Cats and catflaps, ideas please

[Zero00000]

We have 3 cats and a cat flap into a porch area, separate from the main house, with a WC.
This is where we feed the cats, and their 'safe' haven from the scary outdoors and the elements if they miss their curfew (not often but does happen)
There are 2 male cats that have been hanging around for a while, now it's quite obvious they come in the cat flap to eat the food,
Having 3 cats, we always make sure there are biscuits down all the time, because 1 tolerates the other 2, but will not eat with them around,
I learnt that the 2 cats wait for us to turn the lights off and go to bed, then they come in, or at some time during the night, so started locking the catflap overnight,
Now they hang around and come in during the day too,
But to top things off they have started spraying in the outside toilet too.. smells great!?!

So now we are keeping the cat flap locked all the time, which is fine, unless our cats are out and it pours down, like today.

Is there anything we can do?

I won't have collars on my cats (magnetic catflaps) and will not keep them in.

Eating the food I can almost bare, the spraying I can not!

I know where 1 cat comes from, I know her well enough to approach her, I have done before, and she denied the cat was her, because he 'wouldn't cross the road', but the other is a mystery.

I don't want to sound like a 'moaner' but I'm at my whits end and sick of my house smelling of cat pee!

Thanks

 

[Ormsweird]

Are your cats microchipped? If so you need a sureflap cat flap, reads their chips, only lets them in. We have one and it works well.

And they now have chip reading feeders, so our podgey boy might be on a diet soon!

 

[chestnut cob]

Change the cat flap for one that reads microchips and then it will only let in your cats.

TBH though it's a nightmare. When I bought my last house, the neighbour's cat had broken the cat flap from the garden into the conservatory, then the one from the conservatory into the kitchen. He'd sprayed everywhere, it stunk. The cat flaps were locked with those pieces of plastic inserted to keep them shut but he'd just forced his way in, destroying the cat flap. Our cat is primarily indoor (only goes out if we're in the garden) so we had to resort to nailing a thick piece of plastic over the outside of the conservatory cat flap. And the damn thing even tried to batter that down!

 

[Zero00000]

I never realised they had chip reader cat flaps, they are all chipped,
Thanks for the suggestion, will look into getting one of those.

Luckily ours is an insert that covers the whole flap not just a twist lock, so they cannot get in.

 

[webble]

Another vote for the micro chip cat flap they are really good

 

[Sussexbythesea]

I've also got a Sureflap battery operated microchip cat flap which works really well. Although my two cats spend a fair bit of time staring out of the clear flap which means it keeps unlocking then locking and therefore gets through a fair few batteries. I can't connect to mains where it is without a fair bit of expense.

 

[Zero00000]

I've ordered a sureflap this evening,
I had no idea there were electric flaps,

It was not too long ago we replaced this one too,

I didn't realise they had a mains option?
I only found battery, I'll try and do the same as the electric fence and have a spare set charged and ready to go.

 

[poiuytrewq]

What a clever product!

 

[Newlands]

We have the sureflap one too, it's really clever, love it!

 

[Emma_H]

Best thing I ever did getting a microchip cat flap. No more unwelcome intruders and no more scent marking. Tried them all, the magnet one, the infrared one but the sureflap is the best thing since sliced bread.
Also have the feeders for the fatty and the skinny so can control their portions.

 

[SEL]

We have a microchip one. There was some scrabbling at it the other day and I found an enormous ginger tomcat the other side trying to come in. I had wondered why my cat hadn't been out much recently so he'd obviously been hanging around.

At our old house my cat made friends with the kitten next door (she was only a baby herself really). He learnt that if he stayed right behind her as she came through the cat flap then it wouldn't have time to lock and he could enter, steal food and sleep on the bed!