[Janetrev]

I have a very long cat and his tail is still holding the catflap door open when the magnet on his collar goes out of range and the plastic pins that lock the door go up leaving the door to come down inside the house and inside the pins and hence leaving the door open from the outside. We constantly have two unwanted cats in the house.
I changed the Cat Mate magnetic catflap and have installed a Cat Mate Elite microchip catflap and the problem is even worse as the flap is left ajar.
Does any one have any ideas?

 

[Jiskefet]

The only solution I can think of is buying a Petporte, which works on the microchip. It has the possibility of setting the duration of unlocking the flap. So you could simply set it to 5 seconds, or 10, or even longer, whatever you want.
The problem is that they are rather expensive, but your cat would no longer need a collar. I hate collars, as cats can get themselves caught on their collar and injure themselves. One of mine got a very nasty wound from a collar.
It was my main reason for switching to petporte, but it would sove your problem, too.

 

[Janetrev]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to me.

The new catflap that I have works on micro chips too but although the vet checked our cat's microchip was working I cannot get the catflap to be able to read the chip. The instructions say to put the cat's head & shoulders into the flap and hold it there for a few seconds so the chip can be read.....well I held the cat in it, took the whole cat flap out of our door & help it over him while he slept, put his food in the flap so he ate with his head in it & none of these ways enabled the chip to be read!

 

[MollyMilo]

I've never heard of a cat flap that read magnets and chips, what is the make of this cat flap? I've had very long cats too in the past and my latest two are heading this way!

Take your cat to the vet so you can establish the chip hasn't migrated. Both the Pet Porte and sure flap microchip are easy to register chips I found

 

[Monika Marta]

I would contact shop where you bought catflap or manufacturer, as it seems to be faulty. If your vet confirmed microchip is working and you are following instruction than it seems your catflap is not working as it should

 

[MollyMilo]

I am having a good look on amazon for this cat flap as it sounds brilliant! From the cat mate website, there is one that reads chips and those discs but amazon only has the discs reading ones which is odd!! Where can I get the super selective chip reading one?

I love the fact it tells you when your cat last came in and went out! The only thing is you can only program 3 cats I guess I can sill get one more

 

[Janetrev]

Hi everyone,

Sorry I seem to have confused you. I HAD a magnetic Cat Mate catflap and changed it for a microchip Cat Mate catflap. There does not exist a flap that reads both magnets & chip. The Cat Mate Elite brand of microchip flap does allow the cat to wear a tag though so the cat doesn't need to be microchipped.

And I agree that perhaps the flap is faulty.. I shall contact the manufacturer.

What a nuisance !

 

[Janetrev]

It is odd that Amazon don't have the Cat Mate Super Selective Elite which is the one I have. It can program up to 9 cats! I got it from my local pet shop and it cost £79.99. A very good product I'm sure, if you have a short enough cat!!

 

[Janetrev]

Just to end the saga...
having had the flap in training mode for two weeks as Ben was nervous to use it due to the noise it makes, finally this week we put it onto normal operating mode & after several days of using the front door rather than the catflap, he is finally using it. Initially the flap was left open due to his tail, but now it is shutting correctly. Whether this is due to him entering with more force as he is no longer nervous or whether it is due to the flap being a little stiff at first, I don't know, but at least my problem is sorted!