The chatty cat flap that talks to your pet
It’s one of a host of new high-tech gadgets for animals, but at £2,200 you’d have to be a miaowllionaire!
HAVInG dinner at my boyfriend’s house, I get a notification on my phone saying that Coco’s food has just been released for her. I open the smart food dispenser app on my phone and watch my delighted cat tucking into her dinner. I press the microphone so she can hear me, and start cooing to her.
Coco meows happily, and after we’ve both finished our separate meals, I open another app so I can play a laser game with her. She runs around my flat chasing a red dot that I’m controlling with my finger — all from six miles away — while I watch on my phone screen.
It’s no longer enough to wave a ball on a stick at your unimpressed cat, or empty a can of food into a bowl. Instead, the rise of tech means pets can have their own robot friends and electronic feeders with inbuilt calorie counters. There are even apps designed to translate miaows and woofs.
Thanks to this, as pet owners like myself start to return to normal lives — the office, nights out, weekends away — after endless months spent lavishing love and attention on lockdown puppies and kittens, our furry friends won’t be left alone.
A highlight of the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show was a ‘ smart’ cat and dog flap that allows owners to talk to their pets via smartphone. Retailing at more than £2,200, the myq Pet Portal will be available to buy later this year.
The pet tech market is estimated to exceed £14 billion by 2025. ‘ There’s been an explosion in smart tech for pets in the past year because of Covid,’ says ben Lee, entrepreneur and digital product expert. ‘Pets are incredible companions, and they’ve become a solution to loneliness.’
In the uK, 2.1 million people got a new pet in lockdown, with 1.8 million more considering getting one, according to the Pet Food manufacturers’ Association.
owners are also spending more and more on their feline and canine friends. uK pet purchases reached a record high of £6.9 billion in 2019, and experts believe spending will only continue to rise.
‘As a society, we track our own data and we want to do it for our pets, too, from nutrition to sleep,’ says Lee.
The benefits still seem focused on the owner — GPS collars and smart cat flaps are more about reassuring owners than improving the pet’s life — but Lee believes tech will soon be used to predict health conditions.
In the meantime, there are plenty of apps and gadgets that do everything from babysitting to keeping pets warm — all from afar. Coco and I tried some of the best…
WEBCAM TO KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR PET
Petcube Play 2, £130, petcube.com WhEn I stay at my boyfriend’s, I often worry about Coco. So I was thrilled to hear about Petcube Play 2, a webcam that means I can see and speak to her from my phone, and play laser games with her.
The Smart hD camera has a 160-degree view and an option to record videos via the app. When I move the laser on my phone screen, it somehow translates to a real-life red dot on my living-room floor.
Coco loves it, and I get peace of mind from checking on her while I’m away. It’s truly worth every penny. 10/10
ROBOT THAT PLAYS WITH THE CAT
Ebo Pro, £259, enabot.com Ebo bills itself as a ‘ smart robot companion for your cat’ , designed to prevent loneliness and boredom. The small round ball wanders around my home, calling out ‘Ebo’, and Coco stares at it in fascination. There are numerous functions, from a laser game to a webcam and audio feed that work similarly to the Petcube. The
AI tech means it adapts its play to my cat’s personality. my poor tech skills mean that I find it hard to figure out all the functions, but I love the self-timer — Ebo wakes up twice a day to play with Coco, and then returns itself to the charger.
Ebo isn’t cheap, but it’s perfect for indoor cats that need entertainment, and can be used to train them and track their exercise.
At first, Coco is suspicious of her robot friend and prods at it with her paw, but when it speaks and turns its laser light on, she perks up and is happy to chase the red dot around the house. 9/10
COSY SMART BED WITH HEAT CONTROL PetKit Cosy Pet Bed, £135, petkit.co.uk
I’m quITE impressed by everything this smart pet bed offers. using humidity sensors, it adjusts the temperature of the bed, heating up in the winter and using air conditioning to keep pets cool in the summer. A hidden infrared sensor monitors when your pet is in the bed, so you can get app updates about your pet’s sleep patterns. The only problem is persuading Coco to use it.
It’s only when I layer blankets inside that she enters (the padding it comes with is quite thin), but she isn’t too impressed. This is best for pets who struggle with the heat or cold. 7/10
GPS TRACKING COLLAR FOR FURRY FRIENDS
Pawtrack GPS cat collar, £39.99 with a monthly £7.99 subscription fee, pawtrack.com my FLAT is on a main road and I live in fear of Coco straying too far from home, so I was excited to try the Pawtrack collar.
It uses GPS so owners can see their pet’s location and recent paths on an app, and can alert you to when your cat goes beyond your boundary. There’s even a tracking beacon to help you find a cat that’s hiding in foliage.
It was fiddly to set up and has to be recharged nightly, but showed exactly where Coco went. 6/10