Cat Flap Help!

[Unreasonabubble]

Attached is a picture of my Mistress, her name is Cleo. Cleo was given to me as a present by my children at Christmas to keep me company in the lockdown as I live alone. She is adorable.

Cleo is now 8 months old and loves to be outside. She is no longer using her litter tray. Trouble is, I have tried to get her to use the cat flap but she is not keen.

The cat flap goes through the side of the house so it has a flap on the inside, a short tunnel and then a flap on the outside. I have tried gently pushing her though and she will eventually go out the other side. I have held the indoor flap open and she investigates and then moves through the tunnel. She even meowed to come in from outside yesterday but she appears to have no idea that she has to push the flap open!

Can I ask for your wisdom in getting her to do this please? I am so very tired of having to sit up until my Mistress comes in at 1.30pm.

And if you look at the photo, the dirty stop out is sleeping now so I am in for another late night.

[ButItRingsAndIRise]

Have you tried putting treats just inside the flap so, if she goes forward to smell them, the flap moves so she figures it out?

[minipie]

Yes treats in the tunnel, then take her round the outside and open the outside flap for her slightly (not fully so she still has to push it open a bit)

[ViperAtTheGatesOfDawn]

Can you prop the flaps open while she gets used to just going through the tunnel, then un-prop one flap for a while until she gets used to that and then the other.

You can take the magnet strip off some flaps so there's less resistance and this can help too.

[helpfulperson]

Initally I would tape the door open and go to bed. No burglar is going to get I through a cat flap.then pick a warm dry day where they can stay out all day if necessary and close it. They will work it out. Just because they don't doesn't mean they don't know how to - they are cats.

[MrsPelligrinoPetrichor]

You need to do treat training, took a week for us!

[Intercity225]

ITA, we had a cat flap, which they knew perfectly well how to use at night - but in the daytime, they preferred to jig about by the front or back door, until we opened it for them!

[Delilah1234]

We have a similar set up, but prop the outside flap open, they don’t like pushing 2 flaps - too much like hard work!

[Mangofandangoo]

Put her one side, dangle ham, repeat

[Unreasonabubble]

Thank you everyone for your replies. For some reason "My Mumsnet" did not show any notifications!!! I thought maybe my poor little cat was not worthy!!!!

I will try the ham dangle and, when it stops raining, getting flaps open and letting her wander backwards and forwards.

She is out at the moment, I have never seen the Handmaids Tale so I am starting on that. No doubt I will see all the first series before she deems to come in.

I will let you know how she gets on.

[25yearsnhsworker]

My cat took two weeks to start using the flap properly.
We also have an outdoor cat house that he used pre flap if we were not there to open the door. Would a cat house be an option to rest your mind.

[Unreasonabubble]

We have had some success! I taped open the indoor flap this weekend and she tentatively went out a few times but would only come back in if gently pushed through. This morning, however, she went out AND came back through it. I think the rain helped!!! Will keep the indoor flap open for a few more days so she gets more confident and then I will try her with both flaps closed.

@25yearsnhsworker loved the little outdoor cat houses!

[AlfonsoTheMango]

Huzzah!

[AltiC]

We turned off the magnets as she hated the click initially. We used to put our cat outside first thing so she was hungry greedy and then start getting her food ready indoors, tapping the tin and making it obvious... We put just a little bit of food in the bowl, in sight of the cat flap, and walked away ignored the pitiful wailing... She had figured it out within 10 mins :) We repeated a few times each morning until she was coming in before the bowl was even down, then turned the magnets back on. She still wails if she thinks we are nearby and can be summoned to open the door for her