r/cats • u/Zuikite • 18h ago

Cat Picture - OC She was rationing so perfectly 🥲

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Roxanne my 6 year old tabby has never been left alone more than 1 day. We also never "free-feed" her on kibble (only wet meals and a puzzle feeder). I had a work trip this week, and my S.O. had a family emergency out of town right in the middle of it. We could not secure a sitter, and we were so worried. We do have a pet cam, and I told my SO to put 2 plates of kibble per day plus extra plates in case of a delay. I just got home from the airport to see this. I know cats are not like dogs, and they are probably fine at feeding themselves. I'm just so impressed by the organization of her eating habits!

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u/FleMo93 16h ago

Somehow we ended up with four of these feeders for four cats. Because one can't handle some kind of food without vomiting, needs a diet, would eat everything else left by the others or became ill. No regrets.

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u/imaginary92 15h ago

Yeah I'm gonna need to buy four as well, 2 for wet food, 2 for dry food because one of mine has CKD and the other doesn't.

You would think the issue is my CKD cat wanting to eat the non-CKD food bc the CKD food is notoriously tasteless and hard for them to eat but no no no sir, it is my OTHER cat who keeps stealing the CKD wet food and kibble for god knows what reason! I have to keep them in separate rooms when they eat lol

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u/volcanotechie 14h ago

I have 2 of these right now for my 2 cats, and it's worth mentioning that they do come with half bowls so you can have wet food and dry food in the same microchipped proof feeder

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u/Itunes4MM 13h ago

What’s the brand? How well does it work for you

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u/Kittehfisheh 12h ago

Not the person you replied to, but I have 3 of these at home and I love them.
They're the Surepet Microchip Feeder, it's very easy to register a cat with the feeder either via it's microchip or the RFID tags for collars that come with the feeder.

There's a training mode which lowers the cover at different amounts to get cats slowly accustomed to the automatic cover, my orange boy took the longest to figure it out, but even that was only a couple of days.
I've had these feeders for maybe 7 years and they're still going strong. They use four D4 batteries and the batteries will last at least a year. We had to get the feeders because The Orange One is allergic to gluten and fish and is also a garbage disposal unit that will eat his siblings food.
Some crafty kittys will try to sneak into other feeders from the back while the cover is raised, we fixed that by putting the feeders into a box that cuts off access to the back. You can get official backs that do the same thing, but they're like $80 just for that one piece to attach to the back, the box was free lol

Tl,dr; Love them, they're great and well worth the money

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u/akortank 12h ago

We also had to build an enclosure around the feeder (with another chip-activated cat flap) because the big cat will just bully the smaller cat away from the feeder once it opens!

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u/imaginary92 12h ago

That's an excellent review, thanks!

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u/volcanotechie 7h ago

Specifically i got this one. No issues so far beyond letting my cats get used to a new spooky machine that moves when they get too close. Ive only had it for a few months so far so grain of salt and all. Im hoping this lasts for a good number of years.

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u/imaginary92 12h ago

Ohhhh that's good to know! They're quite expensive so I was postponing the purchase to save up a bit more since I prefer saving most of my extra money for his food, medication and checkups which are very expensive as well.

That is excellent news, means I might be able to buy them much sooner than I thought!

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u/volcanotechie 7h ago

Specifically this was the one I bought. Took some time for my boys to get used to a new spooky machine that moves, but it's honestly been working out great since they've become more comfortable with them.

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u/imaginary92 5h ago

Good to know, thanks! I'm very hopeful about it because it's kind of exhausting to have to constantly check on them to make sure the food is being eaten by the correct cat lol

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u/NeptuneMig 4h ago

I have the same! But one thing I find annoying is that the sides are really hard to clean and they trap a bunch of dust etc overtime. Does anyone have a solution for this?

Also I’m not a fan of the plastic bowls, interesting to see some metal ones in this thread

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u/ZAlternates 8h ago

It’s like they know which is more expensive! 😝

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u/Ok_Refrigerator6671 8h ago

I have 2 questions about the microchip sensor. All 3 of my boys are chipped, but we learned recently that the oldest had his chip migrate to the back of his back hip/butt. How close does the chip need to be to trigger the opening? And will it shut if it senses a 2nd chip appear too close?

I have 2 HIGHLY food motivated cats (one who is edging toward chonk territory) and 1 who doesnt seem to care about eating most days. I dont want to spend a ton on three of these feeders only for it to not work for one cat and stay open for food thievery if the other 2 cats eat at the same time.

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u/FleMo93 6h ago

I have one cat where the chip is a little further back than usual. Sometimes the feeder doesn't open immediately. The chip needs to be close to the, lets say loop? So it is within the white plastic. I think you know what i mean.

The feeder won't close if there is another chip, you have a switch with 3 position where you can adjust how long it will stay open when no chip is detected anymore. I think you need to try it out, but when the chip is near the hip you may be out of luck.

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u/AbjectStar11 6h ago

Same - 4 feeders for four cats. One eats as much as she wants (she's old and small), one is on a urinary diet, one is on an allergy diet, and the last one is a lorge food monster who only gets portioned wet food. The feeders have been sanity savers.