Cat flap curfews - what times are yours set?

[Muddysocks1]

We’ve adopted a rescue cat who was previously indoor only, but has started going out. We’ve got the SureFlap connect cat flap then you can set a curfew on.

wondered what time others set theirs (or manually shut it off) - we’ve been going for between 9 and 4 (later on weekend afternoons) pre-cat flap, because of traffic and she’s been content with that, but I’m not sure she’ll understand why the cat flap works sometimes but not always? What have others found?

My cat has a very set routine which she seems happy with.

She goes out at 7am - 12pm. If th weatber is ok she's out for pretty much all this time unless she decides she wants to pop inside for a moment for a cuddle and/or a snack.

At lunchtime she comes inside for her sleep until 5pm. I like that she sleeps inside so I know she's OK and safe.

5pm is dinner and playing inside followed by more sleep.

I generally close the cat flap at lunchtime as she's inside then anyway and I would keep her In at night as recommended.

We’ve recently started locking the cat flap at around 9pm. Our little menace was bringing in mice two or three nights a week (never during the day) and also getting into very loud scraps which woke the whole house up. She’s fine, adjusted and shes let out again at 6:30am ish.

I thought that if the cat flap was locked all night, the cat would give up trying to use it, and then I’d struggle to get her to use it the following day, because she’d accepted it wasn’t working! I thought about putting a physical barrier in front of it, once she’s in and it’s locked? Which would signal “out of action” to her?

We don't lock ours at all - she can go out whenever she needs, and I feel better about that given its where she does her business (no litter tray). She has only once brought in a 'gift' of a mouse (still alive as she didn't know what to do with it) and we never hear any cat fights or anything outside ours.

Reality is, she pretty much just spends the whole night on the sofa downstairs so probably wouldn't mind if we locked it.

Mine seems to know it’ll be unlocks in the morning. I’ve been away the last 3 nights (neighbour popping in to feed him) and he stops trying to go out about half an hour after its locked for the evening and I can see he doesn’t start trying again until the morning. He generally gets out about one min after it unlocks.

I’ve got the cat flap that tells me when he comes and I can set the time it locks and unlocks remotely - it’s set so he can still come in if he’s out when it locks. So far (over a year) his desire for food outweighs his desire to stop out - he’s a greedy guts.

Our cats are locked inside from dusk until dawn - so the times vary depending on the seasons.

We don’t have a cat flap so just lock the window.

You can set the flap to lock inside at a set time. If the cat is outside when it locks, they can still come in. They won’t be able to go back out.

Ours is locked 9.30pm - 6.30am

Ours is always open so he can come & go as he pleases. Works off his chip. We tried keeping him in at night but found in the summer he’d be out for hours on end with no set return time. We also tried setting the flap at night so he could get back in but not out. He got wise to that and wouldn’t come back until breakfast.
We tried keeping him in if he was back at dusk but he was just getting stressed. We live fairly rural anyway.

Following with interest- please can anyone recommend good smart cat flap- we are looking for a microchip one where we can set a curfew…

Ours is open 7am to 7.30pm currently but as the nights get darker I will move it earlier. In fact I might change it to 7pm this week

Surely it depends on where you
live? In a city this is completely understandable. Where I live there’s nothing out the back so the cats have free access to the cat flap.

I don’t have a flap but his curfew is before dark especially around October and bonfire night (black cat)
he doesn’t much like going out anyway

We started shutting ours in at night after we had strays coming in and stealing food. I got fed up of being woken at 2am by a cat fight in the kitchen.

Our cat generally sets the curfew for us at around 10pm, but we have to be up at 4 or 5 to let her in.

They have to come home for 10 pm. We have no cat flap so open the door and call they come running.
We tell them when we let them out they must be home for bed. 🐈 we are crazy cat people.

Cat flap locks at 9pm and opens at 6am during winter, she stays out longer in summer. She seems to know what time it locks and never tries going out later. She is a rescue too. It works for us as too many cats are killed on the roads in the dark.

No cat flap but he’s never in later than 10pm, usually get him in for 8/9pm. Earliest he’ll get let out is 8am/9am ish at weekend/if I’m WFH or 5pm ish week days (when I’m home from work). He’s a softy and not a hardy cat. We have litter trays and also an indoor only cat to keep him company when he’s in.

Our cat is in at night. No official curfew but around dark/dinner time.
To get over the "why is it not working?" and also, the fact that he could open it when it was locked, we got a cover! Wouldn't be without it.

Blocking a cat flap at night | Mumsnet

we’ve got the SureFlap cat connect - good so far. Twice so far it didn’t register her going in/out, but which caused some confusion, but it’s been easy to set the curfew/lock it remotely and was easy to fit and set up

My cat flap is open 24/7, as I have a totally cat-proofed garden. I don’t think they go out much during the night, especially if the weather is bad.
I did have a dawn to dusk curfew in my previous house because we lived on a busy road and I slept better knowing they were all safe.

We lock ours between 9 - 10pm usually and open it around 5.30am ish. Our cat doesn’t tend to stray too far from our garden and if she isn’t in the house by 10pm, we just shake her treats and she usually comes running in! Most often though, she’s already in and asleep!

We don’t set ours. I’d never put a cat “out for the night”, though. Too cold.

You're correct. It is the orher way round - the cat trains you!