Cat Flap

Late last fall, a stray cat wandered into our machine shop and refused to leave. After a month and no response to our ads looking for an owner, we took the leap, spent the money on veterinary care he needed, and "Buster" became our official "shop cat". At night, when we're gone, he's confined to the shop since his "indoor manners" haven't yet fully developed. During the day, when we're there, he's allowed to go back and forth between the shop and offices, which meant leaving the door between the two open all day. After 4 months of this and the dust problem that developed in the offices, we realized we needed a way to give Buster free access between the two areas yet not allow the shop dust to roll right into the offices. After doing quite a bit of research, I decided on this one, and it has been the perfect answer to the problem! The door between the shop and offices is hollow, which was no problem due to the fact that the sides of this "cat flap" telescope and cover the open area left by the hole cut in the door. It's very stable and strong, even with the hollow door. It installed very easily...took about 30 minutes, which included gathering the tools, taking the door off and putting it back on when finished. (The easiest way to install this if you can easily get your door off.) We followed the directions as far as how high off the floor to install the cat flap...measured from the floor to the top of the cat's shoulders and added 2 inches, which in our case meant the top of the cat flap frame is 14" off the floor. That's about a perfect height for Buster, allowing him to go through without crouching but not quite rubbing on his tummy. I wouldn't go any higher than that, though. I like the magnet at the bottom of the door which holds the door secure, but it did add a little more training time because it takes a bit of a push on the cat's part to open. I thought about taking the magnet out but am glad I was just a little more patient with training and left it alone since the magnet adds to the door's ability to close tightly enough to keep the dust out, as do the little "bristles" all the way around the edge of the window part of the cat flap. Buster has a pretty long tail, and it only took one time of getting it pinched in the closing flap for him to figure out how to hold his tail just right when going through so it doesn't happen again. The "window" itself is made of some kind of heavy plastic that is spotlessly CLEAR; heavy and clear enough to have the benefits of a glass window without the fragility and safety hazard of glass. I think a non-see through window/flap would make training much more difficult. The fact that the cat can see through it to what's on the other side puts it more at ease when going through, especially in the beginning. It took about a half hour to teach Buster how to go through, using food and having "his people" on the opposite side of the door. Both are very strong motivators for this cat, so training went quickly. One thing we do, though, is, when the cat flap is locked at night, we rigged a "shade" on the office side of the door that gets pulled when the flap gets locked so Buster can't see through to the other side. We did this initially thinking it would confuse him if sometimes he could push through and sometimes he couldn't. Shade down, door locked; Shade up, door open. Now, we continue to do it for safety reasons since there are times, when he's feeling his oats, that Buster goes through that flap at a FULL run! Something about doing that seems to add to the joy of whatever game he's playing when he does it. Hitting that door with his head, at full speed, and having it locked and solid would HURT to say the least. Since we're not here at night to see for ourselves, we don't know for sure, but are hoping that there was enough time before he started running through it for him to learn the shade being down meant the flap was locked and he didn't try running through it. The flap has a 4-way lock, which I'm sure is useful in many instances, but it would mean memorizing in what position the little red knob has to be in to achieve whatever lock formation you desire. Otherwise, you'd have to get down on your knees to read....a pain for sure! Since the straight down setting locks it from both directions, that's the only one we use......red knob all the way to the right is fully open in both directions, straight down is fully locked from both directions. We installed the flap so the lock is on the office side (along with the shade we pull at night.) The door is brown, the cat flap is white, and if I installed it at home, I might consider painting it with a Krylon plastic spray paint to blend in better. For the shop, it's fine, and certainly wouldn't look bad at home, either, for that matter. It's very small and neat looking. The door is recommended for cats up to 12 lbs. Buster weighs just over 12 lbs, not a fat cat, just solid and muscular. He fits very well through the door, with no problems, as witnessed if you'd ever see him coming through it like a bat out of......the shop! I definitely recommend this cat flap.

