Training the Cat to use the Flap

[EvianBaby]

I feel like I'm single handedly keeping this site in questions at the moment.

Anyway, got the new cat flap. Any tips on how to get the bloody animal to use it. I wasn't expecting miracles but he pretty much refuses to even acknowledge it's there.

I did get him to come in through it yesterday by holding it open and tempting him through with treats but it took about half an hour and he's already quite fat, he won't fit through it if I have to give him many more treats.

[wolf63]

Your cat did that amazing act for two stupid sweeties? Mine demand tinned tuna if I try to get them to stop beating the carp out of each other.

[EvianBaby]

Well he walked through it yeah, but only becaue I tied it up so he doesnt have to push it open.

And now he's sitting at the door, looking at me wondering why I'm not opening it. I'm pointing to the cat flap but he's pretending he can't see it. Bafoon.

[wolf63]

One word in your reply says it all "he". Having said that it is my lady cat who is seriously stupid.

[ruthann58]

i left mine pulled up like in your photo for a few days till they got the idea of going in and out though it

[wiltsman]

My cat was thirteen when I decided to fit a cat flap. It took six weeks - but then all of a sudden he decided to use it.

[EvianBaby]

Lol Wolf, I think they are all stupid when they want to be.

That's what I was thinking Ruth, let him get used to just going in and out and then try and get him to open it himself.

I went out for an hour and he's nowhere to be seen so he must have used it as he was in when I left.

[Jofuonee]

Your solution will work whilst the weather is fine, but once a cold wind blows...

I think you're just going to have to line the cat up and push him through, then repeat from the other side. Do that about 5 times and he'll start getting the idea.

[boxtops]

sandyroe "Could you go outside, kneel down, open the flap, and call the puss? Maybe tempt it with something tasty? "

I did that in a previous house - failing to remember that I lived opposite the Coop, on a main bus route. Half of Brighton was treated to the sight of my backside, with my head through the catflap, trying to incite said puss to come out....

She did get the hang of it, though!

[boxtops]

mind you, this reminds me of my house in Birmingham - we had a dim carpenter to put the catflap in the inner front door - just in time we realised that he was planning to cut the hole 2 ft off the ground. Giraffe cat!

[Hopkirk]

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