Cat scared of cat flap. Any advice?

[labradorservant]

We have a newish rescue cat. He’s a scared cat, but slowly getting used to humans. Now comes for cuddles and doesn’t run away every second.
We have a dog. Cat loves the dog. Cat was chosen for love of dogs (fosterer had dogs).
As we have a dog we have a stair gate with cat flap between the kitchen and utility where cats stuff is.
He’s happy to go through it when it’s kept open. However if it’s shut he panics and just won’t leave the utility (has bed, food, litter tray in there).
Any way to get him to use it in full flap mode?. He’s a bit scared of humans so picking him up and shoving him through stresses him. He loves food, but as he’s skittish it’s hard to get him for ‘training’.
I would like to let him out one day (still worried he’s too scared to go out yet), but want him to use the cat flap rather than I become staff.
Any ideas on the cat flap? And also to maybe make him less scared. Think he may have been kicked by humans at some point?? Cat tax attached.

Mine is 7 and will only ever use the flap if it’s taped open with masking tape 🙈 we lock him in from about 6pm. He doesn’t tend to go out much, so we have just accepted it now. Cold in the winter though!

We are currently living with the masking tape version! I guess I could keep it open but then we would use a lot of masking tape and we may get neighbouring cats. Had 4 cats before and they’ve all
just got it.

I hear you! We have 2 rescue cats and they did learn the cat flap relatively quickly. But we shut it at 7pm and they manage to break out. I’ve filmed it and one turns the lock with her teeth while the other pushes until it springs back.
So. We got the microchip one. They won’t go near it. It clicks when they approach and so they won’t even try and go out. Not really sure what to do!
Sorry to jump on your thread OP!

Shake a bag of Dreamies on the other side of the door (or favourite treat) when the flap is closed. That’s how I taught mine to use it. Help overcome the fear.

DH had to physically push our cat through it with me at the other side with dreamies. We did this about 5-6 times. He didn’t like the process but then understood how it worked and happily used it himself after that. However, if your cat is not used to being handled a lot you might have to work on that first.
the most amusing bit was setting up the cat flap for the microchip before it was installed. The instructions said something like “ gently place over the head of the cat holding the button down for 15 seconds until you hear a beep”. 15 seconds??? Have they ever met a cat?? 🤣🤣🤣

Ok, am going to try the dreamies/licky lick approach. However I have a rather unhelpful Labrador who is always willing to help in food training. DH says we need to leave him
in there one night. Shut the kitchen door and leaves piles of chicken on the other side. However he’s stubborn, if he sees it shut, he won’t try.
As for the microchip option, think we’ll disable that for a bit if we even get that far.

Hi

We have a microchip one which clicks to open and our older cat was scared to use it when it first got installed. We taped it so she could come and go and get use to the clicking sound. We gradually lowered the position so she had to do some of the pushing, I did have to change the way it opened for when she was in and when she was out as it lowered so only did this when we were around for the day. Oh and we also did lots of practicing with dreamies. Good luck.