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Post by smilesbetter on Oct 10, 2014 19:32:46 GMT
Another thing to consider is material its made of. Have you investigated which materials leach chemicals? Plastics are often listed as problematic for leaching chemicals that can cause medical issues. There are a few ok ones. But how many people check what plastic the bowls are made out of. As I cant hold long scientific names in my head I use the simple answer avoid plastic bowls. Though thats not to say that cheap metal or ceramic bowls are any better (they can also be problematic). My dogs feed from ceramic or metal bowl. Good point. I used to use plastic but once I learned that it could leach chemicals etc, I got Rosa a nice metal bowl and the cats a couple of ceramic ones. I would never go back to plastic now. Also only just realised this was for dogs and not cats haha (I'm always tired atm). Would be even less likely to use this for a dog than a cat. In any case, the dog would probably think it was one of those strategy feeding toys and break it open haha. Have you thought of how to make it dog proof? I mean dogs can be pretty ingenious when it comes to raiding food, it would have to be a pretty tough device to withstand a determined dog. Especially with the smell of food (or really even the association) coming from it, super tempting! Sorry, but it just doesn't seem like a safe or viable product to me. You're not even meant to use automatic feeders for fish unless someone comes to check on them now and then (not sue if this is law or not, but I'm pretty sure you can be prosecuted if the fish die due to a feeder system failure). Now what I'd be interested in is a stainless steel or ceramic dog bowl with a lid that can go in the fridge haha, so I can store any leftovers in the fridge for the next meal. All I can find is plastic ones!
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Post by BorderTerrier on Oct 11, 2014 20:53:04 GMT
It may be ok for cats I suppose? But I would never use it for my dog for several reasons:
- I never leave him alone for long enough that he would need a meal whilst I was gone - I'd never ever leave him alone for a couple of days!! - I like to supervise him whilst he eats - I wash his bowl after every meal, just as I do my own dishes
Sorry, but no, it's not a product I would ever use. Everything stated here is 100% PERFECT (thanks barley!) and I agree, tina - so sorry, this isn't a product I would use. I am there to feed my dogs. I am there to supervise their eating. I am there to wash their bowls and put them away until the next feeding time. And that is how I think it should be. And I agree, finally, with caz2golden - with a multi dog household, I can see there may arise problems - both my dogs are greedy for food (and I mean seriously greedy and overly food-motivated!) and there could even be a risk of food aggression there is they both ran in to at at once. That is not a risk I would be willing to ever take, ESPECIALLY with nobody there to supervise. That's just asking for tragedy And for multi dog households with one dog who gobbles up and one who picks at the food, the picker would go hungry all day. That's not fair! Just giving my own opinion
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tina
Newbie
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 3:58:38 GMT
Sounds like an ok idea - its not going to work for everyone but some may see the use in it-- HOw many dog owners have you asked about it and their thoughts? hi, here are main function about the feeder I am design, please give me your feedback, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet
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tina
Newbie
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 4:00:20 GMT
It may be ok for cats I suppose? But I would never use it for my dog for several reasons:
- I never leave him alone for long enough that he would need a meal whilst I was gone - I'd never ever leave him alone for a couple of days!! - I like to supervise him whilst he eats - I wash his bowl after every meal, just as I do my own dishes
Sorry, but no, it's not a product I would ever use. Everything stated here is 100% PERFECT (thanks barley!) and I agree, tina - so sorry, this isn't a product I would use. I am there to feed my dogs. I am there to supervise their eating. I am there to wash their bowls and put them away until the next feeding time. And that is how I think it should be. And I agree, finally, with caz2golden - with a multi dog household, I can see there may arise problems - both my dogs are greedy for food (and I mean seriously greedy and overly food-motivated!) and there could even be a risk of food aggression there is they both ran in to at at once. That is not a risk I would be willing to ever take, ESPECIALLY with nobody there to supervise. That's just asking for tragedy And for multi dog households with one dog who gobbles up and one who picks at the food, the picker would go hungry all day. That's not fair! Just giving my own opinion hi, thank you for your opinion. here are main function about the feeder I am design, please give me your feedback, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet
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tina
Newbie
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 4:03:05 GMT
My dogs do eat twice a day. But like caz2golden mine is a multi dog household and raw fed. So for us your idea would not be practical. Hope our comments will help you decide how to go forward with your project. hi, thank you for your comments. here are main function about the feeder, please give me your further comments, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet
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Post by swoots on Oct 13, 2014 5:27:24 GMT
Well it is 6.25 am and my two get fed at 7 am. But Sweep thinks by sitting in front of my TV therefore I cant see much of the screen is a way of telling me to get out of bed and feed me. He does this every day.
