A couple of disadvantages of a "kitty door"!

[Shawn T. W.]

Yesterday I noticed the kitty doors were flapping in the breeze, it was only about a 20 mph wind out ... It has two flaps about 4"-5" apart with a magnetic strip on the bottom ...

I built a temporary 2' wide and tall "wall" to shield it, which didn't do much!

Today I was in eating lunch and I heard the flaps open and close, they open into the back side of my kitchen cabinets which have a door in my dining room 5' from where I was sitting ...

Blazer came in and dropped a live chipmunk on the floor, Charlie Boy came over to investigate ... As I got up, it ran to Blazer, like the cat was gonna protect it from the human???

I grabbed it in a towel and tossed it outside on the back deck, both cats went out to "play" with it, haven't brought it back in yet, I put the shield on it, so they can't come back in, I gotta go back to trucking for a few weeks, I don't want to leave it open and come home to a family of raccoons or opossums!

 

[bigtiller]

Today I was in eating lunch and I heard the flaps open and close, they open into the back side of my kitchen cabinets which have a door in my dining room 5' from where I was sitting ...

View attachment 4296966

That's a clever idea for a kitty door.
Our corner lower cabinet is for storage of holiday kitchen things.
A buddy put a lock on his and keeps his booze there.

 

[gstrom99]

I have a new kitty door, sitting in it's box in the shop. I was gonna put it in, for the barn cat to use. The thing adopted me, and after getting him fixed, he is now an in/out (of the house) cat. He brings all sorts of (usually but always dead) things to the deck. I don't want cold air or dead/alive critters coming in. I open the sliding door manually to let him in/out. He's always in at night.

 

[CalG]

Buisness idea!

A Cat door with a facial (feline) recognition activated switch to unlock the latch.

Not my cat? (and ONLY my cat ;-), No tickky, no washy)

 

[scootr]

Years ago I had a kitty door that went out onto a flat roof with a plank that went down to the ground. Worked great until the night a racoon climbed up the plank and into the house. When startled he scooted down the stairs into the kitchen which had old fashion open cabinets filled with dishes, most of which he proceeded to move to the floor before I could get the door open and the critter shooshed out of the house. What a mess. But he was a scared as we were - he never came back.

 

[tradosaurus]

Never heard of a kitty door. Interesting.

Our cat lives outside. Don't like cat hair in the house nor scratched furniture.

If cat gets eaten by larger prey then I just get another free one.

 

[deserteagle71]

Some friends of mine installed a kitty door. Then one night a skunk used it. By the time they got the skunk back outside the house was unliveable for a couple weeks!

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Mines on my back deck, both sets of stairs have gates at the top, so no skunks on back deck, but opossum and raccoons can climb ... Once I retire I'll get a couple of smallish (20-40 Lbs) doggies, between them and the fence which will be too small for them to fit through, and the electric fence on that, I'd doubt I'll have any troubles from them ... It took awhile to teach my cats to go through the door, I ended up at first having only one of the flaps on, they would swat at it, once it broke the magnetic bond at the bottom, they then squeezed through.

For now when I'm gone I put up what I call a "shield" it slides down and latches, with a block for good measure ... This is actually called a medium sized doggie door ... I had to evict some "mud daubers" (wasps) that were building there, that's what the mess is from ... I need to finish cleaning that out.

It's higher on the outside as the cabinet bottom is elevated off the floor, which is even with deck ... Looking from the kitchen side ...

Raccoons killed one of my cats, I declared WAR! Caught and killed 7 of them total while I figured out how to finally defeat them, I discovered that while they were not jumping to the feeding table that I made for the cats, as I'm gone for weeks at a time trucking ... I removed the shelf I scribbled out in red to make sure they weren't accessing it that way ... Below picture is actually taken after the following video, and shows "the solution"!

The cats can jump on the bench, then jump to the table.

Then I set up my game camera ...

Cat food bandits!

I wrapped the base of the table "leg(s) with hardware cloth, and got a electric fence charger, hardware cloth is hooked to the earth ground under the eaves of the barn ...

That's 11,500 Volts, no more thieves!

You might say I'm paranoid, but I value and love my "free cats" which I paid to have neutered, give them premium cat food and treats, flea and tick medicine plus worm when needed, vet visit and shots ... they keep the mouse population down, and the snakes out of my house and barn!

I said all that to say, that I climbed up into the rafters, and stung the electric fence up there so the rotten raccoons can't climb up there and drop down on the feeding table! They have out smarted me a few times, no more Mr Nice Guy!

I know Electric fences work!

When I got these four brothers, they were not use to humans, grew up in a barn, were trapped and I got them about 3 months old, I tamed them, and now they love to be able to come in the house, and I spoil them with canned cat food and petting them, they quite often sleep in bed with me, now that I have the kitty door in, they can come and go as the please!

