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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Has anyone got a microchip cat bowl?

13 replies

basildonbond · 10/03/2015 10:52

Our dog's mission in life is to steal the cat's food (one of our cats likes to graze throughout the day - he's v active and lean so obviously suits him to do this). I've seen an ad for sure flap microchip cat bowls which looks like it would be a perfect solution but they are eye-wateringly expensive so I'm keen to have as many reviews as possible before buying, thsnks

OP posts:
Lonecatwithkitten · 10/03/2015 12:18

I've seen them in operation at their launch and found them pretty robust.

Qwebec · 10/03/2015 15:26

How about moving the bowl out of the dog's reach?

basildonbond · 10/03/2015 16:45

thanks lonecat

qwebec - the problem with that is there's nowhere for it to go other than the floor - the cat eats in the bathroom upstairs - the only other options are putting it in a bedroom which I'm not keen on or on one of the kitchen worktops (which I'm even less keen on)

at the moment we have a stairgate which is supposed to stop the dog from going upstairs but the children keep leaving it open (and he could easily jump it but hasn't yet worked out that he can...)

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cozietoesie · 10/03/2015 17:24

They are violently expensive - especially when you add on a spare couple of bowls - so I'd rather be looking at them for medical issues. This seems to be more a behavioural thing. How trainable is the dog? None of our dogs would have dreamed of going upstairs because they knew that I forbade that.

LizLemon · 10/03/2015 18:03

Yes! We love it - one of our cats was diagnosed as diabetic a year ago, so had to move onto a special wet food diet, and be fed twice a day. This massively pissed off our other cat who is a bit older and is used to free feeding on the dry stuff, and will not eat wet food. We had a few tense months, with lots of fighting, because we could only put her food down when we were around, but then she'd only eat a tiny amount, so she was always hungry and cranky.

We bought the bowl as soon as it was released, and after about a week she'd got the hang of it. We've spied our other cat sitting hopefully with his head over the bowl, but he hasn't managed to break in yet (and this cat can open the bread bin with his teeth, and lift lids off tupperware...).

We also had an issue when we first had the bowl with it not opening every time, possibly because her microchip has slipped. Customer service were excellent, talked me through some tests to make sure it was working ok, and then sent out a chip that boosted the range and that did the trick.

So yes, bloody expensive, but has totally been worth it.

basildonbond · 10/03/2015 20:22

Thanks Liz

Cozie - he's normally very trainable however he has the speed and cunning of a collie combined with the gannet-like nature of the average golden retriever Confused and he's now learned that lovely delicious cat food is beckoning to him from the top of the stairs

I've opted for the managing the situation option but my first line of defence, the stair gate isn't proving to be 100% reliable ...

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snowaccidentprone · 10/03/2015 20:25

Could you put the cat food on the bathroom windowsill?

basildonbond · 10/03/2015 20:27

Sadly not as its only about 2" wide ...

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cozietoesie · 10/03/2015 20:42

OK - if he has collie and retriever in him, he's seriously trainable. You just need to step up to the plate on this one, Basildon. (It should take about two attempts on his part to learn the new rule - call it half a day.)

basildonbond · 13/03/2015 07:54

Hmmm ... I think you must be a better trainer than me cozie Grin. He can do lots of tricks though - does that count?Wink

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BagelwithButter · 13/03/2015 09:17

Love Cozie's stern tone with you, Basildon! Grin

cozietoesie · 13/03/2015 09:20

Of course they count. Smile Tricks are just learned behaviors like anything else. Are you actually telling him not to go upstairs? I begin to suspect you of not really meaning what you say - and they can tell! (There's no point in saying 'No' when everything about your voice and body is shrieking 'Who's Mummy's coochy-coochy boysomes then?) Grin

cozietoesie · 13/03/2015 09:22

PS - How's himself doing?

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