Cat problem

[devonshiredave]

So we have a cat issue.

We have two cats. Both nutered young males - 1.5 years old. Recently another cat from our neighbourhood has been sneaking in to eat their food (through the cat flap.) This has now escalated to our visiting cat chav marking his territory, at first on the garage door but now indside our house while we are asleep.

Our other cats dont seem to be kicking his teeth in for invading their home. This means i will have to deal with the problem. Now aside from locking our cat flap, which unfairly denies our cats access outside, what are my options to deal with this cat problem.

Help?

[HOGEPH]

I have the same problem. All we can do is hide the cat food at night, and occasionally catch the intruder in the act and scare him off. The alternative is a microchip activated cat flap, but they appear to be the wrong side of £100.

[Fort Jefferson]

My in-laws had this problem.

They locked the cat flap for about 2 weeks, and the cat gave up.

[royceybaby]

We have one of these fitted. It stops the other cats in the area coming in.

[jmorgan]

Tricky. Scare away without harming the puss. We ended up with a bucket of water that worked for one interloper. Another we set the cat flap to come in only then went in the room with it, it went mental even though we did nothing and then we let it out. No re visits. I suppose it will be different methods depending on the puss doing the rounds. One bruiser bit off more than he could chew when our big ginger tom who was neutered had enough, never seen so much fur before in the air and it was all grey.

[moosepig]

+1 for SureFlap. We have one, they work superbly. Are your cats microchipped?

The Sureflap is an expensive initial outlay, but such a good product (and really good customer service to back it up) that it's worth it. You'll save on cat food, if the intruder is coming in and eating stuff, and it's worth it just for the peace of mind and lack of hassle.

[devonshiredave]

Thanks replies all.

We had also considered setting it to "in" only and then trying to apprehend the culprit - i did suggest a stew but my other half wasn't keen

Sureflap may be the way to go. Ill need to check they have compatible chips - we got our from Cats Protection League as kittens.

[bexVN]

Your best answer requires some investment.

Get a Sureflap cat flap. All chips should be compatible unless your cats are really old like mine and have chip numbers that include letters aswell! They are about £80.00 (Inc vat and delivery) from their site, so not as expensive as some seem to think.

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

If not prepared for this and you don't want to lock the flap:
1. Don't keep food down all the time, remove it when you go to bed
2. Have a water pistol to hand and use on cat if you catch it entering your house (no point outside, it needs to be shocked whilst in the house and repeat if necessary)

[therealpigdog]

Supersoakers work well.

Labradors work even better - even though ours aren't bothered by cats in the slightest, the 'stranger' cats are (mostly) terrified of them. Our two cats use them as protectors!

[jmorgan]

bexVN said:

=
2. Have a water pistol to hand and use on cat if you catch it entering your house (no point outside, it needs to be shocked whilst in the house and repeat if necessary)

That is where our bucket came in handy. Overlooking the cat flap from an upstairs room, don't think we got much on it but it didn't half shift.

[wolves_wanderer]

I just made sure there was no food down overnight for a couple of weeks and it solved the problem.