Help or tips needed to get reluctant cat to start using spanking new cat flap

[iwantavuvezela]

We have just had one of those sureflap (that reads cat's microchip) catflaps installed.
However, our almost one year kitten is not so keen on using it.

Any tips from anyone who has got a relcutant kitty to use catflap!

Did you have a normal flap before that they were happily using? Or is their first experience of any flap?

Hold it open for Kitty a few times? Wave a treat from the far side of the cat flap?

I seem to recall that Lovethesea 's cats were a bit off about the clicking noise and she taped it up for a few days until they got used to it?

Maybe she'll comment later.

We had to prop the damn thing open for my thicko ginger Lion for months and months and months. Even watching the Snowshoe waltzing in and out at will didn't register in his tiny brain until one day when he just did it.

The Lion is incredibly stupid though.

Just as well you love him to distraction, eh?

I was cruel and kept picking her up And basically shoving her through it - she wasn't impressed but after half a dozen times she had Sussed it from the outside (though hubby had to put some bricks on steps so she is higher) took about a week before she went out through it.

we did the push them through from both sides method and now the use it

although one does lift the flap towards her and sneeks underneath

Thank you for the advice. It's the one that clicks open. Have been doing the push through and opening the door manually. Will keep persevering. Glad to know it clicks even if it takes months!

My eldest was sooo slow at getting to grips with it but her sister mastered it in a day!
I did posted her through it, called her from the other side with a bag of dreamies, sellotaped it open, made her wait it out, lifted it up for her etc.
Even now she occasionally goes on strike and waits for me to hokd it open for her!

deliasmithy is under the paw, eh?

tape it open through the day, for a few days.
Then let it down, but gently push him through from the inside a couple of times.
Works perfectly for all but the most flap-phobic!!

My father had to shove his cats through repeatedly (against some spitting protest)
They rapidly got the idea.

Push and shove method worked for us. One of each as each side.

Okay, going to take advice from here and tape it up for a few days - he is going in and out (if I open it manually and coax him through / and do some push and shove), but I think if I tape it open for a bit so he gets the hang of it, I can move to Phase 2!
Thanks for all the advice, good to know I dont have the only catflap refuser!
I will hopefully update soon that the catflap is been used

We spent ages posting our thick as two short planks cat through from one side to the other, tempting him with treats and heaping praise on him when he got it right. He did eventually get it. Now the issue is that DS likes to press the buttons on the top and locks the cat in or out until one of us notices.

I am totally under the paw when it comes to cat flap lethargy!

We have two cat flaps, one at each end of the house.

Our bossy, demanding old boy refuses to use either of them if there is a human around. He yowls for us to open the back door for him to go out, then when he comes back he yowls outside the window to be let in.

And we give in, every time!

As I type he's sitting outside the patio door, right next to a convenient cat flap, demanding that I slide the door open & let him in. I am doing my best to ignore him & refusing to make eye contact.

Meanwhile, the younger cat has just come up alongside him & leaped gracefully in through the flap with the minimum of fuss.

As for training to use the flap, we propped the door open for a day or two and posted the cats through a few times until they got the idea. I don't think either of them liked it much at first, but the desire to explore the great outdoors overcame their initial reluctance quite quickly.

Why use the cat flap when you've got willing slaves to do the business for you, eh?

You're doomed.

I did it by putting food on one side and the cat on the other. It took him about 2hrs before he cracked and used the flap, but then he was a greedy bigger.

Dreamies

They are like crack for my cats