Best automatic feeder for travel with a Shih Tzu

A frequent traveler leaving a Shih Tzu alone for up to five days — that's a setup where the feeder absolutely cannot let you down. The features that matter most here are portion accuracy, ease of cleaning, and mechanical reliability. Cheap feeders jam, dispense irregular portions, and are often impossible to clean properly, which becomes a real hygiene problem over several days. Before I point you to a specific model: how many meals a day does your Shih Tzu eat, and is she on dry kibble, wet food, or a mix? And when you're away, is someone checking in at all, or does the feeder need to be fully self-sufficient?

Good — dry kibble twice a day makes this more straightforward. Wet food feeders have ice pack limitations that rule out five days entirely, so you're already on the right track. A few more things that will shape the recommendation: what size kibble does she eat, small or standard? And roughly how much does she get per meal in grams? Shih Tzus are typically on quite small portions, so I want to make sure the feeder can actually dispense accurately at the low end — some models struggle to portion anything under 10g reliably.

Perfect — 40g per meal is very workable. For five days at 80g a day you're looking at 400g total, so hopper capacity isn't really the constraint here; mechanical reliability and accurate small-portion dispensing are. The feeder I'd recommend is the PetSafe Smart Feed Automatic Pet Feeder. It handles small kibble well, portions down accurately to around 6g increments, and the slow-feed option stops a fast eater from inhaling a meal. The app gives you remote scheduling and lets you trigger a manual meal if you're worried she missed one — genuinely useful when you're in a different time zone. The hopper holds around 1.4kg, so five days of 400g is no issue at all. The stainless steel bowl detaches for proper washing, which matters a lot over a multi-day absence. It's not the cheapest feeder on the market, but for a dog home alone for five days it's the one I'd trust. Available on Amazon UK and typically ships next day.

Yes — do a full dry run for at least two or three days before you travel. Load it with her normal kibble, set the schedule you intend to use, and watch it dispense the first few meals in person. Check that the portion landing in the bowl matches what you programmed; occasionally the first few dispenses are slightly off as the kibble settles in the hopper. Also connect the app and confirm remote access works on your mobile data, not just your home Wi-Fi — some people only discover it won't connect away from home when they're already at the airport. Keep the feeder on a non-slip mat and away from her water bowl to prevent moisture getting into the mechanism. One last thing: leave a contact with a neighbour or friend who has a spare key, not to feed her daily, but as a genuine emergency backup in case of a power cut or the unlikely mechanical failure. Five days is long enough that a belt-and-braces approach is worth it.

Good choice. Do the test run, get comfortable with the app before you travel, and you'll have one less thing to worry about when you're away. Your Shih Tzu will be fed on schedule whether you're in Birmingham or Berlin.