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Post by swoots on Oct 13, 2014 5:31:24 GMT
My dogs do eat twice a day. But like caz2golden mine is a multi dog household and raw fed. So for us your idea would not be practical. Hope our comments will help you decide how to go forward with your project. hi, thank you for your comments. here are main function about the feeder, please give me your further comments, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet Tina out of curiosity.
How much were you looking at if anyone was to buy one.
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tina
Newbie
Posts: 22
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 6:36:33 GMT
hi, thank you for your comments. here are main function about the feeder, please give me your further comments, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet Tina out of curiosity.
How much were you looking at if anyone was to buy one. it is still under design, have to collect all costs and then fix the target price.
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tina
Newbie
Posts: 22
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 6:50:18 GMT
Welcome to the forum tina, hope you enjoy it here. Nice to see that someone is thinking up new ideas to ease the lives of pets & their owners. However I do have some comments, from a cat owners perspective, to make on your idea which are going to sound negative but hopefully will give you thoughts/ideas to improve/market your design. There are a number of feeders out there for cats, some automated at set times, the latest opens for the cats microchip so food access can be controlled in multipet households although is not timed. However I don't think any are designed to be for more than 24 hours. I'm not sure about the self cleaning - what does it use to clean the food bowl with? What type of food is it designed for? Some cats eat dry only but others a combination of, or only, wet food, unlike dogs these are normally served separately. I can see a use but not for more than 24 hours unattended, as cats often don't do well in catteries & prefer their own environment much more than dogs. However I would not want to see a cat left alone for longer than 24 hours & then only in an emergency. Cat sitters/neighbours/relatives can be used in normal situations. Having said that it could help any sitter in making sure that the cat got its right amounts of food at the right time. A timed feeder can be useful for someone who works long hours but these are already available. As to the App for checking your pet' activities, how would that work, or are you just talking about when it eats? If it is for other things then I'm not sure that something that was so multi-purpose would quite find its niche in the market. Sometimes there are reasons why products don't have multi-purposes as they become neither one thing or another. It also sounds like it will need some form of power & probably not battery operated which means that the feeder would have to be located near a power socket, which isn't always feasible. I hope that helps you with your idea & wish you luck with your design. hi,I appreciate much for your comments, it is useful for me. Here are main features for the feeder, please give me your further feedback, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet
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tina
Newbie
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 6:51:29 GMT
Does it clean up their poo and wee if I am away for a few days? LOL. sorry, no this feature for now, but it is a good direction, thank you
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tina
Newbie
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 6:54:12 GMT
Hi Tina, welcome to the forum. Sorry I will be no good for feedback to your product. I would not use one. Simple as that. I think others have covered most of the points I would. Leaving dogs home alone IMO should not be encouraged. Dogs are pack animals and should not be left for long periods of time and definitively not day(s) (as is implied by your post)!! (I think the 5hrs max at a time mine have to be left for work is plenty if not pushing that boundary) I never leave my dogs long enough to require a meal in my absence and if there was an emergency then I am sure a friend would feed them for me. I raw feed so on many levels it would not work, be it storage of raw food that needs chilling, the variation in what I feed from large racks of ribs to green tripe......., the requirement to supervise mealtimes especially where bones are concerned, the high levels of hygiene required (i.e hot water with good dish cleaner for bowls after every meal) etc etc I also have a multi dog household and such a product would result in one dog having all the food and the other none! hi, please give me your thoughts after you review below its features, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet
