Stopping cat coming in and pinching our cats food

Bexm

Hello all

I'm sure someone must have come across this so looking for advice.
We have a 2yr old female cat and there's a lot of other cats on our street. A grey one in particular (not sure whether male or female) who we though had made friends with our cat (although since have been fighting) keeps coming in through our cat flap and pinching our cats food.
The cheeky !!!!!! will even do it when we're in the kitchen and all our cat will do is sit and watch or hide.

We have a locking cat flap but not one of those magic selective ones, so quite often lock it to out only, but we don't want to lock our cat out all the time.

This other cat appears to have one of them magnetic things for cat flaps on his collar so I am assuming if we get one of them it will still be able to get in. The only other one we know of is the microchip one, but as far as I can see they are about £70, which is very expensive.

Sort of spending the £70 does anyone know of any ways of deterring this other cat because chasing it away with a water pistol and buckets of water is not working!! :rotfl:

Thanks

Bex

HappyMJ

Feed cat then once cat has had her fill then take food away. Annoying if it's dry food that you leave down all day so the cat can feed during the day but that'll have to do.

Screaming and shouting at the other cat should deter it. Even a few swipes at it should be OK. I know what I would do...but that would be near cruelty. What are you doing when the other cat visits?

roxy13

Sorry OP but i really would recommend one of those expensive cat flaps. They really are worth the money. I had this problem with other cats coming in, eating my cats food and basically making her life miserable. I would pay for a microchip catflap 10 times over if i had to. It really made a massive difference. Think they are £60 on amazon now.

Bexm

@HappyMJ She has dry food down most of the day, and then wet food at dinner.. but she's one of them cats where as soon as you put down her tinned food she will go out and then come back for it later!!

The other cat usually comes in when I am just sitting on the sofa! In full view of the door and cat bowls! It moves quick though, I never manage to quite catch it when I chase it!
It would have a foot up its backside if I got anywhere near it.

Bexm

roxy13 wrote: »

Sorry OP but i really would recommend one of those expensive cat flaps. They really are worth the money. I had this problem with other cats coming in, eating my cats food and basically making her life miserable. I would pay for a microchip catflap 10 times over if i had to. It really made a massive difference. Think they are £60 on amazon now.

Thanks Roxy! I'll have a look...! There must be some discounts about?

roxy13

It is alot of money and i thought long and hard about it before getting mine but it really was worth it. The neighbourhood cats were totally bullying my cat, peeing where they wanted and eating all her food. Yeah look around because im sure they have come down in price since i got mine, Word of warning though, they do 2 sizes and the smaller one is quite small. Im lucky i have only a tiny cat but if she was much bigger then she really wouldnt be able to use it. Good Luck!

HappyMJ

Bexm wrote: »

@HappyMJ She has dry food down most of the day, and then wet food at dinner.. but she's one of them cats where as soon as you put down her tinned food she will go out and then come back for it later!!

The other cat usually comes in when I am just sitting on the sofa! In full view of the door and cat bowls! It moves quick though, I never manage to quite catch it when I chase it!
It would have a foot up its backside if I got anywhere near it.

How about moving the food to be as far away from the cat flap as possible...far enough so the other cat has to pass you on the sofa to get to the food? Then you should be able to get the boot up it's backside before it reaches the bowl.

Bexm

Thanks Both!
Two things to consider.. not sure its practical moving the food but will have a think!
Also will look for expensive cat flap discounts! (I keep entering competitions, but haven't won one yet!)

arbroath_lass

Another vote for the microchip catflaps! I know they are expensive but they are actually much stronger than other catflaps we've had too so it has lasted much longer. We lost several of the flap bits to the wind on the normal and magnetic catflaps.

We had a tomcat coming in and spraying as well as eating our cats' food. That has all stopped.

Bexm

arbroath_lass wrote: »

Another vote for the microchip catflaps! I know they are expensive but they are actually much stronger than other catflaps we've had too so it has lasted much longer. We lost several of the flap bits to the wind on the normal and magnetic catflaps.

We had a tomcat coming in and spraying as well as eating our cats' food. That has all stopped.

Question actually on these microchip ones..
The locking one we currently have, although rather sturdy does let in a hell of a draft around the flap. Are these microchip ones any better?

and are you talking the sureflap ones?

arbroath_lass

Bexm wrote: »

Question actually on these microchip ones..
The locking one we currently have, although rather sturdy does let in a hell of a draft around the flap. Are these microchip ones any better?

and are you talking the sureflap ones?

Much better. Someone else mentioned about drafts on a forum and I thought, "yeah, right" but it is true they are much better at keeping them out.

I have a Petporte ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003XLJ5KE/?!!!!!hydra0b-21&hvadid=9550947789&ref=asc_df_B003XLJ5KE )