Freezer packs for the Petsafe 5

After repeated fixing of our old automatic feeder (the CatMate 5-meal feeder), which worked wonderfully until Tonka got a hold of it and banged it around to the point that the old wires gave up the ghost), I invested in a PetSafe 5 to help out my catsitter before leaving town this past week.

I'd been reluctant to give up on our old feeder since it has freezer packs that you can use with it to keep your wet food cool, like a cooler, and the Petsafe did not advertise this option. I know many on this forum love the Petsafe feeder, and have suggested adding ice cubes or inserting frozen food for those times that you need to keep the food cool longer, so I gave it a shot.

Turning it over the first time I discovered a rectangular hollow that looked very much like the holder for the ice packs on our old CatMate. Taking one of the freezer packs out of the old feeder, it fits just perfectly into this one. So, there's another option for this feeder: ice packs. Look up the ones that are made for the CatMate - they still make and sell them separately from the feeder. And I think you might be able to find ice packs like these in some standard sizes at hardware stores, etc. (the CatMate came with two of the EZEtil brand "iceAKKU" freezer packs, which measure 3.5" x 6.5" x 5/8")

Strange that Petsafe does not provide a freezer pack (or even point out that they have a location to place one), but then again, their directions specify that it should only be used for dry food, so maybe they're just not trying to encourage its use for wet food. It's too bad that there's only space for one, but it's another option to at least help keep the food a bit cooler on warm days.

 

That's really helpful information, Jordi.