Cat flap through a wall - do cats use them ok?

[Linda D]

How are you going to make good a foot-long hole in a wall when you move out?  And wouldn't making the hole and installing the cat-flat be more expensive than fitting a new door and cat-flap?

[Zenith (Liz)]

My parents had a tunnel built into their think conservatory wall, the cats use that fine though the flaps been busted broken so many times by the neighborhood bullies

[Gillian Harvey]

My mum had a cat flap installed in a wall with a tunnel and flap on the outside wall, and her cats never had any problem using it - even when it was first installed, you could hardly keep them out of it! I don't know what make of flap she had though (it was a long time ago now!)

[scattycat]

Oh believe me I'm fully aware that accidents happen during the nighttime, that's why we keep ours in overnight at the moment and do not let them stay out - I can recall quite a few nights where I've stayed up till a cat's come home

I'm not saying we'd set it to open at 5am just because one of them wants to go out at that time - as I know as soon as he realises that at X time the flap opens he can go out, he's intelligent enough to work out when that time is, so wont bother us.

I'm more concerned whether the tunnels actually work - as I dont want to put a large hole in the wall only for them to refuse to use it.

[blackcat]

scattycat it is not a good idea to give your cats free access to the outdoors overnight as that is when most accidents happen. The five am demands are only because it is summer - come winter they will happily sleep until 9. It is a lovely time of day, five o'clock (I know, I was awake at that time this morning as the local fox paid a call and the dog didn't appreciate it, lol). Adopt country hours and you will be fine ...

[scattycat]

We're thinking of getting a cat flap installed - as we're getting fed up being woken up at 5am every morning with the 'I want to go out' yowls! 

We've worked out we could buy a front door and install a cat flap in it (would cost around £200 in total) - reason I say 'buy a front door' is we rent and are not allowed to put one in the Landlords door.

We're now wondering whether a cat flap through the wall might be a better idea - I know technically we should get permission for it, but hiding it will be easy on inspections.

My only concern is that the tunnel for the cat flap would be 10-12"s long - do cats willingly use tunnels this long?

We're looking at getting a Petmate elite cat flap (where you can programme your cats in, and it automatically opens closes etc) - does anyone know if these types work with tunnles - I'm scared that the cat will get stuck in the tunnel as one of our cats is quite small/short in body length