Cat flap issues

GwylimT

I really hope you don't have neighbours who have to put up with that!

Why don't you just set the catflap so they can't go out at night, that would resolve the issue straight away.

Flick216

nicter wrote: »

Take him for a bloodtest
Cats often do the "yowling" bit when they have thyroid problems .
good luck x

Thanks - I'll give the vet a call

no1catman wrote: »

When you 'let him in' do you open the door, or (if it's the same door that the cat-flap is attached to) hold open the flap for him to come through - thereby getting him used to it as an entry point, not just an exit.

I'm in the opposite situation, mine has got the hang of coming in, apart from one time when the sensors got clogged up with her fur! The trouble is, she likes to go out through the French doors, rather than the back door where the cat-flap is. So it's difficult to 'train' her! Sometimes she looks through it, and I'm waiting hoping, then she turns away.

Hopefully she'll have a 'light-bulb' moment when she realises that it's an exit as well as an entry.
Meanwhile, it's 3.30 or 4.00 am to let her out, back to bed, with her coming back in with a bang about ten minutes later.

No - he always wants to come in either through the front door or the french doors. It's just completely random though - he's not even consistent with it!

GwylimT wrote: »

I really hope you don't have neighbours who have to put up with that!

Why don't you just set the catflap so they can't go out at night, that would resolve the issue straight away.

It's really hard to explain to cats who have had free access for the whole of their lives, why they are now not allowed out at night! I tried that with one of them once and he went through the house at night knocking things off shelves to express his displeasure.

And if I have to put up with their car alarms, house alarms, loud music then they can damn well put up with my loud cat a couple of times a week!

SensibleSarah

I feel your pain. One of my cats is fully able to use the pet flap in the back door and does so many times daily - yet he also sits outside by the front door if he knows I'm in (which is right next to the lounge) and scratches and yowls to be let in - often only seconds after letting himself out at the back. He also rips the house apart and bullies my other cats if I try to keep him in.

I'm pretty sure he's not senile (he's 12), just a massive PITA as he's always had a repertoire of annoying behaviours that he just rotates every few months. If it's not scratching and the door and yowling at all hours, it's ripping down wallpaper with his claws, it's tipping over every single one of the 3 large water bowls in the house, jumping on the heads of my other cats or winding up the dog.

That said, a sudden change of behaviour in your cat is a good enough reason for a vet check and blood test IMO. Mine has just always been a nightmare!

Jemima09

9 doesn't sound old but it is in cat years.. one of our 10 year old cats at my parents house has given up on the cat flap but only if anyone is in viewing distance of a door, then she will sit and cry and wait for someone to open it.. but if no one is about then she happily uses the flap. I wonder if it just gets a bit uncomfortable in older cats?

at my house the cat flap is in a glass patio door, and therefore slightly higher up than the average, so I have got a step inside and outside. Is the flap a bit high? could you try adding a step? especially on the outside where they need to get close to the sensor.

Gloomendoom

I set our cat flap to out only because I was fed up with the cat bringing me presents back in. He did have a warm boiler room to sleep in. However, not content with that, he used to climb up the front of the house and hammer on my bedroom window while yowling.

Consideration for my neighbours always made me let him in and I could never stop him doing it.

Smodlet

Please do get the furry, little so-and-so checked out to be on the safe side... and, if the vet pronounces him fine, just try to console yourself with the knowledge that cats were once worshipped as gods; cats have never forgotten this.