Obeying the laws of gravity
Written: Jun 30 '08 (Updated Jun 30 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to install, sturdy, sifts out dust, keeps food up off the floor and clean
Cons: Needs to be rigged with non-pet store designed cages
The Bottom Line: A great feeder that's well worth its price when compared to the food you may be wasting with a dish on the floor.
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| lisaffire's Full Review: Pets International Super Pet Gravity Bin Feeder |
When we first got our guinea pigs, since they came from a rescue we were given a cage for each, a water bottle and a food dish. The one dish was just a basic, though heavy, pottery type dish that sat on the floor of the cage. The other dish was a light metal one. We soon figured out that our guinea pigs ignored the dishes and considered them part of the flooring. We tried all manners of propping the dishes, putting them in a corner but invariably food would be spilled, piggie poo would get inside and both human and cavy were left frustrated by the whole process.
So after the one guinea pig gave birth and we went to merge her daughter and the second cavy we had rescued, we went looking for a food solution. If one guinea pig wreaked havoc in a little cage with such bowls, then what would three of them do together? Plus we wanted to minimize things on the floor to give them optimum running around room. Our solution? The Super Pet Gravity Bin Feeder. The feeder came with two methods of attaching to a wire walled cage, was under $10 and seemed like it would solve many problems and help us minimize food waste.
One of the ways of installation could involve cutting a hole into the cage and inserting the bottom, feeding portion of the feeder inside and the bulk of the feeder that housed the extra food on the outside. Refilling could be easy with a flip of the lid and pouring the food on in. The other method involved a screw on clamp that clamped the main clip portion that the feeder then could be snapped into. This method has the entire feeder on the inside of the cage, however it can be positioned to be up off the floor and this way is easily removed for cage cleaning and maintenance.
Set up for us was a little complicated only because we built our own cage out of wire storage pieces. Normally these wire grids are snapped together for making cubed storage units but we created our own cage with them. The usual cage one purchases from the pet store has the cage's wires closer together to form the walls but in our own designed cage, they were further apart. I wanted to use the screw on clamp method of installation and eventually found that with a few creatively placed zip ties, I could created enough 'imposter' wires to make the clamp work properly and not simply pop through the wire holes.
Once installed, all I need do to refill is pop open the lid and pour in food. This works great when you have a lot of cavies to feed not only because it holds a lot of food but also because we've found that with a little cooperation on their part, three adult guinea pigs have no problem all feasting at the same time. The gravity system works well and creates no overflow issues. There are small holes at the bottom of the eating portion to allow fine dust to fall through and not gum up the food. Our cavies keep their butts out of the feeder and don't sit in it like they used to do with their bowls. This has kept their food poo free and their cage, free of fallen food, for the most part. They can't dump it or create a mess and there's little, if any, food waste now.
I highly recommend the Super Pet Gravity Bin Feeder for anyone with even one guinea pig that has issues with their food dish. If you're tried all kinds of dishes and find yourself frustrated with wasted and/or contaminated food due to your cavy dumping or soiling in their bowl, then give this product a try. It comes in a variety of colors and while our girls will attempt to eat just about any other thing, they've never given their feeder even so much as a nibble. It's sturdy, is easily removed (the clamped base portion stays put) for cage cleaning and has only needed to be reclamped once in a year as somehow the screw on clamp bracket portion got slightly, unscrewed but that, most likely, had more to do with our rigging it to work as we had to do because of our cage design.
All in all, well designed in its simplicity. Obeys the laws of gravity and supplies clean food to my guinea pigs.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lisaffire
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Location: Pennsylvania
Reviews written: 207
Trusted by: 50 members
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Changing with the seasons.
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