We can’t always be with our pets, which is where the best pet cameras are the second best thing. With these, you can keep an eye on your furry friend remotely to make sure they’re safe and content, and even interact with them from a distance.
Being able to watch over your beloved best friend is a great way to ease your own fears about exactly what they get up to while you’re out, and they can also help alleviate separation anxiety in the dog or cat too, which is a bonus.
Picking up tech is always a bit of a minefield. Just like the best pet trackers, there’s an array of different types of pet cams out there - some basic and low-priced, and some more complex and with additional expenses such as subscription fees. There’s even those with the ability to dispense treats from afar which you might find will set you back more cash too.
We know that it’s not easy to wade through the plethora of information out there, so we’ve put together this list to help you find the best pet camera for you. Keep reading to find out more.
PetsRadar's pick of the best pet cameras
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The Petcube Play 2 is very compact, and certainly looks the neatest of any of the specifically pet-led cameras we've featured here. It's almost a cube, save for a fraction of an inch on one axis, and its black-and-silver case makes it a little less conspicuous than the white alternatives out there.
It's not only the refined design that makes it a very cool camera. A wide-angle lens lets you see more of your room, and there's a quad-microphone array that helps you hear your pet, along with an upgraded speaker so that your pet can hear you more clearly. Then there's the smarts: the Petcube Play 2 doesn't just link with Amazon's Alexa so you can trigger some of its features with your voice, it actually has Alexa built-in itself, so you can ask it what the weather is like, or play music.
The camera is very strong: a high-resolution Full HD sensor with night vision and smart motion-sensing, so it can distinguish between whether it's seeing people or animals; position one on your kitchen counter, for example, and you could set it up to alert you when your cat decides to investigate those forbidden areas.
There's no built-in treat-dispensing here, but depending on your pet's proclivities that may be a positive. Instead, there's a rather smooth (and less fattening) laser pointer to keep them entertained. You could, alternatively, try the Petcube Bites 2 if you're OK trading the laser for a treat chute.
Sadly this second edition isn't yet available worldwide. US readers should have no trouble finding it, but for now readers in the UK can only get the first edition, which doesn't have Alexa built in.
The Furbo Dog Camera is crammed with nice touches and smart features. Take its treat-dispensing function: where others might dribble out a kibble or two on command, this actively fires 1cm treats a full metre away, with a randomness to its launch method that should keep your dog interested. It works with Amazon’s Alexa, and you can even set up dispensing routines in order to keep your canine on its toes during the day.
Pet cameras are often used for training and comfort, so the Furbo Dog Camera naturally features bark alerts. It'll send a message to your phone when your pup is bothering the neighbours, the idea being that you can then open up the app and use two-way talk (or even pop out a little treat) to placate your pet. These alerts are adjustable, meaning you can tweak them to only trigger at a certain volume level, which means you can choose to only be notified when your dog is really raising the roof.
The Furbo Dog Camera doesn't only hang its hat on smart features, though. It's no slouch as a camera, carrying effective black and white night-vision capabilities, a perfectly decent Full HD hi-res camera sensor, and a 160-degree lens that should help you cover as much of your main room as possible. You can zoom in via the app too.
One downside is the size; it's hefty compared to a camera-only device such as the Neo SmartCam, or even a compact pet camera like the PetCube Play 2. It has to make room for treats somehow, sure, just bear in mind that it's not exactly going to hide itself away on a shelf or table.
The Arlo Pro 3 Camera has remained steady in its popularity since its release two years ago and it’s easy to see why. A big step up from the Arlo Pro 2, it offers superior benefits for pet parents looking for peace of mind that their furkid is safe and sound when they’re home alone.
With 2K Ultra HD, 12x zoom, color night vision, and a rechargeable battery that stays powered for up to six months, this little beauty ticks almost every box. Not only does it look great with a sleek and stylish design, but it also performs well and pairs beautifully with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant.
There’s a two-way talk system that enables you to clearly converse with your pet and a wide 160° diagonal viewing angle that lets you monitor your furkid no matter where in the room they are.
The camera comes with a three-month trial to Arlo Smart, which offers 30 days of Cloud storage and an intelligent alert system that lets you dial 911 or sound the alarm straight from the app. Unlike the Arlo 2 though, there’s no 7-day free Cloud storage after the trial period ends, so you’ll need to sign up permanently or opt for a USB storage device.
While there’s no fancy treat dispenser or laser with this camera, security-wise it does its job well. Its pricing between the Arlo 2 and the Arlo Ultra makes it a good compromise for pet parents looking for a balance between affordability and features.
If you've always wanted a treat-dispensing pet camera but your budget can't quite stretch to the Furbo, then this more affordable offering from WOpet is well worth considering.
It has all the great features you'd expect in a pet camera, including 1080P resolution, a 165 degree field of view, night vision, and two-way audio that will let you quickly and easily converse with your fur friend when you're out and about.
