Petnet SmartFeeder Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Petnet

Have you ever wished your cat could open a can of food himself? Or that your dog could pour the giant bag of food pellets into her own bowl? While it can’t teach your pets new tricks, Petnet’s $150 new gadget might be a step in the right direction.

The SmartFeeder is essentially a feeding bowl with a holding tank above it. Beyond simply supplying more food when the bowl goes empty, though, the SmartFeeder will control portions for your pets. How does it know how much to feed them? This is where it gets interesting.

During setup, you enter your pet’s weight, age, activity levels and other information in the SmartFeeder app. Once the SmartFeeder starts portioning out food for your pet, it continues to monitor behavior, like whether your pet is eating all the food, how quickly and whether that involves multiple trips to the bowl. This data plus the originally entered info gets plugged into a massive database that not only determines serving sizes, but also decides what types of food might fit best for your pet.

Petnet

The appeal of the SmartFeeder is twofold. First, since the tank holds about 7 pounds of food, you only need to refill it once every week or two. That’s a big part of the work of pet ownership, taken care of. Second, if it works as intended, Petnet’s device should help your pet be healthier. Proper serving sizes are important to a pet’s long-term health.

The SmartFeeder also offers a pet food marketplace. The idea is that the device will prune down the thousands of pet food options to a select few — ones that are supposed to be appropriate for your pet. You choose which to buy, and the SmartFeeder app will order the food for you when supplies get low.

Personally, I’m cautious about any device that orders products with my credit card, but for people who have comfortable patterns and understand what’s involved, the service could be a helpful relief.

The SmartFeeder won’t work for everyone. The size of the bowl is about 2 cups, so it’s too small for larger dogs. And because of the design, the feeder can only dispense dry food.

The Petnet SmartFeeder is available now online and at Petco stores.