If you live in a home with medium- to large-sized dogs as well as cats, there are lots of reasons you might find it beneficial to snag a pet gate that allows cats entry through a small cat door.
A lot of dogs get into not only cat food, but cat litter, to chomp away at what’s there, and this can prove incredibly frustrating in many households.
If you have a cat who needs to eat small portions frequently like I do (my Bjorn vomits if he’s got an empty stomach for too long), or if you have a dog who just can’t stop “helping himself” to the “presents” left by your cats in their litter box, you’ll likely find blocking off a space for your cats that your dogs can’t get into quite a simple fix to the problem.
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Same goes for pet parents whose dogs may not be snacking on things they shouldn’t, but do end up playing around in and making quite big messes with litter boxes left out for cats.
There are quite a lot of pet gates with cat doors out there, many being walk through varieties, which are especially convenient. There are also extra tall varieties available as well if you need the extra height. Freestanding options are available, although typically without cat doors, though DIYing is quite easy on many of these if a freestanding variety is more in line with your needs.
Besides pet gates with cat doors, there are a lot of products out there may work out perfectly as alternate solutions to your specific problem. Likely some of these will work out better for you than pet gates, as many are ridiculously affordable, even cheaper than pet gates with cat doors, and others are more space conservative, allowing your cats access to small spaces that dogs aren’t able to get into, without costing your dog an entire sectioned off space.
There are options that work better if you happen to have small dogs that might be able to get through a cat door in a pet gate, so if you were hoping for a solution that would remove access to all dogs without removing access to cats to food and litter, but couldn’t think of one and so were planning on settling for only allowing small dogs in – there is a really easy fix.
I’ll get into all these alternate solutions in a second list after I’ve mentioned a number of options you have when it comes to pet gates with cat doors specifically, since that’s what you came for originally.
Pet Gates with Cat Doors: Keeping Dogs Out, While Letting Cats In
1. Carlson Extra Wide Walk Through Pet Gate with Small Pet Door, Includes 4-Inch Extension Kit, Pressure Mount Kit and Wall Mount Kit
Carlson seems to make some of the most frequently bought and well-loved pet gates you can buy right now. This gate in particular is one of Carlson’s most popular options. It’s extra wide, has an extension kit, has a walk-through gate so you can get by easily. It has a small pet door for cats. It’s easy to remove if you need to because it’s pressure mounted if that’s what you’d prefer. But if you’d like a more permanent solution instead, there’s a wall mount kit as well – so either way you’re set with this particular option.
2. Carlson Extra Tall Walk Through Pet Gate with Small Pet Door
Need an extra tall variety because you have extra-tall dogs? These types of gates are also really easy to find, and they typically don’t cost a whole lot more than regular-sized pet gates either, which is extremely nice.
3. Carlson Pet Products Lil’ Tuffy Expandable Gate with Small Pet Door
In case you’re not looking for a tall gate because you have shorter dogs, this low-rider pet gate with a cat door might be the perfect solution. A lot of small dogs seem to easily be able to get through many metal gates, but this one does an excellent job keeping them out. Need to keep the small pet door closed because you find your dogs going through it? Still seems to be no problem, as it looks like cats are able to jump over this reasonably short pet gate. And all for a ridiculously low price in comparison to most pet gates, what could be better?
4. Cumbor Auto Close Safety Baby Gate, Extra Tall Durable Dog Gate with Door
Looking for a pet gate that has an auto close feature, is extra tall, and has that small cat door feature you’re after? Again, this is pretty easy to find as well. Pressure mounted to boot so you don’t have to screw it into the wall or live with it permanently if you don’t want to.
5. Total Win Freestanding Pet Gate for Dogs with 2PCS Support Feet
While there aren’t any freestanding pet gates for dogs that have cat doors based on what I found, there are a number of wooden freestanding pet gates that would do the trick if you or someone you know was happy to take a saw to a few of the bars and make a little opening big enough for a cat. Pet owners love this one because it’s pretty, sturdy, and easy to open to get through.
Many seem to use multiples laid out one after another for very wide spaces in the middle of rooms, like living rooms, which is hard to do with most pet gates since they’re not freestanding.
