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cat problem

35 posts & 25 voices | Started 10 months ago by organic355 | Latest reply from Coyote

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organic355 - Member

This isnt one of those cat haterz threads so step away if you were hoping for any cat-bombers encounters.

I have 2 cats 1 male, 1 female, both neutered.

Problem is there seems to be another cat coming in the cat flap at night and spraying/peeing round the kitchen and utility room where the cats food is.

Any solutions to this?

my cats dont wear collars so a fancy catflap/collar recognition device isnt an option, although i did read about one that could recognise their microchips?

Also was thinking about changing the light at the back door to a PIR security light which might deter this other cat.

We have caught this other cat sneeking in sometimes when up late over the weekend and ruuning at it at speed screaming and shouting only seems to have a temporary effect.

I havnt actually seen it spray, but i am pretty sure it isnt one of my 2 due to the way they react when the come accross and "sprayed" area.

So what are my options?

Posted 10 months ago #
Houns - Member

I keep my cats in at night. Close the cat flap and use a litter tray?

Posted 10 months ago #
catflees - Member

Curiosity killed the cat and your visitor won't be bothered about a security light. The only solution i know of is to stop him accessing your property, so keep yours in/out and lock your catflap. Or start them off wearing collars with magnets for the catflap. There are these plug in things that are supposed to stop spraying, they worked on one of my rescue cats but failed when my mum was having a similar problem to you at her house.

Hope you find a solution.

Posted 10 months ago #
Rio - Member

We had a similar problem - next door's cats coming in and eating our cats' food with the risk of spraying. Also had some major cat fights when our bigger cat caught the neighbour's smaller cat in the house. We've now got one of the catflaps that recognises the cats' microchips which works fine and solves all the problems, strongly recommended.

Posted 10 months ago #
hels - Member

Yep - catflaps really aren't the great idea people think.

We had cats everywhere when I grew up, one lot of neighbours hated us as one of our cats ate all their fish, even with netting over the pond, and they used to come home all the time and find it curled up on their bed, and their cat quivering behind the sofa.

Sorry not very helpful, but you just have to go back to a good old fashioned human controlled door entry system. Thats your role in life anyway, once you have finished filling the food dishes.

Posted 10 months ago #
andrewy - Member

We had this problem with a cat coming in to steal food. We named him six dinner Sid after a character in a children's book. But we got one over the flaps that reads the microchip. It's made by Petporte and was quite pricy (£100 from memory). It's very good and the cat has been renamed five dinner Sid

Posted 10 months ago #
ski - Member

As Houns says, try keeping the cat flap locked at night and use a litter tray, at least then you will know if its one of your Tom spraying

Posted 10 months ago #
samuri - Member

Litter tray, cat flap set to only allow cats in but not out. Go down in morning, find thief cat, saturate it with water or lemon juice or something. Give it a bit of kicking if you want. Let it out.

Repeat once or twice. It'll not come back.

I only had to do it once with Dave next door. And he was a very sneaky cat.

Posted 10 months ago #
cranberry - Member

A light is just going to make the cat think "finally the staff have sorted out a light so that I don't need to poke around in the dark to find the portal to food and my new pissing place".

Keep your cats in of an evening, and lock the catflap, or use a catflap that can recognise their microchips.

Posted 10 months ago #
Herman Shake - Member

You need an aggressively muscular yet loyal owl. Would you fight an owl?

Didn't think so.

Posted 10 months ago #
organic355 - Member

so these microchip cat flaps, which one is the best one? battery operated or mains? not sure mains is an option due to position/swing of the door.

I thought these microhips in cats could move and could end up anywhere on them?

Posted 10 months ago #
cranberry - Member

Oh, and tell your Mr Tibbs and Ms Fluffywuffy to CTFU

Posted 10 months ago #
muppetWrangler - Member

Do people not put their cats out at night anymore?

Posted 10 months ago #
McHamish - Member

You need to tell your cats to MTFU....or send them on some kind of cat training camp.

If a strange cat came into our house my cat would kick it's a$$.

Posted 10 months ago #
messiah - Member

We have a similar issue with a ginger tom fighting all the local cats, it's put quite a few of the other cats to the vets. The vet would like to meet it and has suggested we bring it to him. Neighbours are most apologetic about it but what can they do... they brought it back from the middle east with them and it doesn't seem able to integrate. I use a water gun on it when I see it in my garden but it's got very warey of me now (water gun kept handy for the seagulls).
It's managed to trap itself in my conservatory a couple of times which has given me some sport... cats make quite a lot of funny noises when trapped; and watching this nasty thing throw itself at the closed door was better than watching TV... if I hadn't had a few drinks both times my wife would have had me taking it for a journey. I've seen it in the conservatory since so I know I've not managed to put it off yet... lemon juice in the water... cheers for that one samuri.

Posted 10 months ago #
PJM1974 - Member

Lie in wait for the intruder and when it comes in, give it a blast between the eyes with a fully charged Super Soaker. It's humane and gets the point across.

Posted 10 months ago #
Dr_Bakes - Member

Before you buy a microchip cat flap get your vet to check where the chip is, as they can migrate from where they're 'inserted'. Our cat's has moved from its neck to its shoulders meaning it may have to shoulder barge the flap to gain entry.

