Roamwild Pestoff Rat Proof Chicken Feeder

Roamwild PestOff Rat Proof Chicken Feeder

Not a good product, originally a Uk product, made in China, being dumped on the U.S. market

 Selling at  Amazon for  $54.99

Note: we do not use affiliate links on our website, be wary of those sites that do use affiliate links as they are being paid for referrals.

.

This feeder is made from plastic and stainless steel sheet metal, holds eight pounds of feed, although they do not recommend mash type feed.  It has a couple of ports that the chickens can access the feed though, covered with a spring loaded port cover that supposedly will drop if a large rat or squirrel lands on the protruding knob.

They claim the feeder is spill proof and waterproof and a chain is included to hang the feeder from the ceiling.

You load the feed by flipping the top cover over to one side. They offer a guarantee of sorts, Lifetime Care they call it or Pest Off Guarantee, where they offer to resolve  any issues you might have.

But like most of these plastic, Chinese made feeders the cool idea doesn’t translate into a good feeder.    When you read the questions on the product it appears to have a problem with the sliding doors sticking closed.  The manufacturer’s response is to take the feeder apart and wash and dry it thorough every two weeks, more often in wet weather…..  Plenty of the reviews mentioned the doors sticking.
Quite a few of the questions pointed out that despite the closing hatches, small wild birds easily accessed the feed.  The port opening is quite small, most normal sized hens would have to turn their head to eat which is supposed to prevent feed raking.  What the reviews say is that it causes birds to rake feed out onto the ground in order to be able to eat.  Birds with combs were reported in the question section as unable to use the feeder.
And the feeder leaks despite its waterproof claims.  It has a lower shield that is supposed to divert the water but multiple customers reported that the joint isn’t watertight and the feeder leaks, molding the feed and it is a pain to clean out.
Once again we are seeing a product developed in Europe being dumped into the U.S. after sales soured.  The product originally showed up in England till the customer complaints reached an uproar and returns became too great so the stock was sent to the U.S. for disposal.  Amazon is fulfilling some of the U.S. orders but it is being sold under the company’s own name.  They are charging for returns for Amazon sales although the cost is cheap as Amazon has the cheapest shipping  around.
 

Roamwild PestOff Rat Proof Chicken Feeder


 Reviews
.

The reviews are 42% five star, 15% four star, and 41% three star and below.  One star rating is actually 21%,  half of the bad reviews.  Some reviews said it did keep the feed dry but dust from the feed choked the door till they stuck closed .

As expected, rats and squirrels quickly chewed through the plastic despite the sliding metal shield.  Once the hoe was chewed the varmints could eat by hanging on the small black handle even though the shield had lowered.


One review was especially caustic: 
“Should be called a rat proof chicken starver. Or, a chicken proof feeder. The opening for feed is too small. I mounted it at chickens’ shoulder height, as directions said to. The chickens have to turn their heads sideways to try to reach in for their pellets….as they strike a pellet, several more fall out of the “feeder” onto the floor, defeating the purpose of the feeder. The chickens do not like it. The aluminum shield over the feed access port sticks out so far that they have to go in with their heads cocked sideways or risk hurting their combs. It is still full after 3 days. I have seven chickens! It should be empty by now. Frustrating.”
Despite being billed as Anti Spill the design just begs for the hens to rake out feed rather than attempt to eat with their heads turned at an angle.  Watch this video, the hen is wasting as much as she is eating.

.The reviews at the company’s own website were quite good, all five stars, and most cherry picked from the Amazon product review page.  100% five star on their website, 41% negative reviews on Amazon…. Hmmmm…….
And as it turns out this is a UK product sold in England, one that wasn’t doing well so the company is unloading the stock on Amazon.  Then the product popped up on eBay after the Amazon reviews started showing negative reviews and they are offering free shipping and free returns.   At this point they are fighting storage costs for the stock and are increasingly desperate to dispose of the feeders at any price.
 

Roamwild PestOff Rat Proof Chicken Feeder


 More Reviews
.

“As other reviewers mentioned, the little metal door that blocks the hopper easily gets jammed by the food and stays closed. I’m not sure when or how, but the rodents seem to be getting the feed, no problem. My chickens are small bantams, so the feeder has to hang close to the ground, which may be part of the problem.”

“The product design is worthless because chickens aren’t clean eaters. The small opening causes the chickens to toss the fed on the ground before they eat it. As a result, there is always a lot of feed on the ground which attracts all the pests the feeder is supposed to deter. I would not recommend this product and would give it 0 stars, if possible.”


 
“We have a bad rat and squirrel problem. Bought this due to the marketing and all the good reviews. We were fooled. While I don’t believe the rats can get to the food, the squirrels figured out how to hang off the bottom without closing the doors and so we were still feeding them. The problems didn’t stop there. When it rains the food gets wet and clumps and prevents the chickens from eating until we clean it out. It’s not very easy to clean and takes quite a while to dry and be usable again. Lastly, after a week or two the door started sticking in the closed position preventing the chickens from eating until we forced the door open. I tried cleaning the tracks. I tried lubricating the tracks. No luck. And so this very expensive and quite useless feeder joins the pile of other feeders we have tried. I figure each egg we get costs us about ten dollars in food and ancillary expense..”
“Poor quality. Only last a few months before the plastic that handles the shut off warps and no longer works. Ordered 2 Dec 10 2017 and both now garbage. States 100% satisfaction however they do not respond when you try to address issues with the product.”
“This feeder did not work when it arrived. I had to make wooden supports to hold the pivoting mechanisms from coming out of the plastic ears that they rotated in. This was a poorly executed item that was probably a good idea until it was farmed out to china for manufacture. Unless you are handy at fixing things I would not recommend this item.“
“Don’t buy this for a chicken feeder. The opening where the chicken is suppose to get feed from is so small only good for a wild bird. I didn’t even use it and started a return and they’re charging me $8.10 to return it which I think is 💩.“
 And even worse, there were multiple customer complaints about the sellers refusing to respond to complaints and several cases where the seller’s response was that the feeder needed cleaning more often.  A chicken coop is a dirty place, a feeder ought to be designed to deal with that .
.

 

Save