Friday, June 15, 2012

Dear Janet

Dear Janet,
You asked me about training Miss Poppy to use the cat door.  When she first discovered the cat door in our old house, she found it by herself and kept sneaking out even though she as teeny tiny.  In this house, I only had to open the door a couple of times and show her the outside and she got the hang of it.

The good news for you is that there is you and your husband to train your Miss Poppy.  I would suggest getting some duct tape and taping up the flap to begin with.  Choose a morning when Miss Poppy is hungry and if one of you sits on the other side of the cat flap and shake the biscuit box or temptations bag.  I would suggest that you just gently hold her and guide her head through the cat flap and she should figure the rest out.  It may take a few trys and days, but I am sure your sweetie will figure it out.

Please feel free to email us at julieqATxtraDOTcoDOTNZ if we can help further

Mum

P.S Miss Barb - Chef Jellimeat was the only type of catfood that any of our cats got offered when mum was a girl.  All cats ate it and gobbled it down.  Now we have twenty flavours of fancy feast and other tasties in the supermarket, and all the cats are super fussy.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the explanation. Yes, too may choices of too many degrees of not good for the kitties. Makes me nuts!

    I never had to train my cats to use the kitty flap. They were naturally curious and took them seconds to figure out they could push it open and go through.

    Of course, I do realize my kitties are exceptionally bright! hahahaha!

    Have a lovely Friday, lovely ladies!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We think Fui would probably headbutt the door for many many tries. But he's not as clever as Pops, I don't think.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We never managed to train one of our cats with the cat flap--we had one into a basement. She would go into the basement with no problems, but we could never get her to come out--she'd sit beside the door and meow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Only Laura uses our catflap out of the 6 cats. but we don't encourage them as it is locked if the dog is outside. PHEW

    ReplyDelete
  5. It did not take my two long to learn how to use the cat door! I held it open and called them. We also gently tried to guide them through! Angel can backup very quickly!

    ReplyDelete
  6. We've been away and I haven't been able to comment on blogs, or to reply to emails (it's an uncomfortable feeling - ESPECIALLY when you were kind enough to address a post to me!)

    We're home now, and I've pinned the catflap open. She has been in and out, so hopefully she will soon be using it all the time... I'll keep you posted...
    Thanks so much for the advice XXXOOO

    ReplyDelete