Cat flap resistance

[owlshooting]

I have a young cat and we have just got a cat flap installed at vast expense. She hates it. She will go through it at night on her own but will NOT come back in the house using it. She will howl outside for hours and stare at us through the window but will not use it. If I go outside and push her through she will just go floppy and let me do it, but unless i hold it open for her will not come through of her own free will. I have tried dreamies, food, all sorts. Is she just incredibly stupid or what?
It doesn't have batteries or anything, just a standard cat flat.

She’s bright enough to train you to do it for her.....

Sometimes they take a while to adapt to it.

Is is more resistant on the way back in? Is she strong enough to open it ok?

We had to keep ours tied open for ages using string that we looped around the door handle.

One night the dog must have knocked it and it closed and we discovered that FalconCat was perfectly able to use it when he wanted to. It probably helped that is was blowing a gale and raining and he was on the outside.

She' s finally getting there, thank god! Still wails outside for ages before I come down but I now leave her food down call her to the catflap and refuse to answer the door! She is getting the message.

Glad you're getting there. I have two seven month olds. Boris got the idea straight away and is in and out all day, leaving his brother inside meowing (well more like a squeak). My problem is the opposite, it's going outside. When I can, I'm trying to hold the flap open and he has gone out, through only a couple of times. He'll happily use it to come in!

They are odd critters aren't they? I was under the misapprehension that she was very bright up till now. Now I think she's very stupid...

One of mine mastered it in a couple of weeks but the other took a few months. He had us trained to open the door instead!

I posted on here about this last year! It took my cat about a month. I started by leaving the cat flap taped open so she got used to going through the gap. Then I gradually lowered it. She still refused to open it herself though. I started to post her backwards and forwards through it. She hated to put her head against it and push it, so I held her with her front paws against it and she started to push with those to get it open. I made her go through the cat flap each time she wanted to go in or out, even if it meant I had to open the door and go outside to shove her through.

For a while I thought she would never learn but she got it in the end. She still makes a bit of a meal of getting through it though!

How about when it's feeding time, put the food down in the usual place, let her see it, then put her outside the catflap! Make the feeding time noises, rattle tin or whatever she knows.