over: water... food... anything else I left there. Somehow, the carpet has done the trick. This also discourages, in fact disallows, the pushing and scooting of said appliances around the room as well!
Now, add Murray into the picture, and we run into another unforeseen side effect: he eats like a whale. Apparently he only likes to eat food that he can chew on, and/or is too big for his mouth. So, what he does is he chews everything down to a small crumb... and then leaves it there. These uneaten, already been slobbered, pieces land either all around the bowl, or back into the bowl. Murray would never even consider eating these pieces, as long as he can still find full sized ones the munch on. So inevitably the rug is speckled and needs a quick vacuum, plus the bowl is full of small pebblish pieces, neither cat will eat (meaning I have to dig them out after a while!)
My only real complaint with the Petmate LeBistro Feeder is that the slope of the dispenser isn't quite abrupt enough to actually keep the bowl reasonably full. Therefore, I either thump the container when I notice, shake it some, or leave the cats to fend for themselves (which they do.) I've never actually caught Teenie in the act (she usually just lets Murray do it, or she'll eat all cock-eyed in contortions trying to get at the slope of food back there somewhere,) but Murray has the whole thing figured out. He is what I call a "reacher". He takes his little paw and kind of scoops the food from the back of the bowl to the front, making the slope fill it all up. Unfortunately, this learned habit has rolled over into my food as well... he's an expert at getting chips and other snacks out of my bags and bowls!
Epinions Note:
Since photos are not allowed into the reviews themselves, I've included the mentioned snapshot, of the feeder (and kitties) in action, on my member page.
This review was written as part of Bluehawq's "My Silly Pet" WriteOff! To see the other entries, entrants, or more info, go to her homepage [http://www.bluehawq.com/writeoffs/mysillypetentries.html]
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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