Magnetic Flap, teething problems!

[mj69]

Not sure if i should be posting this in here..

Yesterday we installed a Magnetic flap onto the kitchen door, it's replaced a normal non-magnetic flap which was broken the design of the new one is slightly different to to the old one the opening is quite a bit smaller and the perpex is opaque.

The problem i've got is Jack will go out through it leaving the house BUT will not come in he just sits in the porch looking up at the kitchen window waiting for you to let him in:roll:

although saying that when I went to bed last night he wasn't in and I couldn't find him in the garden so I went to bed however this morning he was in the kitchen in his bed! so has come through it during the night so why wont he during the day?

Do i just ignore those pleading eye's and wait for him to come in or do i carry on letting him in?:?

I do think Max the dog has something to do with it, with the old flap he used to stick his head through to see if the coast was clear before coming in but he can't do that the same with the flap! Oh dear

Any tips gratefully received...

[dinahsmum]

I expect you are right (See? You're turning into a cat-owner/slave already, and are able to empathise with, and understand, your cat)
He'll get over his aversion in time. Cats are terrible creatures for not liking 'the new/different'.
You're probably right about Jack not wishing to take the plunge and come nose to nose with Max, too. Can you position something there (a stool or chair maybe?) so that he has a safe 'landing zone' immediately inside the flap, where he can regain his equilibrium after taking the leap of faith through the flap, have a look around and decide where to move next?

[angieh]

I wonder whether it's the opacity of the flap door that's bothering him, seeing that he has presumably used it at night when everything is dark and of course, cats can see well in the dark. During the day he probably can see nothing through it and, as dinahsmum says above he does not wish to come nose to nose with Max!

Good luck with encouraging him to use it.

[cats' staff]

It might be worth propping it open for a short time as sometimes the clicking noise puts them off but if they get used to the door first they adjust to the click later. Also, are you sure that the magnet on his collar is working OK? We had one which was a probelm unless you got the magnet the right way up on the collar- took us ages to work that one out and spot the arrow on the magnet....:oops:
We also had to put a stool outside for our lot as the step up was too steep so the magnets wouldn't trigger! Luckily the rogue cat who we were trying to discourage has moved away so we don't need to bother with it now.

[mj69]

hi all sorry not been on for a while, been tied up with job hunting and shopping..

jack's using the flap now but not all the time he still likes to have the door opened for him:roll: by his nice little slave ME:shock:

ive invested in a safety gate which is between the kitchen and dining room so the kitchen is a dog free zone at all times..
my next step though is to get the door fixed on the utility room off the kitchen and max will sleep in there it currently has patio doors on there well only one the old lady apperently rived the other one off and smashed it up before she went into the nursing home!:shock: just hope that doesn't upset the apple cart again we will get there