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Petlibro Automatic Pet Feeder Review: The Granary Cat Feeder Solution
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As a pet parent, one of your most important jobs is making sure your furry friends get the right amount of food at the correct times. Not too much, and not too little. Leave cat food out for too long, and it could go stale before your kitty has a chance to enjoy it. Or they will gorge themselves, unless you use a slow cat feeder.
Fail to provide meals at the correct times, and your cat could become destructive in the search for something to eat.
Unfortunately, if you work all day, or don’t have the ability to pop to the kitchen and top up your kitty’s bowls as often as you’d like, it can be difficult to keep your cat’s schedule on track.
This is why so many pet owners have turned to automated feeders for help.
The Petlibro “Granary” Feeder is a popular solution.
This robust and reliable feeder makes it easy to set your cat’s schedule from a distance, dispensing food automatically according to your specific needs.
Today, we’re going to be taking a closer look at the Petlibro feeder, and what it can do for your furry friends.
Carry on reading or head to the bottom of the article to watch our very own video review of the Petlibro Feeder.
Petlibro Feeder Review: An Introduction
Let’s start with the basics. Petlibro is a well-known pet accessory company, with a host of great products to offer families.
The company produces a host of water fountains to ensure your cat has fresh water at all times, as well as multiple automated feeder units.
The “Granary” feeder is one of the more recent products offered by Petlibro.
Read this next: How Much Water Should A Cat Drink?
With the Petlibro Granary feeder, you get a powerful automated feeding system, complete with mobile app access, 5G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and a huge 5-liter capacity.
The heart of the system is its user-friendly app, where you can schedule feedings for different times each day, issue more than one serving of food at a time, and track important information.
With a sealing twist-lock lid, anti-theft rotor (for scheming kitties), and desiccant pack for moisture absorption, the feeder aims to keep your cat’s kibble in great condition all day long.
Features include:
Petlibro Automatic Cat Feeder: Functionality and Performance
As an innovator in the pet accessory landscape, Petlibro currently produces a variety of automatic feeders ranging in capacity from 3 to 6 litres, depending on your needs.
There are also variations of this product which come with dual bowls for multiple kitties.
The Granary feeder is specially designed to keep your cat’s food as fresh as possible, as well as protect it from mould, bacteria, and pests.
There’s a transparent window for checking when the food level gets low. However, the product will automatically inform you when your device needs a refill via a message directly to your smartphone app.
The infrared sensors ensure your kitty won’t continue dispensing when your cat has its paws or face smushed into the device.
There’s also the option to turn the automation aspect of the device off and dispense food manually, when necessary.
Unboxing and Setup
Your Petlibro Granary feeder will come neatly packaged in a small box, complete with all the supplies and instructions you need within the food hopper compartment.
There’s very little assembly required here. Just remove the bubble wrap, and slot the pieces into place.
You’ll start by sliding the bowl into the base station and attaching the hopper (dispensing section).
You can plug the device into an outlet with a USB cable and 5 volt DC adapter.
However, we’d recommend making sure you add the 3-D batteries (not included with purchase) too.
This ensures your device continues to run if there’s a disruption to the power supply.
The biggest challenge when it comes to setting up the device might be attaching the auto-locking lid.
It can be a little tricky to get everything lined up perfectly, but you should get there in the end.
Make sure you place the desiccant bag included into the little slot within the food system to help soak up any extra moisture in your cat’s kibble.
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Programming the Pet Libro Automatic Cat Feeder
Once you have all the components of your feeder in place, the next step is getting everything programmed to feed your kitties automatically.
You’ll need to fill the hopper with Kibble up to the maximum fill line. Keep in mind the device will dispense kibble between 2 and 15 mm, so any extra-large biscuits may not fit.
Next, there’s an LCD screen on the device you can use to choose the time of day when your cats are going to be fed, and the portion size for each meal.
The Granary uses portions rather than a standard weight or volume measurement for each cat.
The device will only dispense a very small portion each time, so you may need to double up or assign multiple portions to each feeding time if you have multiple cats.
The easiest way to manage everything is to simply scan the QR code on your device to download the accompanying app.
You’ll need an iOS 10 Apple phone or later, or an Android 5.0 or later.
Turn on your phone’s “Bluetooth” option and click the “+” in the top right corner of the app to add the device to your phone.
Connect your app to the Wi-Fi and set up a feeding plan using the instructions provided on the app.
Remember, you can choose a different feeding schedule for different days, and deliver different portions depending on your needs.
1 portion equals 10 grams, so it’s up to you how much you want to dispense.
Recording a Feeding Call
One of the major selling points of the Petlibro feeder is the ability to record a voice call to help attract your kitty to the dispenser when it’s deploying food.
