Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

For all your feline miscellany - any interesting stories, news or subjects that do not fit in the other sections.
Post Reply
User avatar
Roscoe32
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:00 am

Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Roscoe32 »

Hello all. Thinking in advance here but we have a 16 month cat who uses the catflap daily to come and go. We recently got a kitten. At the moment the kitten stays in the bedroom whilst we are out and our older cat comes and goes as he pleases. Obviously as the weeks progress we will start integrating the cat and kitten and leaving them to hang out together when we are home. There is however one issue with the catflap as it means that the kitten might be able to get out the catflap. We don't want to lock the catflap in the day so our older cats routine is disrupted but likewise we don't want to lock the kitten in a spare room every time we leave the house for the next six months until he can go out too. Our house is quite open plan so we can't give the kitten the run of just certain parts of the house. He'd literally have to be shut in a room which I think ultimately isn't fair. Just wondered I anyone had any thoughts or tips which we'd not thought of yet. One other detail is that we have a micro chip catflap but annoying it only locks it for cats coming to the house. There's no mechanism for only allowing certain cats to leave the house also. Thanks.
User avatar
Kay
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 1961
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:50 pm
No. of cats in household: 1
Location: West Wales

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Kay »

why are you planning to keep the kitten in for 6 months? I thought the usual advice was to keep them in until they had completed their initial course of vaccinations, which is around 12 weeks
User avatar
Roscoe32
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:00 am

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Roscoe32 »

What about neutering? Either way I'll have a cat flap cross over issue I think. :-)
User avatar
Janey
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 930
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 1:04 pm
No. of cats in household: 1

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Janey »

Hi,

I don't know much about catflaps unfortunately because I've never had one.

Are you planning keeping kitten in until he's been neutered?


eta: Ah, crossposted :) re neutering - If it is because of neutering male cats should be neutered at 4 months or can be neutered any time after...

see link here: http://www.catchat.org/neuter.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
Roscoe32
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:00 am

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Roscoe32 »

Hiya yes we want to keep him in until he's neutered.
booktigger
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 2664
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:36 pm
No. of cats in household: 3

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by booktigger »

Kay wrote:why are you planning to keep the kitten in for 6 months? I thought the usual advice was to keep them in until they had completed their initial course of vaccinations, which is around 12 weeks
Kay, kittens should never be let out till neutered (and preferably microchipped ). We recommend that kittens are kept in till 6 months even though we neuter at 9 weeks and then it is only if they think they are sensible enough. One of our volunteers kept hers in till 8 months.
User avatar
Roscoe32
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:00 am

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Roscoe32 »

booktigger wrote:
Kay wrote:why are you planning to keep the kitten in for 6 months? I thought the usual advice was to keep them in until they had completed their initial course of vaccinations, which is around 12 weeks
Kay, kittens should never be let out till neutered (and preferably microchipped ). We recommend that kittens are kept in till 6 months even though we neuter at 9 weeks and then it is only if they think they are sensible enough. One of our volunteers kept hers in till 8 months.
Think our one will definitely be in until at least 6 months like our other two. We are in London and there's a den of foxes in the college nearby so we want him to be big enough and also savvy enough to handle himself before he ventures out. The foxes and the cats do stay apart but a kitten might be seen as dinner!
User avatar
sarie
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 322
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:44 am
No. of cats in household: 3
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by sarie »

Kay, that's definitely not the usual advice... Roscoe is absolutely right to keep him in until 6 months as kittens are too small to go out earlier than this and are easy prey for larger wildlife, dogs, birds of prey etc. They're also not agile or quick enough to get themselves out of danger at 12 weeks and have no street smarts. I would never, ever let a kitten younger than around 5 months out and usually I wait until 6-8 months so they're neutered and chipped and I can gauge their street smarts and agility and ensure they're capable of looking after themselves.
Different situation if you're going to let them outside in an enclosed garden while supervised of course but in a cat flap situation I'd certainly say no younger than 6 months and preferably older.

Back to the OP... what cat flap do you have Roscoe? It's perhaps an expensive option but Sureflap do a "DualScan" flap that allows selective exit as well as selective entry so you can keep certain cats indoors so you could look at swapping your cat flap over. If you sell on your existing cat flap it may help to cover some of the cost...

