The Best Ergonomic Feeder For Messy Eaters │ Fluff Trough

ANIMAL INNOVATIONS SHOW - EPISODE 135 - FLUFF THROUGH

The Best Ergonomic Feeder For Messy Eaters │ Fluff Trough

Let’s face it. While traditional pet feeders do their job, they are not precisely designed with your pet’s comfort in mind. Frankly, anything less than comfortable may keep your pet from enjoying the meals you serve them. 

Debra Mastic, an inventor, encountered this particular problem as well. Her pug, Pork Chop, struggled with eating from traditional and regular feeding bowls due to his flat face. She went through various products, but not one worked for her dog. 

So, after a failed search, she decided to take matters into her own hands and invented her own feeder. 

According to Debra, 

“My innovation is called a Fluff Trough. It is the most ergonomic, innovative, and versatile pet feeding system on the market.” 

 

The Pet Bowl That Changed The Game 

The Best Ergonomic Feeder For Messy Eaters │ Fluff Trough

Fluff Trough is a game changer, equipped with all these unique design features that make it appealing to pets and fur parents! 

Its trademark feature is its open-front elevated feeding system that helps promote better digestion and posture. Additionally, it offers more comfort to pets than the traditional pet bowl.

It also has a wide surface area, allowing you to spread the pet food out more. This design feature forces pets to eat slower, reducing the risk of choking, vomiting, or experiencing a digestive problem. 

According to Debra, there are three available inserts with one more on the way. They have the standard FDA-approved silicone and stainless steel inserts that prevent bacteria buildup. 

The last one is the slow feeder insert for pups and dogs that like to inhale and gulp down their food in record time. The one they are currently developing is for messy eaters specifically.

“You can customize it, so you can put your pet’s name on the side.”

It is also customizable! You may have it personalized with your pet’s picture or name. You can choose the color, design, and font style to match your pet’s personality!

 

Widely-Recognized Pet Feeder 

Having no experience in product design, manufacturing, marketing, or even running a business, Debra took a massive risk with Fluff Trough. It all started with guts, a passion for creating something that can help, and a 3D printer. 

The Best Ergonomic Feeder For Messy Eaters │ Fluff Trough

She claimed she used the money she was saving to buy a house to invest in tooling and intellectual property. She began by designing and testing prototypes with Pork Chop. When she managed to create one that seemed to work, she shared it with other pet parents.

The feedback was positive! It pushed her to launch a kick starter campaign that got funded within 24 hours! 

“Don’t start a business to make money. Don’t get into something just because, like, ‘oh, that’s what I think I wanna do.’ Or ‘think I’m going to make a lot of money at it.’ Start a business to actually solve a problem that is really important to you and that you’re familiar with.”

Debra ran her business with that kind of mindset. With her dedication and hard work, Fluff Trough climbed the ranks and is now one of the most known pet product brands worldwide. 

It is featured in various big-name magazines and websites, such as Buzzfeed, Reader’s Digest, Pet Product News, The Spruce Pets, Moderndog Magazine, and Racheal Ray. 

Pet Business Magazine even named it one of the Top Pet Products of 2021!

Fluff Trough continues to strive and thrive in the pet world industry. It remains one of the best feeders in the market. Their local and global sales prove their international and continuous success! 

“This product is so unique that we actually have people in over 55 countries order it from our website.”

If you want to try Fluff trough products, visit their website at https://www.flufftrough.com/.

Have suggestions for who we should interview next?

Send us a message at [email protected]!

Debra: Hi, I’m Debra Mastic and you’re tuned in to The Animal Innovations Show.

Chris: Excellent introduction, Debra.

So, you get to start off tell us who you are and how you’re innovating and helping animals. 

Debra: I usually introduce myself as a pug mom.

Pork Chop is my pug, and when I met him 13 years ago, my whole life changed. And I just love pugs. I love pug people and everything about them.

But my innovation is called a Fluff Trough, and it is the most ergonomic, innovative and versatile pet feeding system on the market.

And it was actually inspired by Pork Chop. As a pug, he has a flat face. As he got older and starting to develop some more health issues, he started to struggle to eat from regular pet bowls.

And eating as a pug is, like, his favorite thing to do. So I thought, there has to be something better for him.

And I started trying these different products that were supposedly designed for flat-faced dogs, but they just weren’t working.

So, I came up with the Fluff Trough, and this is what it looks like. It is an open-front, elevated feeding system. What makes this unique is the open front.

So, pets actually don’t have to bend their neck down and squish their face inside of a bowl to eat. That makes it very difficult to breathe and eat at the same time and swallow food.

So, this has a patented open-front design which makes that easier. And this helps promote better posture and digestion because they get to keep their neck straight when they’re eating.

Other advantages this has is, that it has a wider surface area than traditional bowls, so you can spread pet food out more. So, they’re not taking big gulps of food, when the pet food is actually spread out.

