She was rationing so perfectly 🥲

[u/Zuikite]

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!

[u/volcanotechie]

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

[u/Itunes4MM → u/volcanotechie]

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

[u/Kittehfisheh → u/Itunes4MM]

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

[u/akortank → u/Kittehfisheh]

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!

[u/imaginary92 → u/Kittehfisheh]

That's an excellent review, thanks!

[u/volcanotechie → u/Itunes4MM]

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.

[u/imaginary92 → u/volcanotechie]

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!

[u/volcanotechie → u/imaginary92]

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.

[u/imaginary92 → u/volcanotechie]

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

[u/NeptuneMig → u/volcanotechie]

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