SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder: how three cats finally eat their own food

For years, I stood next to the bowls at every meal.

Purely as a supervisor, because otherwise the fastest cat clears all three bowls.

We have three cats, and they eat so differently that "just put down three bowls" has never worked as a plan.

Two of them eat slowly, spread across the whole day. Both need a specific food because of physical conditions, one hypoallergenic, one gastrointestinal. There is no room to negotiate on that.

The third one eats everything. At roughly three times the speed.

Anyone who has run a multi-cat household with two prescription diets knows how that ends. The fast cat finishes her portion before the others have properly started, then chases them off their bowls and eats their food too.

So there were two options. Stand there until everyone is done. Or sort the cats into separate rooms for every meal.

Both work. Both are ridiculous in the long run.

What the SureFeed actually does

The SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder from Sure Petcare dispenses no food at all, despite the name. It is a bowl with a lid and a chip reader.

When the right cat stands in front of it, the lid opens. When she steps away, it closes again.

What it reads is the microchip the cat already carries under her skin. The feeder handles the usual chip formats, 9, 10 and 15 digits, and stores up to 32 animals. For a cat without a chip, an RFID collar tag is included.

You also get a normal bowl, a split bowl for two kinds of food and a mat for whatever ends up next to it. Capacity is 400 ml, so two pouches of wet food fit.

Power comes from four C cell batteries that last at least six months according to the manufacturer. So the bowl can sit where the cat eats anyway, rather than wherever the nearest socket happens to be.

Setup: minutes, if your cats are chipped

All three of ours are chipped, so setup was unremarkable. Press the button, let the cat eat, chip stored.

For nervous animals there is a training mode where the lid stays put at first and then moves further in stages, until the cat accepts the sound.

That barely mattered here. Where there is food, skepticism turns out to be negotiable pretty fast.

What changed day to day

Feeding is no longer an event.

The two slow eaters can take their time. Their food sits out in the open and is still unreachable for the third one.

Between bites the lid is closed, so the wet food does not dry out. For cats that keep coming back over several hours, that matters more than any other feature.

And I no longer stand there.

That sounds like a small thing, but it is the entire difference. Before, every meal was an appointment I had to attend. Now it is just food, sitting there.

What I like about it

• The key is already inside the cat. No collar, no tag, no accessory to lose.
• It solves exactly one problem, and solves it properly. Who eats which food is no longer up for negotiation.
• Prescription food becomes reliable again. With hypoallergenic or gastrointestinal food, it genuinely matters whether the right cat ends up with the right food inside her.
• The split bowl is a thoughtful touch. Wet and dry side by side, without the two developing a shared consistency.
• It needs no attention. No app, no firmware, no account. Batteries in, cat registered, done.

The honest limits

Now the part that actually annoys me.

One of our cats eats like a toddler. With commitment, and in every direction.

When gravy runs past the bowl insert and works its way into the gaps of the housing, it gets unpleasant. The bowl can go in the dishwasher, the mat and lid are hand wash. But the housing must never go in water, you only wipe it with a damp cloth. And taking the whole thing apart only works with a lot of patience and a feel for it. It certainly does not feel like the manufacturer had disassembly in mind.

With dry crumbs, none of this matters. With dried gravy in an edge your finger cannot reach, it does.

Three more things worth knowing beforehand.

It does not portion anything. "Feeder" here only means controlled access. If you want a device that serves breakfast at seven on its own, you want something else.

It costs around €130, and in a household with several cats you rarely buy just one.

And it manages the bowl, not the mood in the room. A cat that sits down next to it and waits will still sit there. The lid stays shut, but the device does not do social work for you.

Would I buy it again?

Immediately.

For a single cat it is probably a luxury, unless the wet food should stay fresh longer or somebody who is not allowed a snack keeps taking one. A dog in the house counts here too.

For a household with several cats, one of which eats fast while the others need a specific food, it is close to irreplaceable.

You will never get it properly clean. But it took over a job I did myself for years, and did it worse than the feeder does.