Why does my older cat hate cat doors?

by Laurel
(Spring Hill, FL US)

I have an older cat around 16. He's still pretty spry but has never been a climber. We used to let him and our other cat out in our fenced back yard and he never left, just liked to inspect and chase things. Neither of them had any desire to leave.


About 6 years ago we moved into a larger home in which we installed a cat flap (plastic) in the garage door and another in our living room onto our screened porch where we have a 3 cat door (metal).

My same elder cat now flat out refuses to go through the plastic flaps but will go out the metal flap. My ex used to open doors for him so I'm not gonna deny he trained him to be his door man. I'm just not gonna do it and wonder what his issue is?

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starstarstarstarstar 		Have you tried to train him?
by: Joe the cat dude

I once found a stray cat and set him up with a litter box that had a hood and a plastic, see-through door. The cat refused to go through that door to use the box.

I found that cat's human soon enough, but I thought about that because I've often thought of having a plastic cat door, and wondered if a cat would use it.

That led me to think about how I would train a reluctant cat. First, I would not have a door there, just the opening, and I would encourage the cat to go in and out through that opening, using treats, toys, and other objects of interest to the cat.

Then I'd attach the door, but prop it open, and do the same thing. Then I'd put the door down, and if needed, help the cat through the door until s/he got to the treat enough times to get the hang of it.

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