Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had the task of feeding animals every day, and I realized I could save time by buying one of these. Then I realized I could save even more time by buying two. This product constitutes a simple but effective idea: put food into a queue so that animals can eat it on-demand. This frees you from having to feed them every day. ------------------------------ Additional PROS: ✔ Dogs have to learn how to push the door open. (I had to teach ours.) This learning curve would appear to create a pretty convenient obstacle for pests, rodents, and even neighbors' dogs. One side note is that it probably isn't that bad if a rodent figured out how to open the door. You would then essentially have a honeypot in your yard, possibly making it easier for your animals to hunt it. Additionally, it might deter the rodent from looking for additional food in your house. ✔ Dogs stopped fighting over food and around food almost immediately. ✔ It is very easy to load food into the feeder. The top panel opens and the opening is big enough to make pouring the food easy and spilling the food unlikely. ✔ It has been rain-proof. It is constructed well enough and there are a couple of ledges that make it unlikely rain will ever enter the feeder. ✔ There are holes on the back of the feeder if you want to secure it to something, or even hang it above ground. ✔ Perhaps intuitively (or counter-intuitively), our dogs are growing leaner. To me it makes sense. If they know they can get food at any time, why gorge? ------------------------------ Some CONS to consider: ✘ The magnet system isn't perfect. I had to prop one so that it tilted forward a little bit. This was so the magnets would connect when the door closed. It wouldn't matter much if the door didn't close completely. It just looks better and makes it less likely unwelcome animals will find the food. ✘ Although one feeder holds a lot of food, I wish they made bigger sizes. (Update: It looks like they now have a 50-pound version: 50 Pound Chow Hound Dog Feeder.) ------------------------------ In SUMMARY, great idea and a good product. I would recommend buying as many as you're comfortable with to increase the amount of time between feedings. Likewise, I would recommend having a bunch of water bowls. ------------------------------ UPDATE: 2016 Our two feeders have been outside now for over three years. They're still going strong. We live in South Texas, and the weather can be hot and humid, and occasionally stormy. The only apparent deterioration is on the front doors. They've become grimy and discolored. My guess is that's the area that comes into contact with the dogs' heads. ------------------------------ UPDATE: 2018 Our two feeders have been outside now for over five years! The main point of deterioration is the front of the doors, but it's nothing major. It looks like some surface rust has set in, and the doors continue to acquire grime from the top of the dogs' heads. I know the grime can be cleaned off, and I believe the surface rust can be treated. What's very impressive is how the rest of the feeder doesn't seem to ever deteriorate at all. For instance, the top of the each feeder basically looks the same as when it arrived. We also discovered that this feeder is so simple, even a small puppy can learn how to use it. I showed one or two how to open the door, and it seems like they all learned from each other after that - in only a few days. I've tried to upload a video. The puppies in the video were still nursing, and in fact they had just barely developed any teeth at all.