Stop dominant cat stealing food from Oriental Shorthair

An Oriental Shorthair losing weight because another cat is stealing their food is a genuinely urgent problem — Orientals are already naturally lean and high-metabolism, so they have very little buffer before weight loss becomes a health concern. Microchip feeders are one of the best solutions we have for exactly this situation: they open only for the cat whose microchip is registered, so your Oriental can eat at their own pace without the dominant cat muscling in. To point you to the right setup — how many cats do you have total, are they both microchipped, and has your Oriental been checked by a vet recently or is this purely a food-theft issue you've caught early?

That's actually a very workable situation. You only need the feeder to recognise your Oriental's microchip, so the fact the other cat isn't chipped doesn't matter — the lid stays closed for him regardless. The one thing worth doing is getting him chipped anyway at his next vet visit, just for safety, but it won't hold up your feeding solution at all. Can I ask — does your Oriental tend to graze throughout the day, or does she eat in distinct meals? That affects whether you need one feeder or two.

That grazing pattern is exactly why this is getting worse — she's never going to out-eat a food thief if she's a natural nibbler. A microchip feeder solves this completely because the lid closes when she walks away, so there's nothing left for him to steal. My recommendation is the SureFlap SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder. It's the most reliable one on the market for this exact use case — the sealed lid design means food stays fresh between her visits too, which matters for wet food especially. It reads her existing microchip with no extra tags needed, and the sensor is sensitive enough that it opens before she even has to wait. One feeder placed in a spot the other cat can't crowd her at will sort this.

A very fair concern, and it's the one thing the feeder alone can't fix — it controls access to the food, not the social dynamic around it. The practical fix is placement: put the SureFeed somewhere your Oriental already feels confident, ideally slightly elevated or in a corner where she can see him coming and he can't loom over her. A shelf, a sturdy chair, even a low windowsill works well. If he's genuinely very intimidating you can also feed them in separate rooms at main mealtimes and use the microchip feeder to protect her grazing between meals. Most people find placement alone solves it, but having the backup option of separation at peak feeding times is worth knowing about.

Yes, and it's one of the reasons it's worth the price over cheaper alternatives. The bowl and the mat underneath are both removable and dishwasher safe. The lid mechanism itself just needs a quick wipe — it doesn't come into contact with food directly. For a grazing cat on wet food you'll want to rinse the bowl daily anyway, but it takes about 30 seconds. The sealed lid also genuinely slows down how quickly wet food dries out, so you're not throwing away half-dried food every time she comes back for a nibble.