Getting a cat to use a cat flap....

[AnotherNewbie]

So, I've had little maya for almost 3 months now and she's certainly settled in well! She likes to go out exploring, but only when I'm in and can leave the door open for her. We have lots of cats in the neighbourhood so I invested in a £50 microchip cat flap that is currently just decorating my door! How do you get a cat to go through it? She's not foody enough to bribe with food. She's come in through it twice when I've pegged it open for her so she's not had to push it, but even when pegged will not go back out through it! I can tell she's getting bored when not been out so I just want her to go and be a cat!
I posted her in through it from the outside yesterday and she turned into a slippery ferret, probably didn't help but made me feel better!

 

[Blanche]

I have used the posting through both sides and that always seems to do the trick and the ex ferals just copy everyone else.
I would perhaps try opening a tin of really smelly human fish( or whatever she likes), let her smell it, post her outside, put your hand through the cat flap with the smelly fish and then retreat back through calling her name and see if you can get her excited enough to fly through after your hand. And you could reverse the process to get her going out. It needs to be a high value treat( in her mind ) to try and override the reluctance.

 

[ycbm]

If you have already posted the cat, then put the cat out with strong smelling food inside, and wait.

Then put the litter tray just outside, and hope she will reverse the process when she wants to go out or have a wee.

We came across our first ever cat who would not go out, earlier this year. After trying all winter to pursuade him, we gave him to a neighbour who wanted an inside only cat. He's having a ball, and they adore him!

 

[soloequestrian]

I would leave the flap propped open for a while and just let the cat get used to it in its own time. I have a microchip flap and a normal one and the cats much prefer the normal one - the tunnel in the chip flap seems to make it quite uncomfortable for them to use.

 

[sbloom]

I've been trying for 2.5 years to get my rather special girl cat to use the flap, has been shoved through it several times, has it pegged open slightly (which she then will use) but nothing will incite her to shove it hard enough to open it. So she lives inside in the winter and has the door open in the summer.

 

[dogatemysalad]

We have a cat flap that opens into an indoor yard, but our two young cats have trained us to open doors and windows on demand. However, I did notice that during a heavy rain storm they managed to use it with ease. I also noticed that they were able to shove dead baby rabbits through which is quite a feat.
Maybe cats just prefer to train their owners to be on standby for door opening duties.

 

[WandaMare]

Cats can be so stubborn, when they know you want them to do something really badly some of them just won't We have cat flaps into the indoor area of the cattery pens and we also have a lot of house cats who have never used one before. I do the posting thing and some of them learn after one post, most learn after a few gos and some refuse blankly to ever go through. We end up propping them open for those. Most cats aren't food orientated enough to be lured through.

A scare seems to be quite a successful approach, when someone brings a noisy child into our garden that can be very effective or a nearby car back firing works well, they soon learn when they want to.

 

[D66]

Our cat flap is also used by the parsons JR who wasn't keen to start with. We put a small step outside which has helped.

 

[sbloom]

I also noticed that they were able to shove dead baby rabbits through which is quite a feat. Maybe cats just prefer to train their owners to be on standby for door opening duties.

My girl cats brother brought a live pigeon through the cat flap almost the very first day they were allowed out...she remains firmly in the latter camp...and they both wear bells on their collars now! These are dappy rehomed pedigrees who I really thought woudn't have the nouse to hunt...

 

[asmp]

Our cat flap is also used by the parsons JR who wasn't keen to start with. We put a small step outside which has helped.

We have a step outside back door for the cat flap too. It was for our previous elderly cat but just realised it is still there and we've had this cat for 3 years!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I've got a little cat who came from a farm as a kitten; she has never, ever "got it" as far as using the cat-flap is concerned.

We've tried everything; shoving her in both ways numerous times till she's sick of it, putting food there, everything.

But she's a blinking pest, always hanging round the door - if you go to the car for something, and leave the door propped open, she'll be inside the house before you've blinked, but won't be confident enough to use the cat-flap to get out again!

She just hasn't ever figured it out. We've just abandoned hope that she ever will! She lives as an outdoor, "yard" cat, that's just the way it has to be with this one!