I would like to discuss three types of cat door bells on this page. Before deciding to build this page I didn’t know any of them existed!
The first one is what I would expect a cat doorbell to be. It is a brass cat that surrounds the front door bell – nice. I might get one myself as I am moving shortly. It adds a personal touch to your home and it actually sends out quite a strong signal to visitors as to the kind of person who lives inside. Cat lovers are good people.
You can buy all three types on Amazon.com (the North American market) but none are available on Amazon.co.uk (the UK market). Where are the European/UK manufacturers? This is quite typical. The choice of products in the USA is wider and they are cheaper. I have never figured out why.
| This is a nice, sensible, “Brass-Plated Cat Doorbell Cover with Lighted Button” As I understand it, this is a door bell button rather than a brass surround of a cat that goes around an existing doorbell. Fitting it would mean removing the existing door bell button and wiring in this cat door bell button. There is an alternative version of this: Company’s Coming DBP-002 Cat Painted Doorbell Cover |
– it is more colourful and less realistic.
The next type cat door bell is one that the cat uses. Yes, it is a large button that a cat or dog presses. This causes the device to chime, which tells us that our cat or dog wants to go out or come in. However, if the device is designed to tell us our cat wants to come in it would have to be outside and this device is not waterproof or weather proof so it would have to be under cover. I would have thought that it would be better employed as an indoor device. Reviews indicate that it is not that well made! Not doing a great job of selling it, am I?
| It can be wall or floor mounted. The dog or cat has to be trained to use it. I sense that the training would be fairly straight forward as the reward (opening the door for the cat) would immediately follow the cat pressing the button. It requires batteries and the chimes are wirelessly connected to the button. There is an alternative to this device. Rather than a button, it has a pull handle: Cat Door Bells |
The final cat door bell device that I would like to mention is one that I am not sure about at all. I have never seen one before nor imagined it. I think it consists of mechanical bells attached to the figure of a cat made in leather which is hooked over the door handle of internal doors. It would seem to be for human use as a substitute to knocking on the door but I could be completely wrong. It does qualify to be described as a cat door bell, however.
| As you can see it is a nice little object. It is designed to be used at the front door too. I am not sure about the wisdom of that. Will it be stolen? Will it stand up to the exposure to weather? |
That’s it for the time being…..
