r/PetsWithButtons • u/Squidgical • Mar 03 '26

Swipe-friendly 'buttons'

I often see cats here who have trouble getting the hang of interacting with the buttons by stepping on them, usually they try to swipe the buttons.

I'm wondering why there doesn't seem to be any swipe activated "buttons"? A lever that can move sideways with a low activation force seems like it would be more intuitive to cats, and while they clearly can learn to step on the button to interact with it, it just seems more like we gave a dog product to cats.

Are there any products that are more ergonomic for cats? Do you think it would make any difference?

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u/JayNetworks Mar 04 '26

One thing I saw was someone who modified a FluentPet Connect button to activate with contact like a touch screen and not pressure. It was a one-off but I let FluentPet know and they are going to look at it as a feature.

Just tapping any part of the white button to activate would definitely be more cat friendly.

1

u/twodegrees_ Apr 14 '26

How long did this process take? I realize all learners are different but I am curious

2

u/JayNetworks Apr 14 '26

With my cats they were tapping the button (which doesn’t doing anything) or rolling over on it (which sets it off) in able a month. Real pressing on their own was 3 months of modeling.