We have 2 cats. One of them1 requires a prescription food. Predictably, because he’s a cat, he hates his food and wants to eat the other cat’s. Any other time, the second cat wouldn’t let the first anywhere near her food. Because she’s a cat and enjoys tormenting us, now she’s happy to share her forbidden kibble.

I’d heard about pet feeders that use RFID tags to distinguish between animals and only open for the one (or ones) that you’ve programmed into them. After some research, we took a deep breath and decided to try Sure Petcare’s SureFeed (affiliate link). I wish we’d done it sooner.

The initial setup was a cinch. I pressed the “add pet” button, lured our kitty to the feeder with a treat, and watched a blinking light turn solid green as the feeder detected and learned the RFID microchip her vet had implanted. It came with an RFID tag we could have clipped onto her collar if needed, but we didn’t.

Next, we used its “training mode” to get her used to the feeder. On the first day, the lid stayed fully open so it acted like a normal food bowl. Over the next few days, the lid closed a little farther and moved a little more to teach the kitty that it wasn’t going to eat her. At the end of that process, the SureFeed behaved exactly as it promised. Now our healthy kitty walks up to her food bowl, its cover opens without spooking her, and she eats her dinner. Our medicated cat bats at it in frustration because he can see the tempting food inside but can’t get at it.

The SureFeed is expensive, and I only bought it because I had some gift cards saved up. $200 is one expensive cat food bowl. Still, in our case, it’s much cheaper than having our cat eat the wrong food. It’s also one of our household items that lives up to all its claims. It lets the right cat in and keeps the wrong one out. I’m glad we got it.

  1. I nicknamed him Steve Austin, as in the Six Million Dollar Man. It’s always something with this guy. ↩︎