Hi all, I found this company in Joburg that sell automatic feeders for R599 including postage. Does anyone have any experience with this unit? According to the sales lady, she has sold many of these for feeding koi.

Heres the website link - http://www.planettrade.net/Index.asp?Action=Product_Search&Action=Automatic%20Pet%20Feeders



Suitable for small to medium sized pets
Holds up to 5kg of dry pellet style food
Pellets can be up to 1.5cm (15mm) in diameter
For use with dry pellets only
Feeding volume can be adjusted dispensing precise amounts of food
Built-in clock with easy to read LCD display making for simple operation
Built-in microphone and speaker for personalized voice recordings calling your pet at meal time, recording plays 3 times with 30 second intervals in between
User programmable feeding times up to 12 feeds per day
Takes 4 x Size “D” Batteries with a battery low indicator or alternatively power with a 6V DC Adapter (Batteries and adapter NOT included)
Moisture-proof tight sealing lid to keep food fresh for longer and insect free
Keeps food fresh for up to 99 days
Food dispensed in a screwdriver manner to prevent jamming, with a magnetic seal
Easy to clean
Various colours available (Yellow, Orange, Blue and Silver – as per picture)
Test key to check settings
Key lock feature making unit child-proof!
Dimensions of feeder: 28 x 29 x 37 cm
1 month guarantee and a 12 month warranty

At that price it looks like a bargain compared to other fish feeders and I will consider it for my farm operation. I am going to order one as an experiment and will let you know. Thanks for the link.

At my ponds however, I prefer to do the feeding myself. Feeding time is the time to observe and look for any health problems and to stay in touch with my koi to keep them tame.

Hi Wayne,

That looks very interresting and the price is really reasonable

Did the sales lady say how, this thing feeds, I read the bit about the screwdriver type setup, but does it just drop onto the little lip & roll off?

The voice recordings are novel ... lol now I can train my fish to get used to my voice even when I am away at the office

The voice recording can scare the Herons off...

BEWARE............WE ARE SHARKS!! WE EAT HERONS !!

Paul, let me know once youve got it. I want to see it in action before taking a chance. I can get another feeder that gets locally made specifically for koi for R 2500.

wayneb wrote:

Paul, let me know once youve got it. .

Will do. The service is not very good at this stage. I have requested banking details via E Mail to enable me to deposit and have not received any reply yet. By the way, postage is not included according to the ad.

The lady that i have been chatting to is Colleen Bosman. I have been talking to her via skype. Her skypename is colleeenbosman .

These are her comments from my skype:

Quote :

The price is R599-00 (inclusive of postade), I will send via the post office ordinary mail.

Quote :

HI Wayne, with regards to your enquiry for the pet feeder, I forgot to mention that all my products come with a 30 day money back guarantee and a 1 year warrantee. So if you are not happy with the feeder, just send it back within a month and you'll receive a full refund.

Chased up a customer to get a review.



Hi Wayne

Sorry coming back only now.

I am staying in a townhouse complex and the body corporate never allowed
me to build the pond thus I have never used my automatic pet feeder and
can't really give you feedback

But from the looks of it, it should be working for the fish pond

You just have to note that it is not waterproof and thus you should
perhaps put it underneath an artificial rock (this was my idea
initially) or a small roof or something.

I would think it may also be beneficial not to install the unit too
close too the water. You will understand my reasoning when you see how
it works. I have played with the unit just to see if it works. And it
seems to work (myself would design the unit a bit differently - the main
principle how it works is based on drill point with "groewe" in (sorry I
don't know the English word for "groewe" (it is the cut-in of the drill
point). During the feeding times the drill point rotates and the food
are pushed along side the drill point in these "groewe" until it is push
through the outlet. (I know you will be very confused with this
description but I can't think of a better way to describe it right now)
the food portions will not be always exactly the same but you will see
what I mean when you see how the unit works). During the "non-feeding"
times the outlet where the food comes out is not sealed off due to the
food and thus it may become moist of the water damps if it is too close
to the water but if it is installed higher than 10 centimeters or so I
would think it should be fine.

Kind regards
Willem Grobbelaar

From Willem's post I think I understand exactly how the mechanics of this thing works. Basically it is augur driven. His mentioning of the portions and the exposed but undelivered food is expected from a contraption like this.

I would then think that one should install this unit in a plastic container with a good lid and mount the machine inside the container in such a way that the food is dropped into a steep shute that exits the container above water level. This will then mean that the exposed food in the machine is still protected by the container.

A shute could be made by cutting a polypipe in half ... and the actual format of the machine will dictate the dimension of the pipe to use.

Hello Wayne,

I just rushed in & out of Somerset Mall on my way home last night & Saw that there was an exibition of outamatic pet feeders just outside Dischem. Unfortunately I did not have time to stop and enquire.

These type of centre isle exhibitions usually lasts a couple of days, but I don't know when it started, from the quick look I got passing it it looks very similar to this product.

