Introduction Advice

[pearl99]

The chip feeder should be coming in the next day or two, so if Katrina is still gaining less weight than she has the past couple of months after having free access to dry this week and after adding dry food to her portion of wet, I'll need to check in with my vet.


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I'm very interested in how the chip feeder goes! I'm pretty sure I'm going to need one myself for my senior cat so am reading up on them.

 

[WillowMarie]

I'm very interested in how the chip feeder goes! I'm pretty sure I'm going to need one myself for my senior cat so am reading up on them.

I'll let you know how it works with the kitties! Hopefully it will be a great review about how great it is, haha

 

[WillowMarie]

I'm very interested in how the chip feeder goes! I'm pretty sure I'm going to need one myself for my senior cat so am reading up on them.

Chip feeder is working great so far! I did not follow the introduction/training process, which wants you to place feeder not operating for a few days, then leave it in open to let them feed, then try the sliding door on slow, medium, then fastest speed. Both kittens seemed very interested in it, so I went straight into adding a pet mode and started the door in the fastest closing mode. It stays open in this mode until the cat chip is read, and when the cat backs up, closes. I put treats in for the kittens, and they both did great!

Set it up with dry food after, and both use the feeder throughout the day. Isabelle has been very well behaved and will sit patiently waiting for the kittens to finish, and then will try to stick her head to trigger the feeder, but, of course, it stays closed. She has tried to scratch and bite the door open, and there is a scratch in the plastic, but no damage to operating. Hopefully she will learn it will not open for her and stop trying to get it to open. I was worried she may try to obsessively try to get it open, but she doesn't. I was also worried she would be aggressive with the kittens trying to get at their food when they are eat, but that hasn't happened either.

It is really helpful on the days that the kittens get the mix of kitten and adult wet food, and Isabelle gets the adult because Isabelle eats hers in one sitting, and the kittens food can be placed in the feeder for them to graze as it takes them longer. Other days they get all life stages, so I don't need to supervise who gets what.

If you end up getting a feeder for your senior cat, let me know how it works for you! The brand I got was
SureFeed Microchip Small Dog & Cat Feeder, White
and found it on Chewy. Amazon has it, too, but read that reviewers said customer support was hard to reach or had problems with support helping them it seemed, so that's why I bought it off Chewy because they have a great customer service track record.

 

[WillowMarie]

Also, Isabelle climbed on my lap the other day while Persia was already there and did not growl at all or hesitate to climb up! She also licked Persia and then lowered down in my lap despite having contact with Persia <3 So that was great! Is she trying to become best buds with them so they will open the chip feeder for her?? Maybe! But happy to see more progress!

Isabelle may have also been playing with Katrina as she whacked at Katrina when they were both on opposite sides of something, and there was no growling. Isabelle had seemed in a playful mood before this, so it seemed playful! Isabelle still has her limits though, and if Katrina was trying to sneak up to on her, she growled a bit, haha.

 

[pearl99]

Chip feeder is working great so far! I did not follow the introduction/training process, which wants you to place feeder not operating for a few days, then leave it in open to let them feed, then try the sliding door on slow, medium, then fastest speed. Both kittens seemed very interested in it, so I went straight into adding a pet mode and started the door in the fastest closing mode. It stays open in this mode until the cat chip is read, and when the cat backs up, closes. I put treats in for the kittens, and they both did great!

Set it up with dry food after, and both use the feeder throughout the day. Isabelle has been very well behaved and will sit patiently waiting for the kittens to finish, and then will try to stick her head to trigger the feeder, but, of course, it stays closed. She has tried to scratch and bite the door open, and there is a scratch in the plastic, but no damage to operating. Hopefully she will learn it will not open for her and stop trying to get it to open. I was worried she may try to obsessively try to get it open, but she doesn't. I was also worried she would be aggressive with the kittens trying to get at their food when they are eat, but that hasn't happened either.

It is really helpful on the days that the kittens get the mix of kitten and adult wet food, and Isabelle gets the adult because Isabelle eats hers in one sitting, and the kittens food can be placed in the feeder for them to graze as it takes them longer. Other days they get all life stages, so I don't need to supervise who gets what.

If you end up getting a feeder for your senior cat, let me know how it works for you! The brand I got was
SureFeed Microchip Small Dog & Cat Feeder, White't!
and found it on Chewy. Amazon has it, too, but read that reviewers said customer support was hard to reach or had problems with support helping them it seemed, so that's why I bought it off Chewy because they have a great customer service track record.

