Petivity, a Purina brand, has introduced the Smart Feeder for Cats, a device that uses AI-enabled facial recognition to monitor individual cats' eating habits in households with multiple cats. The company is marking the launch with an event in New York City in October that will let visitors trigger real-time feedings for cats at partner animal shelters.
"How and when your cat eats may matter just as much as what they eat," said Kristin Slater, Petivity product development lead. "Obesity is one of the most common, preventable health issues in cats, often because parents don't know how much their cat is eating. The Smart Feeder for Cats translates feeding time into health insights, and New Yorkers can see it in action at our Press to Feed event."
Feeder features
The Smart Feeder for Cats uses sensor technology and a built-in camera to identify up to five individual cats through facial recognition. It tracks portion consumption, eating frequency and feeding patterns over time. Petivity said the design went through more than 10 iterations during development.
The feeder includes:
- Remote feeding control, custom schedules and real-time video check-ins through the Petivity app
- Alerts when kibble supply is low
- A dishwasher-safe food container, kibble carousel and bowl
- A shallow bowl intended to reduce whisker fatigue, with a low-profile design
Development data
"We spent years building a robust feeding behavior dataset, manually reviewing tens of thousands of real-world feeding sessions and hours of video to make sure this feeder truly understands cat behavior," said Dr. Natalie Langenfeld-McCoy, Purina data scientist. "That's what allows the Smart Feeder for Cats to catch changes that may otherwise go unnoticed."
Petivity said the feeder's AI was trained on more than 21,000 real-world feeding sessions, more than 1,400 hours of video and images of more than 15,000 cats. During product development, 99.5% of cats ate from the feeder, according to the company.
The Smart Feeder for Cats can also pair with the Petivity Smart Litter Box Monitor, allowing consumption and elimination data to be tracked together.
Press to Feed event
Petivity is marking the launch with a public event in New York City that will let visitors trigger real-time feedings for cats at partner shelters.
- When: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. EDT
- Where: Vanderbilt Hall, Grand Central Terminal
- What: Visitors who press a button will trigger a Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats at a partner shelter or rescue to dispense a meal to an adoptable cat, shown live on a screen at the event.
- Participating shelters: Atlanta Humane Society (Atlanta, Georgia), Cat Adoption Team (Sherwood, Oregon), and Tree House Humane Society (Chicago, Illinois)
The Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats is available now Amazon, Chewy and Petivity.com.