Otherwise it's a bit of a tricky one really, I'm not sure what else to suggest! I have two cats and a kitten currently and I've resorted to blocking up my cat flap and I just manually allow my cats in and out. They weren't very happy about their restricted access but have settled into it OK. They're now in all day and I let them out when I get home from work for a few hours and then get them back in at bed time. The weather is so cold right now they adapted quite quickly to the arrangement and are fine with it now :)
User avatar
Roscoe32
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:00 am

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Roscoe32 »

Sarie. Thanks for the info. Might be worth investing in a dual scan. We already have a microchip cat flap but it only works for cats coming back indoors so exiting is a free for all. Would be handy in the long run anyway as we are trying to train out older one to stay in at night at the moment anyhow.
User avatar
Mollysmummy
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 264
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:28 pm
No. of cats in household: 2
Location: Leicestershire

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Mollysmummy »

I was literally about to start a thread on the same thing! Our older cat uses our manual flap 24/7. We have a now 5 month old kitten who we've previoysly kept in the living room overnight. However they are now crying to get to each other at night so we bought a microchip catflap so he could have the run of the house but not get out.

BEWARE!! We've been stung, we bought what we thought was essentially the same as our manual flap but would only open for Molly's chip....turns out it only works to stop other cats getting in, to stop cats getting out you still have to use it manually which is what we already have! It wasn't made clear at all when we bought it.

So, we're looking for a 2 way one....these seem a fairly new invention?! We've found a sure flap one online so may go for that one, or does anyone have any other recommendations?
User avatar
sarie
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 322
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:44 am
No. of cats in household: 3
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by sarie »

Yeah the majority of microchip catflaps prevent cats coming in but deliberately allow any cat out in case an intruder manages to somehow break in through the flap and gets trapped in the house. However, for how often this happens I think it's better to have the option to limit who exits as well as who enters as this functionality is often far more useful to the owner!

The Sureflap DualScan seems to be a safe bet for that anyway... it's £85 so about £20 more expensive than the standard chip flap but the extra functionality and has great reviews on amazon :)
User avatar
Mollysmummy
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 264
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:28 pm
No. of cats in household: 2
Location: Leicestershire

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Mollysmummy »

That's what we're going to get I think. Wish we'd known beforehand, we got it from the pdsa so I feel bad asking for our money back from a charity! Oh well, expensive lesson learned!

Out of interest does anyone know of any shops that sell these rather than online?
User avatar
sarie
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 322
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:44 am
No. of cats in household: 3
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by sarie »

You shouldn't have too many problems selling on the other one if you don't want to ask for your money back; someone on here might even be willing to buy it - or there's always ebay if you use it :)
I'm sure the PDSA wouldn't mind though; it's a very expensive thing to keep if it's the wrong one :)

I'm not sure about shops that sell them though.. I've seen the standard chip flaps in the likes of Pets at Home (you'll pay a premium though) but I'm not sure about the DualScan.

I buy all items like that online as Amazon have a superb returns policy and tend to have the best prices but it depends what you're comfortable with :)
User avatar
Mollysmummy
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 264
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:28 pm
No. of cats in household: 2
Location: Leicestershire

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Mollysmummy »

I've just googled it, and I think the dualscan is only available online here.

I do use ebay so I'll stick it on there when we take it out. (Of course my OH installed it before checking it worked and was actually what we wanted!!!!!)
User avatar
Roscoe32
Frequent Cat Chatter
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:00 am

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Roscoe32 »

Where did you see it for £85? Thanks.
User avatar
Mollysmummy
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 264
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:28 pm
No. of cats in household: 2
Location: Leicestershire

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Mollysmummy »

It's on Amazon.co.uk
User avatar
sarie
VIP Cat Chatter!
Posts: 322
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:44 am
No. of cats in household: 3
Location: Edinburgh

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by sarie »

Yep, link here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00G ... d_i=468294" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:)
Lesabald
New Cat Chatter
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:37 pm

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Lesabald »

I have just registered and am 3 years behind this thread but have exactly the same issue at the moment (or will have when we collect new rescue later this week) and i just wondered ultimately what was the outcome roscoe32?
Threecatlady
New Cat Chatter
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2019 10:16 am

Re: Older cat and new kitten cat flap issues

Post by Threecatlady »

I have joined this board too as I have this exact same problem, i.e. new 10 week kitten that I'm keeping indoors and 2 adult cats that like to come and go as they please. I too have a microchip cat flap but again, although it restricts who can come in, it will let any cat out :roll:
I've already been on Amazon and the SureFlap Dual Scan flap looks like my only option (it's now £63) but I wondered how it worked out for you in the end?
Post Reply