We're still on a bit of a learning curve with operating the Hub. Today we have confirmed that Ricky's square kibble (Royal Canin Mobility Support) on the right of the photo above doesn't appear to agree with the Hub's food pod dispensing mechanism, resulting in confusion on the part of the machine and frustration on the part of Ricky when it stalls. We did have some stalling issues early-on when I first tried using this kibble in the Hub, but had thought it was related to our internet connection at the time so when it came time to refill it, we tried the squares again. It worked fluidly for a little while, but reasonably quickly was back to stalling. The R/C food also has a lovely tumeric coating, which probably makes it a bit more sticky moving through the food pod. So we'll be staying with round kibble without sticky coatings and see how that goes rather than persisting with trying the "square peg in a round hole" approach. At the moment we're using some of Kate's Hill's B/D (on the left in the photo above), but I will also be trying some Hill's J/D as it would have more specific benefit for his joint and heart disease.
*Update from the lovely customer service staff--they have confirmed that the size limit for kibble is 18mm in largest dimension. The Mobility Support would meet this (15mm on the diagonal), however, I reckon that the size which is approaching machine limit combined with the blocky shape and the stickiness of the tumeric coating do make this food more difficult for the machine to work with. Fortunately our Hill's J/D appears to be working just fine in the Hub this morning. It is only approximately 10mm in largest dimension, and a normal round shape without a sticky coating.
Our Purina Proplan is quite large and kind of triangle shaped, which I imagine would also be a problem.
ReplyDeleteIf you can let me know exactly which product you use I can pick up a small bag and give it a trial run. Part of our issue with Ricky's kibble could be the tumeric coating, too, which is a bit sticky. Our Hub seems to be handling the J/D fine this morning, which is a larger kibble than the B/D. Would there be any chance of finding a food with similar features to the Purina ProPlan--perhaps even another Purina product--but with a round kibble? With the variety of foods available on the market it can be worth checking around to see if you can find a round kibble that will provide similar features to your current one. Prescription foods could potentially be a bit more challenging in that regard, and definitely the sort of thing to discuss with a vet before switching foods, but many of those do have a round kibble that would suit the Hub.
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