The cat's flapping about (Cat Mate Cat Flap)

Member Name: kezbomb

Product:	Cat Mate Cat Flap
Date:	04/09/03 (7418 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cat can come and go, no getting up in the night

Disadvantages: drafty, dead/live creatures in the house, other cats can come in

Cat flaps in general

If you own a cat you will obviously want to get all the accessories that will make life for you and your new pet an happy one.

A cat flap is something that a lot of cat owners will swear by, my mother-in-law certainly does with 6 cats.

Of course though you will need to train your cat to use the cat flap at first, but even then some cats will still sit by the cat flap meowing for you to open the door as they are too lazy to push the door open themselves.

You will find as with most animals that the best way to train them to use it is with food! Placing their dish the other side of the flap will sometimes do the trick, or holding the flap open with one of their favourite tit bits the other side can also help. But when all else fails open it and pat them on the bottom and they should go through it, and they will always come back inside if they dont want to get wet on a cold damp night.

In this review I’m going to tell you the pro’s and con of having a cat flap so it will help you to make up your mind as to whether or not you really need one.

I think I’ll start with the pro’s first.

Pro’s
****
They are very affordable with prices starting at around £5.

You can get them in different sizes so if you have a paneled door the likely hood is that you will more than likely get one that will fit your door.

Most DIY enthusiasts will be able to fit one as my husband managed to do it easy enough, and they will also fit onto PVC doors.

Most cats cant make there minds up as to whether they want to come in or out and you will very often hear them crying in the early hours of the morning meowing to come in or go out. If you don’t get out of bed to loose them in they will end up wet or attacked, and if you don’t loose them out you could end up with a nice little present on the kitchen floor! So they are a good idea if you a
re lazy, or have several cats coming and going all
day.

You can have them to lock so if you don’t want your cat to come in for some reason they can be locked out, or if your cat cant go out for some reason they can be locked in. They can also be locked to let them in but not out and vise versa.

You can also get them with magnets and your cat also wears a magnet on the collar so it unlocks when your cat comes to the door, and it keeps other cats out as their collars don’t have the magnet.

I think I have managed to find enough reasons there for you to want to buy one, now for the Con’s.

Con’s
*****

Flapping in the wind
if they don’t have a magnet on.

If you don’t have the lock device one they can come into your just mopped kitchen floor and cover it with muddy paw prints.

Cats other than you own can come into your house. so you can come home to some cat other than your own lying on your bed, or wrecking your house

Cats are very prone to losing collars. So if you decide to opt for the more expensive door with the magnetic opener, and your cat looses its collar, you have the expense of buying another door, or just turning the lock off and ending up with a cat flap that is just like the cheaper alternative models.

Cats like to bring presents home for their owners to say Thankyou for feeding them. They will bring you nice things like rats, mice, bird’s etc. You usually end up with them on your doorstep, but if you have a cat flap they will bring them into your house. Very often the creatures aren’t dead straight away, as a cat likes to play with its prey before he kills it. So you could end up over run with mice/rats, or with a bird flying around your house knocking over all your possessions in a fit of panic. I know most of these as my mother in law has experienced most of these problems.

And most importantly it i
s much easier to break into your house if you have a cat flap fitted, as we found out. The police told us our door had been weakened due to a cat flap being fitted in the door, and they advised us not to have another one fitted. So since that day 8yrs ago we haven’t had a cat flap. our cat has to go outside at night now like most cats and gets loosed in on a morning for breakfast.

So with all this information I hope you have got enough to go on to make your decision.

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