What do you do without a cat-flap? Tips on first time in garden

[JamRagRolyPoly]

Hi, I've adopted two brothers from the cpl. They're lovely boys, have settled really well. I've had them a little over a month now and want to start letting them out as theyre very keen (looking out of the window all the time and meowing ).

However, we don't have a cat flap, we have sliding doors out to the garden, can I put a flap in this? If not, how do you deal with not having a flap and letting them in and out?

I work part time so was thinking I'll let them out in the morning before work then let them in again at 2pm when i come home. But what about night time?

Any tips on letting them out welcome.

I've got them collars with mob numbers on it incase they get lost.

You can put cat flaps in glass doors but you would probably need a specialist glazier to do it. We've done it on smaller glass panelled doors.

Make sure they're hungry when you let them out. There is also an old-wives method of putting butter on their paws when they first go out.

Are they chipped?

We had a cat flap put in our glazed door. It cost about £180.

Amazon do white cat flaps for glazed doors, I like mine to come in when he wants in case he is running away from a dog. All my neighbours have dogs.

You can buy cat kennells in pets at home, I saw one briefly on their website yesterday.

If they go out they need to be chipped, mine wore a collar when he was little, but then he learnt to take the snap release ones off and the elasticated ones just arent as safe so I wont use them. I tried one and he came in with his front leg caught in it and the elastic impaled on a fang, bleeding. I was lucky he didnt lose a tooth.

Mine only go out when we are at home and she have never been left out overnight. When I worked full time she had to stay in all day.
When the weather is warm/nice and we are at home I leave the back door ajar for her so she can come and go. She doesn't stray much further than our large back garden.

They are chipped, cpl always chip cats.

I think I'm going to call a glazier about putting a flap in otherwise I'll worry about them when I'm out, plus I don't want a litter tray forever.

I didn't think about if they're being chased there are lots of foxes around here too.

Thanks for the tips

Dont worry, they can move themselves when needed!

Do you have a shed where you could put a cat flap and a warm bed?
Sureflap cat flaps can go in glass doors and I have one that is operated by the cat's microchip.

I've had cats for a few years and have never had a cat flap. We're in a rental at the moment and got our cat from the Blue Cross (with landlord's permission) in November. She was very shy & timid at first and didn't show much interest in going out. DH let her have a snoop around the back garden just before Xmas and she started going out properly a few weeks ago. If we're out for the day I make sure she's in, if not I let her come and go as she pleases, she tends to come when called and doesn't stay out longer than 3 or 4 hours. I've noticed she's stopped using her litter tray since she's been going outside though I still have it set up. She's also noticeably more settled and relaxed with us since she's been going out and about.

We had a scare about a week after she started going out when she went out about 6pm and didn't return until 5.30 pm the following night. It had been bin day and I suspect she got locked in someone's garage when they put the bins out and only escaped when they returned from work the next day.

In summer in previous houses we've tended to leave a window open somewhere so the cat(s) could come and go as they pleased - they only need to be open a little bit I've found, cats are very good at getting inside!

As we're in rented property we can't put a cat flap in the outside door, so we just leave the bathroom window open. We did have problems with the neighbourhood tom coming in a spraying (nice!) so we now have a microchip-detecting flap on the bathroom door, which won't be as much to replace. Could you do something similar?