A feeder is disclosed for feeding animals selected from domestic pets, cage birds, chickens, fish and wild birds. A hopper (3) is adapted to hold a supply of dry feed, an electric motor (30) and also a battery holder (31) that is adapted to mount at least one battery for driving the motor. A chamber (4) is adapted to receive feed by gravity from a lower portion of the hopper, and has a discharge outlet at one axial end of the chamber for discharge of feed. An auger (11) is mounted for rotation about an axis within the chamber and is arranged to receive drive from the electrical motor. As the auger rotates, it move feed along the chamber towards the discharge outlet. An indexing mechanism for the auger indexes individual turns of the auger. As a result, the feeder supplies feed to the discharge outlet in metered amounts. The feeder is formed as two units, namely a base unit (2) with a hopper unit (1) mounted on the base unit. The base unit mounts the electric motor and battery holder. The hopper unit comprises the hopper itself, the chamber and the auger. The hopper unit is freely separable from the base unit for cleaning or for filling the hopper with feed.
