Sureflap - how does your cat get on with it?

[jobnockey]

So we've had one installed for a few weeks and the cat got used to it pretty quickly (I think he must have used one in his previous life - he's a rescue).

However, I've noticed that it doesn't always activate very quickly and he's often headbutting or batting at it for a quite a while before it clicks open. It's not too much of a problem as he gets through eventually but it must be annoying for him, and he does keep giving me looks if I'm in the kitchen like 'just open the door slave...I can't be bothered with this'.

I'm wondering if his microchip is in a weird place and hard to read?

Does anyone else have similar issues. Should I try setting it up again do you think?

I’d email the manufacturer, see what they say.

We have one and don’t have that problem ... they do headbutt it and miaow pitifully when it’s locked though which makes me sad :(

Yes we have that problem too. Usually it’s when the batteries need changing, but there is also an infrared sensor that senses the cat coming before it reads the chip. Try changing the batteries to good ones like Duracell and also cleaning the outside of the flap on the white frame and through the tunnel.

Girl-cat once got locked out in the cold snow, for at least an hour I think because the batteries had died. She looked so sad!

Thanks I'll try giving it a clean but the batteries are already new so doubtful that's the problem as they're good quality ones...

maybe a good idea to email manufacturer too and see what they advise. I'll report back if it's anything interesting!

You could take the cat to the vets to find out where the chip is. They can move about.

Our DCat doesn't have any issues with her door. But we do - she let's next door's cat in, and he eats all her food!

I warn you now, if you have a determined cat, they can open it. Mine clawed and clawed at the door and realized that if he could push the catches down and hook a corner of the flap he could pull it inwards. I had to tape it shut.

I also have issues with it not closing properly if the air con is on and then endlessly clicking, but I guess you won't have that problem if in the UK.

he does keep giving me looks if I'm in the kitchen like 'just open the door slave...I can't be bothered with this

Yeah, well I do rather see his point really.

They do wear the batteries down in them!

Ours try to make it spontaneously combust be sitting either side and having their chips activate the "Click" over and over .

When they're locked in for the night we put something in front of the door otherwise they'd be pawing away at it .

Another cat chased our female last week, she tore up the garden and punched at the cat door . Poor little soul , I think she peed , her back legs were wet and there was a puddle on the step. She stayed under the sofa a while but was fine later if a bit wary .

Good job we had the micro chip door , stopped the other cat getting in.

We put the shoe rack up against it at night too to prevent DCat bothering at it all night. She has bust through it once in the 18months we've had it - we found the knob broken on the floor, no idea how she managed that but it was locked and she was outside and couldn't get back in, which served her right! I think it's a good catflap.

Ours were scared of it at first; the clicking noise put them off and they’d turn around in a panic. We put the round tags on them and activated those as there was too much of a delay with their own microchips. They are fine with it now

The first one we had which was the ordinary one way one was fine.

Then we needed the dual scan one and it’s never worked. It lets the cats in but not out. Sureflap said there was nothing wrong with it because it picks a chip in a key ring up fine, at 25cm distance. But they sent us a new one free and exactly the same issue. So we now have no cat flap and the cats have to wait for the door to be opened.

Oh the tags on the collars do work btw, just not the chips.

Because we briefly tried that. Then realised the pedigree house cat could tailgate out. So cat flap useless on two counts and had to be locked. I had a long running thread on here about mh Sureflap woes.

Our cat bats at it to try to get us to open it...

I mean to open the door. Why go through the cat flap when you can decree that your slaves should open the door

We have one and my cat just shoots through it.

We have one, works fine

I read somewhere that if there is a build up of any dirt or hair by the sensor then it activates the sensor all the time and the batteries run out really quickly. So if you do find dirt there you might need to change the batteries.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I've given it a clean but tbh it's quite new so it wasn't very dirty. Still seems a bit hit and miss regarding how quickly it unlocks for him...Anyhow, he'll use it whenever we're not around to open the door for him, so he can get it to work, but i think that it is beneath him and he'd really rather his slaves did their job properly and let him in and out at his command.

Update: in case anyone else reads this and having simlar problems... I just received this email from the manufacturers:

"We would like you to put your DualScan into a higher power mode to extend the frequency. To do this please follow the below steps:

1. Removing one battery, leave the DualScan to power down for 2 minutes
2. Press & Hold the "M" or learn button
3. Continue holding the button while inserting the battery.

* Please note: There will be a 10 second pause before any light will appear on the LED *

1. As soon as the red light appears please release your finger from the M button and the grey catch will drop down and then up again.

You have successfully put your DualScan into the extended mode.

To watch a video on how to use this custom mode please click on the following link: "

I haven't tried it yet so don't know if it's going to work but I didn't even know there was an extended mode, so there you go!

Pretty sure we tried this and there was no difference. Think my cat has a fat neck. 😀