magnetic cat flap / persistent neighbouring pestcat

[deeplybaffled]

I have 2 cats, both female, one nearly 3 and the other is just over 1.

they both wear collars with magnets and have mastered the cat flap, which is the sort where you need the magnet to get in, but not out of the house.

Some near neighbours have a few cats, and one has taken a shine to our house, to the extent that she keeps breaking in. At first, she seemed to get in by chasing one of ours and coming in nose to tail before the flap shut, but the little *** has now got devious.

She's realised that the cat flap can't be pushed inwards if she hasn't got a magnet - which she hasn't - and after a period of headbutting it, has now been seen by DH, using her claws to pull it outwards towards her, flip it in the air and dive under it!

I'm begrudgingly impressed. Senior cat is not, and has -I think - begun to spray in the house. (It is possible that it is intruder cat who had sprayed.) DH and I both work full time in the week so either had the opportunity.

It is happening almost daily, and starts at about 6.30am when I am woken up by hearing her at the cat flap. My bedroom is above, and if I wake fast enough, I can open the windows and shout / throw water and she will run away.

But she always, always comes back. I was ill in bed one day last week and was less alert, and woke to see her outside my bedroom door!

Does anyone have any ideas to get pestcat out of this habit? My two love going out, so don't want to turn them into house cats, but am getting desperate, and can't have them being harassed in their own house!

thanks for any help

If they're both microchipped, microchip catflaps are supposed to be pretty sturdy. Sureflap is the one used by most posters. Not cheap (about £60-70 online) but good value for money.

May be worth a try - but could they still be pulled open from the outside, do you know? Pest cat is phenomenally persistent!

We've got the Sureflap microchip one but the microchip release action only works for pushing the flap inwards, anyone can open it in the outward direction so if the cat has got the knack of that she might be able to defeat it.

Aaargh! Does anyone have any ideas on how to deter pestcat, but without persuading my two to leave home as well? Sounds like microchips might not solve it then, alas.
had considered all sorts, even down to peppering the cat flap, but obviously needs to be something that wouldn't affect my two -nor cause harm to pest cat, no matter how malevolent I feel at 6.30am!

I'm wondering whether a Sureflap Dualscan might work - that has selective exit as well as entry. (Which means, I think, that Pestcat couldn't flip it open and get in from the other side.) Anyone got one?

(They're about £20 more than the ordinary flap.)

\link{http://www.sureflap.co.uk/products/details/27-dualscan-microchip-cat-flap\Here} are the product details from the manufacturer's website - it might be cheaper elsewhere.

I wonder if moving cat flap higher up above ground could help so that your intruder would not be able to us it's paws in the same way to open it?

Is this cat a stray? It seems very bold.

We switched from a magnetic flap to a sureflap for the same reason. I can't be 100% sure if it was the sureflap that stopped him or the water pistols that we kept in the kitchen for each time we saw him in the garden!

We have water pistols too, and this morning, I managed to throw half a pint of water over her through the cat flap.....and she was back again about an hour or so later!
Persistent isn't even close. And no, not a stray. Lives a few houses away and always seems well fed and looked after....so clearly, our house is just better for some reason.
thanks for all the suggestions and will look into them...any other ideas gratefully received too.

Has your neighbour got young children and you haven't by any chance?

We've got a magnetic cat flap and our house is the neighbourhood cat hang out. My 2 dumb cats sit by it which clicks it open