Notably, you’ll need to do this on the device itself, rather than using the included app.
While this is an interesting extra feature, it’s not the most reliable part of the app. While playback is fully customizable, so you can choose to play it between 0 and 5 times with every meal, there are some limitations to the sound quality.
First, you’ll need to get very close to the device to make sure it can capture your voice. Even when you do, the sound is very quiet.
The playback is often muffled and grainy, with an unusual sound in the background. What’s more, the sound of the food dispensing is much louder than the recording itself.
The chances are your kitties will be attracted more by the food falling into the bowl than the sound of your voice.
Size and Capacity
One thing you may find particularly useful about the Petlibro feeder is its size. This is a very robust and sturdy device, measuring around 11 x 7.5 x 7.5 inches.
Sleek and stable, it fits well into any home without looking overly obtrusive. The hopper also comes with a massive 5-liter capacity.
This means you can probably feed your kitty for a few days depending on how many cats you’re dispensing for, and their nutrition requirements.
The larger capacity also means you shouldn’t have to worry too much about refilling your cat’s bowl every day.
Just keep in mind it is possible for the dispensed food to go stale if your kitties don’t eat all of their portions every time.
It’s worth keeping a close eye on how much your cats actually eat when using this product.
You can always check through the day and reduce the portion sizes based on your kitty’s eating habits.
The focus on freshness in the unit is an excellent factor too.
The desiccant pouch should ensure the internal section of the device doesn’t fall victim to moisture over a few days.
Security and Reliability
One thing you’ll probably notice quite quickly about the ‘Granary’, is how sturdy it really is.
Though a little chunky in size, the device is intended for excellent peace of mind, as it's heavy enough to prevent most cats from knocking the device over accidentally.
The locking lid also ensures your kitties won’t be able to get into the top of the feeder to access extra food if they’re feeling particularly cheeky. The feeder secures your cat’s food at multiple levels, from the twist-seal lid to the patented dispensing hopper.
The dispenser has sensors built-in, to prevent your cat from getting injured if they try to reach into the shoot.
This is a handy little device ready to tackle even the most mischievous of cats. Although you might want to keep it in a carefully-chosen location, so you don’t accidentally knock it over yourself.
Cat Friendliness
Ultimately, every cat is different. The dispenser is quite loud, so it might be a little worrying to some more nervous cats.
Many kitties will quickly get used to the sound and the device itself, however. This should mean they can happily hear the sound of the food dropping and rush to grab their meal.
Outside of the dispensing sound, there aren’t a lot of loud noises associated with this device’s operation, so it shouldn’t scare your kitty away throughout the day.
The bowl is also specially designed to make it easy for cats to eat freely, without worrying about chin acne.
You may want to consider the double-bowl option if you have multiple cats, however.
Though the bowl is definitely large enough for one feline, various cats might struggle to get in if they prefer to eat at the same time.
Disassembly and Cleaning
Like any unit for handling food, the Petlibro Granary feeder will need cleaning from time to time.
Fortunately, the process of cleaning is relatively straightforward.
The lid and hopper are easy to dismantle and remove from the main body of the device for cleaning.
The stainless steel bowl is also specially designed to resist bacteria. If you need to give it a thorough clean, this part of the product is also dishwasher-friendly.
Once you’ve wiped everything down and rinsed over the components, you can simply snap everything back into place in a few moments.
You may need to change the desiccant packet every once in a while if it starts to collect too much moisture.
Fortunately, you can find these products easily on Amazon and other online channels.
Petlibro Feeder: Pricing
As with most automated pet feeders, you can expect to spend a little more on the Petlibro Granary pet feeder than you would on most standard bowls.
The official online store currently has the feeder listed for around $94.99, but there are deals available from time to time.
You can also find this product on Amazon, and the price varies depending on the time. If you want to upgrade your bowl, you can also purchase food desiccant bags and dual food trays from the official store too.
This can help you to stock up on everything you need for the best feeding experience.
Petlibro Automatic Pet Feeder: Summary
In general, most pet owners find it helpful to have an automated feeder on hand when they’re not always going to be around to feed their cats according to a specific schedule.
You can dispense exactly the right portion of food at the correct time, wherever you are. You can even use these products to feed your cat when you’re going to be away for a day or two.
While some feeder cat products are more reliable than others, the Petlibro Granary Feeder performed quite well in all of our tests.
The large capacity makes it great for multiple cats or feeding for a number of days. The device is also excellent for keeping your cat’s food in fantastic condition for longer.
The biggest downside is the voice recording function, which doesn’t work nearly as well as you might hope. It’s also worth noting that people with older phones might struggle to get the included app up and running.
Overall, however, this is a great all-around product with excellent reliability.
Pros
Cons
Read this next: Surefeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect Review
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