 

[drssg]

Buisness idea!

A Cat door with a facial (feline) recognition activated switch to unlock the latch.

Not my cat? (and ONLY my cat ;-), No tickky, no washy)

It's tough to come up with an idea first. They make kitty doors that will only open if a small token is next to the door. The idea is to attach the token to the pet's collar to ensure no other critters come in.

I read an article about a guy that added similar logic to what you describe. He had a problem like the OP with his cat carrying other critters into the house. He mounted a video camera and created logic to distinguish between his cat's face vs. his cat carrying something in its mouth. If the cat wanted in, it had to drop the chalupa.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

They make pet doors that work off a rf chip ... But that wouldn't stop them from bringing in critters, this is only the second time since this spring when I put in the door, 1st was a dead baby rabbit.

When I got home this morning I had a dead mole to greet me at the front door! Much rather see this!

They love to come inside and just hang out when it's yucky weather outside ... Barney the tiger is the one the rotten raccoons killed!

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Our cat lives outside. Don't like cat hair in the house nor scratched furniture

Can't fix the cat hair situation, but for clawing/scratching furniture, they can be trained ... I used these for when I couldn't monitor and train ...

A squirt bottle with water in it, quick light mist along with a sharp "Pshhh" from me, will get them to stop what they are doing ... My "wild" cats have learned what "NO" means, they don't climb on the counters, get in the trash, don't beg for food while I'm eating, and don't scratch up my furniture !

 

[grsthegreat]

I had to get a kitty door that releases the door flap only when my cats implanted chip releases the door. I had 3 neighbor cats come in and eat all her food, and fight her.

 

[rangerfredbob]

My cat has had free access of inside and outside before but he has lost the privileges over the years... we used to leave the upstairs window open (he has a ladder to get on the roof, it's a 12/12 so not a theft prone setup and a small window) but he brought a bird to our bedroom at 3am once... then we had a magnetic front door screen for years but this year he brought in a live rabbit to play with that was bleeding all over... I of course wasn't home at the time and the wife wasn't all that thrilled, got home an hour later and got it out... then I got a $300 storm door for the front door...

 

[BackRoad]

Amazes me how a cat can catch a mouse, eat it, and leave a neat little gut pile behind...on the porch...

 

[tradosaurus]

Amazes me how a cat can catch a mouse, eat it, and leave a neat little gut pile behind...on the porch...

Hilarious. There were times when I almost stepped on rat or varmint guts coming out the front door early in the morning.
I didn't mind since that why I had cats outside. If I could only train my cat to catch moles.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Mine do moles!

And catch Killdeer, glad it didn't bring it in the house, as soon as he dropped it at my feet, it took off flying! Swartzy ran after it, kept jumping but it got to a tree ... And got away!

I felt bad for Swartzy.

No pictures, but they will jump up and swat a barn swallow out of the air ... They leave the wing tips ...

And snakes are good fun entertainment too!

I don't mind non-venomous snakes outside, had a few inside when I bought the house, I evicted them, and now that I have the cats, they keep them away!

It was quite a battle getting this one out, I was quite surprised how strong it was! 5'+ black rat snake!

 

[Oaktree]

There were times when I almost stepped on rat or varmint guts coming out the front door early in the morning.
I didn't mind since that why I had cats outside. If I could only train my cat to catch moles.

I had one that would do that too, mostly chipmunks. I don't know what it is with cats and moles...maybe they don't taste good? Never had one that would catch them.

 

[ponytug]

I found the rattle and head from a (little) rattlesnake yesterday neatly arranged that one of our cats had apparently carefully eaten the in betweens on.

We used have one that liked to play with the live ones. I once killed one, thinking the cat was in difficulties, and she gave me a look afterwards that seemed to be along the lines of "You broke it! That's no fun." A couple years later she developed a gimpy front paw/leg for a year or so that I always suspected was a rattlesnake bite.

No cat doors here.

All the best, Peter

 

[Oaktree]

I had to get a kitty door that releases the door flap only when my cats implanted chip releases the door. I had 3 neighbor cats come in and eat all her food, and fight her.

Always wondered how they kept unwanted visitors thru cat doors. Between that and just general draftiness they're not an option I'd consider. Don't think I've ever had a cat with any sort of implanted chip. What's the purpose of it (other than activating a cat door)?
For sure, a cat is never on the right side of a door.

 

[mjonesnh]

Always wondered how they kept unwanted visitors thru cat doors. Between that and just general draftiness they're not an option I'd consider. Don't think I've ever had a cat with any sort of implanted chip. What's the purpose of it (other than activating a cat door)?
For sure, a cat is never on the right side of a door.

purpose of chip is if pet wonders off, chips can be scanned and owners located. Common practice in area for dogs and cats