SureFeed Microchip food dispenser review

One of the first expensive purchases I had to make after getting Mica and Opal was the SureFeed food dispenser. Foolish me had never had more than one cat at a time before and was completely oblivious to the problems that can occur around feeding times. I soon found out that Mica is utterly obsessed with food. I assure you I am not starving him. He is, after all, a bit overweight. Whether I'm preparing cat food or eating my own dinner, he is there, screeching at me to give him the tasty things. So it probably won't come as much surprise that he scarfs his own food and then boots Opal away from her own bowl.

Opal is also enthusiastic about food but not nearly as much as Mica. If you gave her a roast dinner then she would hiss and bat Mica away, but anything else she's usually less fussed about and she'll give in to him. I do wonder at times whether this may be the reason she's barely grown in comparison to Mica (no vet concerns mind you- she too has an overly large tummy for her overall small cat size).

So, I ordered a SureFeed microchip food dispenser for both of them directly from the Sure Petcare website. When I bought them a few years back, they were around £70 each with a discount. Sadly, it looks like they now sell for over £100 and are currently out of stock. As the name suggests, the dispenser reads your cat's microchip and only opens for them. If your cats don't have microchips, there is an included tag you can attach to their collar instead.

The thick instruction booklet that comes with it is a bit disconcerting but it's actually pretty simple to use. After inserting four C cell batteries (not included), you click on the cat face icon at the back of the dispenser to put it in 'Add pet' mode, and then place it near your cat of choice so it can read and remember their microchip. The tricky bit is remembering which dispenser is which once you've set them up!

The dispenser comes with one grey bowl, one grey split bowl and one grey mat as standard. This was a wee bit annoying for me as I had to order some colourful mats as a way of telling them apart. For the price you pay, I think it would be nice to be able to pick what colour mats you want, especially as the majority of people buying them have multi cat households (of course you may also have a cheeky neighbour cat who comes in and steals your cat's food, in which case this feeder is also worth considering)!

Sadly even with the pink and blue mats I frequently got confused. I'd remove them to wash them up each day and immediately forget which way round the dispensers were. As you can see I now have their names on each one and we no longer have any problems there. You can get these off various sellers on Etsy and whilst they were a bit fiddly to apply they are well worth buying. 

To open and close the lid, you press the large button on the back. There is also a switch higher up that you move to release the lid for cleaning. It's a slight design flaw that the 'Add pet' button is so close to the button to open/close the lid. Whilst it's no issue for me given I use it every day, my cat sitters once accidentally put it into 'Add pet' mode and thought the flashing green light meant it needed new batteries, and of course new batteries made no difference. I figured it out when I got home, but I think I'll pop some tape across that button for future holidays to lessen the chance of that happening.

When your cat walks away from their bowl, the lid promptly slides back down. It's not too sudden a movement, but your cat may still need some time to get used to the mechanism before they're comfortable using it. Luckily for me, the cats' obsession with food outweighed their fear, so mine got used to theirs very quickly. Opal needed a few extra treats in hers as encouragement. The far right button is for training purposes and will stop the lid from closing or make it close more gradually. 

The lid also keeps food fresh which is great if you have issues with insects and/or your cat is a slow eater. You can get a significantly cheaper version of this dispenser that just has the closing lid, which would be perfect for a single cat household or a harmonious multi cat household where your cats don't steal each other's food. One of my friends has one and it stops her cat's food drying out before he's finished.

So, let's talk about how well it actually works at keeping a cat away from another cat's food. It's not perfect sadly. There is a gap at the sides where a cat can dip their paw into to nick some food, and Mica certainly does that at times. You can buy a rear cover from Sure Petcare, but again I feel this is something that should be included with the device itself. I keep the dispensers near a wall which makes it more difficult for Mica to steal food from the rear, so I've not yet felt compelled to fork out £30 for this accessory.

Alas, it turns out even the rear cover wouldn't entirely stop a greedy cat. Mica has learned to open this dispenser by pulling at the lid with his teeth and claws. Once he's yanked out the bowl, it's all over. We now have scratches all over the lids, and sadly even Opal now will have a bash at this on the rare occasions when she really loves the cat food chosen that day and Mica leaves a tiny scrap in his bowl.

I'm not overly impressed with the included bowls either. They feel very cheap and I upgraded to the stainless steel versions as I thought the plastic ones had given Mica chin acne. It was not the bowls though, he just has a grubby chin that needs constant cleaning 🙀 Anyway, the stainless steel bowls feel a lot nicer (and they should for the price!) but the silicone rim around it came off after a few months of use. This was a bit infuriating as I only ever hand wash them and never use the dishwasher. I contacted Sure Petcare who kindly send me a free set after showing proof of purchase was less than a year ago, but I can see tiny tears in the rim of the new bowls that suggests to me that they may peel off again soon.

My final moan would be the difficulties in cleaning it. As mentioned previously, you can remove the lid for cleaning, but otherwise you need to use a damp cloth and it's very hard to get into the crevices to clean out tiny crumbs of food. I plan to get a water fountain cleaning kit and see if the thin brushes help with the job. I do a quick wipe around at least once a day, sometimes twice if they've made a mess, and go over the whole thing with an antiseptic wet wipe once a week to try and get it completely clean.

The SureFeed food dispenser has some flaws but I think it's the best thing on the market at present and well worth investing in if you have a greedy food stealer. If your budget allows, you may be interested in the Connect version which accurately measures your cat's food and monitors their eating habits as well. 

I've recently found some amazing accessories that make this dispenser so much better and I will be blogging around that tomorrow. You may have noticed one of them in the photos!