Cat flaps - worth spending money?

[Swearwolf]

We have moved into a place my cat feels comfortable going outside - this is great as her confidence has really grown! She spent the summer wafting in and out, and now can't understand why doors are closed and she can't get through them. We think it's time to put in a cat flap!

Having never had one before, this might be a stupid question. Is it worth spending extra money on a fancy flap, or will a basic one do just as well? I don't want to waste money when it's already going to be expensive to install (only place it can go is in glass so expensive to put in) but likewise, if it's not functional we'd rather the initial outlay than having to replace it later or having something the cat can't use.

She doesn't wear a collar but is of course chipped.

IMO the microchip ones are well worth it. We've had problems in the past with unwanted toms coming in through the cat flap and spraying , which upset my own cats who felt the need to re-mark their territory. Plus the micro one we have is much quieter on opening and closing, which they definitely prefer.

We have one of the cat flaps that react to the cat's chip. We did have one that reacted to a collar but this seemed to let in any cats who bashed it hard enough so wouldn't recommend.

I would advise a microchip flap.

We faffed around for years with a standard cheap flap. They regularly broke (big cat!), we got inundated with visitors stealing food, and the final insult being a big, feral Tom coming in, beating up my cat, and peeing/scenting all over my worktops. He even peed in my bread bin . Lots of money spent buying special cleaning products, and one very traumatised Arthur.

Yes, expensive, but best investment we ever made.

It depends. If there are other cats around that might come in (and would cause a problem) then a microchip flap is worthwhile.

I just have a standard one - but then all cats are welcome in my house (they risk losing their balls - but they're welcome:) )

There’s a microchip on with WiFi that you can lock remotely & it tells you what time they went out with its own app.

Dh & I would drive ourselves nuts checking it every 5 minutes if we had it though.

Microchip ones are worth the extra money. Once upon a time our cats would have scared away any unwelcome intruder but they’re getting old now. It’s much nicer for cats to know that even if there are neighbourhood cats that bother them outside, they can never disturb them in their house.

We have a basic microchip one as there's quite a few cats round here and the odd fox!

Our microchip flap closes very firmly, which is great because it faces E & we’d get terrible cold draughts if it flapped, which I suspect the cheap ones would.

How big is your cat? We’re going to have to replace ours with the larger size, because since it was installed we’ve added a much bigger cat (Bengal cross, about 6kg, others are 3-4 kg) who can barely squeeze through, so if yours is smaller I could pass it on to you for postage (have still got instruction book somewhere)

Have never used the microchip part btw, we don’t have any invader issues, but I assume it would work ok.

We have a microchip flap and it's great, I think it's a sureflap one.

The only thing is that our neighbours got the same one, and our cat races over and bashes the flap into their cat's face when they hear the click 😂 she's also been stuck in their house a couple of times too.. but she's an absolute terror!!

I've had the Sureflap microchip ones for years, they're brilliant. I started with the type with a magnet on the cat's collar, but they kept losing the collars, it was costing me a fortune in collars and magnets! They can't lose a microchip...

We've got the microchip one with the app and yes, it was addictive for the first few months. Now it's very useful when we go out or to bed so we can track them down to lock them in the kitchen.

I can just imagine dh texting me because the cats been out 5 minutes longer than usual 😺

We are under the paw though.

Oh yeah there are block charts of their weekly activity as well as averages of time in/out and actual time in/out today. Ds has got the app on his phone so he can view the data from school.

@Fluffycloudland77 that catflap sounds awesome. I would love the option to check they’ve both returned and shut them in before it gets dark!

Microchip reading catflaps prevent unwelcome visitors.

We bought a fancy pants microchip activated one..... to stop other cats using our place as a doss house.
Upstairs cat just use to follow our cat in bum to tail (so the flap didn't close) then sleep on the clean laundry.

Agree with everyone one else, get a microchip one unless you want every moggy in the neighbourhood dropping in for a visit.

I've only ever bought basic cat flaps as mine never wear collars. I think it depends where you live and if you have a dog as we never get stray cats in our house but we do get unwanted live presents from time to time.

You dont need a collar as the microchip is in the cat. My 2 dont wear collars either and we still have a microchip catflap

My cat flap was worth every penny. I have he WiFi one, so I can monitor her comings and going remotely, set curfews easily and lock her in even if I am at work.

The time she got injured I knew something. Was wrong because she stayed out for four hours. I would have noticed she was gone for so long (or known this was unusual) if I didn’t have the app.

The orange is when she is out.

We’ll all have to keep a lookout for the WiFi one in the amazon Black Friday event.

I want one now.

We’ve always had the collar magnet ones and they do a decent job of keeping the neighbourhood cats out, but the basic microchip ones don’t cost that much more for a much better product.

Sureflap chip ones are definitely worth the money. They stop other cats coming in and that reduces other things like fleas coming in. The fortnight where the battery went and I couldn't be bothered to replace it so just propped it open was the time we got fleas for the first time in a decade thanks to the other local cats strolling in. Fleas mostly died on the cats but got in the carpets and I had to get rentokill in to spray the carpets it was a nightmare. Ok that's pretty extreme but I've not let the batteries die since then!