Experiences With A Microchip Feeder?

[KarenKat]

Hey all! So my beautiful Olive is fed three times a day wet food only, and our two boys are free-fed kibble (although we are trying to work in some wet food but we are up against 7-10 years of dry). Since we got Olive 9 months ago she was too nervous to eat the kibble in the kitchen, and we figured she would be satisfied with her wet meals.

Well, we have been noticing the little piggy has been getting plumper, and now we need to try and get her off the kibble. Has anyone used the Microchip feeders? Do they work pretty good? Our concern is that maybe the two boys would be nervous if it moves quickly or makes noise.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! What a sweetie!!!

I found these thread posts for you;

Multiple Surefeed Microchip Feeders?

Sabrina Bullying Her Sisters...

 

[lalagimp]

My girls use the SureFlap feeders, with a SureFlap on an enclosure called the MeowSpace.

My alpha male is an exceptional kind of Speshal.
He'll elbow in on a girl eating from the microchip feeder and hold the thing open with his head and eat all the food. He might even be nice enough to share with the other male. So then we have a microchip door on a plexiglass enclosure. The girls have to do through the flap, into a box, then open their feeder and eat.

Our first attempt with a microchip feeder was the Gatefeeder.

 

[KarenKat]

Hi! What a sweetie!!!

I found these thread posts for you;

Multiple Surefeed Microchip Feeders?

Sabrina Bullying Her Sisters...

Thanks, Furballsmom ! I'm probably going to try the Surefeed brand, I like that it's not a full enclosure. Olive is a sweetie but she seems to complicate anything we do. Locking down garbage, hiding human food, finding out how to keep her from extra rations. We might even need some sort of force field for our kitchen sponge as it keeps disappearing and then reappearing in her "kill zone", lol. It's delightful sometimes, and soon she will have trained us well.

My alpha male is an exceptional kind of Speshal.
He'll elbow in on a girl eating from the microchip feeder and hold the thing open with his head and eat all the food. He might even be nice enough to share with the other male.

Oh wow, I have this image of a cat holding another cat's face up to the optic eye scanner to break into the cat food vault, lol! So far Olive has not tried to take food from an actively eating cat, but if it's just sitting there, alone and unguarded ...

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh emm gee LOL both of you lalagimp and KarenKat !!

 

[Lari]

So far Olive has not tried to take food from an actively eating cat, but if it's just sitting there, alone and unguarded ...

In that case it will probably work, because that's how my bf's cat is.

If you get the surefeed and your cats are at all skittish, you have to be patient. I remember I had a bit of trouble getting Lelia under the thing so it could even read her microchip.

There are four official training modes. The first keeps it open the whole time until the cat is comfortable just eating out of it. Lelia resisted at first and I would put the bowl on the mat in front.

Next it's open and moves ever so slightly when it reads the chip. That scared her and was when I thought she'd never get it. Third keeps it halfway open and completely opens when it reads the microchip and the last is about 3/4 closed. She actually slid through those steps and once it started being closed all the way pretty easily, way easier than the first two steps.

Other cats can still get at the food in training mode - S got very proficient at sticking her paw in and pulling the food out once her head couldn't go in, but she also doesn't try to butt Lelia out of the way while she's eating - S is an opportunist that sneaks in once Lelia, who is a total grazer, has walked away. So it's been really good for me knowing Lelia will be able to eat all of her food on her own time. (S is a little less thrilled).

 

[KarenKat]

Thanks! I didn’t realize that training modes were built in, that makes me feel a lot better.