Microchip sensor cat flaps - mentions a 4 second 'lag' - have you had someone's cat sutck in your house?!!

[cluckyagain]

Hi - I've just ordered a microchip sensor cat flap for my two kittens. So far they've been chased up an enormous oak tree twice in three nights (and rescued twice by dh/the decorator with extra long ladder!), scared rotten in their own house and had my 12 day old cat flap broken by the neighbour's bully of a cat!! Upon reading the 'bumpfh' carefully I note that another cat can get in if it's less than 4 seconds behind an 'authorised' cat - surely this means that another cat chasing yours could get in but then not get out? Has this ever happened to you and if so did you just take the opportunity to drench the intruder with water and then chuck it out? (sorry if this sounds harsh but my father suggested an air rifle so it would be getting off lightly!!)

we have a microchip catflap - don't know about the lag as we've had to set it to open at all times - it doesn't work v. well with the microchip our cat has, which is apparently the most commonly used chip type in the UK - of course we didn't know this until we'd installed it.

Which type are you getting? Our waste-of-£100 is a PetPorte.

Hi geekgirl - yes, petporte too but we don't have the 'dodgy reception' chip apparently. Desperation has kicked in now as I can't lock them in every night long term as we don't want to get cat sitters every time we go away! It would be just our luck that it doesn't work though - we seem to have that kind of luck.

clucky, how did you find out which chips are fine and which aren't? I'd like to get my cat chipped with a compatible chip but don't know how to find out whether it'll be ok or not.

Don't know about microchip ones exactly, but we had one where the cats wore magnets to open the door. It only stopped other cats from getting in, not out. The door swung freely outwards.
You may well find the same thing with yours, so if an 'unauthorised' cat gets in then they should be able to get back out again easily. We used this to catch a stray that kept following one of ours in - we waited until it was in then put the cat carrier against the outside and scared it through into the carrier so we could take it to the rescue place.

Like I say, this was a magnetic not microchip one so yours could well be different, but thought I'd comment anyway

Thanks tigers - we didn't want to collar the cats hence the problem (had bad experiences with other cats and collar 'incidents') Geekgirl - I read it on the petporte website - a certain number has a bad reception and apparently all others should be OK. I would also contact them by phone though as they were pretty helpful to me and may be able to advise you (or suggest that the cat flap you have is a duff one and replace it for free - 'hopeful' emoticon!!)