Cats and Bi-Fold doors

[talon]

Our new house has bi-fold doors on all the closet doors, which is a total change from the sliding closet doors on the old house. My problem: Max is nosey - he has figured out how to stick his paw under the fold in the door and pull. Viola! Open door with cat snooping and/or sleeping. Not just one closet door, ALL of them.

Ideas? Or is it as I suspect, just live with it and hope he grows out of it?

 

[blondiecat]

As much as I hate to say it I don't think that he will ourgrow it. Oscar and The Sammycat do the same thing all the time. I have yet to find a way for them not to get in there either

 

[jcat]

Could you put hooks and eyes to hold the "fold" closed when he pulls? I've found they work wonders when you don't want furbabies opening doors. You'd have to make sure he didn't pull the door off the track and hurt himself, though.

 

[grissom]

is it two bifold doors meeting in the middle or just one? When we had the two that met in the middle, my mother got decorative hook type things that latched over the two knobs. Then the cat (or kids) couldn't pull them open.

 

[talon]

Some doors it is just one set of doors, others it is two. What kind of decortive hook type things were they?

The hook and eye thing is an idea, but *I* might forget they are they and break the dang door.

I have a feeling blondiecat that you are right, he may not grow out of it. I will have to put any breakables up high. The things we do for our babies.

 

[purrfectcatlove]

How about magnets ? I also have those doors and some have some hooks on it

and works pretty well .

 

[talon]

Nope magnets wouldn't work, they are wood.

 

[katl8e]

Itty Bit,one of my past cats never outgrew opening the bifold linen closet door and she lived to be over 13. A simple hook-and-eye latch cured that problem. She kept trying but, never got the door open. The linen closet was where she stashed her paper wads.

 

[lilaggie]

My 12-year old has started doing the same thing. Lillie can open every cabinet at her height and the both bi-fold doors I have. She actually broke one. I'm trying to train her out of it and also considering replacing it with a real door if I can. I was relieved to know it wasn't crazy behavior or something. It's an odd crawl-space and some spots in there are so tight that I really don't want her going back there. So this is not a weird aging health behavior problem or anything? Thank you

 

[2bcat]

I had a cat who could open bi-fold doors and cabinet doors.  Although she's been gone a few years, to this day the lower kitchen cabinets in my current house still have child locks (no children, and the current cats don't mess with them).  She could also open the lower kitchen drawers too and those used to have a latch on as well.

If your bi-fold doors are short enough to reach, there is a child latch made for them that slips over the part where they fold, preventing the doors from folding and thus from opening.  You need to be able to reach the top of them to unlock it though.  In my house we have some doors that go all the way to the ceiling, so I ended up with a latch of some kind in the middle.  The safety child lock is nicer in that it doesn't permanently mar the door (good for rentals, etc, although I screwed things into the bi-fold doors at my last rental years ago and was not dinged for it).  You can buy the safety product at Lowe's/Home Depot or online. The one I got is from Safety 1st but in a quick search I see there are a couple other different designs. Just search for bi-fold door child lock.

 

[detroitcatlady]

Hook and eyes are really the most secure thing you will find for this. Are your bifolds the kind that fold in the center and have a knob on each side? If so, you could try using rope or something similar to go around the knobs over the area where it folds to prevent the door from folding to keep it closed. Cabinets may be more challenging. I know they make cabinet locks but the way this usually works you would have to put on the new hardware that locks (unless using hook and eyes)

 

[lilaggie]

Thank you all!

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I have these: Slide Locks  all over my house because I have young kids.  They work great and they are easy to remove; no hardware installation required!