Cat feeder dogs can't reach

Keeping a cat feeder away from a dog in the same space is one of the trickier feeding problems to actually solve — most people try raised shelves or timed lids and end up with a persistent dog and a hungry cat. Before I point you at anything specific, can you tell me a bit about the dog? Breed, rough size, and whether they're the determined type who'll work at something until they crack it, or more easily deterred?

Right — a food-obsessed Labrador changes the calculation completely. Anything that relies on physical separation alone won't hold. A Lab will knock over a raised bowl, paw open a basic timed feeder, and eat the cat's food before you've even left the room. The only solution that genuinely works in this situation is a microchip-activated feeder that only opens for your cat. That rules out almost everything on the market except one product I'd actually trust.

The SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder is what I'd go with. It reads your cat's existing microchip — no collar tag needed — and the lid only opens when she approaches. The moment she moves away, it closes. A Labrador nosing at it gets nothing, because the mechanism requires the registered chip right at the sensor. It's not a flimsy snap-shut lid either; the bowl is fully enclosed and the seal is solid enough that smell is significantly reduced, which matters with a scent-driven dog like a Lab. It runs on AA batteries, holds a reasonable portion of wet or dry food, and the bowl detaches for proper cleaning — which is important for an older cat who may be more sensitive to stale food. The one thing to know: it's designed for one pet per unit, so if you ever need to feed the cat in two locations you'd need two feeders. But for your setup — one older cat, one determined Labrador, shared space — this is genuinely the right tool.

Yes, it reads the cat's implanted microchip directly — both 9-digit and 10-digit chips are supported, which covers the vast majority of UK cats. If for any reason a cat isn't chipped or has an unusual chip format, SureFeed also sells an RFID collar tag that works with the same unit, so there's a fallback. But if she's already chipped you're good to go straight out of the box — just run the registration once when you set it up and it learns her chip in about thirty seconds.

Put it somewhere your cat can approach from a direction the dog finds awkward — a corner, against a wall, or on a low surface the dog can reach but can't comfortably position himself over. The feeder needs to be stable on the floor; it won't tip easily but a very persistent Lab could nudge it, so a non-slip mat underneath helps. The key thing is that even if the dog gets his nose right up to it, the lid won't respond to him — so he'll eventually learn there's nothing in it for him and lose interest. Most owners find the dog stops bothering with it within a week or two once he realises it never opens for him.