I have two cats at home who each have their own prescription food to eat, so I’m always watching them like a hawk when it’s feeding time. When I’m looking away or briefly exit the room, their naughty instincts get the best of them both as one typically goes to eat the other’s food — and vice versa.
That’s why I ditched one of their old automatic pet feeders for the Petlibro Granary Smart Camera Feeder ($105 at Amazon), which features a 1080p camera with an ultra-wide 145-degree field of view. I thought it was weird watching the live feed of my cats eating, but now I can’t stop them. Better yet, it’s on sale at Amazon right now with a generous 34% off discount.
Since both of my cats have different food to eat, I can’t afford for them to eat the other’s food. Through the Petlibro app, I can dispense food at any time — but unlike other feeders they’ve used, this one can spit out as little as 1/12th of a cup. This is a miniscule amount of food that’s perfect for what I need because more food requires more time to consume, which isn’t something I can’t afford because of how my other cat is always prowling around.
I also like how I can create an audio recording that plays right before it’s about to dispense food. By now, my cat’s been trained to know that this announcement coincides with a feeding — so he’s really quick to get there. But of course, the real benefit of the Petlibro Granary Smart Camera Feeder is the 1080p camera positioned right above its stainless steel tray.
At first, I didn’t think a camera would add anything meaningful, but I was dead wrong. Since I’m at work for most of the day, the camera gives me that peace of mind knowing the right cat is eating the food — and not the other one. Now I’m constantly finding myself watching the feed as it’s dispensing. Even though I’m powerless to stop the other cat from intruding while I’m at work, I usually can stop him by yelling through its built-in speaker.
Another really good quality about the camera that I really like is its ultra-wide field of view. It pretty much covers everything I need to see, but it confines everything to the ground. That way, it only captures the lower part of my legs and nothing more. While it does offer a free 7-day trial subscription that saves videos to the cloud for later viewing, it costs $5.99/month or $59.99 for the entire year. Luckily, there’s a microSD card slot that I can tap into to save videos locally.
Finally, it offers backup power in the event there’s an outage to continue its feeding schedule uninterrupted until it returns. My only complaint about this backup system is that it runs off three D-batteries (sold separately), rather than having its own rechargeable one. I’ve had the Petlibro Granary Smart Camera Feeder running for about a month now and I no longer have to worry as much about their feeding schedule. I just load up the feed and watch from afar.
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