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Today we're sharing one of our *sponsored posts with mew from the fabulous peeps at Sure Petcare, who asked us if we'd like to try and review one of their latest innovations, the:
FELAQUA CONNECT & Hub
And as we're all for keeping our hydrations level up at BBHQ, we said we'd love to share our experience with our readers.
So let's show mew what was in the box.
FELAQUA CONNECT - a unique water delivery and drinking monitoring system for cats. FELAQUA CONNECT, designed in collaboration with leading veterinary behaviourists, allows cat owners to keep track of their cats’ daily water intake via the SURE PETCARE App, while the smart water delivery system provides the cat with a source of fresh water.
Each cat is registered to FELAQUA CONNECT via their microchip. FELAQUA CONNECT integrates with the SURE PETCARE app via a Hub, which allows the App to “talk” to the device and record the registered cat’s drinking behaviour such as which cat drank, what time it drank, and how much it drank. It also provides reports on the cat’s overall drinking patterns on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. With this information, cat owners can easily detect any changes in their cat’s drinking patterns. The SURE PETCARE App also sends reminder notifications to fill the reservoir of FELAQUA CONNECT when the water is low, and water freshness reminders to encourage cleaning of the device.
FELAQUA CONNECT has several cat-friendly features, including a wide, shallow bowl that mimics a natural puddle and presents water in a way that is more appealing and easier to drink than from a conventional bowl. The bowl is also water repellent causing the water to bead - in the same way that water stands up on a newly polished car - making it reflect and glisten and be more attractive to cats.
The water is kept fresh in an air-tight, gravity-fed reservoir that releases water into the bowl as it is needed. Because the device is battery powered, there are no cables or need for an electrical power source, so the device can be located in any part of the home to best meet the cat’s drinking needs.
Sounds great, doesn't it!
Installation:
How to set up the Felaqua Connect
Furstly, mew need to go to the app store and download the Sure Petcare app, which takes two shakes of a lamb's tail. Then connect the cat-shaped hub to your router and turn it on. While it is initialising, put the batteries into the water fountain, but don't fill it up yet.
Next mew need to open the app; register your details, set up a password, and follow the onscreen instructions to connect the cat-hub and fountain.
As your cute cat-hub is initialising and updating, its ears glow red, and once it is connected to the water fountain its ears go green; how epic, epically epic!
Then comes the fun part; enticing a BBHQ kitty to approach the fountain and stay long enough in close proximity for the device to recognise their micro-chip, hence the reason for not filling it with water yet. The manufacturers advise that mew put a few treats onto the empty water dish; which the P.A. did while the app was open in the ready to add a new pet mode and she waited for any kitty to turn up. Not long after, Fudge appeared, scoffed the treats in under 1 second and walked away feeling rather smug and satisfied.
Though not to be deterred by Fudge's astounding ability to have more suction than a Dyson vacuum cleaner, the P.A put a few more Dreamies on the dish, but this time spaced them around the edges so it would take longer to hoover them up, and sure enough, the Ginger Dyson was back, but this time the fountain recognised his chip and registered him to the app.
This is a screenshot of the app page when he was registered. Where it says Pet Name, his microchip number appeared, but mew just edit that and then choose pet type and gender. And mew can add a photo too.
Once the initial profile is saved, mew can then add further info such as age, weight etc...
So after adding Melvyn, Smooch and Pandora, The P.A. hit a bit of a stumbling block as Parsley's chip wasn't recognised aftur multiple attempts. We're not sure why, but at his next vet visit, we'll get them to check his chip is ok and then try again. And as for Amber, we'll just say crotchety and non-compliant, old age cats hey, at least she's consistent! MOL
Once your pet/s are added mew can fill the fountain reservoir, which is very easy, and once filled, simply slot in place above the water dish, and it dispenses a small amount into the dish and automatically tops up as and when required by thirsty cats, keeping things fresh and clean. The water dish design is also wide and shallow, so there's no whisker-squashing while drinking.
As we've got four B Team memfurs are registered to the fountain, this is the really nifty part; each time they visit the fountain for a drink, it is logged and then daily charts are available within the app to show exactly when and how much water is consumed by each kitty on a daily basis. Talk about a supurr smart fountain; this is incredible.
Here is Melvyn's early chart aftur we'd set it up, and when mew tap the small grey squares, a pop-up appears with the exact amount of water consumed and the time it took to consume said water, plus the precise time the drink took place.
And the app can track days, weeks and months for each pet registered.
ASTOUNDING!
Our closing thoughts
This has to be one of the best inventions ever.
Melvyn and Fudge adore it, even queuing and taking turns to have a little lap.
Clean up
Furstly let's talk about cleaning, which is supurr impawtant to a busy cat pawrent; this fountain is really easy to clean. The main unit in white can be simply wiped down with a damp cloth, and the reservoir and dish can be washed quickly in warm soapy water. So it gets top marks for a supurr easy clean, and what's even better; there are no pumps to clean and no extra filters to buy as the water remains purrfectly clean in the reservoir.
Ease of initial set up
Apart from Parsley's chip not being recognised - which has nothing to do with the fountain - and Amber's complete non-compliance (but then mew all know she's just a crotchety old lady cat), it was extremely easy and very intuitive, just follow the simple instructions in the app and it takes minutes to be up and running. Don't furget to put the treats around the edge of the dish when registering a kitty, it'll take them longer to eat and more chance of connecting to the app furst time.
The fountain uses 4 x C Cell LR14 batteries, and as long as it's in range of the cat-hub mew can put it anywhere and it's cable-free too, so there's no trip hazard for your pawrents - which is a huge plus here given the P.A.'s uncanny ability to trip-up on a flat surface! MOL
Monitoring water consumption
This is the best bit ever, especially if mew're dealing with veterinary issues which need careful monitoring. If this is the case, we would suggest removing all other water bowls or fountains from around the home and having this as your sole water supply; that way, mew will have a completely accurate log of events and how much water has been drunk and by who if mew are a multi-pet home. To see and track the total water consumption of each registered individual B Team memfur is really incredible, an invaluable tool for hydration health.
Why we 💙 it
It wurks with one cat or multiple cats, so purrfect for all sized pet families. It is also ideal for our smaller K9 furiends too, so if mew've got a kitty and K9 family, mew can keep tabs on everyone's hydration levels.
It is also a really nice looking fountain, with a neat footprint or we should say pawprint, it's very stable and would fit in easily with any decor and look supurr cool.
In summary, this is the most epically epic water fountain we've trialled to date, and if your pawrents love to track things, for instance, if they wear a Fitbit or iWatch or similar to monitor their own health/workouts/habits, they will love being able to track mew too.
This is a Totally Top Paw Product for cats and K9's, and is loved by The B Team.
We would like to say a special thanks to the pawesome peeps at Sure Petcare for giving us the oppurrtunity to try out their ameowzing Felaqua Connect and Hub ~ THANK MEW FURRY MUCH!
Visit Sure Petcare online:
Many thanks for joining us today, and don't furget to stop by tomorrow when we will be here with the grand finale of Fast, Furry & Dangerous, one of our most epically exciting adventures ever, and if mew missed any of the previous episodes, click here to go and catch up. And if mew missed Basil's birthday celebration and giveaway, click here to join in the fun!
Until tomorrow,
Wing Commander Basil & The B Team xx
*FYI: Even though we were given this item/s free of charge for a review, our review is completely honest and reflects our own experience with the product/s
Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com & www.befunky.com