Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2: Hello, pet lovers, Welcome to Best Best for Pets. So
today's show it's all about doing things automatic, makes it
easier for you, easier for your pets. And don't you
love a good wife. Well, stay tuned. I have an
amazing guest today and we're going to tell you all
about it. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 4: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Nick McHale. He
is the founder of Penthouse Pods. Welcome Nick.
Speaker 5: Hi, how are you Michelle?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great now. I know that you are based
in Greater Los Angeles and we're recording June twenty twenty five,
a little after the fires.
Speaker 5: How are things so, you know Rangelino's we are strong
and we rebuild. I know that they're a lot of
progress being made. We recently helped out and supported a
great cause, Pasadena Humane. We did a fantastic event out
there at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and we
helped support a great organization that helped a lot of
pets and pet parents during some brutal times right California.
Wildfires are here, and you know they do cause a
lot of damage. And just like any natural disaster, pets
are part of our life and we have to take
care of them even during disasters exactly.
Speaker 2: And Los Angeles is near and dear to my heart.
I went to school out there, graduate school. I lived
there twenty years and miss it and watching the fires
was heartbreaking. I have friends still out there. It was
tragic and Angelinas are tough. So I'm glad to hear
that people are rebuilding. I'm keeping an eye on the news.
I wish it never happened to begin with, of course,
and thank you so much for all that you did
to support the animals. I've watched a lot of that
on the news, and there were so many animals that
were rescued. It was just if there was going to
be found at all, it was in everybody helping each other,
and especially the animals because they can't really help themselves.
Speaker 5: Yes, and a lot of those pet parents. You know,
having to evacuate and leave your home is not an
easy feat.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 5: For a little bit of time, I used to work
at FEMA and I worked Hurricane Harvey at the call center,
and I do remember what it was like speaking to
survivors and speaking to people that had to find a
new place to live and were displaced. So God bless
those folks.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely well. I went from hurricanes, having lived in
blizzards in New York, Florida, hurricanes, earthquakes in California, coming
back to hurricanes, so I've kind of lived through it all.
Never had to fully evacuate. While I did evacuate once
for a hurricane, but I was fortunate that nothing happened,
everything was still standing. I can't even imagine losing my home.
So my heart goes out to those people. Let's talk
about your product. You created Penthouse Pause, Why did you
create Penthouse Paws? You have smart products, You have a
smart feeder, water fountain. You have wipes, a variety of
different products. What made you decide the pet industry needs
another product and these are these the products?
Speaker 5: So what made us the side on the products at
a penthouse?
Speaker 2: Paul start?
Speaker 5: So it started during and after COVID. Technically we started
in twenty twenty three, but we've owned pets well, I've
owned pets for a majority of my life. Currently we
have a rag Doll Sphinx mix which is Gizmo.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, rag Doll and sphinks whoa.
Speaker 5: Yes, and he is a rescue and he's older. Obviously
he's older now, but he was the initial cat that
we got and he was a rescue. And then we
got three Sphinx cats, which you.
Speaker 2: Know, I wanted to adopt one at one point, but
I felt like with my crew that has fur, could
maybe injure the Sphinx. I had a listener reach out
because she had heard me and said come and adopt,
although I'd have to fly up to upstate New York.
But I was so worried my cats would attack them.
And they're very high maintenance. How is it with three stinks?
Speaker 5: So it is obviously very high maintenance. So that's when
we started looking at automated devices right from feeding to watering.
So sphins are hard to maintain. But they're adorable cats, right.
They are very smart, intellectual. They remind me, if not
smarter than dogs, right, and that brings us to dogs
better than cats. No, I think each one has their
own traits that to each their own, right. I love
my sphinx, I love my rag doll. I think they're
very intelligent pets, right, But maintaining it was a little
bit challenging, especially if you travel having to feed them overnight.
So we went out there and we started looking for
feeders and fountains and I couldn't find one that really
fit the bill for my pets that I knew that
was made with good quality, you know, components. And I
really didn't find that many American brands that I can
choose from. It was mostly just overseas product that was inferior.
And you know, I didn't want all these people having
my data access to cameras, so we went out we
created our own app. So you can find the Pethouse
Pause app on Apple Store and Google Play. It's free
to download and connects our devices so you can see
your pet hear your pet, speak to your pet from
anywhere in the world. There's no monthly subscription fees. Once
you connect it, you connected to wife.
Speaker 2: Only good through your devices.
