I have a couple of outside/barn/community cats and kittens that I got tamed. We have a dog door going into our garage. We no longer have a dog. Winter is coming and we keep heat in the garage. I would like to get the cats and kitties to use the dog door into the garage to keep warm. Teaching the dog was easy but I'm not sure how to go about it with the cats and kitties. Any ideas?
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Teaching Cats To Use Dog/cat Door
- Thread starter gleason
- Start Date
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2017
- Messages
- 479
- Purraise
- 638
Can you initially keep the flap open? Once the cats figure out it is a “door” then you can have someone on one side and someone on the other with treats, food, whatever attracts them. Mine figured it all pretty quickly when they were motivated
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #3
Treats were a great motivator for teaching my Ruby how to use her cat flap door.
For feral cats, I've read that they can't resist KFC, so you might try that. Or stinky fish like tuna or sardines.
For feral cats, I've read that they can't resist KFC, so you might try that. Or stinky fish like tuna or sardines.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #5
Wondering how high off the ground your cat door is? This was a dog door before and the bottom of the door is about 8-1/2" off the ground. Is that too high for cats? Besides the adult cat, I have 2 kittens that are almost 5 months old that I would like to get to come in the garage for the winter.
8 1/2 inches sounds a bit too high for a cat to use easily, unless your cats are majorly leggy 
Can you set up a platform just under the opening they can jump up on so that they can "step" through the door comfortably? When I had an outdoor enclosure set up at my previous place the bottom of my own cat flap was probably 2" above the window sill.
When I was teaching my cats to use their cat flap for accessing an outdoor enclosure I played with them on the other side of the door with a feather wand toy as a lure. Canned food or a treat as others have suggested would probably work as well. Once one cat knows how to use the flap the others will pick it up pretty quick from watching, so you really just need to teach one or two properly.
Can you set up a platform just under the opening they can jump up on so that they can "step" through the door comfortably? When I had an outdoor enclosure set up at my previous place the bottom of my own cat flap was probably 2" above the window sill.When I was teaching my cats to use their cat flap for accessing an outdoor enclosure I played with them on the other side of the door with a feather wand toy as a lure. Canned food or a treat as others have suggested would probably work as well. Once one cat knows how to use the flap the others will pick it up pretty quick from watching, so you really just need to teach one or two properly.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #7
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2016
- Messages
- 5,948
- Purraise
- 14,440
Prop it open and make a big show of getting the canned food ready so they just hop in the hole.
If one picks up on it, the others will, too.
Another option is going inside, making "canned food is here" noises, then stooping off to the side and opening the flap half way, then gradually open it less by hand until they have a little square to put their noses in and they have to "push" to get in.
Once they understand that the door is to operated by them, they'll be very happy with this heated arrangement!
All our cats and dogs caught on quickly, except one dog who's not the bravest creature on the planet. OK, he's scared of his own shadow. He understands how to do it, and he's not stupid, but just doesn't want to unless I go outside and call him.
The the bottom edge of Ruby's cat flap is 3 inches from the floor, and the flap/door part is about 5 inches from the floor.
Cats are pretty agile, though, and I suspect once they realize there's food inside garage, they'll figure it out.
I Googled, and found lots of different cat flap doors, and with many different heights.
how high from floor for cat flap door - Google Search
Cats are pretty agile, though, and I suspect once they realize there's food inside garage, they'll figure it out.
I Googled, and found lots of different cat flap doors, and with many different heights.
how high from floor for cat flap door - Google Search
I don't think it's to high. I found this pic of the cat door where I once worked. I would take my cat to work with me. We had 4 cats over the time I worked there. To were strays that were just dumped off. 1 I found on the side of the road and the one pictured was a thoroughbred Maine Coon. He was probably 4 to 6 months in this pic. None of them had trouble navigating the door. Once you get one of them through the door, it will probably be monkey see monkey do sort of thing. If they are scared of being indoors it may be easier to bring them in and feed them and lure them out. Don't know the situation fully. I do fully agree with using food as the motivator. Even as Tama pictured grew to 25 lbs he could still get through that little door though, it was comical to watch! 