We have just started having a similar problem and our cat is understandably starting to go off his (possibly piss soaked!) food. They're quite sensitive creatures these cats! We're going to try the microchip flap option to see if it is sensitive enough to pick up his chip. I guess you might be able to get a second chip chip inserted if the first has moved too far?

Posted 10 months ago #
Rio - Member

so these microchip cat flaps, which one is the best one?

We've got the Petporte one, works on the mains but I think the recent ones can work on batteries too. The only other one I'm aware of is the Sureflap one which I believe works on batteries.

The chips apparently can move, if they do and it ends up outside the range of the detector coil (down its leg for example) then you may have to get them re-chipped.

Posted 10 months ago #
molgrips - Member

Would you fight an owl?

Yes. Where's my tennis racket?

Posted 10 months ago #
stumpy01 - Member

samuri - Member
Litter tray, cat flap set to only allow cats in but not out. Go down in morning, find thief cat, saturate it with water or lemon juice or something. Give it a bit of kicking if you want. Let it out.

Repeat once or twice. It'll not come back.

I only had to do it once with Dave next door. And he was a very sneaky cat.

I'd be tempted to try this one.
Make it realise that it REALLY isn't worth the risk of coming into your house.
At our old house we had quite a bolshy cat that used to come in the garden. When you approached it to shoo it away, it would not really care and would stare right at you.
I ended up hurling a pint of water over it every time I saw it. It took a bit of persistence & some well aimed throws before it stopped coming in the garden. The best one was when it jumped on the fence and nonchalantly started wandering off thinking it had done enough to escape my wrath. I managed to get pretty much a whole pint over it and it's attempts to remain dignified, but scrabble at some speed along the top of a narrow fence was hilarious. Poor cat.

Posted 10 months ago #
andrewy - Member

organic355 - so these microchip cat flaps, which one is the best one?

Ours is mains with a battery backup. So far it's been really good, loads of different settings and our cat soon got the hang of it (they need to wait a moment while the flap reads the microchip, so the cat can't just charge in full speed ahead).

Posted 10 months ago #
JAG - Member

cat flap set to only allow cats in but not out. Go down in morning, find thief cat, saturate it with water or lemon juice or something

Exactly what we did and it worked a treat. One VERY unhappy cat and we never saw him again!

Posted 10 months ago #
McHamish - Member

they brought it back from the middle east with them and it doesn't seem able to integrate.

It's probably trying to establish a terror cell for Al Cateda.

Posted 10 months ago #
organic355 - Member

It's probably trying to establish a terror cell for Al Cateda.

genius LOL

Posted 10 months ago #
No_discerning_taste - Member

Samuri is right. We trapped a very horrible cat who came in at night and super soaked it for 15 minutes on and off. I would use water only as you don't want to cause injury just make life very unpleasant for a while. It took a year before it dared to come back and then we repeated it. Never saw it again after that.

Posted 10 months ago #
organic355 - Member

where do I get me a supersoaker?

and why lemony water?

Posted 10 months ago #
messiah - Member

It's probably trying to establish a terror cell for Al Cateda.

Cat is called "Mo"... you can guess what that's short for

Posted 10 months ago #
McHamish - Member

IS this the cat?

Posted 10 months ago #
messiah - Member

Aye

Posted 10 months ago #
clubber - Member

A Sureflap solved the problem for us - does require your cats to be chipped but that's generally a good idea anyway and they will already have the chip if they're rescue cats

Only our cats can get in so the neighbour's cat that was forcing the previous cat flap (a Staywell one which supposedly required a magnet to allow a cat in but wasn't up to the job as brute force opened it) can't get in and do what you're experiencing

http://www.sureflap.co.uk/

Posted 10 months ago #
coffeeking - Member

Just get them to wear collars, simples.

Posted 10 months ago #
pk-ripper - Member

take the catflap out and just give them a set of keys each.

or are your cats really dense?

Posted 10 months ago #
pictonroad - Member

Litter tray, cat flap set to only allow cats in but not out. Go down in morning, find thief cat, saturate it with water or lemon juice or something. Give it a bit of kicking if you want. Let it out.

Repeat once or twice. It'll not come back.

Had a Tom cat that used to come in the house and p1ss everywhere, did it every couple of days, became my obsession to catch it.

Came back one day and there it was, game on. Put a pair of gloves on and went to town on it, held it in the sink and poured a bottle of Roses Lime juice over it, it was going MENTAL, then hurled it, by the scruff out of the window.

Went out, came back an hour later and it was sitting on my dining table.

Now have a Sure Flap microchip device, not one strange cat has got through it, the Tom used to be able to snap the lock on the old one. Cannot recommend it highly enough, best money we've spent.

SUREFLAP

Posted 10 months ago #
LS - Member

We've got an RFID collar-tag catflap which works very well in terms of keeping other cats out, but she's lost one collar completely and a second time had to be rescued by a neighbour as she was hanging by the collar in a tree (quick-release hadn't worked). We'll be swapping to a microchip flap soon.

The two big bully cats round our way have no chance when ours and the two tiny, feral farm cats down the road work together as a team. So move near to a farm and get your cat to make some friends

Posted 10 months ago #
Coyote - Member

Neighbours are most apologetic about it but what can they do... they brought it back from the middle east with them and it doesn't seem able to integrate

They can whip it's knackers off. That'll calm it down a bit.

Posted 10 months ago #