How to train them to use a flap?!

[Zenith (Liz)]

Well done Bilbo!  (And Pinball lol) 

[Team Svartalfheims]

YAY I've just found Bilbo in the house so he managed to use the flap all on his own!  Pinball was still outside squealing so I gently pushed his head against the flap to open it a little bit and then he barged through it. 

Now to wait and see if they can get out again!

[Dawn F]

we kept the flap open with an elastic band until they got used to going in and out

[Team Svartalfheims]

I tried the tuna trick and whilst they were desperate for the tuna they wouldn't go through the flap for it  By the time I went to bed last night I'd got to a point where they had both walked through it with me holding it open part way for them which is progress! 

As it was dry overnight I left the flap held open with string so they could get used to being able to run in and out of the house as they wanted and that the flap was how they get in and out.

I've let the flap down again (have covered the magnet with a few layers of masking tape so it's less effort for them) and I've put some stinky sardines in the house and I'll go back out in a bit and see if that has tempted them to brave going through it. When I left them to come back inside they both had their noses pressed to the flap looking longingly at the sardines and Pinball is squeaking and squealing his head off.

Hopefully once Bilbo figures it out Pinball will quickly follow as whilst Pinball gets himself in a tizzy if anything is new or anything has been moved he idolises Bilbo and sticks to him like glue and so I *think* he'd probably follow Bilbo through a 'scary' flap just to be with him.
Part of me wonders about shutting Bilbo in the house and seeing if Pinball will go through the flap to reach him but I'm not sure if it's a bit soon to do that (don't want to traumatise him!) and whether I'd be better waiting until Bilbo is confident with taking himself through a flap on his own.

[Zenith (Liz)]

My two had never seen a cat flap till this weekend but when Nova escaped out of the living room at 02:45 (Yes, nearly THREE AM) I had to virtually throw myself at the cat flap door as he almost got out of it!

Lol, he swerved and ran upstairs after my little trick into my brothers room, I ended up jumping on my brothers bed to get Nova, waking Richard up and apologising.  He couldn't remember any of it in the morning I shouldn't have owned up  

[fluffybunny]

Then, he mastered going out okay but couldn't get back in

Yes Milly had this problem too - I watched her on the outside one time and she was headbutting the plastic edge rather than the flap itself...so I got some yellow and green striped insulation tape and ran it round the edge of the flap.  It seemed to provide a better contrast to her eyesight and she got the hang of it quite quickly then.  I took the tape off about a month later and haven't had a problem since 

[Pinkbear (Julie)]

You are in for fun is all I can say.  

Until I moved here, I never had a cat flap. Tilly - being a Battersea cat whose background we didn't know, took to it fairly easily, so we assume she'd used one before. Tigger - who we had since he was a kitten, for sure had never seen or used one. It took him about a week watching Tilly to summon the courage to have a go himself. Then, he mastered going out okay but couldn't get back in, so I had to lift the door for him to come back through. One day, I was on the phone so he lost patience waiting for me. He pawed and pawed at the flap until he got his paw under the door, then he lifted it, held it open and shoved his head underneath.   He used the flap this way until the day he died - always come back in thw 'wrong way'.  

I'd just hold the door open for them and they'll figure it out. A spot of food or favourite toy on the other side will help.  

[Team Svartalfheims]

Yes it is, to start with I wondered whether the problem was that they couldn't tell that the clear flap was different to their perspex windows which don't open but I've tried showing them that the flap opens both from the inside and the outside by pushing it with my hand so I think they understand that it opens (I've also gently pushed Bilbo through it which he didn't mind at all) but they don't seem to understand the mechanics of opening it themselves.

I'll go and try the tuna trick now, I'll heat the tuna a little bit to make it even stinkier for them for extra encouragement 

[fluffybunny]

When my two came here they were 8 and had never used a flap before.  Geoffrey worked it out straight away but Milly didn't like getting her pretty little face squished    I lifted the flap gently until she started to go out of it, then let go, so she got the hang of the feel of it on her back.  After a while I started gently posting her through it from shut, so she worked out I wasn't going to start opening it for her every time.  I found that removing the magnet that keeps it shut in the wind also helped, as to start off with it seems to feel quite 'heavy' if they're not used to it, and taking the magnet out made it much easier for her to get the hang of. 

[blackcat]

is it a translucent flap? try easing it open as they stare at it, that will give them the idea ...

[Team Svartalfheims]

Thanks BC. I tried their leather waggler yesterday and they just ran up to the flap and then stopped  I'll try putting some tuna in their dining area in a while then and shutting the flap and seeing if they get the idea then.

[blackcat]

put them on the outside of the flap and a plate of smelly tasty food on the inside. They will shove the flap to one side to get to it, but will hesitate. If you have a hooked piece of wire that will open the flap (hands free from their perspective) as they push against it, that will give them the idea.

If they still can't work it out, then try running their favourite long cat toy through the flap, so they chase it, and bang the flap out of the way to get to it ... Otherwise, keeping it open will have to be the solution, but sounds like a chilly one in this weather ...

[Team Svartalfheims]

We've managed to get the stud house lined now so the boys can use it and they love it but we've found a problem, it's got a dog flap in one of the doors so they can go in and out of the house from the run bit but as none of the cats have ever used a flap in their life they can't figure out what to do.

Dave's got it held open with string at the moment so the boys can get in and out of the house but how do we teach them that they need  to push the flap with their head or paws to get it to open? Pinball looked like he was washing the flap with his paws when he was trying to get out yesterday 

Door handles they can manage no problem yet flaps are apparently a totally puzzling concept

Any ideas would be much appreciated!