The Best Automatic Cat Feeders for When You’re Away
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Best Dry Feeder
Petlibro Granary Smart Camera Feeder
Best Wet Feeder
Petlibro Polar Wet Food Feeder
Best for Selfish Pets in a Multipet Home
Petlibro One RFID Smart Feeder
A Wet Feeder for Multiple Cats
Closer Pets C200 2-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder
As seen with the rise of automatic litter boxes and pet tracking, technology has made it so we can closely monitor our pets without having to do a lot of manual labor.
Automatic dry-food dispensers were invented nearly a century ago and now come in every type, using gravity or stoppers to regulate food. Most of the automatic cat feeder picks on this list utilize Wi-Fi and are connected to an app on your phone that allows you to make a schedule or feed on demand from afar, all while monitoring your pet’s eating habits. Automatic wet-food dispensers are relatively new, often using ice packs or mini-refrigeration cooling systems to ensure the food stays as fresh as possible.
Automatic feeders are also helpful for pet parents who want to monitor their pets’ health, have specialized schedules, or want to foster healthier eating habits (customizable automatic feeders can help with the endless gorging-vomiting cycle many cats struggle with). Nearly all of the automatic feeders on this list are marketed toward cats, but some can be used with smaller dogs, and I’ve noted which below.
Check out our related guides, like the Best Automatic Litter Boxes, Our Favorite Fancy Cat Furniture, and Our Favorite Cat Toys, Litter Boxes, and Other Feline Supplies. More of a dog person? We’ve got you covered; see our Best Accessories and Tech Essentials for Your Dog guide.
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Why Use an Automatic Feeder?
Automatic feeders are great for pet owners who want to help manage their pets’ weight and monitor eating patterns. Plus, they allow for a lot more control and precision for owners to learn exactly how much their cat is eating and when. Because cats are naturally more nocturnal, many have the annoying habit of waking you up in the early hours demanding food, and these allow you to set up a schedule that fits more to their schedule without inconveniencing yours.
Of course, it’s never recommended to leave pets alone for long periods, but these automatic feeders give more peace of mind and are a whole lot healthier for your pet than leaving a huge amount of food for free-feeding while you’re away for the night. Simply put, it’s an easier way to feed and monitor your cat’s health with less work for you, the human.
How Long Can I Leave My Cat Alone?
Although cats are generally thought of as less high-maintenance than dogs, it’s still not good to leave your cat for prolonged periods. Under dire circumstances, you can leave a cat alone for 24 to 48 hours with scheduled feedings and a clean water source, but it’s not ideal—especially for cats with health issues, kittens younger than a year, or very elderly cats. Although these feeders are automatic, and meals can be scheduled in advance and over multiple days, our pets still need their human pals around for enrichment, care, and well, love.
I have two rescue cats, ages 3 and 4, and they eat two wet-food meals a day and small amounts of dry kibble for snacks throughout the day. Vets (and TikTokkers) have successfully persuaded me to move toward a primarily wet-food diet, however, which has a higher water content. This provides more moisture in their diet, which helps with potentially life-threatening problems like UTIs, which are especially prevalent in male cats. I still like to give smaller dry-food meals throughout the day for them to satisfy their need for crunch.
For dry food, I use Hill’s Science Diet, and for wet food I use Friskies’ Shreds variety. (Yes, only Shreds. Fellow cat owners will understand.) I know there are better, more protein-rich brands, like the ever-popular Tiki Cat, but it’s out of my budget.
I used each of the feeders for a week and stuck to my cats’ usual meal schedule.
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best Dry Feeder
Petlibro Granary Smart Camera Feeder
Although this isn’t the most expensive automatic feeder on this list, it’s reliable, tech-savvy, and highly customizable. It’s controlled via an app and dispenses food from its 5-liter capacity based on the feeding schedule you create. It has a 1080p HD camera with night vision so you can watch and hear your pet eat even when far away, and you can communicate with them via speaker. Setup was easy, although it requires three D batteries, which aren’t included. The video recording storage can be managed via the Cloud or an SD card, which also isn’t included.
Through the Petlibro app (for Android and iOs), you set up a feeding schedule (up to six meals a day) with your desired amount, from one-twelfth of a cup to four cups. You can customize the meal call to a personal message or set it to default recording (or keep it silent). The app alerts you any time a cat is eating and shows a live video feed of it. The lights on the feeder and in-app notifications alert you to things like low food levels, food blockages, and low battery power.
