You might remember our review of Sure Petcares Smart Cat Flap? Well this is their latest product in their growing range of smart pet products.

What does the Microchip Pet Feeder Connect do?

This is the smartest pet feeder we have ever encountered. The feeder is completely closed, only opening for the designated pet. This is done by reading the microchip in your pet, if you pet does not have a chip it also works on RFID collar tags.  They even provide one in the box.

That is not all it does, it also monitors the amount of food the pet has eaten. Great for keeping an eye on when they have eaten and exactly how much. 

It works with both wet and dry food and comes with a handy split bowl option allowing for a mix of two types of food. Allowing you to set portions for each type of food.

If like us you have no idea, have a look on your pet food packet and it gives you a good idea. If unsure ask your vet.

Once setup it has LED lights indicating the portion, ideal for making sure you are not over feeding. The food capacity is 400ml.

The feeder uses the same app as the Sure Petcare Microchip Cat Flap Connect. Creating a Smart Pet eco-system!

If you do not have the cat flap the feeder works just as well standalone.

One thing to note is the feeder cannot be shared with other animals, you need one per pet. However it is great for multi-pet households as it prevents stealing of food, a big issue with cats. You know which pet is eating which food and how much they have eaten.    

Sure Petcare Microchip Feeder

How easy is it to setup?

Setup is easy, the feeder connects to your WiFi via the hub. If you already have the Cat Flap Connect you can use the same hub. 

You do need batteries (4 x C) but these last up to 6 months on normal usage. This is handy as not everywhere you want to put the feeder has a spare plug.

We also spoke to Sure Petcare’s customer service team for additional tips and hints and they gave some brilliant advice. For example who knew bigger cats might find a flat bowl harder to use and putting a book under makes it easier for them!?

What does it connect to?

Like the other Sure Petcare products they only connect to each other, at present there is no 3rd party support. This is a shame as it would be good to ask Alexa whats going on with Ronnie or Roxie – our cats.

How much does it cost?

£119.99 (with no hub) – yes it is not cheap but then it does keep food fresher, preventing flies landing in the food. It also, like their smart cat flap connect, provides peace of mind.

You can also choose from 4 different colours for the mat and bows, a cute touch.

If you need the hub this is £49.99 and sold seperatly.

What is it like living with it?

It took 2 weeks for our cat to get used to using it, at first he was scared of the arch and the movement.

Sure Petcare have obviously thought about this a lot during development and testing and the feeder has a training mode. This slowly but surely moves the lid over a period of time, allowing the pet to get used to it.

One thing to note is do not rush this! We tried training mode over 7 days and it did not work, we tried again over 2 weeks and our cat slowly did get used to it. 

The app is great – you can quickly see exactly when your pet last ate and if you have the Sure Petcare smart cat flap, where they are.

The feeder comes apart, allowing easy cleaning – a lot of it is even dishwasher safe.  

The reporting is helpful as allows you to see if it is normal or not for you pet to have eaten.

One important thing to understand is you can’t simply put the feeder down and expect them to immediately accept it. Some pets will take to it immediately but ours did not, this resulted in a lot of time and care to help him adjust.

After all when introducing anything to a pet it can take time for them to adjust to it. Now we have it all setup it is a brilliant addition to our smart pet echo system! 

What are our final thoughts?

This is next level pet tech! The insight you get into your pets eating behaviour is unbelievable.  

However, we can’t help but think this could go further, for example alerts if you pet has not eaten or is suddenly eating a lot more. 

That said this is impressive and what it does do, it does very well! 

Imagine if you could play with your pet from your work, throw them a treat and even talk to them?! Step up the Pawbo Life Pet Camera and treat dispenser that lets you do exactly that.

What does the Pawbo Pet Camera and treat dispenser do do?

It is a small camera specifically designed for you to interact with your pet, its packed with the standard camera features:

• 720P HD video with 4x digital zoom
• 130° wide-angle lens
• Two way audio
• WiFi connectivity (2.4 GHz only)

However also these pet friendly features:

• Treat dispenser
• Laser pointer with auto play mode
• Connect up to 8 Pawbos – allowing multiple rooms
• Connect additional play accessories
• Instant social sharing to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

All recorded video or photos are stored locally on your phone, there is no subscription required.

How easy is it to setup?

Setup was easy and done via the app. During each part of the process you are guided by a voice telling you when a stage is complete, ‘WiFi setup complete’.

