Sure Petcare -SureFlap - SureFeed - Microchip Pet Feeder - Selective-Automatic Pet Feeder Makes Meal Times Stress-Free, Suitable for Both Wet and Dry Food - MPF001

My full review after a month! :So I have two cats that need two different diets. One cat that is a food stealer and one very timid girl. Timid cat was eating food stealer's prescription food but it made her turn into a chonk. So we needed a solution that would give timid cat her own private bowl that food stealer couldn't get to, and her own food for weight management. I couldn't just give timid cat her own kind of food because food stealer would steal it all and food stealer wouldn't eat her prescription food, which she needs.So I asked the vet how to help a cat lose weight, he suggested scheduled feeding. I researched online how other people have handled scheduled feeding, and soooooo many people suggested SureFeed feeders as the holy grail of solutions. I was a bit intimidated by the price initially (worth every penny). But I saw it as how I see humans, if I can avoid a problem from getting worse, it'll save me money in the long run. I had spent over $1,000 on food stealer's GI diagnosis already and timid cat was probably on her way to pre-diabetic if I didn't do something. So after a few trial and error with feeding them in separate rooms, the absolute hassle and refusal from the cats to make that work.. I said okay, these feeders are beyond worth paying for to try out.And I am so glad that I did. For me, so far, they are the holy grail. Every problem I was having with food stealer and timid, have been fully resolved with the feeders. They each eat their own meal plan, in their own bowl, and they can't mix. Timid has lost weight already with her weight management food, and stealer is happily eating her GI food. Timid, who is also a grazer, can graze on her own time (Later I will include how timid got used to the feeder itself, because she is..well..timid; I used the collar tag for training!) without stealer eating the wrong food. And timid has gotten much more comfortable knowing that stealer can't bother her feeder.Setup:Setup was easy. Unbox, place where you want it, the large button opens the feeder, add food, click the +pet button to have the feeder detect your pet's microchip. It detects it really easily within a few seconds. You can reprogram that anytime, I did for timid's collar tag. You just hold down the +pet button for 10 seconds, then add the new one. I accidentally put the feeder in training mode not knowing what that button (or training mode) was and had to turn the feeder off and back on and read the directions. If you hit the training mode button and think you broke something....you didn't! Lol. It's probably training mode and you need to read the directions. My cats didn't need the back protector, stealer is thankfully happy using her own feeder. But you could easily use a box (like other people) or put it up against a wall/corner with something to block a side.Adapting to the feeder/how they handled it:I put food in each feeder, and sat them near their old bowls. I used timid cat's original food to start, so she had some familiarity at first. BEFORE letting timid cat in the room, I had stealer in the room alone to show her the feeder and how it opens. She is a glutton so as long as she knows food is in there and she just has to walk up to it for it to give her that food she is good to go. Next was introducing timid. I took stealer out of the room. I opened the feeder for timid and let her sniff. She knew the food was there but didn't want to walk up to it, so I took the food out and sat it in front of the feeder. She ate from it like that for a few days but we needed her to eat from the feeder. Now we have a third cat with food downstairs, and I didn't want timid to get desperate and go eat from that bowl. She needed to learn her own. So we kept timid in HER room for a week to ensure she would get used to her own bowl (letting her out only when supervised). During that week I gradually put the bowl in the feeder more, but left the flap open. Then mid way through the week I closed it. Per the vet, if she is hungry enough, she will use it. And she did. After a day and a half of only drinking water, her instincts kicked in and she opened it herself for the first time (she knew how it worked the whole time, she just didn't like the "opening sound") and over the rest of the week she opened it herself more, and more, and more times. It's been a month now, and she uses it completely normally. Another tip that worked SO well for getting a timid cat used to the feeder was using the included microchip collar tag. At first timid cat didn't like getting too close, but her microchip in her back made it to where she needed to get pretty under there for the flap to open. So I thought "the tag is closer to her face and would open it sooner". So during training I used the collar tag so it wouldn't open right in her face startling her, it opened sooner before she was really close to it and opened gradually as she walked up to it.Shipping:-Ordered 2 of the first gen (the one without the app) because I didn't want the app. Just wanted to keep things simple so I got the regular feeders. They arrived together, on time, and were the correct items.-Included with the feeder: a microchip tag, 2 bowls, a mat, offer for 3 year warranty, and instructions.-Size of feeder: per the box diagram 200mm height x 320mm length. Bowl is 400ml.

I bought two of these feeders because my cats are each on a different and ridiculously expensive prescription diet for health issues. Both cats are slow eaters and didn’t have ounce of weight to lose and it was becoming really difficult for me to police them for multiple meals per day. Neither of these jokers will keep a collar on longer than 5 minutes so tag reader feeders were out. My vet told me about this brand that uses the cat’s micro chip and I ordered one the same day. It took seconds to set up and the test cat was using it without hesitation pretty much immediately. They work very well. Each cat’s chip activates his own station without fail and they close fast enough to deter cheating. The batteries last for ages, I changed one set out at nearly a year just to be on the safe side. They are easy to clean. They hold enough dry food that the cats can graze for a meal or two and they are both approaching a better weight eating their daily allotment at their own pace. The feeders are expensive but they make life so much easier.

Great idea and good product. Multiple units allow appropriate food for an adult cat and a kitten. The unit works with the microchip in my cat, but I switched to the supplied RFID collar tag because the scan signal is stronger and my cat doesn’t have to put her head as far in, in order to open the lid. She was leary of putting her head far enough in consistently. The price of the unit should have included stainless steel bowls. Plastic bowls are not healthy for pets and you can look up all the reasons why. With that said I ordered the optional stainless steel bowl, but it only comes with an undivided bowl. If you want to use the unit with wet and dry food you need a divided stainless steel bowl. Hopefully the mfg will offer a divided stainless steel bowl at least as a option soon.

We recently added to kittens to our one elder cat household, and needed a managed feeding solution. The Surefeed does a pretty good job of that, with some misgivings.All of our cats are chipped, so we didn't have to work with the included collar tags, but we did try the tags out briefly and they worked just fine. The chip/tag programming is very simple, as there are only a few interface buttons to worry about. All three cats took a little bit to get used to the idea that only one of the three feeders would open for them, but it happened pretty quickly.The food dishes, retractable lid (that can be removed from the base), and the unit itself is all really easy to clean. The dishes have a soft rubber lip that seals the food when the lid closes and it really does keep wet food fresh for a long time. Keeps bugs out and moisture in!Cons: I wish these had a walk plug option. There really doesn't seem to be any good reason to have these units rely on batteries, as little as they sip from them. There's a case for an energy source backup in case the power goes out, but portability is not so important that they need to be only battery powered.The other con is that the door closure is a little inconsistent. Most of the time the doors will close right away as soon as the cat walks away. But there are times when the door stays open for five or ten seconds and the cat isn't in the room anymore. When we're trying to restrict crossover feeding, especially with our elder cat, it's not optimal.Otherwise, very pleased with the Surefeed units. They mostly work as intended/designed, and allow us to keep unmonitored food out for all three cats without one getting more/less than the rest, or prescription food that's designed for a specific cat.