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- Not a substitute for professional veterinary help.
We received a free Whisker Feeder-Robot in exchange for an honest review.
If you’re not familiar with Whisker, they’re a tech-forward, cat-loving company dedicated to providing the most innovative solutions to pet care. They’ve impressed me and my cats (and many other pet parents and veterinarians) with their designs, like their automated spaceship-like Litter-Robot. Whisker’s products always seem to be one step ahead of the rest—quieter, safer, and with some new tech my cats and I didn’t know we needed.
So, I had to know: What does the Feeder-Robot have in store for pet parents—and is it worth the price tag? We spoke to Jacob Zuppke, President and CEO of Whisker, who said they’ve designed the Feeder-Robot with all types of pet parents in mind.
“With the Whisker app, users can fully program their Feeder-Robot by schedule or gravity mode,” Zuppke told The Dog People. “Our feeder is also designed to work offline for those that prefer non-connected devices, or if they lose internet, the Feeder-Robot uses the last programmed schedule to ensure that your pet is always fed.”
We reviewed the Feeder-Robot and put it to the test.
The Whisker Feeder-Robot: Key Features
This plug-in automated pet feeder can hold up to 32 cups of kibble and dispense up to eight meals a day. Thanks to the cat-proof lid, all 32 cups will be safely stored between automated feedings. If your cat is a grazer, simply turn on the gravity feeding schedule to ensure the Feeder-Robot bowl remains full every six hours.
Here are other key features of the Feeder-Robot:
- Anti-jam technology
- BPA-free plastic feeding bowl
- Low-food indicator light
- Panel-lock enabled
- Wi-Fi functionality and companion Whisker app
- One- to eight-meal capability per 24 hours
- Four feeding portion sizes from 1/8 cup to 1/2 cup or 1/4 cup to one cup
- One year warranty
The feeder has backup-battery capabilities and can come with a dishwasher-safe glass feeder bowl—for an additional $40 and $30 respectively. The unit isn’t dishwasher safe, but if you’re worried about food splatter, you can add $15 Feeder-Robot cleaner wipes to your order too.
The Whisker app is Android- and iOS-friendly, allowing both green- and blue-bubbled pet parents to tweak feeding schedules and dish out snacks on the go. Plus, if you own more than one Whisker appliance, you can find them all in the same Whisker application.
The Feeder-Robot comes in either black or white, and you can customize the hopper, choosing between smoke and clear. Not sure you’ll love it? Whisker offers a 90-day in-home trial.
The cat-proof Whisker Feeder-Robot holds up to 32 cups of food and can be programmed via the app or control panel.
Testing the Feeder-Robot
A black Feeder-Robot with a clear hopper arrived at our door, neatly packed for easy assembly. We didn’t upgrade to the battery backup or opt-in for the cleaning wipes, but the plastic bowl was a no-go for our acne-prone cat. So we upgraded to the dishwasher-safe glass bowl.
Setup
Setting up the Feeder-Robot took about ten minutes or less. Once the Whisker app is downloaded, scan the QR code located on the back of the feeder or box, and technology will take it from there.
Programming
The hardest part of programming the Feeder-Robot was coming up with a Star Wars-themed name to accompany Meowlenium Falcon (our Litter-Robot 3) and Impurrial Star Destroyer (our Litter-Robot 4). We settled on Mos Eisley Catina.
Programming the meals is as simple as opening the Whisker app and creating a new feeding schedule. You can select the days, times, and portion size of each feeding, pause individual feedings, or toggle schedules on and off.
The Whisker app makes it easy to create multiple schedules that fit your routines. We customized one schedule to assist our pet sitter while we’re traveling and another to dispense a late-night snack while we’re home.
Programming the Whisker Feeder-Robot is easy with the Whisker app.
Kitty-proof
The Feeder-Robot has a footprint that’s wider at the top than the base (9” inch-wide base, 15” inches tall, and 13” inch-wide hopper), but our cats proved it couldn’t easily be tipped over. The secure hopper lid requires a human hand to squeeze two release buttons—a task not even our eight-toed polydactyly cat could manage.
Usability
According to Whisker’s website, the Feeder-Robot is designed to dispense dry or “semi-moist” kibble. As mentioned, our intended use of an automatic feeder is to give small nightly snacks in addition to regular wet-food meals.
The Feeder-Robot comes with a pre-installed dispenser that works in ¼ increments and can dispense up to a cup of food. There’s also a second dispenser in the box: it works in 1/8 increments and dispenses up to ½ cup of food. Swapping the ¼ dispenser for the 1/8 dispenser decreases the hopper capacity from 32 cups to 25 cups.
We chose to swap dispensers. Still, the smallest meal setting of 1/8 cup was about twice the amount of food we wanted to give as a snack for one cat. Without smaller settings, we found ourselves manually returning food to the hopper or decreasing the amount of wet food our cats ate during other meals.
Despite the large meal size, investing in the Whisker line has a lot of perks. This includes having all your tech-savvy Whisker appliances accessible via one user-friendly application. Whether at home or away, we effortlessly monitor everything from our cat’s bathroom habits to how much food is left in the Feeder-Robot. With a feeding history at our fingertips, we always know that our cats are getting accurately portioned meals on time.
The Whisker application keeps you posted on all your Whisker devices— letting you know to when to refill litter or kibble.
Don’t want to rely on the app? That’s okay too because whether you program the feeder in-app or via the control panel keypad, the Feeder-Robot will store and carry out the feeding schedule with or without the internet. Just look for the blue indicator light that lets you know a schedule is in place.
And just like other Whisker products, that handy feeder keypad can be locked, preventing curious paws from changing settings or dispensing their own snack.
Pros: Whisker is a trusted brand that is known for making quality products, and the Feeder-Robot is no exception. Here are some of the features we like most.
- Easy to setup and program
- All-in-one application across the Whisker family of products
- Easy-to-adjust portion sizes that can be tweaked at home or on the go
- Multiple feeding programs, including increments, manual, and gravity
- Ability to create and save multiple feeding schedules
- At-home trial, warranty, and a friendly IT team backing the product
- Thoughtful safety features including ant-jam technology, useful push notifications, a chew-resistant power cable, and off-Wi-Fi capabilities to store and carry out feedings
- Kitty resistant hopper and control panel
Considerations:
- The glass bowl and backup battery are excellent additions to the Feeder-Robot, but the add-on costs can feel like a lot on top of the already hefty price tag of $299 (at the time of publication).
- While the hopper holds a lot of food and reduces the need for frequent refills, the feeder takes up more room than others on the market.
- The Feeder-Robot doesn’t come with a built-in camera, but if you’re anything like us, then you probably already have pet cams throughout the house.
Is the Robot-Feeder Worth the Price?
We think Whisker has successfully delivered a quiet pet feeder with a seamless companion application for on-demand and scheduled feeding anywhere, anytime. The Feeder-Robot is for the pet parent seeking a trusted brand that delivers a well-built and reliable automatic pet feeder without too many bells and whistles—and this feels a little like an oxymoron for the Whisker brand.
Based on the technology Whisker is known for, I find myself wondering when the next generation of the Feeder-Robot will be released, perhaps with more portion sizes and a camera.
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