Closer Pets MiBowl Automatic Selective Microchip Pet Feeder (CP500)

Hi, firstly its a brilliant item as we have 5 cats, but can you tell me if you have any plans to fetch out a split dish, as in the evenings our cats have half wet food and half biscuits.

I bought two and one cat got used to it virtually straightaway but the other cat’s unit seems to take a second to two longer to open and she wanders off. Then it opens and she goes back but she’s a bit slow and cautious and it closes again as she gets there so she gives up. I’m trying to persevere but most often having to leave her lid open otherwise she won’t eat from it. I agree with others that a split bowl would be a great option even as an additional extra purchase. It would be very useful.

I have one cat who likes to graze and another that likes to eat everything in front of him as fast as possible, then vomit it up.

This feeder saves me so much time as I no longer have to monitor meal time, and my slow kitty is able to come and go without his brother stealing his food. Fast kitty was not a fan of this and tried to find a way around it several times, but has mostly given up now.

The lid closes fairly quickly when the cat pulls his head out. My only issue with the bowl is that it is slow to open for the first time after using the manual close button - in other words, I put the food in, close the lid manually and place the bowl on the floor. When kitty sticks his head in to open, the bowl is slow to respond the first time. After that, it opens more or less as soon as his head is over it.

My boy took a while to learn to use it, about two weeks before he seemed fully comfortable. He's not a smart cat, his faster brother understood the concept on day one. Due to the slowness of the first opening my slow boy has somehow decided that it opens when he purrs at it, which is very cute.
Overall, very impressed with the bowl and I think it's worth the money. It's also (at time of writing) cheaper than the other microchip feeder you can get, which has the added downside of being completely open at the back so another cat could stick his head in at the same time.

I have a 13.5 year old cat and recently we took on a kitten. My old girl is used to free-feeding biscuits throughout the day. The young lad decided that her senior biscuits were far more appealing than his kitten biscuits. For a while I just kept picking her food up out of the way and putting it down again when she wanted it. But that very quickly became a nuisance. I needed a way to stop him eating her food. The MiBowl was the solution.
He quickly realised he can no longer get her food, much to his annoyance, and she can still graze throughout the day as she pleases. He has not yet tried forcing his head in next to hers while she is eating, but if he does, the unit came with portion protectors to simply clip on.
The old girl figured out the MiBowl very fast. I just left the lid open for one night while the kitten was in another room just to get her used to putting her head in it to eat. The next day I closed the lid and the old girl just started using it as it is meant to be used. The open and close movement of the lid is very quiet so doesn't phase her at all.
My only criticism is that there is a slight delay in the lid closing after she moves away. Kitten hasn't clocked this yet, and I'm hoping he won't or this will be an issue!
The unit is pricey, but a good bit of kit, and has a 3 year warranty. I think for the price, the stainless steel bowls should definitely be included. That would make it better value for money, as the stainless steal bowls are very expensive to buy seperately but neccessary for cats that have plastic allergies, and simply because they are more hygeinic for all cats. I intend to purchase the stainless steel bowls in the future, but I'm currently researching microchip cat flaps first as a priority. The bowls will have to wait as these chip-reading devices are not cheap 😂
The instruction manual is clear and the unit was easy to set up and programme. It recognised the microchip with no issues. Hopefully the batteries will last quite a while because they are the expensive C type batteries. I think a mains powered unit would be a definite improvement.
I picked this microchip feeder over the other well-known brand one because the MiBowl is enclosed at the back. I didn't want to have trouble with the kitten pinching the old girl's food from the back or side while she was eating. For this reason I'm very glad I chose the MiBowl.
It has a modern monochrome design which blends in great and looks smart.
Overall I think it is a good product.

The replacement steel bowls are great but very expensive. I wish there was an option for bowls with two compartments as we'd love to get one for our other cat but he doesn't like his dry and wet food mixed.
It works very well at keeping one cat from the other's food, it was easy to programme and it's very sturdy. Our cat got the hang of using it quite quickly and she has no problems using it at all.
My only improvements would be to offer the stainless steel bowls at a better price point and give the option of stainless steel bowls with a divider to allow for 2 separate compartments.