Talk to me about cat flaps

[Rizzlekicks]

Was thinking of putting cat flap in glass doors but idea abandoned due to extortionate quote.

So, we are going to put a cat flap in a wall that leads to an alleyway. There seem to be so many different types of cat flap - infra red, magnet, microchip, etc. Which one should I get and why?

Also, our wall is about 30cm thick. Can we just add extension tunnel to extension tunnel (IFSWIM) or do we have to get just one very long one?

[thecatneuterer]

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that. Hopefully someone else will. Or may be email the cat flap manufacturers?

How much was the extortionate quote out of interest?

[mrspink27]

My In Laws just put one bit of the flap on the external wall and secured these. They then got a bit of lino/carpet stuff and lined the floor of the mini tunnel.

[mrspink27]

Should be... one bit on internal and one bit on external wall...

[mrspink27]

We have a 4 way Cat Mate, no magnet, no collar, no infra red. Quite basic but means we can lock in and out, lock in but not out, out but not in and in and out open....

[kittykarate]

I have a Pet Porte microchip cat flap. I like it because it has the usual modes (all locked/all open/in only etc) but also a light sensor so it locks to inbound only at night. There are too many cats in our neighborhood to have a normal cat flap, I used to keep finding my neighour's ginger cat curled up on my pillow (and as he is fluffy and a lazy groomer he is quite tagnutty)

As my little vagabond cats keep losing their collars I find it's so much less hassle than having to replace magnets all the time.

I think you can buy tunnel sections to put in deep walls, but they are probably a bit of a rip off - the lino plan sounds like a winner.

[kittykarate]

Also - if you do go for a PetPorte you need to buy the 'wall' model as it has a longer cable between the outside reader gubbins and the interior buttons.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I would go for the microchip...

[oopslateagain]

I have a SureFlap, works on microchip, and has stopped the very annoying ginger tom next door sneaking in and fighting with my boy all over the house! Expensive but worth the money.

[DontCallMeBaby]

We have a bog standard Staywell on the outer wall, five (I think) tunnel segments, and a Sureflap on the inner wall. Used to be two Staywells, but we had intruders - two flaps works pretty well to keep draughts out, tho it's the conservatory so not too much of an issue.

We didn't get a magnetic one as both cats lose collars, to the extent we no longer bother with them. Went for Sureflap over PetPorte as (iirc) if you wall-mount the latter it has to be mains, not battery, powered. If the power fails, the flap fails LOCKED, we have fairly frequent powercuts - not ideal.

The only problem we have now is that the Sureflap is small (there's a bigger one available now tho) and the tunnel means an awkward crawl for 5 and 5.5kg cats. They make it though, and no one's tailgated the, yet!

[kittykarate]

There is a battery backup on the Pet Porte, and they have enhanced it recently to run on battery or mains. My older model runs on mains with the battery backup, last time I accidentally unplugged it for a day it went to unlimited outbound (rather than using the light levels) and still allowed the correct cats back in.

However, Pet Porte is a bit bulky and I like DCB's use of a standard flap out the outside, and a smart battery operated flap on the inside.