The app is easy to use with extremely customizable feeding plans with meals that you label individually. My cats will have to live in a surveillance state, because I’m a helicopter mom, and I love being able to see, hear, and talk to my pets even when far away with this automatic feeder.
Can be used with cats or small dogs.
Compatible food types Dry only App Yes Power source Power cord, three D backup batteries Capacity 5 liters Warranty Two years -
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best Wet Feeder
Petlibro Polar Wet Food Feeder
The Petlibro Polar Wet Food Feeder solves pretty much every gripe I had with other automatic feeders aimed at storing wet food—it’s essentially a mini-fridge guaranteed to keep food fresh, and it’s connected to an app where you can schedule and customize feedings while a log tells you how long a cat was at the bowl and when the feeding time finished.
The feeder is black, sleekly designed, and quiet when plugged in. On the tray, there are three wide, shallow bowls (less chance for whisker fatigue, although I wish they were stainless steel), and you place the tray back into the top and press the lid down to close. I set my feeding schedule at various times over a period of days and had it auto-repeat. When it’s time to feed, the cover slides back from the hole and reveals the food beneath.
The refrigeration uses thermoelectric cooling and stays at 50 degrees Fahrenheit or below for up to three days, and cooling is paused 30 minutes before scheduled feeding time to make sure it’s at ideal temperature when feeding begins (great for my picky cat Clover, who won’t eat food if it’s too cold). You have the ability to alter the schedule, open the lid to manually feed on demand, and control how long it’s opened, and there’s even a sensor to make sure it doesn’t close while your kitty is feeding. It logs every time a feeding plan has been started/completed, and how long your cat was eating—all of which you can check through the app. This seems like the best automatic wet feeder on the market, and I’m thinking of getting a second one for my other cat. I’m a fan.
Can be used with cats or small dogs.
Compatible food types Wet only App Yes Power source Power cord, three backup AAA batteries Capacity 7.4 ounces Warranty Two years
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
Best for Selfish Pets in a Multipet Home
Petlibro One RFID Smart Feeder
The One RFID Smart Feeder from Petlibro shows just how far automatic cat-feeding technology has come. For this feeder, the pet wears a collar with a tag in which the feeder’s lid opens only with that tag. There’s a cover that retracts automatically when the pet with the collar approaches the stainless steel food bowl (which is removable for washing and is dishwasher safe). The sensor in the pad in front will be activated, and the cover will retract over the kibble when the cat leaves, ensuring that only the chosen pet with the collar can access the food.
The 3-liter feeder relies on the Petlibro app, which allows the owner to create up to 10 feeding schedules whose amounts can be modified anytime, including on-demand feeding. Like our other automatic Petlibro feeder picks, the app collects the data and tracks trends in your pet’s consumption, and owners control everything from the app. The automatic lid is customizable too, as you can switch on the app to leave the lid in “open mode” or adjust how long the lid stays open after your pet walks away from it.
Overall, I think this is a nearly perfect device for a particular kind of pet owner. I think it works best for a cat in a dog home where the owner doesn’t want the dog getting into the cat’s food, if each pet in the home has a One RFID feeder, if one particular cat has special dietary needs, or if you have a multi-cat home with an aggressive eater. In these cases, I truly think this product would be a life-changer. (If you get a One RFID for each pet, it’s recommended that you space them at least 10 inches apart to avoid any interference.)
One of my only complaints with the device is that the lid doesn’t get super flush to the wall when retracted, and my cat won’t eat the food that is near the back of the bowl. The QR code tag comes on a super-flimsy collar that kept loosening, but there is the option to detach it and put it on your pet’s own collar, which I did, and it worked great after. Although the One RFID isn’t right for my cats, I would recommend it to anyone who has pets with differing food needs.
Can be used with cats or very small dogs.
Compatible food types Dry only App Yes Power source Power cord, three backup D batteries Capacity 13 cups Warranty Two years -
Photograph: Molly Higgins
A Wet Feeder for Multiple Cats
Closer Pets C200 2-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder
The Closer Pets automatic pet feeder is super simple, which is both its weakness and its strength. Unlike many of the high-tech cat items on this list, the C200 doesn’t require a lengthy setup or even electricity. It’s essentially two shallow plastic containers with stainless steel inserts (both dishwasher safe) and tamper-resistant lids that are locked and automatically open on a timer. The timer is an old-school egg-style timer, which just requires a AA battery rather than electricity. Once food is inside, shut the lids and twist the knobs, which both have a 48-hour timer, to lock the lids closed. When the countdown ends, the lids are unlocked and automatically open. The C200 also allows for wet food and comes with an ice pack that’s stored directly below the food bowls to help keep it cool. I was happy to see that the bowl inserts (which have a capacity of up to 14 ounces of wet food) were stainless steel, because as any chronically online cat parent like myself knows, plastic harbors bacteria more easily and can cause chin acne in cats.