Speaker 5: Only go through our devices, which are the smart feeders,
which have a ten ADP camera with night vision so
you can record content. You know. This is a content
rich world, right, Oh yeah, and a lot of pet influencers,
you know, they create content using their pets, and this
is a great way to capture those off the scene
moments that make everyone laugh. Pets do some fantastic stuff.
You just got to catch them at the right time.
Speaker 2: That's really hard to do with cats.
Speaker 5: Yes, but let me tell you something, it's getting a
lot easier. Our new litter box is the litter Iq
and it does have a built in four K camera
so you can see your pet inside inside of it.
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, can see your cat do its business.
Speaker 5: You can see your cat doing his business and make
sure you tell them to wipe his pause on the
way out so you can speak to them as well,
and you can hear them and create content.
Speaker 2: Free content, you know, not that long ago ahead. On
my other show, cate to to a photographer cat photographer
and she was telling me how we were talking about
how challenging it is to get great pictures of your cat.
But this is interesting. You can see pictures of your
cat going or what they do before they go. Let's
talk about the litter IQ. What size cat is it for?
Is it in different sizes? Is that coming soon? How
does it work?
Speaker 5: So the litter IQ is coming soon. It is made
for multiple cats. Any cat up to two pounds and
above can use it. Kittens you'd have to wait till
they're about two pounds so the weight sensor can recognize
that there's a cat in there. Remember it also has
a failsafe, it has a childlock, and the greatest thing
about our litter IQ it has a UV light and
the UV light kills all that bacteria that causes the odor,
So that is a fantastic feature that is not really
available on other litter boxes, so it makes a huge difference.
And it has a built in deodorizer that helps with
the odor as well.
Speaker 2: Nice. Can you use any sort of litter?
Speaker 5: You can use any clumping litter, so crystals and no
go obviously, but any clumping litter will work.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about you have a couple of feeders
and you have then automatic water fountain smart wireless water fountain.
Now are they sufficient for short getaways and it's only
dry kibble for the feeders right?
Speaker 5: Well, yes, at the current moment there for dry kibble,
the either come in six liter capacity or seven liter.
The seven leaders are smart macs that holds seven liters
of dry food. You can have multiple portions. Each portion
is about seven grams. If you're talking in cup size,
that holds about thirty two to forty cups depending on
the size of the kibble. Any kibble size will work
on this as long even treats, as long as it's
up to nine millimeters and you can set portion control
different feeding times. If there's a problem, it sends you
a notification on your phone. It lets you know what
the issue is. If anything gets stuck, it has an
auto or reverse feature. And if power goes out, because
I know a lot of pet parents are concerned, well
what if Fido, you know, pulls the plug out, how's
it going to eat? And it does have a battery
backup so it will still feed your pet during a
power outage. So it works great like that. For the fountains,
the wireless one Our smart wireless fountain has a built
in lithium ion battery with a forty five day capacity,
so it will keep running. It's motion activated, and it
sends you notifications when it needs water filter change. Our
products are meant to make pet parenting a user friendly
experience and to take away the burden of keeping you
on your toes. Did I feed sphinx or did I
not feed them?
Speaker 2: You know, actually almost and a half. You have a
mixed one, so you have a forecats.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so forecats is a lot, a.
Speaker 2: Lot, and stinks are almost like double because I maintenance.
I have three and they have further're a lot easier
than and the sphinx are more social. Mine only one
of mine is.
Speaker 5: We're actually in development for a wet feeder as well
with refrigeration. Wow, so that is coming down the pipeline.
We have a lot of great stuff. You know, AI
is alive and well and it's going to be changing
pet parenting come twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven.
In twenty twenty six, we're going to be at CEES,
which is a consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, and
we are going to be showing and releasing a slew
of new products, so stay tuned for that one.
Speaker 2: I'm excited now can you use your feeders? Let's talk
about what you have right now. But I'm excited for
the wet food because you know, people have different ways
of feeding. Some prefer more wet, some are what some
are just dry. But say if you're going out of town,
of course you'd want other cameras set up. You'd want
an emergency backup and let and if you don't have
anybody staying at your home, But say you're going out
of town, it's going to be a day or two
other things. We're not considering other situations right because you
want to have a live person that's nearby keeping an
eye on things. But other than that, how long could
someone go away with this smart feeder and smart water?
Found comfortably two days? Three days?
