We don’t deserve cats. By all accounts, cats are just better than us, and they clearly know it.
Owning a cat doesn’t just make your home more fun, it makes everything better. According to widely accepted studies, having a cat in your home can decrease your risk of heart attack, decrease physically effective stress, lower blood pressure and can even increase your immune response simply by giving you a steady source of dopamine (I’ll admit, cat cuteness does give me the happy). It only makes sense that, if our cats are going to give us so many benefits, we take good care of them. Part of that is monitoring their health and feeding them the good stuff!
You may have guessed from the above paragraph that I am a cat person. While I do love dogs, and have had some truly magical canine companions in the past, as I get older cats have become my ideal pet. I like being able to stay in all day if I want without needing to gather my stuff and take them on a walk twice a day. I like having less rough-and-tumble time indoors, less big squeaky toys to step on at night, less mud tracked in the house. Cats are good at being home, and being at home is my idea of a grand old time these days. Another really nice thing about having a cat is the ability to just put some food out, clean the litter and be able to just leave the house for a few days without having to take your pet with you. Ever since becoming a cats-only kinda guy, weekend trips have become much more regular. Well, they were more regular until my oldest cat became a super senior and started struggling with his usual food.
The Joys of Having a Wet Food Cat
For the longest time I could just get one high-end dry food, fill a gravity feeder and the cats were all happy with that and a bit of wet food every day. That meant that trips out of town left them with a bowl of water and an endless supply of dry food. Problem solved, cats fed, freedom attained. Once my boy, Wolfie, hit the ripe old age of 18, however, his poor old tummy couldn’t handle such a lazy diet. Suddenly I was going through different brands of wet food to see what he could keep down. I even resorted to blending his food for a while to make sure he was eating right. This meant, sadly, that filling the dry food feeder and jetting off on a little mini vacation was simply off the table. We could handle a little dry food here and there, but without his pate, he was lost.
This situation worked fine for a while, but eventually it hit a snag. A friend was getting married and it was happening 10 hours away. I would need to be away for three days! I looked up how much it would cost to have someone come feed him three times a day and I’ll just let you imagine how costly that would have been. Once a day, though, I could manage. The question became, then, how to keep him fed all day without having someone move in to keep the cans coming…
The PETLIBRO Polar Smart Feeder.
Turns out, there is such a thing as a wet cat food automatic feeder! The PETLIBRO Polar was one of the first I really looked at and it had me sold pretty well right off the bat. I did do my usual comparison research though. I seem to have gotten lucky when I stumbled on the PETLIBRO as many of these products seem to be pretty cheap. My cat is a lot of things, but “cheap” is most certainly not one of them!
Most other models I found use ice packs stowed under the inner workings of the device to cool food which is a pretty sloppy solution. For one thing, apparently that causes condensation to leak from the bottom of the machine, and for another, the food is getting gradually warmer as the day goes on, making it less than sanitary. Another thing that concerned me about other models was the fact that they simply rotate an inner bowl wheel when switching dishes, and if you have a hungry cat, you know that won’t stop them! Once they see the food appearing from around the corner, they will do everything in their furry little power to get to the rest of the food.
This device solves a lot of potential problems. For one, the cooling is done electrically, a semiconductor device keeping everything at a chilly 50°F reliably for days. The service method is nicely done as well. A small lid slides open to reveal the food, and then slides closed before the tray rotates. The closing mechanism has a sensor that stops the whole thing if a cat has their grubby little paws in the bowl too, so no toe-pinching! Then there’s the app. I generally don’t love “smart” products as they have gotten way out of hand. I had a Wi-Fi connected microwave for a while and I still don’t know what the ability to start a microwave from another state was supposed to achieve. It’s all very silly. This, though, makes sense! With the app I can set feeding schedules, track how many times a cat has visited the feeder and even manually feed my cats if I want! It’s honestly amazing for peace of mind. On the peace of mind front, there is one other feature that really comes in clutch, it has a 12 hour battery backup that will keep it running in case of a power outage in the house!
The app also allows you to manually open and close the feeder, so if you have cats who like to eat a little and walk away like mine do, this helps keep the food fresher and has the added benefit of keeping bugs out. I’ve had to move my cat dishes around the house a few times to find the spot where ants can’t smell it, so this is a big win.
There are a couple of downsides that should be mentioned. First, if you have multiple cats, this isn’t going to work on its own. My solution was to buy more than one. For my wedding trip, I had one cat closed in one room, the other in the main area of the house, a feeder in each room. This ended up being a bit of an expensive solution, but it worked for me. Secondly, it only has three bowls. I’ve seen feeders like this with as many as six bowls, but with three, I had to supplement their feeding with a bit of dry food. One dish holds 7.4oz, which is a pretty big meal for a cat, so I had to manually open and close the dish twice a day to make this one work. I came home to cats that hadn’t died of hunger or destroyed the house in protest, so I think it worked, but it’s not ideal. Lastly, the condensation problem the other feeders have, this one has too. I am glad I had these on mats because I came home to a good deal of leakage. When using these daily, it’s good to keep an eye on that. Lastly, the battery backup isn’t built-in, meaning you will need to actually buy 3 AA batteries to toss in, which is a bit frustrating.
TL;DR Specs for the Speed Readers
Here are the basic specs of the PETLIBRO Polar!
- Dimensions: 14.2 × 13.4 × 7.7 inches
- Weight: 7.5 lbs (3.4 kg)
- Food Type: Wet food, semi-moist food, prescription wet food, rehydrated freeze-dried food
- Number of Meals: 3
- Capacity Per Meal: Up to 7.4 oz (220 ml)
- Maximum Freshness Duration: Up to 72 hours (3 days)
- Cooling System: Semiconductor thermoelectric refrigeration
- Wi-Fi: 2.4 GHz
- App Support: PETLIBRO App
- Compatible Operating Systems: Android, iOS 13.0+
- Remote Feeding: Yes
- Custom Feeding Schedules: Yes
- Safety Features:
Anti-pinch infrared lid sensor
PawShield food protection system
- Bowl Design: Extra-wide whisker-friendly trays
- Power Source: Corded electric
- Power Adapter Input: AC 100–240V, 50/60Hz
- Power Adapter Output: DC 12V, 5A
- Recommended Operating Temperature: 54°F–86°F (12°C–30°C)
- Available Colors: Black and White
To Buy or Not to Buy
The PETLIBRO Polar is a great auto-feeder for anyone who can’t be at home all the time for their cats. It’s fairly resistant to cat tampering, well designed, doesn’t use ice packs and just plain does a great job. If you’re on a budget, this might be a bit too pricey at $169.99. If you can afford it, it’s a great product. If you need to be away from the house for more than three days, though, this isn’t going to cut it. That’s when you call a pet sitter!
About the Author:
Ever since a young George was disappointed with a toy that did match up to the advertising, he became a tireless advocate for consumers. He’ll review anything that folks have to spend their hard-earned dollars on. George is grateful that he gets to use his skills as a writer and an artist to help connect with consumers and help them make the best decisions possible.
This article is for informational purposes only and reflects the author’s independent opinion. Readers should verify details directly with the manufacturer or retailer before making a purchase decision.
