Microchip feeders for cats on different diets

Microchip feeders are one of the most genuinely useful things to come out of the multi-cat world — and your situation is almost exactly what they were made for. When one cat is on a prescription or therapeutic diet like a low-magnesium urinary food, even occasional access to the wrong bowl can undermine weeks of management. They're brilliant for this. To point you to the right setup: how many cats do you have, are they all microchipped, and is it just the one on the urinary diet or are there other dietary differences in the mix too?

That's the classic double problem — Monty needs protecting from the wrong food, and Pickle needs protecting from Monty. A single microchip feeder on Pickle's bowl would actually solve both issues at once. You'd set it to open only for Pickle's chip, so Monty physically can't get in. Monty can eat from an open bowl since his food is the one you want to restrict access to anyway. Does that approach make sense, or are you thinking about locking both bowls?

For this exact setup, I'd go with the SureFlap SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder. It reads Pickle's microchip and the lid closes when Monty approaches — he simply can't get in. The sealed lid also keeps wet food fresh between meals, which matters if Pickle grazes rather than eating all at once. It runs on batteries, no wires to deal with, and the setup takes about five minutes. SureFlap is the market leader for this for a reason — it's reliable and the lid mechanism holds up well to persistent cats like Monty. You can get it on Amazon UK and it works with standard 15-chip microchips, which is what Pickle will have.

It's a fair concern and some cats do try exactly that. The SureFeed has a closing mechanism that responds to the registered cat moving away — so when Pickle steps back, it closes quickly. For truly determined cats, SureFlap also make the SureFeed Connect, which has an app so you can monitor feeding and adjust sensitivity settings. But honestly, for most pushy cats the standard model is enough. If Monty proves to be a genius about it, the Connect is right there as an upgrade. Start with the standard one — it handles this situation in the vast majority of homes.

Good choice. One tip: put the feeders in slightly different rooms or corners if you can — it reduces the temptation for Monty to hover. And once it's set up, Pickle will learn to associate it as his private space fairly quickly. Hope Monty's urinary issues stay well managed on the c/d — it really does make a difference keeping him off the wrong food consistently.