Cat flap with hunting cats

[MissHoney85]

I really want to install a cat flap so I can get rid of litter trays for my two cats. Currently we let them in and out during the day and keep them in at night. However they are quite active hunters (mostly voles, the odd bird / rabbit / squirrel) and are usually quite keen to bring their 'gifts' inside. The back door opens straight into the kitchen so I don't really want them bringing things in there. Is there any way to stop them bringing things in if we have a cat flap? Does anyone else have a hunting cat with a cat flap, and if so how do you manage it?

You can never get rid of trays, it’ll be ok for ages but one day they’ll decide they aren’t going outside in that weather and wee on the carpet.

I beg to differ. Last cat had a tray outside. He never used it. Cat before him didn’t have a tray at all.

Neither ever weed in the house. I have a very acute sense of smell so would have smelt it immediately.

We have an emergency litter tray indoors. Hasn't been used in months until last week when it was pouring with rain all night. I couldn't smell it but I knew from the lack of muddy footprints in the kitchen when the back garden was a massive puddle that something was up.

Last summer I had to dash off a Teams meeting to catch a live mouse that was brought in. Unfortunately I didn’t turn the camera off just the mic to the hilarity of my team watching me expecting chasing and catching the mouse with two large Tupperware. Fair to say I got a round of applause

@violetbunny

We have a cat flap and one of our cats is a prolific hunter. Let's just say I'm now an expert at catching live mice.

Same here, but lightly chewed and terrified sparrows. Sodding has a particular mouth full adapted miaow to announce his arrival with gift. We are good at listening out for it so he can be intercepted before gets to the pale carpeted area and shooed out to the garden.

My late husband was the live mouse chaser. Their unpredictable movements made me panicky so I was rubbish at it. Fortunately by the time he died, my cat was getting old and lazy. But it is something that was at the back of my mind when I decided not to get another cat after that one died.

The worst was when our cats brought in live birds. I used to shut myself in a room into it was all over. But the time that cat and bird ended up in my bedroom was hideous. I could hear all the noise, and when eventually it was time to go and clear up dead bird, I discovered it had pooed everywhere in fright.

Yeah. Not getting another cat.

@coogee

I really wish i could invent a cat flap that would automatically lock when it senses your cat approaching with a gift. I think i could retire on that little invention.

It has been done.

We just confiscated any prey brought in and he soon stopped bringing it in.

I confiscate them all, dead or alive. It hasn't stopped them at all.

I don't like cats hunting wildlife so when I have a garden again, I will purchase a catio - a enclosure which the cat can enter/leave through a cat door into the house. Lets the cat be outside but keeps him and the wildlife safe.

I have a lockable cat flap and an outdoor cat kennel. It's unlocked to allow her to go out but locks so she can't come back in. If she's cold she sleeps in the kennel (with a fleece interior and self heating mat). I made the decision to do this after falling down the stairs in the middle of the night, chasing her and a mouse, and ending up with a frozen shoulder!

A luminous yellow collar with a couple of bells on greatly reduced my cats offerings.

Maybe we should pitch to Apple or Samsung - cat flaps with facial recognition. If the mouth is obscured by rodent: no entry ⛔️😾

Our boy is a hunter.

I just dont disturb him.

The animals injured already so he may aswell eat it. If I disturb him then I will have injured mice slowly dieing around the house under sofas and fridge freezers.

I chase Sodding out because I don’t want gore and feather on my pale carpets. He brings the mice in alive specifically so he can let them go in the kitchen and play with them. Having watched him in the garden he loses them into the undergrowth if he plays release and catch again on the lawn. There’s no way I’m letting him play with them indoors - we have an old house with nooks and crannies and rotting mice smell grim.