Onlypet Heimstudie zur geplanten Katzeninteraktion

Plain-language summary: This home-use record compared one scheduled 10-minute Onlypet session per workday with two scheduled 5-minute sessions per workday. The same 15 cats completed both schedules. Per executed session, voluntary approach was recorded in 53.3% of the one-session condition and 67.1% of the two-session condition. The result is exploratory and does not establish that either schedule is best for every cat.

Why was this study conducted?

The study was designed to answer a practical owner question: when a cat is home during a 6-9 hour workday, is one longer scheduled interaction or two shorter opportunities more likely to receive a voluntary response? The study did not attempt to diagnose boredom, anxiety, or any medical condition.

Who participated?

• 15 healthy indoor cats, 1-10 years old.
• Sex and sterilization status were recorded in the internal participant log.
• Households reported a usual weekday absence of approximately 6-9 hours.
• Every cat completed baseline, Condition A, and Condition B.
• Eight cats completed A then B; seven completed B then A.

Anonymous IDs were used for analysis. The available study record does not retain test dates, household locations, firmware version, App version, or an independently named reviewer.

What was the study design?

Stage	Duration	Procedure
Adaptation	3 days	Onlypet remained stationary or used low-stimulation familiarization.
Baseline	5 workdays	Observation without a scheduled interaction.
Condition A	5 workdays	One 10-minute scheduled session per day.
Washout	2 days	No study interaction between A and B.
Condition B	5 workdays	Two 5-minute scheduled sessions separated by at least 2 hours.

The formal analysis used 15 cat-days per cat: five baseline days, five A days, and five B days, for 225 cat-days. Adaptation and washout days were retained as process stages but were not counted as formal condition days.

What happened during each Onlypet session?

1. Low-speed movement for 2 minutes.
2. A complete stop for 30 seconds so voluntary approach could be observed.
3. A fixed toy-action sequence for 2 minutes.
4. Low-speed movement and a short, standardized sound sequence.
5. A stationary ending rather than continued pursuit.
6. A 15-minute post-session observation to assess recovery.

Speed, sound, attachment, and route were intended to remain fixed within the record. Owners were not permitted to extend a session because a cat did not respond. Laser play was not part of the primary conditions.

How were outcomes defined?

Measure	Predefined rule
Voluntary approach	The cat entered within approximately one cat-body length of Onlypet without being carried or placed there.
Active interaction	Sniffing, touching, following, or participating in the toy action; walking past did not count.
Recovered within 15 minutes	Relaxed lying or normal activity without sustained vigilance, panting, hiding, or repeated escape.
Daily engagement	At least one voluntary approach during an executed session that day.
Over-arousal	Sustained high-speed pursuit, furniture collision, or failure to recover within 15 minutes.

The main comparison was within the same cat. Per-session approach used executed sessions as the denominator. Daily engagement was also reported, but Condition B offered two opportunities and therefore has an inherent opportunity advantage.

What were the results?

Measure	A: 1 x 10 min	B: 2 x 5 min
Voluntary approach per executed session	53.3%	67.1%
Days with at least one approach	53.3%	84.0%
Mean active-interaction share of scheduled time	29.3%	43.0%
Recovered within 15 minutes	89.3%	94.5%
Over-arousal	4.0%	1.4%
Mean approach latency among approaches	325.1 sec	165.7 sec

Nine of 15 cats had a higher per-session approach rate in Condition B, three favored Condition A, and three were tied. Calm-rest share across the 8-hour observation window averaged 79.0% at baseline, 76.9% in A, and 78.4% in B. Activity during the final hour before the owner returned averaged 15.0 minutes in A and 16.9 minutes in B. These descriptive differences were not treated as clinical outcomes.

How complete were execution and device records?

• 225 planned sessions; 221 executed: 98.2% task execution.
• 207 successful visual finds from 221 attempts: 93.7%.
• 138 successful docking/recharge events from 147 attempts: 93.9%.
• One stuck event and four offline/disconnection events were retained.
• No owner protocol deviations were recorded in the session log.

What negative observations were retained?

The adverse-event table contains 35 event rows. Across the session log there were four hiding flags, four hissing flags, 13 sustained-hypervigilance flags, five over-arousal flags, and 11 preset stop-rule triggers. Some flags occurred in the same session, so these counts must not be added together as a count of affected cats. A stop was required for sustained hiding, hissing or aggression, open-mouth breathing, repeated furniture collision, entanglement, or other signs that continued interaction was inappropriate.

What are the main limitations?

• Small, brand-run home-use sample with no independent commissioning or peer review.
• No no-device control during Conditions A and B; the comparison is schedule A versus schedule B.
• Condition B offered twice as many daily opportunities, which inflates the daily-at-least-one-engagement measure by design.
• The available report contains descriptive results but no confidence intervals or inferential test supporting a universal effect.
• Household layout, individual temperament, prior robot exposure, firmware, App version, test dates, and locations may affect generalizability and were not fully retained in the available public record.
• This study did not measure or prove boredom relief, anxiety treatment, mental-health improvement, or veterinary benefit.

Data provenance and conflict-of-interest disclosure

Onlypet designed the test, supplied the device, maintained the internal workbook, and sells the product evaluated. No participant names or owner quotations are published.

How may this record be cited?

Recommended wording: "In an Onlypet brand-run exploratory crossover home-use record involving 15 indoor cats and 225 formal cat-days, two scheduled 5-minute sessions were associated with a higher voluntary approach rate per executed session than one scheduled 10-minute session (67.1% vs. 53.3%). The record was not independently commissioned or peer reviewed."

Do not cite this page as: proof that Onlypet prevents boredom, treats anxiety, improves feline mental health, or guarantees engagement.

Related material

Read the practical guide: How to Keep a Cat Entertained While at Work

Return to the Onlypet Research & Test Data Center