It took under 10 minutes from unboxing to fully setup.

What’s the connectivity?

Pawbo does not connect to anything else in your smart home. However Pawbo is designed to be used when you are not home so smart connectivity is not really required.

How much does it cost?

£149 direct from Amazon.

Pawbo Pet Camera

What’s it like living with the Pawbo Pet Camera?

We tested Pawbo with a cat and a dog,  the dog was not interested in the Pawbo, even the laser did not get a reaction. However the cat loves playing with the laser, the auto mode is great.

One frustration is the range of the laser, it only goes a short distance in front of Pawbo – it would have been better if it went further.

When you start viewing the video the Pawbo makes a doorbell sound, the idea to alert your pet to come over. After two weeks of testing our pets did not get used to it but I’m sure after a while they will.

Another reason this is great for cats is because Dreamies, every cat owner will know what were talking about, fit perfectly! Dog treats are generally too big.

Being able to add additional toys to the Pawbo is a good idea, this way we can keep our cat entertained with new stimulation, when they get bored of the laser.

What are our final thoughts?

If you are looking for a cat pet camera with treat dispenser this is for you! It beats competitors with the automatic laser toy and option to add additional toys.

For more information you can visit their website: https://www.pawbo.com/uk/

We are a nation of pet lovers! Over 45% of us in the UK have a pet with 18% having a cat, according research by statista. Combine this with our growing love of tech you can easily understand why the smart pet market is booming.

When it comes to cat ownership one big concern is knowing where you cat is. As funny as it may sound cats are very independent animals and come and go as they please. Keeping them inside or monitoring them is notoriously difficult, causing stress and undue concern for owners.

Sure Petcares Smart Cat Flap hopes to change that!

What does it do?

SureFlap Microchip Connect cat flap has all the standard features of a cat flap:

• Keeps your pets in
• Keeps your pets out
• Lock both ways

As it is a microchip cat flap it also restricts access to your registered pets, keeping out unwanted visitors or the neighbourhood bully.

The smart part comes into play with their app, here where you can see a report of exactly when your cat has came in and out. As well as set a curfew mode to limit times your cat can come in and out.
You can also manually update the cats location, if for example he went out via the open back door and not the flap.

The cat flap is the same size as most standard cat flaps:

• Hole size – 165 mm (W) x 171 mm (H)
• Flap opening – 142 mm (W) x 120 mm (H)

This makes it easy to upgrade your existing cat flap without creating additional holes or mess!

No subscription is required, the only on going cost is batteries and these should last 6 months.

How easy is it to setup?

Setup was very straightforward. The first challenge was getting the cat through the cat flap before installing. However this is standard with any chip reading cat flap.

A few dreamies, every cats favourite treat, later and our cat Ronnie was registered.Once the cat is registered you can setup the cutest hub you have seen, yes it does have ears!
One potential issue for some users will be the hub needs to ideally be within line of sight of the flap. This was no issue for us as we have multiple Google WiFi nodes through out the house. If your cat flap and router are not nearby one cheap and easy solution is to plugin the hub into a power-line adaptor.

Once the hub and flap are setup the next step is to install the app and setup a household. This is a great idea as allows you to easily add people to your household, as well as multiple pets.

The hub and flap all easily connected to the app without any issues. The hub does have lights but these can be adjusted inside the app – great touch if you have to have the hub in your bedroom.

Once setup the app alerts you to pets found on the flap. If it is an indoor cat you have the option of immediately selecting as an indoor only cat to prevent them making an escape.

You can then setup your pets profile including name photo as well as breed and weight. Now you have the option of setting a curfew or controlling the flap.

What’s does the SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap Connect cost?

The flap has an RRP of £109.99, the hub is sold separately for £49.99. They also offer a bundle pack for £149.99 – saving £10. The hub work with SureFlaps other connected products.

SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap Connect

What’s the connectivity?

At present the flap does not connect to the rest of your smart home. However we did ask ourselves is this really needed…probably not!

What’s it like living with it?

Our cat loves coming and going as he pleases, often at night. This allows us to easily see when he has came and gone, keeping a record. This is also great to spot sudden changes in behaviour. For example if he suddenly decided not to go out for 24 hours.

