I free feed too with both of mine. Of course, I got some hateful looks yesterday, when I didn't know that the feeder had run out of food (it's in a room that I don't visit every single day). I finally figured out, after being followed, headbumped, nuzzled and bitten that something was up and the feeder was empty! Poor Mimi! Poor Butter! Bad Mom!! It only could have been empty about 12 hours or so at the most because I had checked it the day before, but I still felt guilty!