Catflap company say I have a defective cat. Vet says I have a defective catflap - who is right?

[Stupiddriver1]

If anyone can solve this mystery which has been plaguing me for months I would be very grateful.

We have one middle aged cat and for years have one of those microchip catflaps which only let recognised cats in. It worked fine, including for our previous (now deceased cat).

Then we got a new cat, who is to remain a house cat. The cat flap lets any cat out so obviously this wouldn't do. We purchased a new 2 way microchip one and programmed it so only the older cat could go in and out.

Apart from she can only come in, she can't get out.

We have tried resetting it so many times and it just doesn't recognize her when she tries to leave. Is fine coming in. DH has a keyfob for work with an rfid chip in so we programmed that to the cat flap and that works in both directions.

I contacted the cat flap company who sent me another rfid chip in a ruler widget to measure how far away the range is and it's 26cm both sides so they say their cat flap is fine. I said it can't be and to shut me up they sent me a new one.

We have exactly the same problem.

I took the cat to the vet to get another chip fitted and vet wouldn't do it. She scanned the cat and the chip shows up fine. Vet says the cat flap must be faulty. But if it was faulty why would it work for 2 X Non cat inserted chips. And why would both flaps have the same issue?

It's been 4 months now since cat could let herself out.

I think you should definitely get a new kitten to practice a new parenting style. 😄

My mum never gave me a second choice at dinner, when we got cats they got a choice 😺

Echoing what a pp said about some cats being very, very sneaky about getting out if they are determined. In our old house, the cats were allowed out the back (through a flap) but not out the front, as there was a road. One of the cats became a total ninja at getting out that front door. She would hide and make a dash for it. She knew the sound of someone opening the gate and would get in position behind a curtain or something. Answering the door was a nightmare - hussling guests in as quickly as possible; ‘no, no kissing on the doorstep, just get in, get inside quick!’ Or the alternative of yelling ‘just locking up the cat’ through the door and hoping the postman would wait. Nightmare.

She’d get out with great regularity and run around the car park next door like a loon, with me freaking out trying to shepherd her back before she got squashed. Or she’d run up a tree and sit there with wild eyes, an inch out of reach. It was all great sport as far as she was concerned; much more fun than playing in the back garden.

She was also an arsehole in the ways described above by CisCity, coming through the flap and immediately finding me for towelling off on rainy days, before going straight back out again. Or she’d sit looking through the flap wailing and demanding I do something about the bad tomcat outside.

Then there was the wildlife she brought in. It was Zone 2, pretty mulch a wildlife free zone, but she would find it somehow and drag it in through the flap. Live, and bleeding.

Flaps, hey.

Anyway, I’m rambling. I loved the bones of that areshole cat, and I miss her so much it hurts, years down the line.

Maybe I need to get a kitten and start again, just to test this theory, you understand....

Absolutely.

If you think your Indoor Cat might sneak out, don't forget to programme the cat flap so it can get back in again.

One advantage of this cat flap (If it worked) was that when kitten is chipped he can be programmed on rescue mode with the cat flap. So if he escapes he can get back in.

He gives the dog walker grey hairs trying to escape out the front door

Every cat i have had has been defective

I know someone that has expensive pedigree cats that wear harnesses attached to leads which are affixed to some sort of grid system at above head height over the garden. Imagine bumper cars at the fair type thing. Perhaps you could mention it to your DH with his engineering background and he could scramble something together

This is an example from the app.

No way! Is that real @WaningGibbous?!

I need one if so. For the new kitten I'm going to get

Aptly for this thread, I've actually just had the following conversation with DH...
Me: What time did the cat get up?
DH: Only at 7.15, she had a lie in

(She normally likes to get up early, DH leaves at 4.15am for work but of course she doesn't want him to let her out, she waits til 4.19 then drags me out of bed to open the door for her half the time she just looks out and runs back upstairs)

I definitely need to stop my cat led parenting...

To my shame, I've actually found myself scrolling through the app notifications like it's a FB newsfeed. It's like social media for cats 'I wonder what the cats have been up to today'.

Athough cats being cats, if they piss about enough near the catflap, it confuses it into thinking that the cat has entered or left, when they have merely stuck their head through, seen it is raining and changed their minds and gone back to sitting under the radiator, licking their genitals.

I also think that CisCity has explained why we have two catflaps, so they can choose whether they come and go through the front or the back, and also, if they don't like the weather at the front, go to the back to see if it is any better at that side.

Yes, the app is real, you also get a bar graph of how much time they spend in and outside by day, and an in/out chart plus a dashboard where you can put their photos and it says whether each cat is inside or outside.

Plus you can open and close the catflap remotely, which is useful if you have a vets appointment after work and you want to let them out in the morning, but have them unable to get out again after they've come back in, so they are present for the vets appointment - in a household where people are out in the daytime, most cats in my experience will go out for a bit in the morning then come inside to sleep all day, but get up again some time mid/late afternoon to go outside again.

Of course if they have a vets appointment, they know this and will hide in the bushes until after the vets has closed.

Sorry, forgot to say that I sometimes show the app to people who come round to meet the foster kittens if they ask about whether the cats like to go outside and they all think it's great .

The orange bits are when the cat is out. You can tell the weather was crap on Wednesday

That app looks awesome, I’m so getting one of those flaps. If it doesn’t work I will explode!

You think you have a defective cat? I spent that money on the expensive cat flap and get this... the tech works perfectly fine. The cat has just decided she doesn't fancy going out any more!

To be fair Infamous our data looked like that the week the heating thermostat was broken and it was 27 degrees inside the house

I’d be gutted if I spent all that money and the cat decided not to use it! 😂

Can you programme these catflaps to deny access to a cat that is carrying a pigeon?

No, but a clever man from Amazon has built a prototype.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48825761

Alas no, Soupdragon but the cat does have to be coordinated enough to trigger the cat flap and get through without dropping the pigeon.

We had this. Cat had to be microchipped again. We were told the second microchip would only be an issue if we ever wanted to go abroad because we wouldn’t be able to put down both chips numbers and the other one might be scanned first. Otherwise no issues.

I need to get in touch with Mr Hamm!

I suspect the cats would work as a team - one standing by the flap to trigger it whilst the pigeon carrier (not carrier pigeon) goes through. Then they share the spoils between them (and, on occasion, with the dog)

I must be lucky on the deadstock front - an unintended benefit of the microchip cat flap we bought to stop an absolute shit of a cat coming in and attacking SpikeCat in his own fucking house! is that SpikeCat can no longer get in while carrying a fully grown rabbit.

Chasing a fully grown wild rabbit around the sitting room is not fun.

@orangezog. And it worked ok with the second chip. I’m not sure how to convince the vet to do it!