I acquired this for a pet rabbit who needs 2 pellet meals and 4 treats, spaced 2 hours apart, every 12 hours. When we have to be away on day trips, this PetSafe carousel feeder gives us more flexibility on our time away while ensuring our pet rabbit’s feeding schedule is not disrupted. I will be purchasing a second unit to span 24 hours. If there were a version of this feeder with 12 timed servings for ultra small pets, I’d buy it ASAP. The features of this PetSafe feeder that are superior are as follows: 1. The carousel that sits higher up and which feeds the servings through a chute to a food dish below protects pets’ snouts from getting caught in the carousel dividers when they rotate. This is important as our rabbit initially kept trying to push his snout up into the chute to try to hack it for more food (like a human sticking their arm up the dispensing slot in a vending machine to try to get more content). This feeder is completely protected against this type of hack, by the way. 2. The food dish can be removed for cleaning, and clips firmly in place to prevent pets from knocking or throwing it around. If you have another weighted food dish that you prefer to use, the one that comes with the feeder can simply be unclipped and there is plenty of clearance for another one of 6 to 8 inch diameter to align with the dispensing chute. 3. The digital, electronic timer on this PetSafe feeder is much more precise and accurate than the manual “egg timer” dials used on other feeders, and the meal serving times can be set in 15-minute increments. Other feeders using analog timers work only on 1-hour increments for the meal serving times. 4. The top lid is flush fit and locks tightly, preventing pets from gaining a hold on the lid and opening it. Our rabbit immediately tried to undo the lid with his teeth, but ended up gnawing on the non-moveable outer rim of the feeder’s console instead - and gave up the attempted break-ins after realizing the futility of his efforts. 5. The control console has a battery power level indicator to help you know when the replace the batteries. Though the D-cell batteries required are kind of old school, they do have the benefit of adding substantial weight to the base of the feeder that helps stabilize it and protect it from being flipped over by small pets. Our 3.5 lb. rabbit tried his best to deadlift the unit and roll it — but to no avail. LOL 6. The carousel compartments allow you to specifically size each meal or feeding by loading the exact amount into each. The ability of this feeder to deliver meals in greatly varying proportions is a plus. Some things to know: 1. This feeder is not waterproof. So, do not immerse it in water. I clean it by wiping down with a paper towel soaked in white vinegar and then follow with rinse wipes with paper towels soaked with water. 2. If you take out the carousel for cleaning, the power will cut off to the clock / timer panel. Do not be alarmed - you did not short out or damage the electronics. Power from the batteries will flow to the clock / timer panel when you re-install the carousel. However, know that the clock and all the meal time presets will be zeroed out and will need to be manually re-entered. 3. If you use the “force feed” button, be aware that it will advance the feed time to the next pre-set of the six that are available. 4. The clock / timer on this feeder distinguishes AM from PM. If you are not using the 24-hour clock option, make certain you pay attention to the AM and PM designations on the clock and time settings. 5. This unit uses D-cell batteries — six of them. It is kind of cool in a throwback way that reminds of toys from my childhood long ago that used these huge battery cells and lots of them. In any case, the batteries do not come with the feeder, so be certain to add six D-cell batteries to your cart. :) 6. Make certain the lid is properly seated with “tongues in grooves,” and locked (by turning the lid clockwise until it stops). Otherwise, if the lid is left loose, it will not be long before your pet figures this out. Don’t ask me how I know. ;-) 7. Do not use this feeder with wet food items that will spoil if not kept cool. This feeder does not have an ice-pack option for cooling the carousel compartments holding the edibles. Overall this PetSafe carousel feeder is a keeper, and very practical. ***** 07/24/2021 UPDATE 1. I have had this PetSafe carousel feeder for about a week now, and it is proving to be very useful. Our pet rabbit is most active during the overnight hours while we are asleep. This feeder allows us to keep delivering treats and light meals at 2 hour intervals throughout the early morning hours. 2. I have discovered that the power consumption of this feeder is substantial. A full set of four D batteries showing full charge on the feeder’s battery power indicator was depleted in about 5 days. To save on the costs of buying a new set of disposable batteries every week, I have acquired EBL 10000 mAh rechargeable D cells and the EBL 4-cell charger via Amazon. These rechargeable batteries work great in the PetSafe feeder. Note that your average disposable (alkaline) D battery has 13000 mAh capacity. So when you have a full set of the EBL rechargeable batteries installed in the PetSafe, the battery charge indicator will show only 75% charge remaining. This is because the 4x10000=40000 mAh on the full set of rechargeable batteries is about 75% of the 4x13000=52000 mAh on the full set of alkaline, disposable batteries. When you replace the batteries, the clock and timer settings on the PetSafe have to be entered again. UPDATE 09/07/2022: The power consumption is actually very low for these units. What was originally happening was: I was accidentally activating a tiny “power off” button that is hidden behind the flip-cover to the settings console. If you pull the cover back too far or brace your fingers against the chassis at the rear of the cover, you can accidentally press this “power off” button, and this will turn off the unit and give the impression that the batteries have gone dead. This unit will run for a long, long time on D-Cell batteries that are re-chargeable or not. 3. Our rabbit immediately realized the goodies (food and treats) that were stored inside the PetSafe carousel from the first moment I set it up. For the first few days, he spent an extraordinary amount of time trying to figure out how to break in to it. Despite his dedicated efforts, he has been unable to hack or crack into the feeder. He then tried to gnaw his way through and chewed up the rim of the main unit and part of the food dish causing some significant disfiguring of the plastic, outer shell of the feeder and dish. We were concerned that he would ingest small pieces of plastic, but he seems to have retired from the aggressive gnawing on the feeder after a couple more days. UPDATE 09/07/2022: Our rabbit ended up getting sick from gnawing bits of plastic from the feeder and swallowing them. So, we had to stop using these auto feeders for a while … until I figured out a way to elevate one feeder on a wire shelf with a chute made from a large flour scoop (for dispensing treats), and designed a custom chute for our other feeder where it can be set lower and behind the wire fence to our rabbit’s pen and push food pellets through the gaps in the wire grid fencing. Some ideas for product enhancement for the maker: (a) An optional, stainless steel, sheet metal box or wire cage that can be put around the main console of the feeder to prevent direct access by the pet. *** See the 09/07/2022 updates above on some work-arounds I’ve fabricated. (b) An optional, all stainless steel food dish to clip in to the main console of the feeder. (c) A built-in battery recharger so that the feeder can refresh the charge on the rechargeable batteries with a detachable AC power cord without having to remove the batteries, and therefore keeping the time and timer