Although the container has an ice pack to keep the wet food cool, after a night it had lost virtually all of its coolness. There’s a lid-link clip attachment, a small piece of plastic that links the lids to ensure they will open at the same time, which is super helpful for owners of two cats. I wish the timer was electric so I could program it to the exact time I want it open, rather than guesstimating the timing on the little marks. However, this is a simple solution to help make sure both my cats are given wet food without me having to wake up at the crack of dawn.
Can be used with cats or dogs.
Compatible food types Wet or dry App No Power source One AA battery Capacity 14 ounces of wet food Warranty None
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Photograph: Molly Higgins
Runner-Up
Feeder-Robot
If you’re a cat person, you probably know about Whisker’s Litter-Robot (our top pick for automatic litter boxes), which is known for being the best automatic box on the market. Well, Whisker has done it again with the Feeder-Robot, an expensive, techy automatic feeder. It looks like an espresso machine, with buttons on the interface and an app where you control feeding schedules and food amounts, including monitoring levels to make sure there is enough (it alerts you via app and a light on top of the feeder if the food levels are low).
I love how customizable meals are: You can set multiple schedules for different days of the week, and it dispenses anywhere from one-eighth of a cup to half of a cup of food. It also has gravity mode, where the feeder checks levels every six hours and dispenses food automatically if the bowl is empty.
The app is intuitive and easy to use with customizable settings, and it also tracks every time a cat is fed, so you can have peace of mind that the feeding times went off as intended. The feeder has anti-jam technology, and because it saves the feeding schedule locally on the unit, it works even when offline. The bowl is wide and shallow but is made of plastic. Although the plastic is food-safe and BPA-free, I’d still prefer stainless steel. (Whisker has a glass bowl insert for $30, and because of the unique shape, it can only be bought through the retailer.) I can’t really find any faults in this feeder. I prefer the Petlibro Granary because of the camera feature, but the Feeder-Robot has worked perfectly and just feels sleek and elevated. This is the future cat owners want.
Can be used with cats or small dogs.
Compatible food types Dry only App Yes Power source Power cord Capacity 13 cups Warranty One year -
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Other Feeders We Tested
We Liked These, But They Aren’t Our Top Picks
- Closer Pets C500 for $90: This automatic wet and dry feeder can schedule up to four preportioned meals (and one meal given manually) that are opened on a timer system using three AA batteries (sold separately). The user presets the four times they want the bowls, which have ice packs underneath, to rotate. The bowls are quite deep and narrow and aren’t super easy for cats to reach, which could cause whisker fatigue. And although there are two relatively large ice packs, when I checked on the feeder after a night’s sleep, the packs weren’t very cold. I wish it could be plugged in for a consistent source of power instead of using batteries only, for peace of mind.
- Catit Pixi Smart 6-Meal Feeder for $130: Like others on this list, the Catit Pixi wet and dry feeder uses ice packs to keep wet food fresh and uncovers the meals below in six compartments in a rotating schedule. The schedule can be programmed via the app or changed on the body of the feeder. At this price point, the app shouldn’t be this limited and glitchy. The schedule is available in military time only, and the app is extremely limited—you can only set the meals schedule for the same day, and when I wanted to do only two to three meals a day spread over two days, I had to reschedule the meals for every new day. This feeder could be awesome with app updates, but as is it falls short.
- Catit Pixi Smart Cat Feeder for $88: Kibble is stored in the body of this dry feeder, but it doesn’t have a window to visually check food levels. The calendar to plan meals shows only a week at a time, and although it should repeat daily based on the schedule, I found that some days there would be no schedule despite setting one up. The Pixi also doesn’t tell you how much food was dispensed; it just refers to it as a “portion.” I had to manually measure and found the portion was less than a tablespoon of kibble. The schedule is available in military time only, the app is extremely bare bones with limited information, and it doesn’t have the ability to personalize based on individual cats or mealtimes. This feeder is a cheap option if you’re OK with a more basic, sometimes glitchy app. It fed my cats, but I had to monitor it to make sure it was actually sticking to the schedule I set.
