At IFA Berlin, a cat house that grooms your cat for you steals the show

At the IFA tech fair in Berlin, an unusual gadget for cat owners made its debut — the PawSwing Neo, a cat house that brushes your pet automatically, mimicking the action of a cat's tongue. A representative of the manufacturer explained how it works.

At first glance, the device looks like an ordinary cat house, but hidden inside the passageway are several mechanical brushes. As the cat walks through, the brushes catch loose fur from different parts of its body. "It's essentially the same as the cat grooming itself," the company representative said at the exhibition booth.

How it works without a motor

The brushes are designed to mimic the structure of a real cat's tongue, with tiny hook-like protrusions that help cats separate and grab loose fur while grooming. PawSwing doesn't replicate the tongue exactly, but it uses the same principle: catching stray fur before it ends up on the sofa, your clothes, or the floor.

The key condition is that the cat has to want to use the house on its own. That's why the design combines the grooming mechanism with a cosy hideaway where the animal can shelter or rest. Collected fur goes into a special compartment. One interesting detail: the device has neither a motor nor a battery — the brushes are moved purely by the cat itself as it passes through. According to the manufacturer, the system captures up to 90% of shedding fur.

Size and price

The house measures roughly 52×45×47 centimetres and weighs about five kilograms. The manufacturer recommends it for standard-sized cats, while a larger version, the Neo Plus, is available for bigger breeds.

The base Neo model costs 198 US dollars, roughly 4,200 Czech crowns. The larger Plus version will set you back 279 dollars — about 5,800 crowns.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz