Chip reading cat flaps.

[Fort Jefferson]

They seem to be about £100, are they worth it, and do they work.

Any comments welcomed. Thanks.

[edc]

Had one for a year. It's the first cat flap my cats ever used. Took a short while for one to get the hang of it. I can programs the times and the batteries have lasted 14 months or so so far. If your cat is quite big it might struggle. My largest cat is 5.5kgs.


Edit - mine's a Cat Mate Elite Super Selective.

Edited by edc on Thursday 15th October 23:25

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Didn't work for either of my cats. Ended up with a magnetic one from Staywell. About £27 and works like a dream.

[The Moose]

Ours work really well. Definitely worth it.

[jmorgan]

Ours works but one puss has the chip a bit further back that the others so some issues getting out, in is no problem as her neck is well into the sensor coming the other way which would be the main worry. Getting out she just keeps head butting the thing.

Also made sure we had a larger one, big cats can be a squeeze.

Edited by jmorgan on Friday 16th October 07:14

[Mubby]

We have one, and have 4 cats of which only two go out. It works perfectly for us and also stops unwanted cats coming in. Ours cost £110 I think off Zooplus.

[CVP]

Ours has worked perfectly for 2 years now and we've just changed the batteries for the first time. It has eliminated the problem of visitors as lots of cats round us have the magnetic collars

[dreamer75]

I have one and it works really well at stopping unwanted visitors. However it doesn't control who goes out which is frustrating

[CR6ZZ]

We've had ours for a little over two years. Works brilliantly with both cats, although we had to have the younger cat re-chipped as her first chip was too far back to work well. Very worthwhile as we used to have other neighbourhood cats coming in from time to time (our cats are wusses).

[Adamski69]

Currently got 3 female cats and have had at least 2 for the past 12 years. We started with the magnet one with the little ball that goes on the collar and releases the catch. Problem was that the safety / quick release style collars would get lost along with the balls so they couldn't get in and the balls needed replacing. Ended up taping the mechanism open. Started to get unwanted visitors at night, nicking all the food (went through British short hair cat biscuit like running water, got expensive!!)and then worse boy cats coming in and spraying and marking.

Installed a chip reading one and it has been great. Took a few tries for one of the cats to grasp how it worked cos when they approach it and the chip gets read it make a quite loud clicking noise as the catch releases which made her jump back from it, by the time she came back to it, it would have locked shut again so wouldn't open, then it would click again and she would jump back etc etc etc, funny for a bit but she got it in the end.

It has completely solved the issue regarding other cats and can be programmed to keep certain cats in if needed. Maybe it cos we have 3 cats but the batteries don't seem to last that long in my experience, change them approx every 2 - 3 mths, otherwise I think it is really good and has been worth the outlay.

[Speed 3]

You can get the one we bought for £63:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003EGIM3O?psc=...

Works a treat with both our cats. There is a 4-way (manual) switch which limits in/out or both. Think we've changed the batteries once in 2 years.

[Buzz84]

We've have a sureflap one for a few years and its good, only thing I have found is that you need to keep it clean, it uses a beam sensor to detect a cat at the door to trigger the chip reader. once when ours was grubby (muddy cat paws) it wouldnt detect the cat to read the chip.

We have:
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_flaps_nets/...

they also do a two way version with in/out times control.
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_flaps_nets/...

[MitchT]

Sureflap here - works perfectly.

[RB5Bird]

Same here, sureflap, very good. It took the stupid cat a couple of weeks to proper get the hang of it. Now she's in and out all the time, still surprises me how something as elegant as a cat can look like a handicapped hippo going through the flap.

Stops the neighbourhood thief getting in, Odie, a skinny ginger cat that I caught (pre flap) running out with half a pouch of whiskers. The husband caught him, today, trying to get in. He said it was really funny as he was just gently headbutting the flap. Hope he doesn't break it,but I think he'll get the message.