Is my cat just really thick?

[BikeRunSki]

Rescue girl tabby. She’s nearly 3, we’ve had her since just before her first birthday. She has a microchip cat flap. She used to use it quite happily. When the batteries ran out it didn’t work for a couple of days, we’ve changed the batteries, all works fine, but she won’t use it. At all, ever. I’ve shown her plenty of times. Tried putting her food on the otter side. Nope. Either to thick, or posh, to use it! She gets shut out for hours at a time when we are at work! Dizzy mare.

I was really curious about what you were going to say before I clicked on the title

With my first cat, in primary school, my mum used to shove her through it until she got used to it. Not sure how brutal that was.

If food and opening it aren't working I think you may have to persevere until she learns

Probably a really silly question but have you reprogrammed it to remember her since the battery change?

Yes Oops. It’s the cat that needs reprogramming!

She’s had plenty of shoving too Bullet.

Does she have form for being awkward in other ways? I've just written on another post about one of mine who forgot how to use a cat flap after a week. She subsequently sits for an average of 5 mins a day trying to pull the cat flap towards her to get out of the utility room. I don't know whether she will ever be able to remember to use the microchip cat flap when our extension is built

I suspect not thick but a little bit stubborn

I used to have a cat that figured out how to pull the cat flap open. I had a catflap that was lock in, lock out and lock completely. I also had another cat who refused to come when called.
I wanted to lock it at dusk, one cat in, so in only 'should' have worked. So I resorted to locking in the stubborn cat, then when the flap opening cat came in I locked it completely.
I also had a cat that was originally indoor only, ham worked with him, but he was more likely to sit at the kitchen window staring in.

We had to post our cat through the flap before she got the hang of it. Sometimes if it doesn't open first go though she miaows in a pitiful manner. I think cats are just dickheads really.

Feel your frustration. Our cat is 11yrs old and if we are in the house he refuses to come in through his cat flap. He does this crashing/lifting it with a paw and slamming it until one of us breaks and goes and opens the door. His willpower is stronger than ours.
But he manages to use it when we are out....

One of my cats long gone, used to flick the cat flap and one day got his paw caught. The screams were unbelievable and trying to release his paw was a nightmare. He never flicked it again, silly sod

She's a cat. She does not believe she should have to use a cat flap, and she is persevering at training her owner

One of ours will only use it one way - fortunately to go out.

She prefers to jump the 6ft (house is on a steep hill so windows go from being ‘normal’ height to stupidly high as you go front to back) onto a sloped window ledge, through the climbing rose bush that surrounds it and hope someone has left the kitchen window open.

If they haven’t, she will cry until someone carries her in!

So as far as she's concerned, it worked - then it didn't. Perhaps there was some embarrassing circumstances surrounding that - perhaps she ran into it head first in front of a squirrel or something. And bounced off. And the squirrel laughed. And told its squirrel friends. And now she's not going to believe that it's working again, in case it stops working and she makes a twat of herself again. It's quite simple really.

Veganlan

If she's used it before, she probably just needs a bit of practice. When we got our rescue last year, it took 4 weeks to get her to use it. I started by pegging it completely open (although it wasn't January!) then gradually lowered it. She would still only go through it when it was a bit open for ages though. Eventually, I refused to open the door for her and just put her paws up against the cat flap every time she wanted to go through it. She still obviously doesn't like using it but at least she'll go through it now.

Maybe she ran into it while the batteries were dead - it took ages before one of mine used a really nice cat bed I bought (it's a miracle she used it at all). It fell off the sofa when she jumped into it once and now that's it - even when it's on the floor she won't go near it. So perhaps smart with a good memory rather than thick?

It’s ok. My cat goes outside to play for hours and comes back in to use his litter tray. He hasn’t figured out that he can pee outside if he wants to.
He’ll howl at the back door, come running in, quick tinkle and runs back out again.

Our cat uses his cat flap quite happily most of the time. (Despite being a biffer who can only just squeeze through it).

However when he can see us in the kitchen through the patio doors, he’ll sit outside them looking at us and mewing in a pathetic fashion until we let him in through the doors. It’s like using the cat flap is far too much effort 🙄😆

Is it definitely registering her chip? Does it click when she goes near it. Our chip flap forgot the cat’s chip this week. I had to reset it and reprogramme it. In between the flap forgetting and me realising (about 24 hours) she got funny about even going out through it.