Catflap training

Manchee

So we have a rescue cat called Loki, we adopted him mid dec last year, so hes been with us just over 2 months. We've kept him inside so far but now I am trying to get him used to using the catflap.

At the RSPCA (where we got him) he was in a pen that had an indoor bit and an outdoor bit that was connected by a catflap so he knows what one is, but he doesn't seem to realise how to work ours! TBH hes not the smartest cookie in the packet, but he's my little baby lol.

Anyway, he can work it by accident (he stands there and scrabbles at it and eventually manages to get through), I've tried to show him how it works, I've pushed him through from eitherside, tried showing him to push against it to get it to open, encouraged with dreamies, but he still doesn't seem to get it. His pathetic little meowing when he wants me to open the catflat for him makes me feel so bad!

He's been in and out a few times today, eventually after a load of scrabbling, but I'm just concerned if he needs to come back in a hurry he's gonna just be standing there scrabbling and meowing. He's not the biggest of cats (he was taken from a house with a massive herd of cats, had hadn't been at the RSPCA for long before we adopted him, he was still just a skinny bag of bones and big eyes when we got him - soon fattened him up a bit though!) and I think he is only about 2, so would prob come off worse in a scrap with the other much bigger cats that live around here.

Am I just being a nervous hen over her chick? Do you think its gonna click for him? Is there anything else I can do to help him?

(Just for more info, he is neutered and microchipped, collared with his name and my phone number, and we have slowly let him get used to the garden by walking out with him for a few times before letting him go free range)

Sagz_2

I took the flap off for a while so my cats got used to going in and out the hole. Next stage was to put the flap back on but put a peg on it so it wasn't tight closed, they then just had to push a little to get back in. Once they were happy pushing it to come back in I took the peg off and they knew to keep pushing and it would open.

I have 3 females and a male: the girls all come and go as they please but the lad (neutered and now 10 months old) shows no interest in going out unless we are out in the garden so he hasn't bothered with the catflap at all.

cabbage

Hi

I have a microchip reading cat flap. My rescue cat was reluctant to use it and our fat boy doesn't use it all as he thinks he wont fit in.

Its a real boon in that my rescue cat can come in and out whenever he likes. If its dangerous out eg Bonfire night I can set it to in only etc.

Anyway, enough of that. The way I got him to use it was to bluetack it open in good weather so he got used to coming in and going out. Then when he was out one day and it was not blue tacked, I got a plate of cooked chicken and balanced on my shake n vac the other side of the door and hey presto he came in to eat it.

He uses it all the time now but if we are in the kitchen he usually stands at the door and looks up at us to open it for him. If we don't he gives in and activates the cat flap.

He doesn't jump through it though, its more of a push of a nose and in he comes. The cat across the road sometimes sneaks in when we open the door. When he wants out, he runs through it.

Have a go when its warmer.

Slinky

I shouldn't worry about him not being able to use it in a hurry if chased, our cat can be a very slow user of the flap, but sometimes comes through it at a speed that you wonder the flap's not torn off it's hinges.