cat doors

I am in Yr 12 and am making a cat door for my Design and Technology project. I need to know what need is out there for this type of door. Do your cats use their door, what are the problems with the cat door?

Thanks

My cats have access to a cat door 24/7 The only thing I can say is brand new out of the box the smell puts some of them off and they don't use it right away. This goes along with whether or not they have used a door or not, because when we remodeled, we took the old door down and put a new cat door in the new door.

I also think it's a nice touch to have some sort of brush along the sides of the door to take off excess hair as they pass back and forth. I have seen this, on some cat doors. I also notice the flap is sometimes made of such a heavy rubber material that some of the smaller cats have problems at first.

Hope this helps

Mine dont have a cat door at the moment but here a things to look out for...
Make sure it closes quietly after cat goes through.
Make it from a material i.e. perspex or the like so that they can see through so the other side isnt scary. I've never seen the rubber material ones hissy talked about.
4 way lock shutting is good as well (1 way only out, 1 way only in, 1 way in and out, 1 way totaly shut)
Large enough for a fat cat! without taking up the whole of the bottom back door!
I like the idea of the brushes on either side
Hope this helps - good luck

Ours has a plexiglas door, so they can see through. That's good. There is a light magnetic catch, so it doesn't flap around and let draughts in, but does respond to a nose nudge, once the cat knows what to do. It also has the four-way lock, and I wouldn't have it any other way. We've been happy with this design.

The only time the cats don't use it is if they think they can con a human. When that doesn't work, you can practically see them shrug their shoulders as they push through the door

My cats use their cat door to access their open-air atrium. It beats leaving the sliding glass door open, which the previous owner of my house used to do. Mine has a plastic flap, which gets moldy, my only complaint.

My cats used it all the time , I had a plastic door that would go both ways . But the entry only go into my cat enclosure or I would not have bought it ( safety reason ) . But my cats managed to rip it off . Now I only have the opening lol .

I actually have a cat door for Spike on my bedroom door.

I got it when he was just a little baby, and he did have some trouble getting through it at first, but we removed the magnet that makes it hold tightly closed. (It's one made to link to the outside, and would be great if it were windy, but since it leads to my hallway, I don't need to worry about wind. )

But anyway, after the magnet was out, he didn't have any problem at all, and he's been using it ever since. He will wait for me to open the door though if he sees me walking towards it.

My answer is yes and no..we have a cat door that is closed off to keep the babies inside for the winter, but we also have a make shift dog door in the garage on the wooden door to outside. It is just a square cut out of the door and a piece of carpet over it, the indoor/outdoors use that. They usually use the regular cat door which was here when we moved in, it is put into the wall, not a door. It has a clear rubber flap on it and they don't usually have a problem with it, except the 14 year old who goes out and then forgets how to get back in...

I have a cat door, that´s still in the original box
We bought it to put on the window in the bedrom, since that was their "free" room, and the rest of the flat was off limit when we were not at home, not to get males in to mark the whole flat (happened several times before). This is a special door to use in windows.
When my son was born, we decited to put it in the living room instead, and now they have that window, to the living room is off limit while we are out. But we havent got around to put it up yet, since we probably need a new window for it.

What I find important in a cat door is to have the 4 way lock system, and to have a magnetic operated opening, so that the cats have a small magnets fasteden to their collar, so only they can get in. My door has those things, but I also really like the idea of having a brush that would take most of the loose hair while they enter and exit.

Good luck with your project!