Best microchip feeder for unsupervised cats

Microchip feeders are one of the most genuinely useful innovations for multi-cat households — they make sure each cat gets only their own food, which matters enormously when cats have different diets, medical needs, or one is simply a shameless food thief. Before I point you in the right direction: how many cats do you have, are they all microchipped, and what's the main reason you need separate feeding — is it a prescription diet, a weight issue, or just one cat hoovering up everyone else's meals?

That's a really common transition point and honestly a smart thing to sort before the change rather than after. Three years of supervised meals means your cats have probably never had to self-regulate around each other — so yes, the food thief situation tends to emerge quickly once you're not there. Can you tell me a bit more about the cats? Are they on wet food, dry, or a mix, and is the greedy one just faster or does he actually physically push the other cat off their bowl?

Right, Monty sounds like a classic food bully — fast, confident, and absolutely zero guilt about it. The good news is this is exactly the problem microchip feeders were designed to solve, and for an unsupervised home with wet food and a timid cat, there's one product I'd steer you toward without hesitation: the SureFlap SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder. It reads each cat's microchip and the lid closes the moment a different cat approaches. Pickle's bowl stays sealed when Monty comes near it, and vice versa. It's quiet enough not to stress a timid cat, runs on batteries so no cable to manage, and the lid design also keeps wet food fresher between portions — which matters when you're out all day. You'd just need one for Pickle; Monty can have an open bowl since he's the one doing the stealing, not the one being stolen from.

It's a fair concern, but the SureFeed is genuinely well-designed for anxious cats — you can set it to stay open for a training period so Pickle gets used to eating from it before it starts closing. Most timid cats adapt within a week once they realise the bowl is theirs and nothing is going to happen to them when they approach it. The lid opening when she gets close actually tends to become a reassuring signal rather than a stressful one. I'd start training her a few weeks before you go back, so it's fully routine by the time she's on her own all day.

Brilliant — you've got plenty of time to get her settled before the change, which is the ideal way to do it. One SureFeed for Pickle, Monty stays on a regular bowl, and your mealtimes are sorted whether you're home or not. Good luck with the return to office — and with Monty, who I suspect will take slightly longer to accept the new rules than Pickle will.