And then of course, there's that all important treat-tossing function. Compatible with Alexa or able to be dispersed at the push of a button via the app on your phone, the camera will toss 3-4 treats at a time, so it's great if you have more than one fur friend at home.
You can also snap shot what your pet is up to and share a photo or video straight from your phone to social media - a great feature if your cat or dog is prone to getting into all sorts of hilarious mischief and you want to share their antics with friends and family.
Looking for a compact camera that will still get the job done? Then the Blink Mini is well worth considering! This plug-in security camera with motion detection and two way audio lets you monitor the inside of your home day and night, giving you peace of mind that your furry friend is always safe and secure.
You'll be able to get alerts on your smartphone every time motion is detected and you can also customize motion detection zones. There's also a great two-way audio feature that let's you converse with both people and pets, and you can store video footage conveniently and securely in the cloud with a 30-day free trial of the Blink Subscription Plan or locally with the Sync Module 2 and a USB flash drive.
The Blink Mini is super easy to set up, requiring just a few minutes of your time. Simply plug it in, connect it to WiFi, add it to your Blink app and you're good to go. You can also pair the Blink Mini with a supported Alexa-enabled device to engage live view, and arm and disarm your camera with just your voice.
As with anything, there is one minor drawback with the Blink Mini and that's the short live feed, which you can only watch for 30 seconds at a time before having to hit the refresh button. It would be great if this was extended at some stage, but for the purposes of checking in on your home and pets, we still feel this is a wonderful camera at an affordable price.
You may accuse Skymee of deviating into the more silly end of the pet camera market here. Alternatively, you may applaud them for bringing something fun to the table. Whichever your viewpoint, it's hard to argue that Skymee's roving floor robot isn't equal parts ludicrous and brilliant.
It works like this: you charge it up, fill it with treats, then leave it on the floor. When you want to see what your pet is up to, open the app on your phone and drive the Skymee Owl around your room until you find them. You can then watch the goings-on through the Full HD camera built into its left eye, and it has night vision for darker corners or those nights out. You also don't have to actively control it – the Skymee Owl can be assigned to a pre-programmed patrol schedule or set to use its infrared sensor to detect pet motion and record automatically.
A very handy camera, then, but this won't be for every household. We've seen reports that it struggles with certain kinds of carpet, so it runs best on hardwood or laminate floors. If you're in a multi-level household, you'll obviously only be able to run this on one of those levels. Certain pets will definitely need a little acclimatization before they get used to the little rolling robot, but it seems sturdy enough to take a few back-tooth bites if you have a larger dog at home. Even if your pet starts out spooked, the treat dispenser does mean you'll win them round pretty quickly.
Once your pet is used to it, you can even take the Owl outdoors for some interactive play; it can generate its own Wi-Fi network for you to connect the app to, and you can record video as you play.
As a pet camera we'll admit this is pretty niche, but as an automated or remote pet entertainer, it's super-fun.
You don’t specifically need a camera designed for pets if all you want to do is keep an eye on your furry friends when they're at home and you're not. In fact, you might be better served not picking up a pet camera; there's a certain premium added on for the pet market, a little like how the same flowers will cost three times as much if you utter the word 'wedding'. For the same price as one pet-specific camera, you can cover every corner of your home with individual Neos Smartcams.
There are no pet-specific features here, sure. It can't spit out a treat or waggle a laser around for them to chase. But plenty of the Neos Smartcam's built-in smarts are perfectly applicable to your pets. Two-way talk means you can shout them off the counter or hear whether they're barking (and it has noise detection, so will message you if it hears a sound over a certain level). There's also motion sensing, with 12 seconds of recording triggering after it sees motion or hears sound, which is stored online for free, making it easy to look back on any particular incidents that occur while you're away. The Neos Smartcam also sports night vision, giving its 1080p, 110-degree camera a whole lot more versatility.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the Smartcam is its size. This thing is absolutely tiny, particularly compared to the likes of the chunky Furbo and Pawbo cams. While you'll still need to provide each camera with its own power source, the magnetic base means mounting it on a metal surface like a fridge is trivial, or you'll be able to scatter these around on flat surfaces without compromising your decor too much. It can be wall-mounted, too.
Readers in the US might also see this same hardware not as the Neos Smartcam but as the Wyze Cam. Readers elsewhere still might have seen it under Xiaomi branding. All of these share the same hardware, but have different features and software, so they're not compatible with each other. The common thread, though, is that the camera unit itself is plenty cheap and surprisingly good.
When you scale up the security camera ladder, you inevitably stop at the Arlo rung: this company makes some of the best wireless cameras going, and this is the top-of-the-line model. If you're willing to back a not-insignificant hardware investment up with a reasonably expensive monthly subscription, then the Arlo Ultra's indoor/outdoor construction makes it perfect for keeping tabs on pets inside and outside your home – and spotting garden visitors, too.
