We tried this last weekend while out of town for our kittens and, either the timer wasn't working right, or our cats don't eat as much when we're away as they do when we're home... When we got home after 3 days away, with the timer set to feed every 12 hours, there was tons of food overflowing and spilling out... Not a huge problem, at least they had food, but my dogs were happy to find it when we got home!