Smart beds for pets

[Catherine]

I am not sure it is good for us to be tracking medical things so closely. There is a cat litter out there that monitors your cat's urine. It might seem like a good idea to keep close watch for potential health issues, but it can become a bit of an obsession. 

People don't go for walks anymore.  They count their steps so they can do a certain number per day. It is not a walk, it is a measured workout session. We miss the benefits of just taking a walk.

When we are looking at the cat litter to see if our cat is healthy, we are not looking at the cat.
When we are asking our smart cat bed if our cat is healthy, we are not looking at our cat and interacting with it.
Beds that monitor health have a place. Certainly hospitals need them. Some animals might need monitoring.
It is still important to actually interact with your pet.

Automatic feeders could be useful. If you think you might be late home, you could relax knowing the cat would get some food.
It wouldn't be good to go away for days and leave just the automatic feeder to feed your pet. A person coming in is essential.
Anything could go wrong. The person coming in would make sure the house is okay. My neighbours went away in beautiful weather and left a window open to give the cat fresh air. Good thing I was coming in daily. After two days the temperature dropped suddenly. I didn't just have to close the window, I had to get the furnace going.

Smart technology is useful, but we need to find a balance between doing things ourselves and letting technology do things.

I certainly don't want a smart anything for my guinea pig. The point of having a guinea pig is to enjoy interacting with them.
I like serving the veggies by hand,  I like cutting the veggies by hand. It makes feeding him personal.