Another great idea we have yet to try thankyou

you shouldnt be leaving food down with diabetic cats!! diabetes is all about routine..they should have strict mealtimes!

with rosie our 19 year old she doesnt eat at mealtimes at all. She will eat but only when she feels like it. We have to have sugar water on hand constantly with her as she is always having hypos. If the food wasnt left down for her then she wouldnt eat at all. 1 of them, frankie is paralysed on one side of her face due to an accident she had before we had her and can take anywhere up to an hour to finish eating. Thats why the food has to stay down.

we feed the cats in the bathroom upstairs with a babygate on the stairs.
ATD x

This might not make sense - but we've used the furniture to make a secure cubbyhole to feed our cat (and give her some peace from the dog staring at her eating in a "here let me help you with that nasty food" kind of way)... where the door opens and doubles back, we've blocked it in with a solid bit of furniture (we used a coffee table cos he's too lazy to jump) and tied a loop to hook the door handle to it, propped open at a cat-sized gap but not a dog sized one.

It works for us - but granted our dog's lazy and not too smart to work it out!

we feed tractor tom in the bathroom because he is a thief and likes to eat everyones food.

I like your cubby hole idea but harvey is about the same size as our cats and would get in there. He is very persistant with it and you know when he has done it. He kind of slinks into the living room with his tail between his legs

I fitted locks to all my interior doors not long after getting Rupert. He's a sod for opening doors, I even have to lock the front door behind me to take the rubbish out! I'd probably go with the double baby gate idea if I had your problem. That way the cats aren't locked in or out of the room they eat in. I'd probably feed them in a room I didn't have to go into too often though to save the hassle of getting through the baby gates.

Our cats are fed off the floor simply for the reason the dogs would find it too tempting "not" to pinch it. Hope you get sorted.