# How do I stop the neighbour's cat coming into my house?



## 2browncats (Feb 7, 2010)

Hello everyone! :smile5:

I need help stopping the neighbour's cat coming into my house, eating my cats' food and generally terrorising my cats. I have two 1 year old cats and recently I have noticed that their food bowls have been abnormally empty in the mornings. My husband and I have both caught the neighbour's black cat in our house eating our cat's food (and our meek cats just watching it!) but it runs away every time we catch it before we can do anything. One of my cats is now out of the house most of the night because I think she is scared/upset that another cat is coming into her house. We have a cat door (one of the 4-way setting ones), and I don't want to have to lock it all the time. Please help?! What should I do? Please note though:

(1) I live in a rental property so I can't change the cat door to a magnetic or microchipped one. Even if I could, my neighbourhood is quite upscale and lots of cats have the magnetic ones, and one of my cat's microchips has moved to under her leg so I don't think a microchip cat door would work for opening a cat door!!

(2) I am thinking of setting the cat door to exit only at night so that my cats can get out (ie to go to the toilet outside, as they don't use a litter tray), but I am worried that my cat that is staying out of the house at night will continue doing this (and worse) if she can't come in as she pleases. Additionally, I don't know if the black cat is coming in during the day while my hubby and I are at work... I don't think it is right now, but I guess it's only a matter of time.

(3) I have moved their food into another room (it's usually in the kitchen by the cat door) but I'm worried that the other cat will start roaming all through my house 

Any suggestions???   Thanks so much everyone for your time and help


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## owieprone (Nov 6, 2008)

Don't leave food in the cats bowls at night, if this is when he's coming in he'll soon stop when he finds there's nothing of interest. your cats will soon come to realise that late night is not one of their feeding times and change their routine accordingly.

move the bowls away from the door, and give them set feeding times, say morning, when you're in from work and a smaller meal before you go to bed that they will finish completely. 

you can also try shutting them in at night if the above doesn't work (try no food first), start at a weekend and possibly get them a litter tray until they figure out that they won't be getting out at night for a while. that way if they want out you don't have to get up at stupid o'clock on a work night, it won't take them long to figure out that they need to hold it in. 

have a water spray somewhere handy so that when he does show his face you don't need to be super close to show him what for.. make it as unpleasant as possible when he comes in and he'll think twice.

unluckily for you you have 2 shy young cats.. once they're abit older and bigger you might find the whole dynamic between them and the black cat change. our 2 females have scared the wits out of the neighbours ginger tom, he only has to look in the cat flap now and gets a face full of claws, and only comes in when he thinks it's safe..(cats out or upstairs in oblivion) he's scared of us so if we're in (husband is in all the time lol) he scarpers. however we don't bother trying to discourage him as the cats do that well enough and tbh there's NEVER any cat food for him to eat, neeps makes sure of that.

He's scared of neeps who is the same size as him and uses him as a toy, and is scared of bubs our tiny half siamese cos she has a vicious temper that belies her size lol. both are about 4 y/o when we rescued them and quickly put moonface in his place. we also have the magnetic type flap but dont bother using it as moonface decided he wanted in one night and just charged through it breaking the whole inside part of it off... so pretty pointless, he did that not long after neeps arrived.. he's never done it since though lol. we've gaffa taped over the magnet so it swings freely.

hope that helps


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