SUREFEED MICROCHIP AUTOMATIC PET FEEDER

£86 / $149.99 WWW.SUREPETCARE.COM

If you have one cat who’s not getting enough food because the other cats in your household are more brave, greedy or pushy at mealtimes, you can code this feeder to only allow one cat to access the food within.

It works in much the same way as company Sure Petcare’s microchip pet flaps: your pet sticks their head in, a reader checks their chip and it opens if the correct pet is detected. Here it’s not a simple case of unlocking, though, as the door covering the food bowl actively opens up while they remain in the vicinity, and automatically shuts a couple of seconds after they’ve left the bowl.

It’s tough enough that the wrong pet won’t be able to claw their way in, which is a great positive, but some users have reported that particularly canny cats have discovered a workaround. Pushing into the detecting halo once the door has opened and barging the correct pet out of the way leaves the food open for devouring because once the microchip reading is done the Automatic Pet Feeder is only concerned with proximity. That may not be the case for your pets, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on dinner time.