he locks himself outside and i feel awful! poor idiot :(

[cheetara]

My cat is a moron, i love him so much but he is stupid.

Ive recently had a cat flap fitted 3 months ago and i realised both my kitties wouldnt use it unless i taped the door open but, in the uk in winter it gets a little chilly (alot chilly) so ive been trying to train them both to just go through the flap with treats and one of them uses it no problem, then one day i left the house with them both outside forgetting i hadnt left the flap open so upon rushing home hours later i come home to find them both inside! EUREKA!
so i leave the flap shut from now on. yesterday i wake up to hear they both have left the house no problem (catflap down) then later at dinner time i call them both in and only knuckles comes in and otis just sits there at the door crying! (he loves food so much) so i leave him because i know he can use the flap because i have witnessed it a couple times. an hour later he finally comes in... sulking (so he obvs knows how to use the ruddy flap) but i feel guilty...
tonight, same goes but it starts pouring down with rain! so i have to let the dunderhead in manually because i dont want my baby to be sad... and i dont want to be that cruel mistress...
what am i doing wrong?? is he being stubborn or am i being cruel?

[Sage]

Is it possible he's in pain or has a medical reason to dislike the cat flap? It could be he just doesn't like it, maybe he's had a bad experience and decided that all cat flaps are awful , but you never know unless you check. There's also a ton of different ones on the market, maybe he'd prefer another one better. If he's unusually big or small and the cat flap doesn't match his size, that could be a factor.

I'd try a repeat of using the treats, see if that works. I don't think he's stay outside in the rain just for the fun of it so obviously something is up, it's just finding out what.

[cheetara]

the only thing i can think about is as he was rejected from his momma. i adopted him after he was hand reared by my friend, but he was just a kitten so he hadnt experienced a cat flap before 3 months ago... one thing i have noticed is he grooms himself ALOT and he gets a blister on his lip every so often but i have taken him to the vet about this originally thinking it was a 'rodent ulcer' but from watching him ive noticed he grooms himself too much and came to the conclusion its down to nerves or something? (rejection etc)(i may be wrong..please correct me if anybody thinks differant) ive done my best to comfort him, hes in a loved environment... ANYWAY i digress... the only pain i can physically see is his lip.. but it doesnt look aggravated right now.. id love some more advice.

[lilynmitz]

When it comes down to it, some cats are simply a bit dim. Lily could only open doors by pulling them towards her. So if it needed pushing to open, she'd either put her paw round the edge of the door and pull (duh), and get cross cos it wouldn't open, or scratch at the door till we opened it for her!

[Anicca79]

Oh I feel your pain! My little cat won't use the catflap unless it's taped open and I'm in a ground floor flat so that option gets chilly! I'm trying to get him to understand and he tries nudging it with his paw but won't get any further. I feel bad for him because I'm at work all day and even though I tape it open in the evenings he should be out in this nice weather. I worry about other animals getting in if it's open for a long time when I'm not there. My cat is incredibly timid and anything that startles him or makes him feel cornered is a threat.... If anyone comes up with a solution let me know! Incidentally it cost £250 to fit the catflap so changing it for another one isn't so simple...

[sarie]

If he's proven he knows how to use it then it could be that he's a little bit slow (my cat Clive is really thick bless him, especially when it comes to cat flaps) or it could also be that he just plain doesn't like it and knows that you'll eventually take pity on him and let him in.

My parents have a cat who will only ever use the cat flap when nobody is around. If anyone is around she'll just sit near it and wail until you open the door for her, no matter which side she's on. She's figured out that she doesn't have to demean herself by using the cat flap if she can get a human to open the door for her so why even try! I've told my parents to just ignore her and she'll eventually give up and start using it properly but as yet they haven't taken the advice

I guess just keep an eye on him and try not to encourage him when he sits and waits for you to manually let him in. Only let him in as a last resort and hopefully he'll eventually get the message. It's not cruel as long term it'll give him freedom and it's not like he can't do it... clearly he can