****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
My full review after a month! :So I have two cats that need two different diets. One cat that is a food stealer and one very timid girl. Timid cat was eating food stealer's prescription food but it made her turn into a chonk. So we needed a solution that would give timid cat her own private bowl that food stealer couldn't get to, and her own food for weight management. I couldn't just give timid cat her own kind of food because food stealer would steal it all and food stealer wouldn't eat her prescription food, which she needs.So I asked the vet how to help a cat lose weight, he suggested scheduled feeding. I researched online how other people have handled scheduled feeding, and soooooo many people suggested SureFeed feeders as the holy grail of solutions. I was a bit intimidated by the price initially (worth every penny). But I saw it as how I see humans, if I can avoid a problem from getting worse, it'll save me money in the long run. I had spent over $1,000 on food stealer's GI diagnosis already and timid cat was probably on her way to pre-diabetic if I didn't do something. So after a few trial and error with feeding them in separate rooms, the absolute hassle and refusal from the cats to make that work.. I said okay, these feeders are beyond worth paying for to try out.And I am so glad that I did. For me, so far, they are the holy grail. Every problem I was having with food stealer and timid, have been fully resolved with the feeders. They each eat their own meal plan, in their own bowl, and they can't mix. Timid has lost weight already with her weight management food, and stealer is happily eating her GI food. Timid, who is also a grazer, can graze on her own time (Later I will include how timid got used to the feeder itself, because she is..well..timid; I used the collar tag for training!) without stealer eating the wrong food. And timid has gotten much more comfortable knowing that stealer can't bother her feeder.Setup:Setup was easy. Unbox, place where you want it, the large button opens the feeder, add food, click the +pet button to have the feeder detect your pet's microchip. It detects it really easily within a few seconds. You can reprogram that anytime, I did for timid's collar tag. You just hold down the +pet button for 10 seconds, then add the new one. I accidentally put the feeder in training mode not knowing what that button (or training mode) was and had to turn the feeder off and back on and read the directions. If you hit the training mode button and think you broke something....you didn't! Lol. It's probably training mode and you need to read the directions. My cats didn't need the back protector, stealer is thankfully happy using her own feeder. But you could easily use a box (like other people) or put it up against a wall/corner with something to block a side.Adapting to the feeder/how they handled it:I put food in each feeder, and sat them near their old bowls. I used timid cat's original food to start, so she had some familiarity at first. BEFORE letting timid cat in the room, I had stealer in the room alone to show her the feeder and how it opens. She is a glutton so as long as she knows food is in there and she just has to walk up to it for it to give her that food she is good to go. Next was introducing timid. I took stealer out of the room. I opened the feeder for timid and let her sniff. She knew the food was there but didn't want to walk up to it, so I took the food out and sat it in front of the feeder. She ate from it like that for a few days but we needed her to eat from the feeder. Now we have a third cat with food downstairs, and I didn't want timid to get desperate and go eat from that bowl. She needed to learn her own. So we kept timid in HER room for a week to ensure she would get used to her own bowl (letting her out only when supervised). During that week I gradually put the bowl in the feeder more, but left the flap open. Then mid way through the week I closed it. Per the vet, if she is hungry enough, she will use it. And she did. After a day and a half of only drinking water, her instincts kicked in and she opened it herself for the first time (she knew how it worked the whole time, she just didn't like the "opening sound") and over the rest of the week she opened it herself more, and more, and more times. It's been a month now, and she uses it completely normally. Another tip that worked SO well for getting a timid cat used to the feeder was using the included microchip collar tag. At first timid cat didn't like getting too close, but her microchip in her back made it to where she needed to get pretty under there for the flap to open. So I thought "the tag is closer to her face and would open it sooner". So during training I used the collar tag so it wouldn't open right in her face startling her, it opened sooner before she was really close to it and opened gradually as she walked up to it.Shipping:-Ordered 2 of the first gen (the one without the app) because I didn't want the app. Just wanted to keep things simple so I got the regular feeders. They arrived together, on time, and were the correct items.-Included with the feeder: a microchip tag, 2 bowls, a mat, offer for 3 year warranty, and instructions.-Size of feeder: per the box diagram 200mm height x 320mm length. Bowl is 400ml.