This is great info. It answers all I was wondering, mostly about it closing when the cat that is programmed in walks away. And another cat trying to get to the food but can't! Mooshoo is very persistent trying to open feeders. I have the funniest pictures of her attempts. But she has her own feeder to try to burglarize so I think she may not even bother this one. The SureFeed is what I've been looking at. Thanks for the tip about ordering from Chewy. This is a big help!

 

[WillowMarie]

This is great info. It answers all I was wondering, mostly about it closing when the cat that is programmed in walks away. And another cat trying to get to the food but can't! Mooshoo is very persistent trying to open feeders. I have the funniest pictures of her attempts. But she has her own feeder to try to burglarize so I think she may not even bother this one. The SureFeed is what I've been looking at. Thanks for the tip about ordering from Chewy. This is a big help!

Glad it was helpful! Your welcome! Let me know how it works when you try it out!

 

[WillowMarie]

Kittens may get growled at, but they neither initiate actual fighting nor get attacked with intent to injure. That goes away at some point. So if the kitten decides its an adult now and wants to be assertive, or the big cat decides the kitten is now a threat, that sort of thing. I don't think its super common, but I know you can have new problems at 6 months or so. I had an older cat that started growling at a former kitten turned young adult when it was trying to rough play, and all of sudden that made the young adult cat want to for-real fight.

It may have started with Katrina... She has a new spot she likes to sit, on top of a new scratching post by the couch. Isabelle was on the armrest behind me and was growling at Katrina because she was on the scratcher about a foot away from Isabelle. Isabelle got in her face, can't remember if Isabelle started whacking, but Katrina bopped Isabelle very lightly and cautiously on the top of the head as if to defend her post and tell Isabelle, you being silly, you don't even come up here! Isabelle jumped down after that.

Katrina still listens to Isabelle's other boundaries. This morning Isabelle was in my lap and did not like Katrina walking on the back of the couch. Isabelle growled and Katrina crouched a little as if to cower and retreated. She doesn't avoid Isabelle, so she doesn't seem scared of her.

Below are a couple more picture updates from the past couple of weeks! <3

 

[WillowMarie]

The magic of wanting to cuddle with mommie... Persia was on my lap when Isabelle came up to see me. She stepped her front paws over Persia, only to lower down and lay right on top of Persia with no growling They've both been sleeping like this for at least a half hour, haha. Too cute!!

 

[WillowMarie]

Well, it was cute while it lasted! Isabelle just sat up and started hissing in Persia's face multiple times, and then Isabelle jumped off the couch.

 

[rubysmama]

Baby steps, right.

 

[WillowMarie]

Baby steps, right.

Yup, baby steps!

 

[pearl99]

If you end up getting a feeder for your senior cat, let me know how it works for you! The brand I got was
SureFeed Microchip Small Dog & Cat Feeder, White
and found it on Chewy.

W WillowMarie , I've been using the chip feeder for a few weeks, it is working great. Gracie learned it easily. I got the extra plastic back for it because I know Mooshoo will be in there, was not happy it did not come with the feeder but it's worth the money to get it. At least the shipping was free. It is expensive but to me it is worth it. I am even considering one for Waffles in the future. Got to save $$ though!

 

[WillowMarie]

W WillowMarie , I've been using the chip feeder for a few weeks, it is working great. Gracie learned it easily. I got the extra plastic back for it because I know Mooshoo will be in there, was not happy it did not come with the feeder but it's worth the money to get it. At least the shipping was free. It is expensive but to me it is worth it. I am even considering one for Waffles in the future. Got to save $$ though!

Great to hear it's been working for you! What is the extra plastic back and where did you purchase it from?

 

[pearl99]

Great to hear it's been working for you! What is the extra plastic back and where did you purchase it from?

The back is open so another cat can come up and stick their head in while the chip cat is eating. Some people put the feeder in a box to prevent that, but I know Mooshoo and she would stop at nothing to eat out of Gracie's feeder. It's $27, which I was not happy about- it should come with the feeder- but I got it. It's free shipping.
It's from the company website, scroll down toward the bottom, it's called "rear cover:"

The SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder from Sure Petcare

 

[WillowMarie]

The back is open so another cat can come up and stick their head in while the chip cat is eating. Some people put the feeder in a box to prevent that, but I know Mooshoo and she would stop at nothing to eat out of Gracie's feeder. It's $27, which I was not happy about- it should come with the feeder- but I got it. It's free shipping.
It's from the company website, scroll down toward the bottom, it's called "rear cover:"

The SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder from Sure Petcare

Gotcha, thank you! That is pricey. Glad they sell it though, if needed.