My cat has had no issues catching his tail or getting in and out of this, he’s about 11 pounds and loves his newfound freedom of escaping from the kids and going down to the basement. We’re able to keep his food and litter away from child interference and he no longer gets locked in or out. No more meowed complaints! I installed this on an interior door at the bottom of the door molding/panel. As such, I was left with negative space/holes above the install door where the door panel diagonals were, which I filled with some matte white caulk. No sweat. It looks great! Just know that if you are installing it on a surface that isn’t absolutely flat you will have some fill work to do. I don’t use the locking feature, so I can’t comment on that but it looks just fine. I didn’t want to engage it too early and risk my cat being confused about whether or not the door was going to work for him. I’m not a huge fan of the installation template. Cutting around the outside edge leaves you with a hole that is slightly too big. You would need to get between the holes themselves as a post to around the edge of the paper. Odd. It still works fine and I didn’t have to fill anything up, but I was hoping for a smaller hole that I could enlarge if needed as opposed to the reverse. It worked fine, though. I love this cat door and the cat is an even bigger fan than I am.

I was pretty happy with quality. I left it propped open into the garage for a while so cat would get used to it and he did. In all fairness, I havent seen him open it yet but weather is much nicer and he has outside beds that he prefers

This is great for indoor use and even for outdoor areas that are relatively sheltered from weather (rain and wind) that don't need perfect heat efficiency. I installed it in a panel in the window of a garage and kitty loves it. I'd give it five stars but the quality of the plastic lock is kind of poor. The detent on mine is bad and it doesn't always line up with the door edge like it should. For my purposes this doesn't matter much though because I almost never lock it, but if you need to use the lock on a daily basis I would recommend buying a more expensive and better quality pet door because the lock on this seems likely to break or wear out with daily use. It's only good for occasionally locking the cat out when he's determined to interfere with sawing wood or hammering nails for example. You can teach a cat to use this in less than an hour by luring him through it with cat treats. At first, hold the door open and lure him back and forth in both directions. Lure them through in both directions so they'll remember going through the opening on each side. Then lure him back and forth but drop the door on his back (not on his head because it will hit his forehead whiskers making him think something of unknown weight is coming down on his head). After doing that a few times, try luring him through it without opening it for him. Open it slightly so he can see it moves. He will start clawing at the edges of it trying to pull it open first but eventually he'll try pushing on it. Shake the bag of treats to provide more motivation. Lure him back and forth two or three times and that's it. At first they'll hesitate a bit before pushing it open but in a day or two they'll be running right through it like its not even there. Update 10/2023: Just bought another one for use on an inside door into bathroom where litter box is. Works great! Don't try to save $5 to get one for $15 or less..... you will get junk.

These really are well made. I bought a second recently to replace my original one as it was ~18 years old and showing its age from having multiple different cats going through it constantly, as well as getting a few things bashed into it. I like how the current version comes with screws that have larger heads; they're easier to work with than the older, small head screws. No wonder Bob looks so happy on the front of the box!

This Ideal Pet cat door was a nice yet still fairly inexpensive upgrade to a prior cat door (our very food-motivated, 8 lb cat destroyed a PetSafe one, pushing through the taped-closed lock and basically uninstalling it herself!). This Ideal Pet door installs securely with screws connecting both sides and, believe me, that's important if you have a need for the lock! The "dial style" locking mechanism is easy enough for a human to toggle but not so easy for a cat to move with its paw (which was also a problem with the PetSafe slide lock). The only thing I don't like about this lock is the bright red color, but this was one of the least-garish looking ones I could find in this price range. Other features of the Ideal Pet door are exactly as advertised so get a 5-star rating but you might want to consider pros/cons for your situation. The flap is truly see-through, though a tinted door might look nicer from a decor perspective depending on where it's installed and what's on each side. The magnet that keeps the door from flapping aimlessly is nice, too (you really don't know how much air flows through your house until you hear a non-magnetized door flapping back and forth with the slightest movements) but the magnet might be a challenge for some cats. Our cats were already used to having a cat door but it still took awhile for all three of them to get comfortable pushing a little harder to get the magnet to release and not being scared when it snapped shut behind them. A less-powerful magnet might be a bit better, or an simple way to block or remove the magnet if needed. Overall this is a great cat door at an unbeatable price. It installed easily and fit beautifully into our hollow-core interior door that's about 1.5" thick, covering the whole gap (yet another thing our prior PetSafe door failed to do). The size is perfect; we have three cats ranging from <7 to 11+ pounds and they all use it just fine. I highly recommend this door, especially having had an inferior one to compare it to, and you really can't beat the price for the features if they match your needs.

