Neater Feeder: Does it work?

Steeler

A couple of weeks ago I opened my email to find an ad regarding the “Neater Feeder, a revolutionary new pet feeding system.”  This ad came to me from the same place as the ‘Pet Corrector” (which is air in a can) and Zero Odor.  Not being impressed with either of those two products I was very skeptical about the Neater Feeder.

Jeeze, ya think I’d learn already!

But I went on to watch the video of the product being used and when it started playing I laughed my ass off! (pardon the PG 13 wording) and  I continued to laugh as I watched a little 5 pound silky, a medium sized terrier type dog, and a  few cats eating out of  very expensive pieces of plastic and the nightmare  of the Critter Cooler popped back into my mind. The Critter Cooler, which I had purchased years ago, was in my opinion  nothing more than an expensive bucket, an over priced glorified piece of plastic which I invested in and did not get a good return on my investment. You can read my review of this product by clicking  here .  Please be sure to read the 'comments section" as well because the inventor of  the critter cooler is willing to work with you if you purchase it.

  

Ah, but I digress, back to the Neater Feeder. The video showed the dogs and cats eating as I mentioned above, but oddly enough showed no pets the size of my Newfoundland dogs which have jowls large enough to hold a small child!  Of course I was not surprised by this because no matter what a large mouth Newfoundland eats or drinks there is going to be overflow and it will come out hard and fast! Too fast for one to catch with a swipe of a towel and too fast to put another dish under the dog’s neck to catch the leftovers!

 When a Newfounland drinks, if the bucket is large enough, they stick their whole head under the water! This leaves them with a face dripping with whatever might be in the bucket at the time, which is not only water, it can include slimy drool, a bug, a leaf, or in my case a sock!   

Over the years I have purchased many items to prevent my floors from becoming a slip and slide water park. I have gone though placemats, (like the ones you see under dainty little dogs) oversized sized trays, bath mats, kitchen rugs, garage mats, and large towels.  The rugs got wet quickly and stayed wet until they started to fall apart or stuck to the floor, the towels got soaked as if I had just pulled them from the wash and the trays were too big and I could never get them placed just right so that the dogs would stand over them to drip! Believe me, I checked every slobber proof way that I could find to protect my floors from the dreaded drool and water filled jowls of a hefty healthy Newfoundland!

So when I stopped laughing, I watched the Neater Feeder video again and much to my angst I decided to try it. I say angst because its price was not exactly in the budget; however I was sure it would fail to deliver what it promised thereby yielding a return of my money. When it arrived on my doorstep I carefully opened the box and put it aside to eventually send it back.

So how much time should I give this product anyway? I thought two weeks would be a fair shake depending on how the product performed and my annoyance level. Actually I figured if it were going to fail it would fail sooner rather than later!

So here it is two weeks later and I absolutely love it!  I love it so much that I posted on my face book wall that 'I was in love!'  Of course most of my friends and family thought this meant I was getting a new puppy! Ah, such silly people.

My biggest flogger flinger in this house would be Steeler whose jowls measure three quarters of a pencil in height and almost a full pencil in length. I know a ruler would have been a better to use, but that would be too normal and harder to find! Because of my required job training's, there is a wonderful instructor who gives you a pencil each time you offer up a big mouth full of ideas and I am not short on  BIG MOUTH, just ask my co-workers!  Hence the reason for always having a pencil on my desk!  

Product Pros: I am basing my opinion on the Neater Feeder by using it as follows: For large breed dogs and specifically a Newfoundland type breed, as well as for 'water' only.  I cannot attest to it keeping food off  of the floor as I know and have witnessed Steeler sneaking over to Bentley's dish, grabbing a mouth full of food and running back to his side of the room to eat it before Bentley came in to catch him!  I do not think that even though Steeler had given his food thievery so much forethought, that  he would run the food back to his own dish and eat over it! 

1) It was easy to put together ( that is once you look at the picture and yes at first I did not look at the picture!)  What’s that? Did someone just call me Peter? (Sorry hon, I could not resist!)

2) It is very easy to clean  

3) It’s compact for its look, measuring in at 2 ½ pencils long,  1 ½  pencils wide and almost 2 pencils high. Yes, again no tape measure!

4) You can rinse it easy and refill bowls with clean water in a pinch:

I kept a jug of water near the bowl so in a pinch, like in the middle of the night, if the water dish was dirty (if you own Newfs you know what I mean) you could basically give the bowls a light rinse and pour the dirty water into the drain part of the dish then fill the bowls again with clean water. For some reason Newfs are particular about drinking from a dish that has their own drool in it but will drink just fine from a mud puddle!

5) Because of the height of the sides around the bowls and the fact that the bowls are inserted into the bottom tray it did not allow the underside of the  dog’s chin and neck to get into the water.

6) It kept a fair amount of water from running off of the dog’s body parts and onto the floor after a drink. I did not see the cups of water/drool/slime soaking into the floor as I had in the past. Occasionally when I interrupted them from drinking I saw a few drops on the floor.

7) When the time came to empty the base of water collected, I did not have to take out the bowls first, I simply lifted the top half of the feeder off the bottom half and set it on the floor.

8) I did not find that by using both bowls for water that I had to continue filling them even though they were a bit smaller than what I would normally use. In fact I found myself making less trips to the sink than normal and I can attribute this to two things, (A) I did not have to run to the sink and empty it each time a dog left its slobber behind, the drain in  the Neater Feeder did just fine for that. (B)  I kept a jug of water nearby at all times.    

9) Last  but not least, there’s a Sally mind in action so you know it doesn't end here!  Another use for this little product, something this company did not advertize and probably did not think about because they are selling it as a food and water dish, where as I was using it strictly for water, is if you put some ice cubes in the base, the water stays cooler longer.

Cons:

1)  It is a bit pricey which may turn people away. So I would absolutely Google it and find the best price.

2) The bowls that came with it were two sizes though I am not sure why. I imagine the smaller one was for food but I used both dishes for water. It would have been nice to have both bowls the same size. 

Rating:  4 paws up, way up!

 My Video of the Neater Feeder click here