Microchip feeders for cats on opposite diets

Microchip feeders are honestly one of the most genuinely useful things to come out of multi-cat ownership — they make sure each cat only ever accesses their own food, which becomes critical when you've got cats on completely opposite dietary needs. Your situation is a classic example of why they exist: one cat who needs strict calorie restriction and another who needs every calorie they can get. Before I point you in the right direction, a couple of quick questions — are both cats already microchipped, or is one of them on a collar tag? And has the overweight cat been prescribed a specific veterinary diet, or are you managing it with an over-the-counter light food?

Biscuit and Pip are brilliant names, and yes — this is exactly the situation where a microchip feeder stops being a nice-to-have and becomes genuinely essential. Royal Canin Satiety and Hills AD are almost polar opposites in calorie density, so if Biscuit is getting into Pip's recovery food regularly, that's going to completely undermine the vet's plan for both of them. The product I'd go straight to is the SureFlap SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder. It reads each cat's individual microchip and the lid only opens for the registered cat — so you programme one feeder for Biscuit and one for Pip, and neither can access the other's bowl. It works with standard 15-digit microchips, which is what both your cats will have. You'd need two units, one per cat.

The SureFeed is genuinely the best in class for response speed — the lid opens quickly enough that most cats accept it within a few days, and the detection range is good so it doesn't require them to shove their whole face in before it registers. The thing that matters more for your situation is that it also has a 'intruder detection' mode, which closes the lid if it senses a second cat nearby trying to muscle in — that'll matter with Biscuit around. The main settling-in tip: introduce it with the lid locked open for the first day or two so Pip especially, coming home from a stressful vet stay, isn't confronted with a strange new obstacle on top of everything else. Once she's eating confidently from it, enable the restriction.

Just the two feeders — they run on 4 AA batteries each (or a USB cable with an adapter, which SureFeed sell separately if you'd prefer not to deal with batteries). The bowls are included and are dishwasher safe, which is handy when you're dealing with recovery food like Hills AD, which can get a bit sticky. One practical note: place the feeders in different rooms if you can, or at least well apart. With Biscuit being food-motivated enough to steal Pip's bowl, physical distance reduces the temptation to hover around the wrong feeder hoping for a chance.

Good luck with Biscuit and Pip — I hope Pip's recovery goes smoothly. Two SureFeed feeders programmed to their individual chips will genuinely take the stress out of mealtimes and let the vets' plans actually work. If either cat has a collar as well as a microchip, the feeders can also be set to read RFID collar tags, but for cats already chipped it's simpler to just use the chip. You're all set.