These 10 Automatic Cat Feeders Were the Best We Tested (2026)

New York: In this test of automatic cat feeders, the Closer Pets C200 2-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder is super simple. It has two shallow plastic containers with stainless steel inserts. Both are dishwasher safe and have tamper-resistant lids. The timer is the old-school egg-style type that runs on a AA battery instead of electricity. There is an ice pack to keep wet food cool, but after one night it lost almost all its coolness. There is a small plastic piece called a lid-link clip attachment that connects the lids to make sure they open at the same time. This is helpful for owners of two cats. The timer uses marks instead of exact times, so you have to guess the timing. It is a simple way to make sure cats get wet food without waking up very early.

Another feeder tested was the Oneisall Cordless WiFi Automatic Cat Feeder. It has a rechargeable battery that lasts 100 days. You can use an app to program up to 10 daily meals. The app lets you monitor eating habits and customize meal calls. But the app often had problems disconnecting from WiFi. You couldn’t choose portion size, only multiply the number of servings. It would have been nicer if the app worked reliably.

The Catit Pixi Smart 6-Meal Feeder uses ice packs to keep food fresh. Meals are in six compartments that rotate on a set schedule. The schedule can be changed using an app or on the feeder itself. The app is limited and glitchy. It only uses military time and you can only set the schedule for one day at a time. The freezer packs didn’t keep food cold enough for safety.

The Catit Pixi Smart Cat Feeder stores dry food called kibble. The calendar shows only one week at a time. Sometimes it didn’t repeat the daily schedule even when set up. The feeder doesn’t tell you how much food was dispensed, just calls it a “portion.” After using it for more than a month, it was glitchy and didn’t follow the programmed schedule well. Sometimes it skipped meals completely.

The Closer Pets C500 can schedule up to four meals and one manual meal. It uses three AA batteries. The bowls have ice packs underneath. The bowls are deep and narrow, which makes it hard for cats to reach. After a night’s sleep, the freezer packs weren’t very cold. This might be okay for dry food but wet food was kept at unsafe temperatures.

Automatic feeders are great tools for pet owners who want to manage their pets’ weight and watch eating patterns. They give control and precision to learn how much and when your cat eats. Cats are naturally more active at night, so they often wake people up early asking for food. These feeders let you set a schedule that works for your cat without bothering you.

The tester has two rescue cats that are 4 and 5 years old. They eat two wet-food meals per day and small amounts of dry kibble. The vet and TikTok videos suggest moving toward more wet food because it has more water. This helps with problems like UTIs which are common in male cats. The tester still gives dry food to satisfy the cats’ need for crunch.

When testing each feeder, the person checked how easy they were to set up, whether there were problems, and how easy the app was to use. Each feeder was used for at least a week or longer. Automatic feeders can help when you leave your cat alone for short trips. But cats still need their human friends for love and care.