Speaker 5: So I usually leave my pets when I'm going on
the overnight trip, would say two to three days. I
have cats, so they need four cats, so I need
somebody to come over and empty out the litter and
do other things, right, so I would say two to
three just depending on are you you know, do you
have six cats? Three cats? The quantity of your pets,
and is it just cats, because our feeders also work
for dogs, So the smart Max works for dogs and
you can feed your dog that way as well. Now
our fountains, our largest fountain, which is a smart wireless
water fountain, holds three point five liters, which is about
a gallon of water. Right now, If you know that
your pet currently is drinking more than a gallon in
a day, then I would recommend a larger product, right
and we are in development for that. But if you
know that they do not drink a gallon a day,
and they brilliant not drinking at all, then our product
is an excellent product to get them to drink. A
lot of people forget that stagnant water is not very tasty,
right right, And every time you put water like for example,
you know, I tell people this all the time. When
you put a glass of water next to your night
stand at night and they have a set from it
before you go to bed, it doesn't taste the same
in the morning when you wake up and the water
is stale, and your pet doesn't want to drink that
still water either, And then the pet parents' job becomes
washing the bowl on the daily and refreshing the water
on the daily and there's still biofilm and slime build
up that happens. And with our products, they have a
UV light feature that dissipates that biofilm and prevents it
from building. So the water's fresh, it's being circulated, is
being filtered. It has a Holo fiber filtration system to
pick up any food particles, any hair the breed that
gets in the water. So truly they are getting fresh
water every time they take a sip.
Speaker 2: And it also, as you said, it stimulates cats to
drink more water because I have fountains for my cats
and they love I mean, they'll drink out of a
stow ball, but they really love the fountains and I
never have a problem with them drinking.
Speaker 5: Yes, cats love running water because that is in their
natural habitat right, the up springs and running water, and
that's one thing that they love. And obviously, as you know,
they have a lot of kidney issues right and the hydration,
and they don't really drink that much, so you should
you should really encourage them to drink.
Speaker 2: Folks, Yes, absolutely, all right, we're going to take a
short break and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone. We're talking to. Nick Mchalkey is the
founder of Penthouse Paws. So Nick, let's talk about whites.
Now I know why you created them because we talked
about your cats in the path your Sphinx cats and
Sphinx cats get oily. So for people that I don't know, well,
this is in catitude, so they might not know. For
people that don't know what a Sphinx cat is, they
are naked cats. They have it for a right, but
it's very very fine. It's not like regular cat for
they're the cats that you see that are wrinkly and
naked looking.
Speaker 5: Just remember Austin Powers.
Speaker 2: Yeah it's okay. I was gonna say, but this is
one of those housewife shows and they're not on anymore.
Grandma Wrinkles. I love that name, so it's not on anymore.
I love Sphinx. One day when I have a lot
of more time, because they are high maintenance, I'm going
to have a Sphinx. Now you have three rag doll
and sphinx next, which is interesting. What are their names
and what is it like to take care of them
with just keeping them their skin nice?
Speaker 5: So the Sphinx are Cleo which is short for Cleopatra,
and I call her Sphinxy. That is their nickname. So
we started off with her. She was a birthday gift
given to me. And then after that we adopted two
Sphinx brothers, which I you know, we didn't want to separate,
So that was Ramses and Pharaoh and Ramses and Pharaoh brothers.
We've had them for about six years. Sphinxy was about seven.
Gizmo is LEVI just had his birthday, this guy, so
he's eleven, if I am not mistaken, actually twelve. He
was twelve. Is he the one that's mixed, Yes, Gizmo's
the mix. And obviously the sphinx are just like what
you alluded to. They're very oily cats, right, It's kind
of like handling a grease ball. So I was looking
for a product out there that was natural, not harmful
to the environment, and didn't find something that really fit
the bill for my cats. So started developing and we
came up with an entire line of pet grooming products.
And I'm gonna be honest with you, grooming is not
an expensive, right. Grooming is expensive, and a lot of
people try to stretch the groomings out as far and
wide as possible, right, So we just did the la
County Fair and we had a booth over there and
we were speaking with a lot of different people from
all of this part of the country, and a lot
of people don't brush their pets teeth right, And that's
that's one thing that we are actually have a product
that's fantastic for which is our finger dental wipes, and
they slide on your finger and they're infused with vitamin
C and honey and they work great for cats there,
for cats, dogs. I know, with cats it's a little
bit challenging, right, even when you use the toothbrush and
the toothpaste right, because I know my cats, the first
thing they do when they see the toothbrush is lick
the toothpaste off, right, And that's that's the first thing
that happens, right, So these ones they don't really lick.
