Switching to microchip feeders for cats

Timed feeders are clever — until your cats figure out that the lid popping open is basically a dinner bell for everyone. Once they start sharing bowls, you've lost the whole point. Microchip feeders are a completely different solution: the lid only opens for the specific cat whose chip is registered, so bowl-stealing becomes physically impossible. Before I point you toward the right one, a couple of quick questions: how many cats are you feeding, are they all microchipped (or do any wear collar tags instead), and is the main issue one cat eating the other's food, or are they both at it?

That's exactly the situation microchip feeders were designed for — a cat on a prescription diet being ambushed by a greedy housemate is genuinely stressful, and you're right that it's a problem in both directions. For your setup I'd recommend the SureFlap SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder. It's the market leader for good reason: you register each cat's microchip to their own feeder, the sealed lid opens only when that cat approaches, and it closes again the moment they walk away. You'd get one registered to Pickle so only she can access her renal food, and a second registered to Biscuit for his meals. Both units are quiet enough that nervous cats don't mind them, and setup takes about five minutes per feeder.

You need two separate units — that's actually the point. Each feeder is locked to one cat's chip, so there's no way for Biscuit to open Pickle's feeder and vice versa. SureFlap also sell a Connect version that links to an app so you can track how much each cat is eating, which is genuinely useful when you're managing a renal diet and want to make sure Pickle is hitting her intake targets. The basic SureFeed is around £70 per unit and the Connect version is around £100 — so two basics would run you about £140 all in. Worth it when you consider prescription food isn't cheap and you've been losing half of it to Biscuit.

It's a fair concern and SureFlap have thought about it. There's a training mode where you can lock the lid open initially so Pickle gets used to eating from the bowl without any movement at all. Once she's comfortable, you gradually introduce the lid closing behind her, then finally the full open-and-close cycle. Most timid cats take a few days to a week to fully accept it. Given she's already eating from a bowl in your home, she'll likely adapt faster than you'd expect — the mechanism is quiet and smooth, not sudden or loud.

Great choice — you'll wonder how you managed without them. Register Pickle's chip first, get her comfortable in training mode before you introduce Biscuit's unit, so there's no competition anxiety while she's adjusting. If Pickle isn't already registered on her feeder within a day or two, just hold her gently near the bowl so the sensor reads her chip — it usually only needs one successful read. Good luck with both of them, and I hope Pickle's renal diet starts doing its job now she's actually the one eating it.