Kitten won't use cat flap

[peanutbuttertoast]

I have an 8 month old kitten who won't go through our cat flap unless it is held open for her. She will happily go outside if the door is open, and will come back inside through the cat flap on her own if the door is closed (although will wait around by the door if she can see that someone is in the kitchen and can open the door for her) her sister who is the same age uses the flap normally, as do our other two older cats. Has anyone experienced this and if so did you find a solution? Or did you just have to wait?

Oh and also - didn't want to make another thread - but said kitten can't miaow either?! Just makes a kind of breathy noise.

Any advice much appreciated

She knows you can be trained to open the flap for her. So far it's a bit hit and miss but she is confident she can condition you to do this for her.

Yes I agree, we need to stop opening it for her - will be doing that as of now

It sounds as if your training is progressing nicely.

This could have been my post about three years ago!
Our kitty was just the same - would happily go outside but only if the door was open or if one of us held the cat-flap open. I thought she'd never 'get it'.
Firstly, is the drop from the flap to the ground too high? Ours was and so we put a couple of paving slabs outside as a step.
Then we put treats outside on the step to encourage her through! I'd say it took a week or two and then she just clicked and now she's in and out with no problems.
Oh and ours doesn't miaow either!

Thank you rainbowstardrops, we have paving slabs outside the flap already as the drop is quite high. Might add another paving slab, and treats are a good idea! Thank you

We had the same and it took a week of actually posting cat through the flap every time he wanted to come in or go out and not opening doors instead of using the flap. He uses it all the time now, thank goodness.