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Post by caz2golden on Oct 13, 2014 12:33:36 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 etcI 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 I highlight above some really important points as to why this product would not be practicable for use with my dogs. PLEASE READ WHAT PEOPLE HAVE CONTRIBUTED! You have for example not responded about the fabric this feeding station is to be made of and if you have investigated if that fabric is safe for use and will not leach chemicals. You have not implied cost. I HAVE CLEARLY STATED NUMEROUS TIMES I WOULD NOT USE A PRODUCT LIKE THIS
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tina
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Post by tina on Oct 15, 2014 1:34:34 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 . do you have any feeding trouble because of your working time? what features in the feeder will attract you to have a try?
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tina
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Post by tina on Oct 15, 2014 1:42:16 GMT
Was just going to say that exact thing zahada! How am I supposed to stop him choking through an app? I won't even give him a chew stick when I leave - he gets two small kibble biscuits and that's it. sorry, the feeder is designed for dry food. is dogs being choking often happend when they eating?
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tina
Newbie
Posts: 22
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Post by tina on Oct 15, 2014 1:49:25 GMT
There's another reason why I wouldn't allow access to food when I am not there. The dogs get excited about food, we have had guarding issues. Hence we now follow a strict protocol. Each dog is reminded that feeding times are not frenzied free for all, but time to relax with his portion with plenty for each dog. There is no whining, barking, jumping, pacing, no urging me to get on with it when the food is being prepared and the dishes go on the floor. Each dog then has to give me a soft calm eye contact before they can eat. So feeding times, in our house, are also training sessions. Every day, twice a day. Very interesting thread. since your dogs are trained, it will be easier to use the feeder. as long as you set the meal time and food portion for each dog, they will be called to have food one by one (there is a Voice record function)
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Post by swoots on Oct 15, 2014 1:50:19 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 . do you have any feeding trouble because of your working time? what features in the feeder will attract you to have a try? Tina no offence but I think personally you are wasting your time and ours here on the forum. I know you need feed back from pet owners but I think you have had all the answers that you are going to get. You are very persistent that is for sure. I would never buy such a gadget. My cats know that I feed them and not go to a gadget to be fed. I wish you luck anyway and if you do get round to making them please do let us know how many you do sell. There are enough of these gadgets out there but I think pets prefer the personal touch and those that love their pets adapt feeding times around their pets. I know I do.
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tina
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Post by tina on Oct 15, 2014 2:12:41 GMT
So, I wonder, who the intended market is for this product? I think the Americans are more into mechanisation and automation than us in the UK. We love the personal touch! And physical touch not cyber touch! hi Zahada, every pet owners want physical touch with their pets to have fun, that's why they keep a pet i guess. but my design is not to stop the physical touch, it is surposed to easy your and your pet's life. because of work, your pet has to eat twice every day. With feeder, your pet can have 3 or more times food with controlled portion, is it more healthy? when you are out for work, you leave your pet alone,right? although it is not a long time, but you pet do alone at home. With the feeder, you can see it some times to have a check. you still can play with your pet when you are free, the feeder is going to save your worries when you are working.
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tina
Newbie
Posts: 22
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Post by tina on Oct 15, 2014 2:26:40 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? hi tonib, 1. you can program the meal time and food portion. for your cats, you can set 3 or more meal time,and dispense little food each time, so food won't be wasted. 2. it is designed for dry food, the remaining dry food will be moisture after eating. i need to test the brush function. 3. about annoy messages problem, that's a good point, thank you. 4. there will be an APP safety mechanism to stop cleaning when pet come for food.
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tina
Newbie
Posts: 22
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Post by tina on Oct 15, 2014 2:32:19 GMT
do you have any feeding trouble because of your working time? what features in the feeder will attract you to have a try? Tina no offence but I think personally you are wasting your time and ours here on the forum. I know you need feed back from pet owners but I think you have had all the answers that you are going to get. You are very persistent that is for sure. I would never buy such a gadget. My cats know that I feed them and not go to a gadget to be fed. I wish you luck anyway and if you do get round to making them please do let us know how many you do sell. There are enough of these gadgets out there but I think pets prefer the personal touch and those that love their pets adapt feeding times around their pets. I know I do. Swoots, I do appreciate your comments and your time
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Post by swoots on Oct 15, 2014 5:42:46 GMT
Well folks no chance of having a lie in. Sweep is here perched in front of my TV yet again and he will not move until I get up and feed him and his brother Sooty. So I will go downstairs half asleep and go and feed them.
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Post by alfiemummy on Oct 15, 2014 6:31:28 GMT
Was just going to say that exact thing zahada! How am I supposed to stop him choking through an app? I won't even give him a chew stick when I leave - he gets two small kibble biscuits and that's it. sorry, the feeder is designed for dry food. is dogs being choking often happend when they eating? There is a potential for a dog to choke on any variety of food
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Post by smilesbetter on Oct 15, 2014 9:38:06 GMT
Any pet can choke on food.
My pets are alone at times, yes, although not often as my man works nights and I work days, so there is usually always someone around, but when they are alone the food is all locked away. And I should note, that one of our cats, the one who we have been trying to get to lose weight since we adopted her last year, is a bit of a genius when it comes to stealing food. She has even managed to open the cat food cupboard somehow a few times with the key, so we now have to remove the key. She would find a way around an automatic feeder.
