Cat flaps

Pet Mate for me. They're well made and they are good if you nedd spare parts. They do various basic flaps, and stacking wall liners (50mm each) to extend reach as required.

In message , John Rumm writes

The SureFlap is the most solid of the microchip catflaps I've come across.

I have been told that Aspirin in milk will cure the problem. If I get the front garden sorted tomorrow I will be giving the local vermin this little treat.

Although he didn't mention micrchip versions. Actually, we have a microchip one (not the Sureflap).

They do, of course, cost *considerably* more.

The Sureflap lacked a feature I needed, and the guy marketing it was one who'd previously been involved in marketing of phones in a strange way (learned about him on uk.telecom). But, as I said, it lacked a feature so was no good.

I don't know if these cats are chipped anyway... probably not as a guess.

IIUC they currently use a magnetically activated one. I am not too fussed since there only appears to be one or two other cats in the neighbourhood anyway.

Ahhhh, James Winsoar I believe. Yes, but the alternative failed after 13 months. Sureflap, whilst more basic, has proved more long-lived.

That's him! Couldn't remember the name. What was the alternative?

The missing feature was *outwards* control, BTW. They said it would be an option, but the company had just been taken over and they couldn't say if plans had changed for the add-ons.

The one we got has been going nearly 2 years, OK so far!

PetPorte made by StayWell. That also has the advantage of having a mains adapter which the Sureflap doesn't.

Yup, that's the difference.

I made one of those for my own cat when I was a teenager. It worked well on the bench, but after a day, we'd probably collected 1lb of miscellaneous rusty nuts/bolts/nails/brackets she dragged home attached to the magnet, and I abandoned it ;-)

You're thinking of James Winsoar, and it was the PetPorte flaps that he used to sell (might still do for all I know).

You should have gathered them up on a daily basis and then taken them down the scrap metal place. One of the few times when a cat works for its living!

We have a *pair* like this:

One is set into the wall, and opens out into a tunnel built into the cupboard under the sink. The other flap is just inside the other end of the tunnel (and the cat had to duck under the door). Having two flaps really cut the drafts down.

We didn't fit the second flap for about four months, and I had to push her through the tunnel (with my leg - longer than my arm) once to explain how the thing worked. Obviously she preferred a member of staff to open the door, but in their absence, would use the flaps fine.

I have one of those, they have battery backup too. My current cat doesn't want to go out, so it's not curretnty in use. But here's a couple of vids I did of it with my previous cat.