To ask how to get a cat to use a catflap?

[Bottleup]

Fitted last week. Have tried luring her with treats and things to chase but to no avail.

We stuck a small fluffy pompom in the bottom corner to encourage her to pat it - she soon figured out that the flap opened when she pushed it! But she would always prefer having someone open the door for her if she could. Diva.

I used a stocking to keep it wide open and put her on the "wrong" side of it just before dinner time and her food bowl on the other side of it, with a side helping of dreamies. Once she'd got the hang of leaping through the hole, I just lowered it a little bit every few days til it was shut. My cat is phenomenally greedy and would sell my kidneys for even a sniff of a dreamie, which helped ;-)

I taught one of ours with dreamies, gradual closing etc. The other wouldn’t have any of this, but learnt by watching him. Neither of them headbutt to get through though, they both push with a paw

My cat will come in through the flap but just can't get his head around going out through it

Mine is like that Gratz. Comes in fine but thinks the cat flap must open inwards and spent ages pulling it open with her claws.

That cat flap broke so it's just been replaced with one that scans the microchip both ways, so she must push it to open it. Thankfully she's got the hang of it already.

We went with the propping it open and posting method the first tome we installed one. Worked well for us.

To program the new one I literally accosted her with it on the sofa before it was fitted. Poor thing wondered why she was having a lovely snooze one minute then had her head covered with a cat flap the next, while it learned her microchip!

Mine will use it happily when I’m not in.
When I am, she will sit miaowing til I hold it open.
Can’t work out if she’s asking permission or just a princess.

I just kept posting mine through it until they got the hang of it (all 6 of them)

Our baby cat (he’s two now) has always been able to use one, he just got it, older cat (he was 4 before he saw a cat flap) will use it if no one is around but prefers to miaow until someone opens the door if we are home

One of ours used it once then never again. She's quite happy when it's taped open, will happily go in and out but as soon as its shut she won't. I don't think she likes the head butting.

We are all now her willing slaves who open the door for her whenever she desires.

No amount of dreamies, tuna, chicken has made any difference.

The upside is she's a proper mouser and can't bring anything in.

We recently had to teach a newly adopted cat.
It took two people.
Person 1 posts cat through, person 2 stands on the other side to offer instant treat.
We did it with the door open to start with (in both directions) then with the door closed.
It took about half a dozen repetitions.

She uses her nose to open it.

DSs practiced their rugby passes with ours through the flap. Moggy got the idea eventually.

Cats will feel very vulnerable using a cat flap. They need to feel protected as they're using the flap. One way is to make sure the cat flap is sheltered. Consider putting large ish plant pots near the door, to create a more protected space.

Don't push the cat through the flap. Pressure will make them anxious. And more resistant to using it.

With one of my cats I used ribbon to hold the flap open for a few days to get him used to it. Then gradually 'lowered' the flap so he had to do more of the work to open it when coming back indoors (to safety).

I vaguely recall a BBC documentary about the difference between cats and dogs and they talked about cat flaps in great detail.

Good luck!