If you have very big or very rambunctious dogs, they may not be enough on their own to keep dogs out. One reviewer mentioned: ” If you have a dog that is like mine and is stubborn and does not like boundaries… they will slide this gate right on over.. It became clear to me that I had to put something heavy on each end of the gate to stabilize it and to keep her from pushing it over… The feet do help keep the gate stabilized mostly but they do not prevent the gate from being slid over!!” If you can use some furniture to do that, you should be good to go.
6. Carlson Pet Products Design Studio Home Decor Walk Through Pet Gate
Need a pet gate, but want something that looks a lot better than the average white metal one, say because you’re planning on making it a permanent feature in your house? This gorgeous black pet gate with a cherry wood accent should definitely do the trick. Super convenient since it’s walk through as well.
7. North States MyPet Petgate Passage: Secure gate with Small Lockable Cat Flap
If you prefer a cat flap over a cat door that can swing open and closed when it comes to the integration in a pet gate, you might want to check out this offering.
Alternatives to Pet Gates with Cat Doors That May Work out Better
1. Door Buddy Door Latch Plus Door Stopper
If you already have a door in place where you’d like to keep dogs out, a cheaper, simpler, and easier to implement solution is to use a cat entry door latch to keep dogs out, yet allow cats access through into a room of choice. There are alternatives to the particular pet door latch I recommended, the Woof Woof Castle Peek a Boo – Keep Your Dog Out of the Kitty Litter for instance, but no matter which you grab it’s nearly always a better option if you’ve already got a door where you want a pet gate to go.
2. The Kitty Pass Interior Cat Door
In case you have a door in place, but prefer or need for any reason to keep the door physically closed while still allowing cats access through, there’s no better solution than to install an indoor cat door on your interior door, like the Kitty Pass or one of these other interior door cat doors. They’re incredibly affordable solutions that work really well if you’re planning on living where you are long-term, and in my opinion look ever so cute.
You can also use an interior cat door on a piece of furniture, like a dresser or a chest, to create a safe little space for cats away from larger dogs, but without the sacrifice of putting a hole in a door or giving up too much space away from your dogs. This could work especially well for hiding litter boxes if medium to large sized dogs get into them, or for hiding food and water bowls larger dogs may need to lose access to.
3. Merry Pet Cat Washroom Bench
Love the idea of a small cat door in a piece of furniture allowing access to cats but not large dogs, but would rather buy a piece of furniture instead of DIYing? Try grabbing a hidden cat litter box like the Merry Pet Cat Washroom Bench instead. There are plenty of other hidden cat litter boxes that suit this purpose quite well with no DIY-savvy needed on your part, so check those out if you like the idea of this system.
4. Petsfit Espresso Double-Decker Pet House Litter Box Enclosure
If you absolutely need to keep small and large dogs out of a cat’s litter box, but also would like to keep food and water away, all without losing space, these types of double-decker hidden cat litter boxes work perfectly. A lot of pet parents seem to be using them for this particular reason, keeping a cat litter box in the bottom section and food/water bowls in the top. Makes for the perfect compact, safe cat space, away from all dogs (since they can’t jump like cats!), no matter the size.
5. SureFlap – Sure Petcare Microchip Cat Flap
If you really love the idea of having a little cat door integrated into the bottom of an interior door, but desperately need it to be completely small-dog proof, the one way I can think of to make sure this happens is by integrating a microchip cat door, like the SureFlap. There are alternative microchip cat flaps, and if your pets are not chipped, you can actually buy RFID collars to use to activate these instead. But basically they allow you to control what pets go in and out on a pet-by-pet basis, and thus mean no access can be given to specific pets, while complete access can be given to others. Worth a look.
Your Thoughts on Pet Gates with Cat Doors?
Have you ever thought of using a pet gate with a cat door? What type of problem were you trying to solve?
Do you still think a cat door pet gate is the best fix for your problem, or did you find a better fix for you in the alternate solutions section? Have you thought of something else that would work out even better than what I listed here?
Love to hear all your thoughts on pet gates with cat doors – if you’ve ever tried one, whether you liked or dislike it, whether you think they’re a good solution for you, or you’ve found better options – in the comments down below!
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