The notifications are very cute and highlight how much care has been taken in this products development.
Being able to add users to the household with custom levels of access again shows the attention to detail.If for example you had a pet sitter then can view what your cat has been doing but can’t change any settings.

What are our final thoughts?

The SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap Connect from Sure Petcare provides amazing peace of mind. No more worrying if your cat has come or gone unnoticed.

A lot of care has been taken in the design of the cat flap, hub and app.  It’s clear to us this was made by animal lovers and experts who know tech, not tech lovers trying to make a pet product.

We are awarding this our top Smart Pet Product!

This review is for your furry friend in your Smart Home! Petcube Bites.

What does Petcube Bites do?!

Petcube Bites is a HD 1080P camera with one big difference, it can throw treats!

It also features:

• Two way audio
• Wide-angle view
• Night vision
• 3x digital zoom
• Recording ability and cloud video storage.

It includes a limited free cloud storage of 4 hours, for longer periods you need to subscribe.  A feature they call Petcube Care.

One very innovative feature is Facebook live – you can stream your interaction with your pet. This is pretty awesome, especially as at present Facebook gives a notification to all your friends that you are live. Just don’t tell your pet or they won’t want to perform under the pressure!

The app is great fun, the treats are thrown in a similar style to Angry Birds allowing you to choose how far you throw it. It can throw treats to nearly 2 meters!

This is done by dragging up the bone, below, and releasing the white circle.
It also gives you notifications when your pet moves near it, or if you use it it records it as an interaction.

When we spoke to Petcubes they told us new features are always being thought of and can be released via free software updates.

They are well established in the smart pet space with over 100,000 Petcube owners world wide. As well as winning multiple innovation and design awards.

How easy is it to setup?

Setup was easy, you basically plug in the unit and create the account. The box contains everything you could possibly need even raw plugs if you wanted to wall mount it.

When creating your account you create a profile, this includes adding your pets.

We were pretty impressed how extensive the list of breeds was even our Japanese Chin was listed.

One of the biggest challenges for setup was finding the right type of treat.

How much does Petcube Bites cost?

£199 from Amazon.co.uk

Alternatively their website is:

What’s the connectivity?

Petcube Bites connects directly with Facebook – you can even live stream directly from the app.

It also has an Alexa App allowing you to throw treats with your voice!

What’s it like living with it?

We tested it for quite a few weeks with our cat and dog.

The first tricky part was finding treats that worked well in the UK. Due to the mechanism the treats it throws have a maximum and minimum size.

We tried quite a few different treats only to find they jam or come out in bulk. We eventually found something suitable in our local pet shop. Sorry it was unbranded and sold loose otherwise we would tell you what exactly we found worked for other UK readers.

One frustration was the recommended treats were not available in the UK. Likewise the Amazon Dash subscription option in the app was all setup for USA and not UK. As it has only recently been released in the UK we assume this will be updated in a later app update.

If this worked it would be cool as it can automatically re-order treats when low via Amazon!

Petcube Bites Wi-Fi Pet Camera With Treat Dispenser

Once we had the correct treats we needed to find the puurrrrrfect, sorry couldn’t resist, place for the unit. First we tried on a table and then kitchen worktop, finally finding it is best on the floor. This way our pet can see it and understand it a bit better.

Our cat seemed to get the grip much quicker, coming over for treats almost instantly after being called via the 2-way audio.

Our dog took a little training to understand what it was. The first few time we called her she ran to the front door looking for us. To overcome this we trained her by one person being with her when another calls via the app. The person ‘at home’ then showed her where the voice was coming from and reassured her it was ok.

The limited free cloud storage is good however not being able to download videos without a subscription is slightly frustrating. The subscription, Petcube Care, is aligned with the market leader Nests charges.

Petcube Care prices:

• 3 days – $4.99 / month
• 10 days – $9.99 / month
• 30 days – $24.99 / month

Nest charges:

• £8 / month for 10 days
• £24 / month for 30 days

What are our final thoughts?

Petcubes bites is great!

Once your pet gets used to it, it is a fun way of interacting with your pet while you’re at work or just not in. Playing with your pet is not only great fun but stress relief, we found it was great little break from work when feeling stressed and wanted to relax. It is also good for your pet as can help with separation anxiety and boredom. So its win win!

There is a lot they can do to upgrade this product and were pretty excited to see where it goes, for example IFTTT so if it detects motion lights can be turned on.

If you are a smart home and animal lover this is something for you.