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Skymee’s pet feeder (Available on Amazon) enters a growing market for smart pet devices, designed to make life a bit easier. You can find some kind of feeding station at places like Asda, Argos and Pets at Home. I’ve just reviewed Skymee’s dog and cat automatic feeder. Was it any good?
Let’s dive in.
What does this pet feeder do?
Skymee’s auto-feeder is an indoor, electric feeding station that combines 3 key elements:
- An automatic pet feed dispenser
- A Pet monitoring camera
- The iOS / Android feeding app
Once you’ve got the batteries, plugged the unit into the mains (optional), and installed the app, you’re good to go. You fill the granary with dried pet food and use your smart phone to set feeding schedules, interact with your pet, or manually dispense food. You’ll need an Internet connection within the range of the feeder for it all to work.
What are the main selling points?
Here’s a speedy run down on what this pet feeder has to offer:
- Suitable as both a dog and cat feeder
- Get a live video feed on your phone of what your dog / cat is up to.
- Take digital snaps and instantly upload ’em to Facebook and social media.
- Talk to your pet through the built in speaker
- Set simple, or complex, smart feeding schedules
- Press a button to manually dispense food over Wifi
- Pick the exact weight of each feed (from 10g up to 300g)
- The food bowl attaches magnetically and detaches
- It’s dog-proof (hungry hounds can’t schedule their own feed!)
- The container holds 8 litres of dried food
- Easily set a timer using the app
- The feeder is double-sealed to keep it fresh for up to a month
- And keep out mold, moisture and bugs!
- You can power it via USB cable (plugged into mains)
- And there’s also a backup battery
What I like about the Skymee Smart Feeder
It’s easy to install and use the app
For this pet feeder to be any good, the app had to be up to the job. Too many times we’ve seen products that looked good but had some dodgy, crappy app. Thankfully Skymee have got this right. The app is clean, fast and easy to use and feeding your pets wirelessly is quick and easy.
The smart app controls very aspect of feeding your cat or dog, and also lets you peek out through the camera in the unit. (more on that in a sec) You can see what they’re up to and press a button to feed them instantly. It all connects over Wifi and, touch wood, seems to work very well.
It holds loads of food and keeps it dry
This app controlled feeder will be fine for any sized dog. There’s a whopping 8 litre / two gallons of dry food storage. As such, it’s probably also going to be of interest to those with multiple smaller dogs, or more than one cat.
Plenty of control over the feeding
While it’s kinda cool to be able to press the button and feed your pets yourself, the reason most people will want a good automatic feeder is to be able to set schedules. It’s much easier to do this using an app. You can control everything from exact time of day to portion size. It’s quick and blissfully simple to do with the Skymee smart feeder.
The web camera is great … and a lot of fun
while I’m guessing most people won’t buy this auto-feeder solely for the camera (there are cheaper pet monitoring cameras available for this) it’s still worth talking about – because it’s awesome. Far from a tacked on extra, this is a full HD 1080p pet camera and you get superb, sharp image on your phone.
It lets you see what’s going on when you’re at work, and make sure they’re OK. Although you might need to make excuses and rush home if one of your pets is doing some feeding on your favourite slippers.
Sykmee’s feeding station also keeps a journal of when your pet is eating, which gives you a bit of peace of mind when you’re away from home.
What are the bad points with this feeder?
The speaker could is a bit on the quiet side
I guess this isn’t a huge problem as mutts are meant to have good hearing, but the speaker on the unit seems a little on the quiet side. Maybe you can turn it up. There’s a barking noise when the feed is about to appear, which is fine, but you voice is projected at a low volume.
You can’t see the bowl from the camera
The HD camera is fixed in one position. It’s great for keeping track of your cat or dog, but it would be super-handy if you could also check that the food has been removed from the bowl. Even better would be the ability to pan around, as a lot of home security cameras have, but I guess that would push up the price too.
Doesn’t work with Alexa
Not a huge downside, but it would be nice to have an option to tell Alexa it’s time to feed the dog. There’s likely some DIY fix for this, buy I’ve not found one yet.
Summing up – is this smart pet feeder for you?
The Skymee Pet Feeder is an easy gadget to recommend for anyone looking for a good, reliable automatic pet feeder. It’s so nice being able to leave the house and know that your cat is being fed, and even being able top interact with them a little bit (as long as they’re not scared of the speaker!) It’s built like fort Knox and suitable for both cats and dogs. The app is a joy to use too. Highly recommended.
Click here to check prices on Amazon
Further reading and pet feeder resources!
One review of the Skymee pet feeder you’ll want to check out can be found below:
You can learn more about Skymee on their official website.
They’ve also got a Facebook group and page for anyone interested in their pet feeder, complete with some cute pics of it in action!
You can also check out the official Skymee Youtube channel for more video content.
If you’re not sure how much is too much with automatic feeders, there’s some solid guidelines on what’s healthy for pets on the RSPCA website.
If you’re not already aware, there’s some things your dog shouldn’t eat. Here’s a good free guide on what to avoid feeding your dog.
For cats, it’s slightly different. Here’s some safe feeding guidelines for them.
