Cat & Pet Carrier - Wide, Top Loading Hard Carriers for Cats & Small Animals - Great for Your Guinea Pig, Bird, Hamster or Bunny Rabbit - in Purple-Bonus: Soft Bed Inside

This carrier is darling! I ordered 3 of them for myself & 2 other gals who foster kittens for a local animal rescue - we were able to contact the seller to request the bright green, which happens to be the logo color for our shelter. The picnic basket look is super cute, and the top loading is a must for any cat. The design of this carrier is great for toting around newborn bottlefed kittens, which was our main intended purpose. I have a special needs kitten right now who has Cerebellar Hypoplasia, which is a neurological condition he acquired while growing in the womb of a mama cat who had distemper. He LOVES his carrier & I take him all over town in it because he is ridiculously cute & then to carry him in a carrier that is ridiculously cute makes it off-the-charts cute!! ;-)The carrier even comes with a made-to-fit little fleece blanket/bed, but there is a lot of room in there for other things if you're toting around a kitten. A large cat may not fit in here. A medium size cat fits just fine. And I was able to practice with many of my fosters because everyone always wants to jump in a "box", which is what this feels like to them. No more shoving into a regular cat carrier. They jump in to this one by themselves!It seems a little pricey for a plastic carrier. The plastic is a little pliable which makes it seem cheaper than I expected, but it also makes it extremely light and makes it flexible. The price was worth it for us because it was our splurge purchase (with our own $, not the shelter's money ;-) ) because sometimes ya just gotta go in style. :-)The customer service on this order was exceptional. I received a fairly prompt response to my "Contact Seller" email through Amazon to inquire about color selection. Wish there was a way to select without having to email them. However, in emailing them, I mentioned that we were needing this quickly for an adoption event & gave a quick sentence about why we chose these carriers/why we chose green, etc. When the boxes arrived, completely fragile-proofed (even though it probably wasn't necessary - but appreciated the extra effort), it came with A HANDWRITTEN NOTE!! Whaaaaa? Wasn't that nice? In additional to a heartfelt appreciation for my order, they wished us luck on our event & gave us a little envelope with HOMEGROWN CATNIP in it for the kitties? Again, whaaaaa? I was very touched.

This is nicely light weight and easy to handle. Not all sizes of cats will fit in it. I would say only small to lean medium. The snap lock requires a fair amount of strength to lock it. If it is not locked properly the sound is different. Just redo it until you hear a firm pop. The plastic thickness is better than standard but not like tuff stuff toddler toys. I use these for my cockatiels. Finch size plastic food and water dishes from Lee's brand hook on the front and back walls perfectly rather than the sides because the pattern is not exactly the same so the dishes slide, making them not secure for car travel. The gap is wide enough to use a syringe for feeding baby birds to insert the water after a bird is locked in. Please have your birds wings clipped before traveling in this because it opens wide enough for them to fly out if they are scared. I personally don't recommend this for large birds because they most likely will chew their way out. I purchased one of these for each of my birds for traveling in the car together. They each can see the other, but have there own space. They seem happy and enjoy the sunlight that gets in. It does seem well vented for air circulation for cats and birds or any small animal that isn't prone to chew. For my birds, I tried it with and without perches. My birds seem to like it better without them. I cover the pad that comes with it with paper towel to prevent sliding. These are expensive but I looked at a lot of options for traveling with birds and this works best for us as Petmate no longer makes the carrier that my cats and birds both prefer in the original design.

not what i expected

Cute but the latch is hard to close. Also not meant for a larger cat.

Great for a small cat. My guys are 11-12 pounds and getting the lid closed without them getting out is a challenge, especially since their tail is always in the way. I wish this was bigger in all 3 dimensions because then it would be perfect. Great idea, just too small for many cats. I would add at least 3 inches to each dimension to make this realistic for my cats. I like the top door option because trying to stuff a cat into a front loading carrier is a joke.