And cats are usually as long as you're able to
get them in the you know, a good state, they'll
let you pet them. And once they're giving you, you know,
their belly for rubs, you know, that's what I do
it for mine. It helps with tartar bat breath, any
irritation on the gums. It helps with the less thing
of it since it's infused with natural ingredients and it
works great for dogs as well, and you just toss
them afterwards. A lot of people don't get their cat's
teeth cleaned. We do recommend professional cleaning for your pet's teeth.
And the finger dental wipes as a you know, as
a maintenance.
Speaker 2: It does work, okay, And what about your eye wipes
down the body? So so the teeth, let's do the eyes.
And I have a special affinity for the ear wipes,
So tell us about the eye wipes. I know some dogs.
Mister Nicki, who's in Doggy Heavin, used to get that
the gong yeah gross, I mean mister Zeus had it.
He's also in Doggy Heaven. He used to have it
a little, but it seems like shorter like bearded dogs,
small ones have it more.
Speaker 5: The eye wipes were essential for my Sphinx because the
rag doll's hair, even though we start giving mister Gizmo
a lion cut to try to minimize the hair content,
it would still get into the sphinx side right, and
you know, it became irritating for them. So now we
just wipe down their eyes with our wipes and they
work fantastic because they're formulated to make sure that they're
gentle enough on their eyes if it does get into
their eyes, and it helps with the eye gun clearing
their mucus. Any tear stained build up for dogs, I
know is essential and this does help with that tremendously.
And all hypoallergenic, natural ingredients, biodegradable, parabin and alcohol free
and we are and we have applied for USDA bio
certified certification, just pending the bureaucracy of things.
Speaker 2: So I have something.
Speaker 5: You're a fan you're a fanatic.
Speaker 2: Because I'll tell you er hematovas are very rare in cats.
So why did two third of my cats have ir hematovas?
I don't know? So what any what a humantoe is
is picture the ear and there's a vein. I mean,
I'm not of that storm describe it more as a
visual There's a vein on the perimeter of the ear
that fills with blood. And so when when the cat
shakes their heads, you know violently, that ear you know,
normally it fills with blood and it drains, but the
ear can I'm explaining this is probably all wrong. Basically
the ear he Matilda means the ear was once normal,
and then because of the blood draining from it, the
ear becomes crunchy, like a folded up, mushy ear. It's
normally in dogs. Dennis has this. If you've seen pictures
of them at Michelle Fur and Pet, there's pictures of Dennis.
You see his one ear up and one ear crunchy,
and Charlotte has a small one not as bad. And
when we didn't have surgery on him, to keep try
to keep his ear because that at that time said
it wouldn't change much. That was probably over ten years ago.
What a love about your wipes is Dennis's ear. We
have to clean it all the time. It gets smelly
and he hates it. So your wipes do a fantastic job.
He hates it a lot less and I don't have
to smell his stinky ear. Dennis is my lover cat.
He's the sweetie boy, so he's always around and near you.
He wants whatever you're eating, even though he probably won't
eat it. He like lettuce. He doesn't like it, but
he wants it. So just to tell you how odd
Dennis is. So it's so nice to have Dennis around
me with a clean ear, not stinky.
Speaker 5: So you did describe the hematova, I think for a
Malay person pretty accurately, because one of our cats, one
of the Sphinx cats, actually got that and that was Pharaoh.
But his was filled with blood and it looked like
he was in the boxing match. And I took him
to the vet and he said that they put in
and they drained it and he was in the cone
for about two weeks and he was not a happy
camp let me tell you. And that's you know. I'm
glad you brought that up, because cleaning your pets ears
so they don't shake their heads is essential. A lot
of people don't realize that there's ear wax in there,
ear mites. You need to clean out your pets ears
because there's a lot of build up in there and
folks forget about.
Speaker 2: That they do. And here's another thing. When Dennis shakes
his head a lot, he ends up with the nosebleed.
So that that was a nice, expensive vet appointment just
to find out that he had a bloody nose. But
you have to check. And thank you for that kind
of words about explaining your dream and tone or like
a lay person. But you're right now that I'm thinking
about it. The r VET said that we couldn't really
drain his ear and keep it okay, it would just
crunch up. Then we found out later it probably could
have been drained and not been as crunched up as
it is because the problem, as you know, what happens
is it's hard to get into the crevices.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and you know you try to keep your
pet looking as best as possible, right you almost switch
gears just one quick second. We did the CFA Cat
show in Ohio, and God blessed the people that room
all these cats. That is a process, right, oh yes,
washing of their coats and the maintenance. I was talking
to one of the ladies that had weavered kats in
the show and she was explaining that that is a
day's process, if not more, and how many baths and
how many times they got to re wash their coats.
