Raccoon vs my cat door.

[danacat]

I went out of town for a few days, took my two travelling cats with me and left my half feral, half house cat, half barn cat behind as usual. She uses the cat door that’s installed in the kitchen door of my house and can come and go as she pleases. I left a ton of dry food and water for her + my barn help checked on her daily.

When I got back, barn kitty was fine of course. BUT…

… that night – just as I was about to close the pet door for the night (all cats stay inside house overnight) I saw a young raccoon scratching at the pet door – trying to open it.

This explained a lot! My barn help said they had to refill barn kittie’s dry food every morning. No way could she eat THAT much dry food! Obviously this little raccoon (teen age by its size) had learned how to open pet door, came into kitchen, helped itself to the dry food and waddled back out through the pet door.

Luckily no raccoon poop in the house – no damge or even foot prints. Very tidy little raccoon!

Anyway… I chased the raccoon off the porch – reluctantly because it was so cute – but now I’m worried I will have a visitor every night AND that it might have friends AND, AND, AND…

I won’t be going out of town for a while, so raccoon will have no success getting in through pet door while I’m here. But in order to discourage it from trying I was thinking of leaving food for it – well away from the house – with hopes that a feeding station will be the ‘go to’ place rather than my porch/pet door.

Anyone else have a raccoon/pet door problem? If so, how did you solve it?

[Bicoastal]

@danacat

in order to discourage it from trying I was thinking of leaving food for it –

Anyone else have a raccoon/pet door problem? If so, how did you solve it?

Nope, don’t leave food for it -anywhere at all. You want it to stop coming around.

The coon-in-the-cat door is not all that uncommon. The electronic doors that sync to the cat’s collar or microchip would prevent anything and everything that can squeeze through the day wandering through your house. Maybe locking it at night will be sufficient.

[NoDQhere]

We have coon issues every summer. My house is set up for the cats to come and go as they choose and there are many cats. I have been locking the cat food up at night so hopefully the coons learn there isn’t anything worth coming into this house for.

[JanM]

It could be a lot worse than a raccoon. A friend had a skunk coming in the cat door to the laundry room. Fortunately when he opened the door to the laundry he didn’t startle the skunk, and the man backed out and waited til the skunk left. Then the kitty door was closed until he put in a huge outdoor cage so the cat could get outside, but no skunks get in.

[SonnysMom]

My friend goes to FL for the winter and leaves the cats in PA. First year she had somebody checking the house regularly, year 2 she had a friend’s son living there. Both years a feral cat would come in when nobody was home, eat the cat food and spray in the house. The dogs weren’t home to deter her. Yes the feral is a female.

Last winter she got the magnet collars for the cats and that worked well. She had tried the microchip cat door but both of the microchip cat doors failed quickly as in within days.The magnet one has worked for over a year. One of the cats lost its magnet and got stuck outside. Another time one of the cats came in with a piece of metal stuck to the magnet.

[CanadianTrotter]

@JanM

It could be a lot worse than a raccoon. A friend had a skunk coming in the cat door to the laundry room. Fortunately when he opened the door to the laundry he didn’t startle the skunk, and the man backed out and waited til the skunk left. Then the kitty door was closed until he put in a huge outdoor cage so the cat could get outside, but no skunks get in.

:eek:

That was a close call! I couldn’t even begin to imagine how bad it would be if the inside of a house get sprayed by a skunk.

[danacat]

Little coon came back last night. And stupid me… I neglected to actually lock the pet door but did wedge my special board in the door jamb on the inside. It completely covers the pet door – I put it there so my cats don’t sit in front of the clear plastic door flap and stare outside wondering why they can’t go out. Once the board is there the cats know ‘outside’ time is over for the night. Works really well.

Anyway… in the middle of the night I hear a thud – I get up and YEP the board has fallen. Coon pushed it over. Must have really scared him because he was nowhere in sight. Maybe my mistake in NOT locking pet door was a good thing!

Tonight I won’t forget to lock pet door, though – plus will put board there as usual – but now I’m wondering how persistent this coon is going to be. How many failed attempts will it take until he gives up?

I’m not a fan of the chip/magnet doors either + don’t feel collars are safe for outdoor cats — so I guess it’s a ‘wait and see’ with this raccoon as to when it will give up.

Skunks! Hadn’t even thought of THAT possibility. And oppossums too.