It might be worth a drive out that way to see for yourself?

Admin wrote:

The service is not very good at this stage. I have requested banking details via E Mail to enable me to deposit and have not received any reply yet. By the way, postage is not included according to the ad.

Dear Paul,

Thank you so much for your email with regards to my pet feeders!

I apologise, I never received your previous mail.

Yes - My 5kg feeder price includes postage anywhere within South Africa via the Post Office - ordinary mail. The feeder price is R599-00 (if you require the batteries it will be R60-00 extra)

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your payment.Your silver 5kg feeder was dispatched this afternoon via the Post Office

Received the unit and it is working very well for koi feeding.



The food is pushed out with a screw and I am planning to install it away from the pond to keep it safe from the elements. The food will then travel through a 50mm pvc pipe to the pond.

Inside:



In the meantime I have covered it with a plastic bag to protect it from rain.

Does this company still exist? I want to order one of these units now but the website no longer exists.

Follow up.

Colleen contcted me, they still exist - just having difficulties with their webserver.

wayneb wrote:

Does this company still exist? I want to order one of these units now but the website no longer exists.

Hi Wayne,

I saw someone is selling this feeder on gumtree today:

http://capetown.gumtree.co.za/c-Community-pets-Automatic-Pet-Feeder-5kg-W0QQAdIdZ85880271

regards,
SAS

Thanks SAS, Its the same people from the same company. I ordered two yesterday.

wayneb wrote:

Thanks SAS, Its the same people from the same company. I ordered two yesterday.

Hi Wayneb

Oh, now i see they are actually the same people.

Please give us some feedback once you got it to work.

Thanks.
SAS

I received my feeder on Wednesday. I feel that it is more than aduquate to feed my fish. It has all the feutures that i need.

Just a bit of an update.

I have now been running my feeder for almost 4 months with the same set of batteries. I use 4 x Duracel Size “D” . I am hugely impressed.

No problems with the unit this far.

Hi Wayne

What amount of food can you feed per feeding? Looks like an interesting piece of equipment.

This specific feeder can only feed in intervals of 2 hours, meaning it can only feed on even hours. It has representation of a 24hr clock with little on/off switched for every 2hrs. This is how you decide when to feed.

The amount you feed can be adjusted by the amount of seconds you set it to turn the skrew. The max amount of time is 1min:30sec. In 35sec it rolls about 150g of food out. It uses the one setting for all the feedings. With the more expensive koi feeders you can adjust the amount you wish to feed according to the time, they are also water proof but you will need to import them. There are some that work with actual 240volt power, steer away from them, rahter use battery power around the pond.

What i do is i calc my the body weight of total koi in my pond and then i feed them 1% of that. So take that amount and devide by the amount of feedings you want to do. Before my kois got sick last year i had to feed 650g of food a day on a 1.5% feeding plan. Feeding that amount with only 2 feedings are a bit difficult so i spread it out over 4-8 feedings.

After you have the amount you have to feed its time to play. Go to the feeder with a scale and little bucket. Press the feed button and capture the food, then weigh it. Repeat until you get the amount that you wish to feed the kois. The feeder is fairly accurate and will feed the same amount over and over.

This feeder does not "spit" the pellets out they simply roll out into the pond. What i have done with mine is to actually fix in onto the pond wall with skrews so that it is actually hanging over the pond wall slightly. In the UK the keepers mount their feeders into the pergolas roof over the pond. My feeder is in a semi shade area so it does receive sun on it on some parts of the day.

This feeder is also not waterproof. Mine has slight damage on it. Rain got into the lcd screen so its not displaying lekka but it does the job just fine. I have since the problem opened mine up and sealed all the areas with marine sealer. I still need to get a decent cover for it.

Something people always worry about is the food inside. I have had no "sweat" inside this feeder ever. The food has always stayed dry even with rain on it. Its only the button infront that is a problem with rain. The feeder has a little flap that opens and closes during feedings. I only put enough food in it for about a week and then i clean it and top it up again.

I am very happy with this little toy especially if i look at the amount it cost me compared to the others. In the end you just wish to feed your koi and this little feeder does that perfectly. I bought this feeder in August 2008 and im only now on my 2nd set of Duracel batteries.

Paul and Drikus also each bought one. Paul are you still using yours?

Thanks for helpful info Wayne. Will order one this week.

Good service so far from Colleen.

They are running low on the silver colour feeders and they charge R40 for delivery to the post office. Total price is R639 now.

Not bad at all since it cost R599 in August 2008

Contact details:

Colleen Bosman
Marketing Manager

Tel & Fax: (011) 781 7549
Cell: 072 479 4190

http://www.planettrade.net

Thanks for the update marius....my next choice will be the blue and white if i cant get the black and silver.

Im thinking of getting one to use as a automatic clay dispencer....wonder if it will work.