Cat flap to keep out unwanted cats?

sillywilly

yorkie18 wrote: »

I could have written this! We have another cat which comes in as bold as brass. The last time was Tuesday night and scared the living daylights out of our cat. The magnetic cat flaps do seem a good idea, but I'm wondering how effective it would be. Do they always let the cat with the collar in? What if it doesn't work all the time?!

My husband also suggested driving the mystery cat somewhere and leaving it!

Glad I am not the only one. I bet your husband was only semi joking like me too! This cat never seems to have had a collar.

It is literally quite a fat cat so I reckon he goes where the hell he likes and eats what he can.

One of our cats has just got an abcess after a fight that has cost us £40 at the vet and I bet he was fighting this thief!!

sillywilly

andrew-b wrote: »

Get a dog?

Surely every cat whose owner buys a cat flap opened by a magnet can enter any home of cat owner's with cat flaps opened by magnet! I was thinking a better solution would be to have the cat flap decode a microchip in the cat which would also be more secure ...thought i was onto a winner invention but googled and sure enough someones beaten me to it . See http://www.microchipcatflaps.co.uk . No collar to lose either.

Incidentally our vet takes the temperature of our dog by the microchip embedded in him rather than sticking a thermometer up his butt!

Edit: cross-posting...mankysteve beat me to it!!

Can't exactly get rid of the cats now - would be a bit like giving your kids away cos your annoyed with them. Anyway one of them is a pedigree and he is bloody moody no one would have him!!

Know what you mean about the magnetic flaps but seeing that our cat thief doesn't even have a collar, or seem to get fed by his owners there is no chance of that.

I think one of the earlier answers mentioned this catflap. Clicked through - looks like one of those spam, fake websites. Eventually get through to find out how much it is - £97 and £10 delivery. Am not even sure if that would work for 2 cats as we have. Much too much info on the site.

Is just about £80 to expensive for my liking although I am sure it is good.

Will probably try a magnetic one - Ebay seems to have OK prices.

Thanks for all your help

sillywilly

andrew-b wrote: »

I meant a dog as well as your cats rather than rid of them (though i'm not a fan of cats so i'll go with your interpretation!). Before we had a dog, a cat used to come to our garden. I set the hose on it whilst it was on the fence and soaked it...not seen it return...though i suspect it's responsible for using my front garden as it's litter tray (i swear one day if i find the owner i'm going to post them a pressie - will take a magnet with me lol!!!! suspect i'm digging myself a hole on a cat fan thread lol!).

You won't need a magnet if you post it through the letterbox!

I get your point about a dog now, to scare off the other cat. Would get one if we had the time and space. Unfortunately we don't.

I remember walking out our front door recently and someones dog was doing their business next to our front gate. I couldn't believe my eyes but the guy had the grace to look ashamed and say he would pick it up. I'm not certain he would have done had I not walked out at that moment!

morg_monster

It's worth looking on eBay, we got a petporte for £50 on there which is ace. Did consider the magnet ones but at one point our 2 were going through a collar each a week, figured it wouldn't be long before the cost of replacing the tags exceeded that of the petporte. Also the petporte has a night mode which means the cats are shut in at night without us having to be there to flip a switch, which is an added bonus for us living on a fairly busy road.

sillywilly

morg_monster wrote: »

It's worth looking on eBay, we got a petporte for £50 on there which is ace. Did consider the magnet ones but at one point our 2 were going through a collar each a week, figured it wouldn't be long before the cost of replacing the tags exceeded that of the petporte. Also the petporte has a night mode which means the cats are shut in at night without us having to be there to flip a switch, which is an added bonus for us living on a fairly busy road.

Would probably go for that if we could find one for £50 - not sure how it works with 2 cats.

However the cheapest I can find on there is £62.38 and counting + £5 delivery.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pet-Porte-Smart-Flap-/320571574046?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Cats

geri1965_2

sillywilly wrote: »

:eek: Gee - the helpful brigade is out tonight!

It is called having a sense of humour.

Remind me how your post is in anyway helpful? Alternatively don't bother and keep your miserable thoughts in your little head.

Excuse me while I split my sides laughing.

Don't give up the day job though, I don't think comedy is the career for you.

Kavanne

My mum has a cat flap that works on her cat's microchip!!! Don't know how much it was though

morg_monster

sillywilly wrote: »

Would probably go for that if we could find one for £50 - not sure how it works with 2 cats.

However the cheapest I can find on there is £62.38 and counting + £5 delivery.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pet-Porte-Smart-Flap-/320571574046?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Cats

Yes I did get exceedingly lucky; I happened to search 5 mins after someone had put one on with a BIN of £50, i snapped it up quicker than you can say something quick.
I would say £60-80 is more likely. But keep your fingers crossed you might get lucky like me.
There is another brand, the Sureflap, which also uses their microchips and is a bit cheaper; RRP more like £80 i think and looking on google you can pick one up for £65 in some online shops. TBH both brands get pretty good writeups especially with regards to their customer service.

ETA - the Petporte works fine with multiple cats - I think you can program up to 36 cats in!!! I'm sure the sureflap also is fine for more than one cat.

elektra-2007

ive seen magnetic ones in wilkos quite cheap bout £15.
I have the same problem, mines a fereal farm cat, weird looking thing like a mini puma! Im tempted catch it and dump it, especially when its running around my house at 2am!

sillywilly

elektra-2007 wrote: »

ive seen magnetic ones in wilkos quite cheap bout £15.
I have the same problem, mines a fereal farm cat, weird looking thing like a mini puma! Im tempted catch it and dump it, especially when its running around my house at 2am!

Oh dear - sounds just like our juvenille cat. Full black but quite a weird cat. Bombs about at 100 mph all the time. Always wants to sit on your face. Has a very loud purr when sitting on your face. Can't meow - more like a pathetic squeek.

Always starting fights with our other cat but also very submissive when she knows she's beat - or she knows he is getting angry!

When she gets seriously upset, scared or angry starts growling!! Bit like Regan in The Exorcist. Should we be concerned? lol!