I recently bought my cats the automatic food and water feeders thinking it would save me some time in the morning since you put a whole bag of food in the container and fill the water jug up and you're good to go!

This is kinda what I'm talking about:

http://www.petco.com/Assets/product_images...9695240706C.jpg

Does anyone else use these? My cats seem to go through a lot more food now!

I use this for water for the dogs, but if I give them as much food as they want they tend to get overweight really quickly.

Most cats will overeat if given the chance. I'd keep an eye on them to make sure that they don't start gaining too much weight.

I use the Pet mate brand for my cats and I have a drink well bowl that recyles the water and filters it through carbon for the dogs and the cats both to use. But before the drinkwell I used something very similar But I definitely like the drinkwell better It was well worth the invested money I think!

I haven't had the problem that Summer mentioned with the over eating.

With the dogs I just use seperate bowls.

I heard that whether a pet overeats or not depends on how it was trained to eat when it was young. If food was available only in portions, then it will eat until the food is gone. But it food was always available in an endless supply, the pet learns to eat according to their needs.

Some dogs will actually eat themselves sick if they are used to portions and suddenly encounter endless food.

Lordy, ain't that the truth. If I don't keep an eye on Liv, when she finishes her meal, she will run and eat Vegas' food too! Then promptly run around puking it up all over the house, in random locations that are sure to be lots of fun finding!

Although, until Livi turned into a porker at about 2 years of age, she was on a "free feed" schedule. Then she started getting over weight and we had to start measuring. My other dog we can't get to eat enough no matter what we do.