So God bless those ladies and those people that go
to these grooming shows and have their pets showcased. It's
it's insane, it's wild.
Speaker 2: And thankful for all of the cat groomers out there,
because not everybody does it. I mean, having a shout
out to pats grooming. They did Dennis recently. He's part
man con if you miss even a few days of
brushing him. He's older, he's lazy, he gets nodded.
Speaker 5: Yes, the nodding is an issue, and that's cats licking
themselves and pets licking themselves is great, but they still
need human help at times, you know, And I think
people forget that sometimes are positive body wipes A lot
of times people forget that pets lick themselves. And I
know that pet parents try to be vigilant, but some
pet parents are not aware that you should not be
using baby wipes on your pets. Right. Baby wipes are
not formulated for pets. They are not meant to be licked,
you know, and it potentially is harmful to your pet.
That's why you should use things that are formulated specifically
for your pets, so that way, when they are ingested
on their coats or absorbed on their skin, it doesn't
have a negative reaction and you don't end up going
to the vet and causing harm or pain to your pet.
Speaker 2: Great point. Great point. Tell us more about the body
wipes are those for just like maintenance cleanups? Good all
the time for your cats? How do your sphinx like.
Speaker 5: Them, Sphinx love them. They help tremendously with the oily skin.
We have two different variants. We have the unscented and
we have the lavender version. Lavender is all essential oil
has a fantastic light lavender odor to it and helps
tremendously with pause body, anything that is dirty. A lot
of times, you know, our pets don't wipe their butts
the way we'd like them to. Great for that. So
you know, a lot of these pets are kissing you,
they are sleeping in your bed, they are cuddling up
next to your kids, and at the end of the day,
you're sharing everything that these pets are sharing with you.
So grooming is essential, you know. So I think that
out of need and necessity, we formulated our products and
we use all clean ingredients. We don't you know, we
make sure that everything is pet safe. There's no animal
testing involved, and our products are made from bamboo pulp.
They are biodegradable, they're not harmful towards the environment. Just
please don't flush them down your toilets because that will
clog your sewers.
Speaker 2: People don't realize that things have to be made to
break down very easily. It's Yeah. You can't even flush
a facial tissue.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so be careful with your plumbing. Just put it
in the waispin they will disintegrade. They are biodegradable. Their gentle, hypoallergenic,
plant based. They're excellent products. And you know we are
now on Chewy. We're on chew.
Speaker 2: Just ask where calling on your fabulous products are. It
is Penthousepads dot com.
Speaker 5: Yes, that is our main website, housepase dot com. And
then you can find this a find retailers such as Chewy, Wayfair.
We're on Walmart dot com, eBay. We are also launching
in brick and mortar coming twenty twenty five, so stay
tuned on that. But we are growing and we are
going to be at CATCN. I don't know if you're
going to be at cat Con, so we are a
cat Con. We will also be at super Zoo coming
up in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: Oh. I have a great time, Nick, It's been so
much fun talking to you. You're just an amazing person.
I wish you amazing success with Penthouse Pause. The products
are phenomenal. I can't wait to find out about what
comes out next. And thank you so much for coming
on Best Bets for Pets.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you so much. Michelle's about pleasure and it
forward seeing you, Sue.
Speaker 2: I hope you all enjoyed this show. Remember to check
out Penthouse Pause, Paws, Penthousepause dot Com. Great products. I
am excited for all of them. And let me tell you,
I'm going to go clean. Dennis is here right now,
so I want to get it. Before I do that,
I want to give thank you to my guest Nick
from Penthouse Pause for I'm on Best Bets for Pets.
Thank you to everyone that listens to Best Bets for Pets.
We've had some great products. I've been hosting the show
for fifteen years and wow, so many products that have
come and gone over the years, and some really great ones.
This is one of the great ones Penthouse Pause, and
no they're noting the show, but they have great stuff.
And I want to thank my crew, Dennis, Charlotte Molly
for letting me try out the wipes and the fountain
and the feeder on them. They're a great test crew.
And of course thank you to my producer Mark Winter
for all the magic you work and making the Sounds
show sound excellent. And remember, you never know what we'll
have next on Best Bets for Pets.
Speaker 4: Let's talk bets every week on demand only on Petlife Radio.
Dot Com only takes me b