SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect - Requires Hub (Sold Separately)

This product has been an absolute godsend for us. We have an elderly indoor-only cat who has special dietary needs, and also likes to nibble throughout the day. We also have a big young indoor-outdoor boy (who materialized in our yard one day, we think abandoned by another family for the crime of turning from a kitten into an ornery unfixed tom -- he became a total sweetheart after he got fixed). He still has insecurity from when he was on the street, and will scarf down any food he can find, and then tell you he hasn't been fed in days. The chip-activated feeder has made it so we don't need to lock the poor old girl in the bedroom for hours, to give her time to eat without having her food stolen. It took a week or two to teach her how the feeder works, but she figured it out and it's worked great for us for years. We also ended up getting the chip-activated door, and setting up a curfew mode, so he can go walk around the yard during daylight but is locked in overnight once he comes in for dinner.

After rescuing 3 cats, who ended up all with different nutritional needs (kitten vs adult, special GI food for one, and medications for the other), ensuring everyone got what they needed was almost impossible. Surefeed was the perfect solution and has offered such peace of mind - everyone gets their full portions (no food stealing), i only have to pay for the medicated food for the kitty who needs it, and the cats can graze as much as they want! Cons: Cost - this item is expensive, especially for 3! I definitely had to save up for each one. But, for the benefits above, I think it's worth it. Microchip - I had no issue with Minnie, however for the 2 boys for some reason I had the hardest time getting the feeders to recognize their microchips. I called customer service (they were fabulous), who changed the mode to recognize expanded frequencies of chips in case that was the issue. It wasn't, but worth a shot if you're having trouble. Ultimately, I think their chips were just too far back on their bodies and the boys weren't getting close enough to trigger. What worked the best was buying a stand which raised the feeder just enough that when the boys walked up they were positioned further inside the opening. Now the feeder senses their chips no issue. I bought the stands on etsy, but I'm sure you could find it other places if you think it would be helpful. Note: Surefeed does provide tags you can use in place of a microchip, but none of my cats wear collars, and the attempt to get the boys used to collars was NOT going well. So relieved I could get it working! If your cat already wears a collar though, this would be an easy alternative. Overall, an amazing prodect, and would highly recommend for anyone with multiple cats!

This feeder is absolutely worth the money if you have multiple pets and they steal each other’s food. In my case one of my older cats is on an expensive prescription diet so I do not want my new cat eating her food. I think older animals will generally eat slower so Audrey likes to step away at about 50% to stretch her legs which gave Sultan an opportunity to sneak in before the door closed to snap up her remaining food. After reading though the user’s manual they mention you have to reach out to Sure’s support to activate some special modes to deal with this particular problem and here is where you need a few extra things. 1.) You need to install their app on your phone 2.) You need the Sure Petcare Hub manages WIFI between your Sure devices and your network) which must be plugged in by network cable. NOTE: the hub must be connected over a wired Ethernet connection so you need a free network port to make it work on your router or modem. Provided you now have both you can now reach out to Sure’s petcare customer support and activate two custom modes (to address a food bandit) 1.) Intruder mode- Scans every 5 seconds for microchip of cat permitted to feed and closes immediately if they are not within range. This mode provides a much faster closure vs. using the app alone because it increases the response time by decreasing the scan interval. 2.) Forced Lid Closure – Pushes out an intruder cat. So even if Sultan could somehow make it to the bowl before the lid closes the lid would push his head out of the bowl. Some may be worried about pinch points and injury here but the lid hinge gently pushes Sultan’s head out of Audrey’s bowl so no worries here. These two modes are very effective in dealing with Sultan’s food theft however I’m a little surprised they aren’t the default mode of operation. Also I am a little annoyed that you can’t enable them without customer support intervention and you need the hub to do so. I think most people would have preferred to be able to enable them through the app or better yet have them be activated by button presses on the device itself without requiring the hub or the app. It does work well after you put in a little time, the device is very aesthetic, and works very well for my cat so 4/5. -1 for unnecessary complications, however they can all be addressed with a little additional time, money, and patience & I the end result is absolutely worth it.

Sure Petcare has taken a brilliant idea and made a terrible product on multiple levels and backed it up with even worse customer service. 1. They have been aware that the lack of a rear cover was an issue for over 4 years but instead of fixing the feeders they have it as an accessory at an additional cost. Their excuse is that most don’t need it but that appears false based on the sheer number of complaints about the lack of rear cover in the review. 2. The scales are inaccurate. I can zero fish, place 80 grams of food in said dish, close the lid, open it, remove 5 grams, and it will send that two or three times that amount is being removed. 3. The connectivity to hub is subpar at best. It doesn’t zero all the time without multiple attempts or resets. Feeders drop frequently. Cat will eat and update will not go to phone or app. Like the rear cover you have to pay even more for the hub to make the product work correctly. 4. Customer support is impossible to contact and flippant when you do. I emailed twice asking for advice and had no reply. I then attempted to search forums and found nothing. Finally I called..... after sitting on hold for 32 mins I was disconnected. My second call resulted in a 47 min hold and when I began to explain my issue to the women who answered she told me her cats don’t have that problem and then was rude as I continued to seek help. I repeated my question and she said she was hanging up. I am happy her cats don’t have that issue but mine do and seeing as see works for customer service I would expect a willingness to assist be present. Overall, this feeder would be brilliant is executed properly and backed up with support. Sadly that’s not what sure petcare provides with their product. Update January 2021: I’ve tried to make the best of these feeders despite their flaws but they are so inaccurate. At this point the scales are outrageously off. I placed 35g of kibble into the dish (after zeroing it out), it read 67g placed in dish. I used my cat to open the feeder and removed one tiny piece of kibble and it read that 16g of kibble had been eaten. Use them if you need to separate cats for dietary reasons but do not rely on the scales to monitor intake.