Much of the smart stuff happens in the cloud. When motion is detected, the Arlo securely analyses your footage for the presence of people, cars, packages and, yes, animals, picking out anything above rodent size and sending a notification straight to your phone telling you what kind of thing it saw, and it arrives with a snapshot of the video attached, so you can see exactly what's been detected. Given the Ultra's superb 4K, 180-degree sensor, you shouldn't have any trouble identifying the offending beast, and you'll have access to full recordings to see exactly what they've been up to.
As we've mentioned, Arlo equipment isn't cheap, and the Ultra doubly so. As a tool just for seeing your cat sleeping, this is likely to be way too expensive. But as an investment in your home security that also has some great animal-specific features, that price looks a little less daunting, particularly when you consider all the features on offer. There's two-way audio with full noise-canceling against wind and other outdoor sounds, sound detection (including the ability to detect and warn you if an alarm is going off, such as a smoke alarm), local storage on an SD card as well as cloud, security sirens built into the cameras to scare off intruders, and even color night vision.
4K resolution is no mere number, either: if something happens at home, you can basically pull off the 'Zoom, enhance' dream of classic crime shows and still see perfectly well what's going on.
We’re loving this cute pet camera that reminds us of a mini R2-D2! Affordable and packed full of features, this is one of the best cameras we’ve seen in this price range and over 6,000 pet parents on Amazon agree.
The sharp and clear 1080p or 2K Full HD provides high quality video and you can swipe up, down, left and right on your phone to rotate and set your camera’s point of view in real-time. There's also real-time motion and sound detection, including at night where the camera can detect these up to 30 feet, and you'll get instant notifications straight to your smartphone.
Just like most other pet cameras, the Kasa comes with two-way audio, so you can converse with both your pets and other humans, and the setup is a piece of cake - simply plug in your camera, download the Kasa app, place the camera anywhere indoors and you're good to go.
With both secure local storage and Cloud storage, you can easily keep track of your video footage, and with 360° horizontal rotation and 100° vertical rotation, you’ll be able to easily track every movement your pet makes. You can also pair the Kasa WiFi camera with Alexa echo or Google assistant.
If you're already invested in the Ring ecosystem, it's worth considering adding one of the company's indoor cameras. You simply plug it into a standard outlet, set it up with ease in the Ring app and make sure it's well-positioned to capture sight of your pet when they're in a particular room. At that point, you can get an alert on your cellphone whenever there is movement, view live footage whenever you wish or engage in a conversation (assuming your pet is chatty).
The reason we say it's worth adding if you're investing in the Ring ecosystem is because there's a subscription option and the more products you have, the greater value this offers. With a Ring Protect Plan you can record every video, go back over your recording history for up to 180 days and share any videos or photos you take using the camera. What's more, if you have an Echo Show, it's possible to ask Alexa to show footage on that too – it's great if your dog has a room of its own and you're working upstairs, for instance.
As for the technicals, the camera has 1080p HD video and it offers a 140-degree diagonal, 115-degree horizontal and 60-degree vertical field of view. It also boasts night vision and comes with an integrated mounted stand. You just need a decent Wi-Fi connection in order to stream the footage and communicate with the device.
How to choose a pet camera
As with most pet products, your choice of camera will depend heavily on your particular pet and their specific pattern of behavior. Before you choose anything, determine what you're OK to leave in the house alone with your pets.
For larger dogs, a camera that dispenses treats might seem like an invitation to gnaw on that thing until the rest of the treats are revealed, which isn't the best when the treats are contained within an expensive camera powered by electricity. Even smaller dogs might get rather interested, so ensure you can place that camera somewhere they won't be able to reach it.
For lazier cats, a box with a laser built in might not rouse their attention even slightly; but for attentive, easily bored pets, a laser-equipped camera gives you a great opportunity to engage with your furry friends even when you're not there.
If you tend to go out in the evenings, or often hear rumblings around the house while you're in bed, then night vision will be a useful feature, particularly if you have cats aligned to their natural nocturnal sleep cycle, or you're worried about your dog's cage training. Pick something with recording facilities, too, so you can go back and watch for any signs of bad behavior.
Do pet cameras record all the time?
Most pet cameras do not record all the time, only being triggered by sound or movement. This is good for spotting patterns of behaviour, and for saving on storage space if the recorded clips are being saved anywhere, such as with a cloud service. There are some that will continually record, usually by rewriting over older footage within a certain timeframe - such as a week. For most people, the “triggered” versions are more than enough, but if you have a particular desire to have lengthy footage of your pet, it might be worth looking for one that has a continuous record function.
Do pet cameras help with separation anxiety?
Treating separation anxiety can be tricky, with multiple approaches often considered the best. If you’ve got a pet that suffers from this affliction, having a pet camera with a two-way microphone can be a good way to soothe the animal from afar, giving them the ability to hear your voice. You can also issue specific commands, such as “sit” or “stay” from afar, which can be a good substitute for being in the room with them. That’s not to say that it’s a guaranteed cure (very little is), but a pet cam can be a good part of an overall plan to combat the problem.
