Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have had a love/hate relationship with this feeder. I originally got it so that when we went on vacations our cats would need minimal supervision; we planned on an automatic feeder, a reservoir water bowl, and an automatic litter box. My cats are jerks, so between their tummy issues keeping us from getting an automatic litter box, their game of emptying the entire water tank onto our wood floors, and their ability to steal out of the feeder, our plans failed completely and our cats got really fat. I tried taping cardboard over the slit, they chewed through it. I covered more cardboard in double sided tape, they chewed through it. I taped on plastic, they ate through the plastic. I covered it with a strip of metal tied over part of the tray, they chewed off the rope. I attached it with picture frame wire, they pulled out the tray. I taped on the tray, they chewed through the tape (it seems like they're faster learners than I am). After months of fat greedy cats, I finally found a system to keep them out. When browsing at home depot, I found a $2 piece of metal which I screwed in above the slot. I used one screw with a bolt right below the Aspen logo where there the back of the plastic is accessible, and another one screwed higher up to keep my cats from being able to turn the thing sideways. I then took hanger straps and wrapped them around the entire base to keep the tray in place, screwing it on both sides of the tray and the back of the base. The model number for the useful metal piece on the hd website is 100244882 and the metal strap is 100396917. I took off the bottom panel to see where it was safe to drill, and the only place you need to avoid is around where the display is, everything else is free space. Now they're constantly wining and begging for food because they're finally completely unable to steal any! I had elaborate plans involving milk crates suspended over one of those devices to make cats eat slower, this is so much easier. Although every day when I come downstairs I see the feeder slid halfway across the kitchen, and various things knocked off shelves that they were hoping was food. Now that they can no longer steal, the only complaint I have is that I still wish there was an alarm like other feeders, there are times when one cat sleeps through a meal time and the other cat gets to eat everything. 4 stars since it's never missed a single feeding, it has a light to warn of low batteries, and it's easy to program. -1 star due to the effort I had to go through to make it function properly. Edit: They learned they can lift up a corner and slam it down, releasing food. I give up, my cats are smarter than me.