This little door has made our lives so much easier. It was the right size to fit in a side-sliding window without any other adjustments. This will be our third year using it. Our cat is a bit sensitive and initially did not want to try it, but she figured it out within a couple days and now goes in and out all day. I was initially worried about the door closing on her tail, but she has never reacted at all when it has happened, so it must not apply any force. We use it year round, even in the winter. Extremely strong winds can occasionally pop the door open, so we lock her in when this happens. Wonderful item.

This Chubby Cat Door caught my eye because of the name. The price was also about 30% less than similar doors. I have a chubby cat and was having a hard time finding one by searching- extra large cat door. The majority of doors in that category were too small. This door really qualified as an extra large cat door and it arrived fast , well packaged and very easy to install. I put it in a window and framed it in w/some extra wood I had around. It fit well and assembled so easy. It also functions well. My cat deserved a larger door-gladd I picked this one.

Easy to install, functions as described!

Good build quality. 4 way locking switch is of adequate size. Straightforward installation. The cutout template tells you exactly what to do and makes marking out the installation site for the door flap easy. You drill 10mm pilot holes only to get a jigsaw blade in there (Not required if you're using an oscillating saw or some other means of cutting out the door). The bottom of the flap should be no less than 4 inches from the ground and the top portion should ideally be about 2 inches more than your pet's shoulder height. Before purchase, I was not able to find any info on maximum door depth supported but after buying it, it looks like you can fit this on any door (or wall) you want as long as you are willing to get longer screws for extra thick walls. The provided screws should be adequate for 99% of doors. The only complaint I have is that the screw mounts are not threaded - the screws are self tapping and screw directly into plastic screw mounts. More secure, sure, but If you come in at the wrong angle I can easily see this breaking the plastic screw mounts, although they are extremely robust for what they are. All in all, good product that takes 30 minutes to install if you have the tools and know what you're doing, and the hardest part is training your pet to use it.

I installed this on my basement laundry room door to give my cats access to their litter box while allowing me to keep the door closed to prevent my dogs from occasionally raiding the litter box. If you're handy at all, the door will be a breeze to install. The instructions are clear, and comes with a template to use on the door that makes it easy to drill four holes at the corner of the opening you need create. From that point, it's just a matter of drawing guide lines for your jig saw and then cutting. Once installed, the door swings easily. If it's a bit stiff, you may need to loosen the screws at the top a little. I also really like the magnet feature that prevents the door from swinging too much after it has been used. I also like the telescoping frame which hides the unsightly interior edge of the opening that you cut to install the door. I installed this on a hollow door, so the opening would have looked really ugly otherwise. One of my cats took to using the door instantly. I think the transparent door flap helped with this. The other cat needed more encouragement (a gentle shove with treats on the other side) but still took to it quickly. It proved easier to train the cats to use the door that it has been to remind my family to close the laundry room door after leaving it ajar for so long. Haha

Estaba un poco renuente a comprarlo, pero al final siempre si me decidí. A mis gatos les tomo 2 días en aprenderla a usar. Cumple lo que promete. Tiene 4 modos, abierto totalmente, cerrado totalmente, solo entrar o solo salir. Tiene un imán que hace que la puertecita siempre quede en su lugar. Se ve de super buena calidad. Un detalle que si he de mencionar es que hace un poco de ruido cuando entrar y salen los gatos; y a veces en la noche eso puede ser molesto.

nice little cat flap