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tina
Newbie
Posts: 22
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Post by tina on Oct 13, 2014 6:57:39 GMT
Hi Tina Just been reading about what others think and I know that if I was a dog owner it would not be something that I would buy. There is one thing that was not been mentioned and that is the cost of this gadget. What sort of price were you looking at as you must have an idea. I have two cats and I know that I wouldn't leave them for days on their own. It is bad enough when we do have to leave them on their own when we do go out. Someone mentioned about toilet breaks what happens then with a dog at least with cats they have the use of a tray or can go outside . hi, thank you. it is designed for everyday use, just in case you have to go out, it can save your worries. the target price is not fixed now as it is in first design stage now. here are main function about the feeder, looking forward to your comments, thanks. Function1: auto feeding 1. Normal mode: program meal time and portion control 2. Slow-feeding mode: dispense little food slowing to prevent over-eat; control food dispensing through APP to interact with pet. Function2: feeding tray self-clean After pet finishes meal and leaves, the cleaning brush starts to clean the remaining food to storage tray. Owners don’t need to clean the tray every day. And there is a fan behind the feeding tray to dry the feeding tray and storage tray and keep few days no smells. It will be useful in case you have to go out for days. Function3: smart collar 1. Identity recognition: 1.1. Recognize your pet from others to preventing food stealing 1.2. In multipet family, can program meal time and food portion for each pet 2. Monitoring function: when pet enters into sense area, feeder will send an message to owner, so owner can control through APP to turn on the camera to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating, or turn on voice function to talk to pets. Function4. Water feeding 2.5L sealed water tank, ball water outlet, to lick for water Function5: APP remote control: 1. Remote control feeding 2. Meal record 3. Remote video monitoring, to check pets’ activity, or supervise eating 4. Instant share with your friends about your pet
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Post by smilesbetter on Oct 13, 2014 8:39:54 GMT
Stop posting the same thing over and over please, we can all read the first one.
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Post by scallywag on Oct 13, 2014 8:55:18 GMT
Does it clean up their poo and wee if I am away for a few days? LOL. sorry, no this feature for now, but it is a good direction, thank you This does not bear thinking about.
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Post by tonib on Oct 13, 2014 10:43:42 GMT
It wouldn't work for our cats who graze as according to your description it cleans the bowl when they move away which would be a problem as good food would be wasted & the cats would have no food for the rest of the time.
you also state that it uses a brush to clean the feeding tray - no mention of cleaning fluid of any variety. Now that might work for dry food (kibble) but not for wet as the moisture would clog the brush. If has fluid, what is it & does it need a water supply?
As to the smart collar not all our cats can wear collars, however they are microchipped & there are feeders out there that work with the microchip (or an RFID tag if not chipped & can wear a collar) These feeders are currently one meal feeders only though, don't have a cleaning function (other than human cleaning) but can have devied bowls which can contain wet in one part & dry in the other. The lid closes when the cat has moved away keeping the food fresh until any cat programmed into the specific feeder approaches. So a feeder can feed one cat or multi-cats depending on the needs.
Watching a pet feed is not the same as supervision, all it does is tell you if there is a problem with the feeder or the cat's access to it but if an owner wants to supervise a pets feeding it is usually because they need to keep an eye open for problems or in the case of multi-pet households arguements. Remote monitoring will not help that other than a bit of reassurance that they have fed. Also if the owner is busy (hence why using the feeder) then constantly getting messages to say the pet has gone to use the feeder, in the case of grazing pets, would be extremely annoying.
What would be the size of the feeder, it does sound quick complex & hence potentially large? How silent would it's functions be so as not to frighten the pet? What would happen if it was cleaning & the pet came for food?
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