Cat flap that detects cat’s microchip?

[DijonMustard]

I have a new neighbour with 5 cats, and I’ve just found one of them in my house. My elderly cat would be terrified if he found a strange cat in his house.

It looks as though there may now be flaps that can be programmed to accept a cat’s microchip, rather than having to use a collar. Is this right? Can anybody recommend one please? I need to fix this really urgently 😢

We have Sureflap. They're quite pricey but it works fine.
It also needs 4 aa batteries every 6 weeks or so.

Yes Sureflap. We have rechargeable batteries in ours.

This is the best online price atm: £62
https://petwell.co.uk/products/sureflap-microchip-cat-flap-white

Sureflap here too. It's perfect

That's really cheap. I'm sure we paid double that 6/7 years ago.

We have a Sureflap, it works fine for both our cats, but local thug cat looks very confused when he can't work out how to get in whereas my two can.

Do you have multiple cats? We have just the one (very active) cat and the batteries in our SureFlap last considerably longer than 6 weeks. He’s been using the cat door for about 18 months and we’ve not had to change the batteries yet. They’re definitely still working, I’ve just checked.

Ours is sureflap as well. The batteries last much longer than 6 weeks and I have 2 cats using it.

Yep, Sureflap here as well. Bought it some years ago as we had an elderly cat and had a strange cat come in and try to bully him. As our cat was already microchipped we swapped out the old cat flap for a Sureflap and it did take our old kitty about 2 weeks or so to get the hang of it, bless him, as there is a bit of a delay between the cat's microchip activating the flap (you hear a click) and the flap unlocking. It's only a couple of seconds but our old fellow was slow on the uptake and by the time he realised the catflap had unlocked, and went to come in, it had locked again! 😂He got figured it out eventually, though! It changed everything, no more intruders!

We have one and it works fine for our 2 chipped cats, batteries on ours last a year.
the old cronkey cat bangs on the plastic flap to frighten away other cats before it ventures out.

@SteerCalmer your flap sounds faulty. Ours used to “eat” batteries so we got in touch with customer services and they replaced it. Batteries lasted about a year after that.

Another vote for Sureflap

Our sureflap works perfectly but doesn't really like normal rechargeables and will start complaining (red blinky light) that they're running out when they're not - but of course eventually weeks later they do, crying wolf all that time.... If you use 1.5V rechargeables (very expensive) that works great, or standard alkaline cells (x4) last 6-9 months here with three cats.

Yip sureflap here too as we had a horribly mean ginger tom whose owners refused to get neutered (or chipped). Took our cat some time to work it out and we went through a lot of ham to encourage him (he hated the click) but now uses it no problem. The dog sticks his head out of it to watch the birds (you can have it that it’ll always allow someone out but only recognised chips in).

I agree with others, your catflap sounds faulty. I have a Sureflap and have 3 cats who are in and out like yo-yos and we only change our batteries about every 3 months.

Sureflap here too. The batteries last about a year with us. I do remember one poster saying that their cat used to lie in front of the door and it would set the lock off which caused the batteries to die quickly.

My batteries don't last as long as many on here, because my cat sits on the step in front of the cat flap and activates the detector so it is constantly scanning. Depending on how he is sitting, if it can read his microchip I hear it going click, click, click every 30 seconds.

My cat worked out where he could stand to make it open and let his mates in to party.

Oh why did they take the laughing face reaction!
This is legendary cat behaviour

You could try cleaning the sensors. Mine was like this, so when I moved I left it there (was planning to replace with a new but standard one) and bought another. Then I read the instructions… 😭

What sensors? What instructions!
Maybe I'm wrong about how often I change them, it may be every 3/4 months.
I've just done it so will try and see how long they last.

Also sureflap here as mine won't wear collars, although mine takes C batteries not AA, and they last well over a year despite one of my idiots using it like a doorbell if I'm in - she stands with her head in it so it keeps clicking till I open back door 🤣 but works wonders and haven't had an intruder since I got it about 8 years ago, and it's stood up well to the current twatcat who headbutts it from outside at 2am.

Best advice I can give if you get one is program it BEFORE you fit it into the door - it's a lot easier to put it over your cat's head in learn mode than it is to make sure only your cat goes through it when it's already in the door.

sureflap here too, stopped random cat coming in.

takes a bit of time for cats to get used to the noise of it clicking open so that may be an issue. I think I had to have it stuck open for a couple of weeks initially.

don’t bother with the curfew one, we upgraded to that one at extortionate cost and one of our cats can work out how to open it even if the curfew is on.

He was a bit of a legend, definitely topcat in the neighborhood and I suspect if he invited you to the party and you didn't turn up you'd better hide.

I had a Sureflap one, they are good but I had two issues with mine. So initially when I had a cat and a house cat and the pedigree cat wasn’t allowed out he worked out how to tailgate through to get out the house. So I’d assume if your cat was being chased into the house at close range it’s possible another cat could follow them in.

i also had one cat and for some reason his chip couldn’t be picked up by the flap. We programmed him in to the flap lots of times, the vet scanner picked the chip up no problem but whenever he approached the flap 9/10 it didn’t click. Occasionally it did. We were in touch with customer services a lot and nobody could figure it out. We tried a new flap and it still didn’t work.