PinkBerry Online Shopping Blog

Petmate Le Bistro Electronic Portion-Control Automatic Pet Feeder, Black
by Petmate

List Price: $59.99

Click here to see the update price & new or used available.

Average customer review:

Product Description

For cats, frequent small meals are more natural, plus prevent obesity and boredom. That’s why veterinarians recommend the LeBistro Electronic Automatic Feeder. Simple, programmable electronics prompt the feeder to dispense portions from 1/4 to 2 cups.

Product Details 

• Color: Black
• Brand: Petmate
• Model: 24230
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Dimensions: 9.30″ h x 9.40″ w x 15.00″ l, 3.80 pounds

Features

• Fully automatic electronic pet feeder with tough plastic base
• Food reservoir holds 4-1/5 pounds of dry food for food “on demand”
• Dispenses portions from 1/4 to 2 cups at 3 selected times per day
• Great for cats and dogs; does not replace human care; batteries not included
• Measures 14-1/2 by 8-7/8 by 15-1/8 inches; 1-year limited warranty

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Product Description
Great for cats and dogs, this fully automatic pet feeder features a tough plastic base that holds a food reservoir for food “on demand.” The electronic pet feeder’s simple, programmable electronics prompt the feeder to dispense portions from 1/4 to 2 cups at three selected times per day. The unit can be set to meet scheduled feeding times and amounts when caretakers are away, but it is not meant to replace human care–please be sure someone still visits the pet daily. The unit’s hopper holds 4-1/5 pounds of food and accommodates a full range of dry food sizes, shapes, and types. Required batteries, which are not included, sustain a long battery life of six months. The feeder measures 14-1/2 by 8-7/8 by 15-1/8 inches and carries a one-year limited warranty.

Customer Reviews

 This Feeder Can Be Dangerous..
 …if you depend on your cat’s meowing to be fed to wake you up in the morning. I’ve been using this pet feeder for a couple of weeks and I find myself sleeping later and later each day because the cat isn’t meowing at the bedroom door at 6:30 am wanting to be fed. The meowing at 6:30 am wasn’t a problem during the week when I had to be up anyway, but I was getting tired of having to get up so early on the weekends. I was dreading the early daily summer wake-up calls by the cat (because I wasn’t going to have to be up early during the summer) when a friend recommended getting an automatic pet feeder. I did some research online and at the pet store and decided that the Petmate Le Bistro would be the best option for me.
I was a little concerned about the programming because most of the reviews said it was difficult. I’ll agree it could be a bit easier, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. Just keep the instructions close at hand if you want to “fiddle” with feeding times and schedules at first as I did. (It appears that they have addressed this programming problem in the new model which I would have purchased had it not been on a long backorder at the time I was ready to buy.) This programming “problem” is the only reason that I didn’t give the product 5 stars.
So now the kitty is getting fed when she wants in the morning and I’m getting that extra couple of hours of sleep in the morning that I wanted. I wonder now why I didn’t buy this product years ago! 

 Great product!
 This product lives up to expectations. I was a little worried after having read other reviews, but the manufacturer instructions weren’t so bad. I programmed two of these in less than 10 minutes. It is a savior for us too! Our cats don’t wake us up for food anymore. The only change I would make to this product is to allow for different portion sizes throughout the day. But it’s fine - we give our cats a 1/4 cup twice a day and they are happy. Buy this product with peace of mind!

    This feeder is wonderful! 
 I love this feeder!

Technical Thoughts

I’ll admit that the programming was a bit confusing at first. But, really it’s very easy. Each “click” dispenses 1/4 cup of food. So for each feeding you set the number of “clicks” you want and the time. I read the instructions, had the time set, and had three feeding times and amounts set in just a few minutes. But, keep the instructions handy because I forgot how to get into the programming when I needed to change it and had to look it up again.

Cat Reaction

My cat has always begged for food by pushing her food bowl around and picking it up by the rim with her nose and then loudly bouncing it on the floor. She’s overweight by about 8 pounds. Which is a lot for a cat, I know. So my goal was to get her to lose weight but her obsession with her food made that hard. I didn’t want her to go hungry. I first set the timer for times she always starts pushing her bowl around, the first being 5 AM!! She was a bit confused at first and the first time the food came out she sat and looked at it for several minutes. She then took a quick nibble and backed away as if she thought it would put more out any second. She repeated that for several minutes until she’d eated what was in the bowl. This lasted for only the first two feedings on the first day. By her third/ last feeding on the first day, when she heard the noise, she came running and emptied the bowl.

Progress

Now I’ve had the feeder for about a month. I’ve since reduced her feedings to two which chanegd her food amount to a healthier amount and, changed the times on her slowly, about a change a week. I made slight changes, such as an hour time difference until she got two feedings close together so they eventually merged into one, thus reducing her to two feeding times. My cat is very skittish but also pesky about getting her food when she wants it. Other cats may not care so much.

Now, she no longer gobbles down all of her food when it comes out. She originally tried begging for more after emptying the bowl at the feeding time. But I was firm and gave her no extra feedings since she was getting feedings pretty close together at that time and I didn’t feel too badly about it. She now knows when the food is coming and when it does she eats a little and leaves some. She’ll come back later for a snack and have some more. By the time it’s time for her next feeding there’s just a couple pieces or no pieces left. She now gets 1/2 cup per day in two 1/4 cup feedings and is very content with it. I haven’t heard a bowl being pushed around in weeks, and let me tell you how nice that is after years of getting up at 5 am to feed her then go back to bed. Trust me, she’s loud and has broken her bowl once from pushing it into things. However, giving her food before bed just meant she’d eat that over night and then want more at 5 am, which would not solve the weight issue. She has been trained and her hunger seems to arise near the feeding times as I have found her sitting near it or staring at it when it’s close to time and when it goes off, she’s up and ready to eat. I find it amusing how she has adjusted and gotten so used to the times that she now paces herself and eats each feeding in two or three trips over the course of the day. Most importantly, in the two weeks that she’s been on the 1/2 cup diet recommended by the vet she’s lost a half a pound! She’s always been energetic but she’s even more energetic now and doesn’t need my usual encouragement to play. I imagine I’ll have a healthy, trim cat within a few more months! This feeder is worth every penny!

      Great for cats on a portion plan 
 Our cats are high-maintenance eaters. We got the feeder because our cats will eat too much if we just leave food out in a dish like most people do. Their vet said we need to feed them smaller portions, so the timers allow us to spread those out over the day. They get one portion for breakfast and one for dinner. You can program the feeder to dispense up to three times a day, and there are different food amounts you can choose. One negative of the feeders is that the set food amounts were too much for me to give them three meals a day (they’d get too much overall), so we had to keep it to two. The other negative is that one of my cats reaches her paw up into the dispensing area and gets extra food out. We had to buy metal plates at the hardware store and super-glue them on so that the food can still come out but she can’t get her paw up there. I would not think that would be a problem for most people, though. Overall we are quite happy with these feeders. We started out with one (for two cats) and then went to two (for four cats) and now have four (one per cat — otherwise a couple were eating more than their share).

       This Product is Well Worth the Money
  This product is well worth the money. I love it! Bought it 6 months ago and has worked perfectly. The programming took me a few minutes to get the hang of it, but as long as you read the directions, the set-up can be done in just a few minutes. Once programmed, it does it’s thing. Feeds my cat 3 times a day and he no longer wakes me up at 5 am for his breakfast. Been working on the same batteries for 6 months now, and still haven’t had to change them. I am very pleased with this feeder and would recommend it to anyone!!!

Popularity: 8% [?]