There was a video posted on here a few months ago of a cat throwing itself at an automatic feeder and sliding across the floor with it, it showed the cat managing to get food out easily. Anyone got a link? Also on a similar note, how do you stop it from giving all the portions at once? I mean I thought about it and thought that either you set a time for each feeding, which could mean the cat or dog misses it and goes hungry, or you have it just set to give a certain amount of feeding a day, and the cat or dog learns to go up to it three times in a row and get all the food immediately, then having nothing for the rest of the day and possibly getting sick from having eaten so much at once.
Also my dog likes to try to bury her bowl when she's finished eating if there is any left over. It results in her getting a skint nose and so means that she has to have her meal closely supervised, as the amount she eats varies day to day, depending on what she's been up to, and so she doesn't always finish a meal. I can't think of any way that your product could prevent this, as the dog would still be standing over the product as they begin to do it, so presumably the product would believe the dog was still eating and wouldn't have cleared the food away, not that I can see that making a difference. Many dogs have this burying instinct, although I suppose it's not always seen in dogs who get the exact portion every day. Either they skin their nose off the floor, actually bury the product or both.
Also this made me thing, what if the pet knocks over the product? Then the food will spill all over the floor and the product won't be able to clean it up. It might even prevent the feeding function later if the food gets trapped inside (as gravity would be against it haha). You might wanna think about that. My fat cat, and my dog, would definitely knock this over. On a similar note, it should be shatter proof to avoid potential injury to either chewing/destructive dogs, or cats that are fed on counters and push the product off (as cats do when they can't get what they want).
Just a few more thoughts for ya.
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Post by swoots on Oct 15, 2014 9:59:25 GMT
smilesbetter I am sat here chuckling at your cat with the key. But you know cats are not stupid my Sweep certainly is not. Coping with two is bad enough as I know that Sweep will finish what Sooty leaves and can see the extra bit of weight on him. Very interesting that you remove the food . How long do you leave them to eat. I confess that I do leave biscuits down . Is this not a good idea. I certainly don't want them to put extra weight on or worse choke. They are both house cats but have the run of the house. I know this is no comparison for being outside. But it is not safe for them to be out due to the traffic.
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Post by smilesbetter on Oct 15, 2014 21:53:46 GMT
My two here are house cats too swoots , don't worry about it. We adopted Carlotta specifically because we wanted an adult cat that had grown up as a house cat, and Mieze although not on purpose is one too. They both seem happy enough, although I'd love to get them a garden one day and am getting both used to being on harnesses. Anyway, I remove the food after half an hour if anything is left, I don't usually have any leftovers with the cats though. With Rosa, she usually gives a quick bark when she's had enough food to let us know she's finished and wants out haha. It's not something we've trained her to do but I have to admit it's pretty handy haha. It's usually after the bark that she tries to bury the food if we don't get through on time so thankfully doesn't happen too often.
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tina
Newbie
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Post by tina on Oct 16, 2014 3:33:18 GMT
Any pet can choke on food. My pets are alone at times, yes, although not often as my man works nights and I work days, so there is usually always someone around, but when they are alone the food is all locked away. And I should note, that one of our cats, the one who we have been trying to get to lose weight since we adopted her last year, is a bit of a genius when it comes to stealing food. She has even managed to open the cat food cupboard somehow a few times with the key, so we now have to remove the key. She would find a way around an automatic feeder. There was a video posted on here a few months ago of a cat throwing itself at an automatic feeder and sliding across the floor with it, it showed the cat managing to get food out easily. Anyone got a link? Also on a similar note, how do you stop it from giving all the portions at once? I mean I thought about it and thought that either you set a time for each feeding, which could mean the cat or dog misses it and goes hungry, or you have it just set to give a certain amount of feeding a day, and the cat or dog learns to go up to it three times in a row and get all the food immediately, then having nothing for the rest of the day and possibly getting sick from having eaten so much at once. Also my dog likes to try to bury her bowl when she's finished eating if there is any left over. It results in her getting a skint nose and so means that she has to have her meal closely supervised, as the amount she eats varies day to day, depending on what she's been up to, and so she doesn't always finish a meal. I can't think of any way that your product could prevent this, as the dog would still be standing over the product as they begin to do it, so presumably the product would believe the dog was still eating and wouldn't have cleared the food away, not that I can see that making a difference. Many dogs have this burying instinct, although I suppose it's not always seen in dogs who get the exact portion every day. Either they skin their nose off the floor, actually bury the product or both. Also this made me thing, what if the pet knocks over the product? Then the food will spill all over the floor and the product won't be able to clean it up. It might even prevent the feeding function later if the food gets trapped inside (as gravity would be against it haha). You might wanna think about that. My fat cat, and my dog, would definitely knock this over. On a similar note, it should be shatter proof to avoid potential injury to either chewing/destructive dogs, or cats that are fed on counters and push the product off (as cats do when they can't get what they want). Just a few more thoughts for ya. Thank you, your thoughts are so valuable to me
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Post by CollieSlave on Oct 16, 2014 17:37:59 GMT
Having been away I have just been reading all posts on this thread - and tina is a source of fascination to me! The curious language structure in her posts, the repetition in several posts and the lack of any emotional response to members replies makes me wonder if she is a computer!
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