Cat Flap Problems

[Louise]

Hello everyone.

I have just registered on this website and I have done a search on my problem, but I haven't seemed to find anything of any use to me, so I am sorry if this is a repeated post.

Basically I have a 8 year old female cat called Tiggy. We rescued her from a cat sanctuary two years ago today.

Basically we have two back doors with a small porch in between. We chose this area to put Tiggy's cat litter tray and my other half made a hole for the cat flap. We obviously wanted to test her with the hole before putting the actual flap on. Well two years later, we've had a new back door and the door with the cat flap hole is more of a kitchen door now.

We put the cat flap on to test Tiggy last week and she is petrified. We have tried again today and she still hates it. We have tried one of us on each side with food and treats, aswell as coaxing her through. It is taking 5 minutes to get her through and she only goes through when we steer her in the right direction and start putting her through.

The only thing that I am worried about is that she will be too scared to go out there tonight to go to the toilet. If we put her litter tray in the kitchen, she won't learn and it will be a pointless exercise. I just don't want her using our carpet's as a toilet as she has done that before and we got her out of that habit.

Sorry for the length of the post! If anyone has any personal experiences or suggestions, this would be most appreciated.

Thanks - Louise

[Traci]

Does the cat flap or the doors lead to access outside? If so, we do not advocate this for cats. Indoors ONLY!

[Louise]

Erm no, it's an inside door. It led's to a porch area. Why would it be a problem if if was outside and I was asking advice???

Anyway, I've managed to find some usual information on another website from a lady who's little trick worked. Basically, we've followed her advise and we've sellotaped Tiggy's cat flap open to the door and over a few days, even weeks we're to lower the flap slightly so Tiggy will eventually have to push her way through a little more.

Hopefully she will get used to it and won't be frightened.

[Traci]

Because, as mentioned, we don't advocate outdoor access for cats, the reasons explained in the link.

[Louise]

I know that you don't recommend that cats go outside, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't help people who believe cats should be allowed outside. Although my cat doesn't go outside unsupervised, some people might see that you are being a little unfair.

Thanks for all of the help anyway.......

[Traci]

I wanted to ask the question first because your answer would then be pertinent to my answer/help. How is that unfair?

And, we are more than familiar with UK cat owners and their anthropomorphizing about their cats' access outdoors. I'm not talking about you specifically, but we do take the opportunities to inform and educate, hence, my first response to you.

Since you already have advice sought elsewhere, I guess this is moot now?