Originally Posted By: Lord_Necron
I have been using a Sweeney since 2008 in a pond I manage for my boss.
You can check it out on youtube. my video is called Catfish farm.

If you want your fish to grow fast, multiple feedings per day will get the job done. Feeding once a day is not going to cut it.

I can grow out Channel cat fingerlings to eating size ( the size Southern folk prefer that is 10 to 12 inches long, from March to Sept.

The key is in feeding your fish 5 percent of their body weight per day.
Spread out over the course of the day.
During the warm periods I will feed them on a schedule of 8am 11am 2am 5am. That's the whole point of having a programmable feeder.
Hope this helps someone.


Feeding times are highly variable depending on species and your goals - multiple feeding times often are employed. However, feeding 1x daily actually can work for you, again, depending on species and your goals. Let us know what you want to do, we can help with our experience in programming feeding routines.

In terms of feeder brands, I have personal experience with 5 makes. Texas Hunter in my experience has been the most reliable and what I recommend to my friends and clients, but Sweeney also makes a strong product. They went through a reorg a while back - not sure of their current status nor how it affected customer service or product availability, if it did at all. Lots of loyal Sweeney guys on the forum - just something to keep in mind and check out before you purchase one. Diamond, Aqua Pro, and the others fall short of my personal demands for a variety of reasons, but might work just fine for some. Not my intent to ding their reps - just don't perform up to my needs. If I were to invest in a single feeder, however, it would be TH - hands down. Never had a single issue - 8 yrs old and works as well as the day it was purchased. There's a reason they are pricey - that purchase does smart! Look for late winter sales, you can shave off 10% or so typically.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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