This was recommended by our vet to accommodate our pets special diet needs without interference. The app allows us to monitor how much food and how often they are eating. Setup could be a little more user friendly. If you don’t have a microchip for your pet a special tag is included. These take the stress out of meal time for our clan.

We received this feeder 1 Jul 2021. My wife's Chihuahua (Bam) learned how to use her feeder very quickly. This October the feeder would not reset after replacing the batteries. The door wouldn't close nothing. I called Sure petcare and spoke to Terri the customer rep. She confirmed something was wrong with the unit and shipped a replacement out. All I had to do was email her a picture of the s/n# on the back. Received the new unit and it worked like a charm as soon I placed the batteries inside. Although many products have 3yr warranties, they do not include shipping and sometimes you have to ship the broken item back first before they do anything. This company backs their product 100%. As a 100% disabled retired veteran on a set income we need to support more companies like this one. If you want a feeder that will keep your pet's food & water clean and fresh all day this is the feeder for you. We do not use the hub and we paid for this feeder ourselves. From July 2021 to October 20, 2021 we have been using this feeder with no worries until I had to change the batteries. I realize everyone may not have had this experience. I can only say this feeder works for "Bam the Chihuahua" and we will continue to use this product backed by outstanding support from Sure Petcare. Jaminjim, USAF Retired

I purchased 4 of these for my cats b/c why not try to automate as much home responsibility as possible right? I'll try to cover the main 'points' I believe are worth mentioning. The goods of the SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect. 1. It looks nice, everything fits flushed, and really does look like a nice engineered product. 2. It works as intended 50%+ of the time, feature-wise. 3. It solves the problem of specific diets, regulating cat meal time. The bads of SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect. 1. The custom features of the SureFeed CONNECT are not in the phone application... instead, the manual tells you to call their helpline. I called them and talked about this and the person I spoke with gave a few reasons to the why. 1.1. First, they removed the ability to manually adjust the custom features for the food scale features. 1.2. Second, when I asked why they didn't list the custom features somewhere, they said they didn't feel lay people would understand how to properly use these features, so they excluded them. The person then said..most buyers turn on X features then complain when it no longer works as intended... leading to the customer thinking it's a defective product. 2. You need to buy the back piece (it simply doesn't work well without the accessory). 3. The RFID collars which have their own microchip inside work a lot better than your cat's own chip b/c of how your cat chooses to eat orientation-wise, where the chip is or if it's migrated since it was implanted. 4. (UPDATED from 3 stars to 2) Why? Because you can't manually set these settings, sometimes the settings stop working, forcing you to have to call them time and time again to set them. Ultimately means you have a mediocre working product. Conclusion: The biggest drawback when considering if you should buy or not? They think the customers shouldn't have access to the basic custom features on the phone application because they're laypeople. This is unacceptable IMO. Why are we having to call a helpline to turn on basic features like the 'intruder mode', then have to call again to turn it off in 2021? They can turn it on from an admin system, so clearly the features are implemented from an admin/dev level, just not available to customers. However, outside of them thinking most of us are incapable, it works as intended most of the time until it doesn't pick up your cat's chip then the RFID collars they include need to be used. I only use it for dry food, so I don't have to clean up wet food getting around the feeder. Other minor things worth mentioning? There are training modes 1-4, which adjust the speed/location of the lid is set to. It's cool, I always keep it halfway to let my cats smell their food but won't allow them to claw out food. Scale is cool, works as intended so far and there could be more features on the app like opening/closing the lid rather than using the button manually. UPDATE 12/21/21, I've owned 4 of these for a few months now and decided to give an update. The features of the sure feeder sometimes work, sometimes doesn't, and forces me to call them every month to have these settings reset is becoming tedious. So now we use them but they're overall less effective. It would be a hardware or software issue but nonetheless, it's not worth arguing with them about it anymore.

This is the third SureFeed feeder I have ordered from Amazon in an effort to have a functioning pair. This feeder was ordered to replaced a unit that arrived broken. This replacement also had issues on arrival. While the exterior brown shipping box looked fine, the product box was torn. Inside, the feeder lid was open and loose, the bowls also loose. This is not the way the other two feeders arrived. Those had the bowls tightly captured under the closed lid. These feeders open only when a button is depressed to run the motor, they cannot be opened manually. SureFeed needs to package their product better and Amazon needs to have better handling. Update 10/4/2025: I took several weeks to get the refund for the broken feeder and so far the feeder that had the cover and bowls loose in the packaging is working. I have *finally* been able to get my cat on her prescription food. The training process was as described and taking a few days between training levels went smoothly. All the other features are working well so far and having the log of food consumed is going to be very helpful managing my cats health issue.