It also has a higher back and higher sides, and this actually helps support pets natural eating motion. So, pets kind of use their face like a shovel and they scoop food into their mouth.

So, with traditional bowls, when a pet is eating, that’s why a lot of food goes on the floor, because of the low sides of our traditional pet feeder.

So, this has higher sides. So, the pet is actually scooping the food up and it falls back into their mouth because of the higher back. What also makes it unique, it has a flat back. Most bowls are round, and when your pet eats, it will slide along the floor. So, if you just set this against a wall. It doesn’t slide all over the place.

The standard one comes with the FDA silicone insert, which is both dishwasher and microwave safe. So, as a pet parent, you can just prepare your pet’s food on the counter in the silicone insert, and then keep the base, which of the Fluff Trough on the floor, and just set the insert in the base when your pet is ready to eat.

And we offer three different inserts right now. So, we have the FDA silicone insert. We also have a stainless steel insert which holds water and food, and we have a slow feeder insert, which we call the binge blocker, and that’s for pets that are at risk of choking.

And then the other great thing is you can customize it so, you can put your pet’s name on the side. We make two sizes right now.

The Fluff Trough and the Fluff Trough XL.

But just so you can get the right height for your pets. We also offer lift kits in one-inch increments so, you can make them the perfect type for your pack.

Chris: I love the fact that you recognize that there is a problem and said— you know, you obviously probably did some searching yourself trying to find a solution.

And then you said, you know what, I’m just going to buy a 3D printer and figure this out on my own.

Now, I’m curious, how did you come up with the name Fluff Trough?

Debra: That’s something when you’re starting this, it’s so easy to get stuck on. And I’m like, I don’t want to get stuck on the name.

The name is important because you got to get the trademark and get that stuff going. But I’m like, I don’t want to get stuck on it.

So, I was actually walking Porky one day. And if you look at it, it’s kind of like a pig trough, right? It’s got that open front and a pug is kind of like a house pig, actually, if you’ve ever lived with a pug.

But I’m like, okay, it’s got to have the word trough in it, because that’s kind of what the design looks like. And then I kind of thought— Fluff— Trough. It kind of made sense in my mind at the time.

Because a lot of pets are fluffy, so that made sense in my mind. And some people get that name automatically, and some people are like, what the heck is that?

Yeah, but it’s stuck now. And people like it. And people actually kind of like the sillier name. They like to say, “Oh, my pet eats from a Fluff Trough.”

And others are like, “What is that?”

Chris: You’ve been picked up and you’ve been in all sorts of magazines and gotten all sorts of attention for this, haven’t you?

Debra: Yeah, so I’m really proud that last year the Fluff Trough was named one of the top pet products of 2021 by Pet Business magazine.

And it was actually top pet product in the dog bowl category. So, I was really excited about that. And we’ve been on the list for both top dog and cat gifts in Readers Digest, Rachel Ray, we’ve been in USA Today, and Modern Dog magazine, so it’s really nice to get that recognition and see that other publications are seeing the usefulness of the design.

Chris: So, Debra, where can people buy this? How can they— tell them the website, maybe how to get a hold of you?

Debra: Yeah, so if you just go to FLUFFTROUGH.COM, that is our website, and you can get the full product line of everything.

So, you would basically go on the site, figure out what size you want. We have a size guide, but if you’re not sure, you can email our customer service and then you can customize the bowl with your pet’s name or their face, either one or both.

And you get to pick out what color you want the design to be and you get to pick out the font choice and stuff like that.

And then I tell people— like, pet parents favorite thing is the insert. They’re like, this has changed my life. This is so easy to feed my pet now.

So, I tell people, get extra inserts so you don’t have to wash the same one over and over again. Order it and just enjoy your pet eating happier.

It really makes a difference.

And actually, if you check out our social media right now, there’s a trend happening where dogs love their Fluff Trough so much that they actually sleep in it or sit in it.

So, we have so many fun pictures of customers using the Fluff Trough in so many other ways just because the pets associate such positive feelings with it.

Chris: Well, Debra, this is amazing what you’ve done in just a short amount of time.

And I really am glad that you said exactly what I always remind our viewers and listeners—as I wrap up the show is, it’s an idea right? when you start paying attention to your animals and to the situations and to some of these challenges, that’s all it takes is an idea for a new product and new service, whatever it is.

But if you’ve got an idea for something that’s going to revolutionize pet’s lives, kind of like you’ve done, we’d love to know about it.

Just go to INNOVATIONS.SHOW and come on the show and talk to us about it so we can learn more.

And don’t forget to go to DOOBERT.COM and sign up to be a Dooberteer. We always need more volunteers, fosters, and transporters and people that are willing to help animals.

So, thank you so much, Debra, for coming on. I really enjoyed this and I’m really excited when you get into the toy category, which you’re going to develop next.

Debra: Thank you, Chris, it’s been a pleasure. 

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