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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Does anyone have a micro chipped cat flap?

20 replies

TheWinterOne · 29/09/2013 14:03

How exactly do they work and are they worth it?

We currently don't have a flap - the good old fashioned opening the door works with us as I like to make sure my two are in at night. I hate them being out. But I've recently been thinking of getting a flap.

The problem is that I live in cat neighbourhood where every other house has a cat. If I bought a standard flap it would mean my house would be a free for all as they're all little cheeky furries. I often find one of the neighbours cats stretched out in my garden.

There's also the resident Tom who goes to everybody's house and eats each cat's food so he's a cert to come through.

I know you can get the collar flap ones but neither of mine have a collar. Winter-boy had a nasty reaction to one so I've never tried him with one again. And I haven't bothered with winter-girl having one in case she suffers the same reaction.

OP posts:

Lovethesea · 29/09/2013 14:51

Ours is great. Only our two micro chipped cats can come in. The flap can be In only, Out only, Open both ways or Shut completely.

Very easy to program, just push a button, hold cat close, it clicks and memorises the chip. So you don't even need to know their number. You can program it up to 32 cats I think!

Ours is a www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003EGIM3O/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Sureflap microchip one.

Our cats took a couple of days to adjust to the click it makes when they put their head close (the click unlocks the latch for them) but we just stuck it open until they were used to hearing the noise as they passed through.

Great when a big Tom was trying to hassle the wee cat and even our big over 5kg boy squeezes through (with a rabbit in tow, grrr)

notapizzaeater · 29/09/2013 14:52

We love ours, the first one broke after 3 months and they where great and sent us a replacement before we sent the broken one back.

Lonecatwithkitten · 29/09/2013 18:36

I also have a sure flap dead easy to use and has kept even the most determined intruder.

derektheladyhamster · 29/09/2013 18:37

Yep we got one when I woke in the night to find someone elses cat asleep on my bed!

Cybercat · 29/09/2013 18:41

I think its a sureflap that we have - its battery operated? We had problems with a ginger tom who broke our magnetic cat flap but he has given up on this one! Reviews had said the flap could be small but our beast of a cat has no difficulty at all. Money well spent for us.

notnowImreading · 29/09/2013 18:43

Ours is great. The local stinky Tom has stopped coming in and pissing on the sofa. However, the opening is quite small so my big cat is a bit scared of it and has to psych himself up for quite a while to go through. They d

notnowImreading · 29/09/2013 18:44

Don't like the click it makes at first either.

Ditsy79 · 30/09/2013 03:45

We got a Microchip catflap (sureflap), and although it did take our cat a little while to stop being terrified of the 'click', she now uses it with no problems.
Has anyone else's cat worked out how to pick the lock though? We went away overnight this weekend, and set the flap so our cat could get in but not out; when we returned, the cat had been eating her food from the automatic feeder bowl, but was not in the house - naughty girl had managed to pick the lock! Thankfully found her, and she is fine.

Emmabombemma · 30/09/2013 04:04

We have the sureflap and it's the best money I've ever spent! I wouldn't be without one now. Had to teach my timid cat to use it, as the click is quite loud, but he picked it up in a day or so (with the aid of cat treats)

GinOnTwoWheels · 30/09/2013 04:21

I've been thinking about one of these but what worries me is that sometimes our cats run in fast after being chased (loose dogs, foxes) and I'm worried it won't operate fast enough if they have to mess around positioning themselves appropriately and they'll just run into a solid door and knock themselves out, or get caught by said chasee (I've had at least two incidences of bite injuries to back legs consistent with being caught by dogs/foxes).

We have 3 of our own and are also a resting/feeding house for a few others, some of which we don't mind, but some we would like to keep out. We also used to be a piss target for the local tom, until we captured him and took him for The Op .

He's now a lovely friendly puss, still lives fuck knows where outside, but comes to gobble up the leftovers on most days.

dizzy77 · 30/09/2013 05:35

We have a sureflap after all the neighbouring cats started coming in and helping themselves to our cat's food/peeing on things and we'd not managed to get a collar on her since she was a kitten. Feel bad that we left it so long to get her chipped etc. Don't recall any problems with her getting the hang of it as she's quite timid and was pretty elderly by then at 15.

AllOverIt · 30/09/2013 06:57

We have the Sureflap, it's ace!

Original poster

TheWinterOne · 30/09/2013 12:05

Thanks everyone! All rave reviews so I think I'll go ahead and order one :)

OP posts:

moonbells · 30/09/2013 13:12

Gin I wouldn't worry too much about the running in fast - MoonKitten comes in at what seems like 90mph sometimes - we hear the click and thundering paws... and then about 30 seconds later he's back out again after having wall-of-deathed around the house!

Ours is a Sureflap too. Oh, we decided to be green and get rechargeables to power it. Forget it. They would last a whole 4 days on full charge. I was after all the reviews, and when we went away for a week we switched to alkalines as we didn't want the catsitter neighbour to be faffing with the charger and they're still going after a month. Current drain might be a bit off.

Ditsy yes, Mooncat worked that out quite fast. I now have a little cardboard cover which is lined with bubblewrap and fits over the flap perfectly once we've locked it for the night. Serves as insulation against drafts and stops the blighters escaping.

Lovethesea · 30/09/2013 22:09

Hmm, probably beyond Huntercat's brainpower to pick the lock, but I'll watch Tortiecat doesn't show him how. Fortunately she likes being in mostly at night whereas Huntercat keeps taking me patiently to the flap to show me it has stopped opening.

I know kitty, you broke your leg so badly it took orthopedic surgeons months and over 4K to fix you. So take it easy at first ok, in at night, then we can see later!

IceCreamForCrow · 30/09/2013 22:13

We've just fitted one for our two. It's good and works just as it should but they still sit pitifully outside the door miaowing to come in.

I should add they both know perfectly well how it works it's just that they will only use it if there's no hope of anyone opening the door for them.

Blimmin cats

AnotherWorld · 01/10/2013 00:19

We have one too. NotOurCat (local un neutered tom cat) figured out very quickly how to get round it by bashing then catching bouncinv door - but the lovely people at SureFlap sent us a Raccoon Door which has an extra bit in it.

I love ours. NotOurCat no longer a problem.

OldFatCat struggles a bit with it. 7.5kg is a lot to pull through the tunnel.

SkinnyKittenCat handles it with no issues.

MaKettle · 01/10/2013 00:38

It took WhiteCat a couple of days of miaowing pitifully on the windowsill, whilst TabbyCat stalked back and forth through it, but he got the hang in the end. (I mean, wtf, it's a cat flap. Y'know, exactly like your old cat flap...) And yy to not using rechargeable batteries; they die instantly. Am also intrigued as to whether anyone has actually programmed in the maximum 32 cats?

AnotherWorld · 01/10/2013 09:28

We decided if you have 32 cats you probably wouldn't need the Microchip cat flap - as one more wouldn't make much difference.

yetanotherworry · 01/10/2013 09:41

We chose the Petporte one because we have a larger cat. However his cat is too stupid to learn how to use it (or too clever depending how you look at it). The local neighbourhood hooligan has managed to work out how to use it though!
The only thing I don't like about the Petporte is that there doesn't seem to be a function for stopping your cats coming in which would be quite useful in mousing season. I keep having to get up in the middle of the night to release mice back outside.

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