Random, butoes anyone with a cat have a catflap?
More specifically one that recognises your cats chip…and are they any good?
My moggy won’t wear a collar so magnetically operated one wouldn’t be any use…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B003EGIM3O

I have the one above, not cheap but works great, batteries last about a year and just reads the cats micro chip. Can store up to 30 cats but I only have one 🙁

I had a petporte one which was pretty good, friends have a sureflap one and are happy with it. They work pretty well, but be aware that the catches are never strong enough that a determined cat can’t break in.

Like any cat flap you can have training issues: specifically my cat liked to poke open the flap with his paw first, which meant he wasn’t getting his neck and therefore the chip close enough to the sensor. Mind you, he is quite special and once tripped over a dandelion, but even he worked it out pretty quickly.

Overall I would definitely recommend getting one: the collar based ones never worked for me due to the cat losing the collar. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

We’ve got the same one as Endurogangstar, the Sureflap one. Fitted it after we kept having a rogue cat coming in through our old, normal flap. Not had any issues with other cats getting in at all since and the chip reading works really well. No complaints here at all – just wished we’d gone straight for one of them rather than a normal one with no security

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/microchip-catflap-experiences

Can store up to 30 cats but I only have one

There is always time

I use the open the door in the morning method and even then they won’t go out unless it’s cracking the flags. Although our three are Siamese which have poor night vision for cats so they seem to keep the same hours as us.

Ours have the Petporte one. They’ll be getting another if/when it breaks.

We’re looking at getting one of these. But, our cats don’t even use the cat flap that is in the shed door (put in for our previous cat) when the weather is bad outside. I’ve tried to train them to get used to it, but they just aren’t interested. It’s like the cat flap is some kind of anti-cat force field.

I have heard that the ‘clunk’ these cat flaps make can startle the cats and put them off using them? Any experience of this from people with them fitted?
Did you have to train your cats to use them or were they already familiar with cat flaps? Our two seem to regard the cat flap in the shed as ‘devil magic’.

Also, I’m a bit concerned about the range of the sensor, as the microchip in one of our cats seems to have migrated from his neck to somewhere around his right front leg shoulder joint. I am not sure if the sensor will pick it up. I wonder if we can have another chip put into his neck by the vets?

I have heard that the ‘clunk’ these cat flaps make can startle the cats and put them off using them? Any experience of this from people with them fitted?

My parent’s have one for their cat, this clunk bothered him at first but he got over it.

It does take a fraction of a second to unlatch tho, so I have seen him bounce off the door when in a hurry to get in. Still goes in and out fine.

They got it cos other cats were coming in, and a collar won’t stay on him, and he was chipped anyway. Seem happy with it overall and he’s learnt to use it properly now.

When our cats were kittens they were too short for the RFID tag to trigger the cat flap, so I had to build steps to get them in range:

Cat steps by brf, on Flickr

They do get used to the beep/thunk. As for training, food/based training / holding the flap open for them the first couple of times has worked well in the past. Shoving them through was less successful. You can take the actual flap out for a couple of hours so they get used to going through the hole, then put the flap in but with the latch permanently open so they get used to the flap, then put the latching on.

As for range, I would have thought if the chip it in the shoulder that would be fine, if not vet should be able to put another one in for £25ish? IIRC correctly they just use a massive needle which is not as bad as it sounds since cats have very soft skin.

If your cat decides it enjoys some kind of catflap standoff taunting intruders stuck outside the catflap, this can backfire as certainly with the Petporte they can trigger the catch from the inside.

If they could combine one with some kind of cat-scarer to deter intruders that would be even better!

Fitted the Sureflap one last week. The clicking did unnerve them for a few hours but not for long. Reckon ours (rescue cats) are new to the idea as there is plenty of batting the flap open before going through.

The chip only controls cats coming in, and the sensor always opens the flap from outside as soon as they are close enough to bat it open from outside.

There is a more expensive one (about £100) with a hood bit that sticks outside to read the chip and I’ve read plenty of issues with that one.

Liking the Sureflap one.
I need to go through 2 courses of brick and make a tunnel though…anyone else done this?

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but Sureflap installed though wall…only problem is Fudge is reluctant to use it! He’s been tempted through a few times knowing there’s someone wiggling some food at him, and goes through when it’s taped open but won’t come and go as he pleases…still get woken at silly o’clock depending on whether he wants to come in or go out….it has only been since Sat though.
I think the click of the chip activating the release freaks him out!
Any tips on speeding this process up?
Cheers

Let them get hungry… that works.. 😉

He’ll get used to the click. Just give it some time.

One of our cats took a while to get used to it. You can always tape down the catch for a while, so they don’t get the thunk of it moving. Well, you can still hear it, but it’s not as loud.

Took one of our cats a few days, but took the other one about a week before he was happily going in and out.
His microchip has migrated to somewhere near his right elbow though, so he has to have his nose right against the door for the chip to register, which I think is part of the reason he took longer to ‘get it’.