Why Your Cat Is So Obsessed With Opening Doors

With very few exceptions, a cat who lives in a house is going to want to explore that house. It’s not a controversial statement, but nevertheless the cliché is true — cats are very curious. This might mean you end up finding your cat somehow perched atop your highest cabinet, out on a metaphorical limb with nowhere left to go. Or you may, even in the smallest apartment, suddenly realize you haven’t laid eyes on them for an entire day. (Spoiler: They were in the dresser drawer.)

You may already know this from experience, but for a creature so smart, social, and prone to sleuthing, one of the worst things a domesticated cat can encounter is a closed door.  But some cats are scarily adept at entering closed spaces, and you’re asking: How in the world have cats figured out how to open doors?

Feline FOMO is real.

First of all, no, it’s not cruel and unusual to keep your cat out of a room, no matter how much they scratch and howl. Your primary job as a pet parent is to keep your kitties safe, and if there’s a reason for a cat to be banished from an area for their safety, you shouldn’t give in to their protests. 

But for cats who experienced a large degree of freedom (and little confinement) in their early, developing lives, any amount of new confinement or restriction may make things worse. According to Amber Zawrotny, certified behaviorist and trainer with the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland in Maine, this is also because cats are very social, and experience something similar to what we humans call a “fear of missing out” (FOMO). This is especially true if they can hear noises or smell smells happening on the other side of a door. They even experience separation anxiety.

This can even create stress for some cats. “Closing doors restricts their territory which can cause anxiety,” says Jocelyn Strassel, certified veterinary technician. When we restrict their ability to move around freely, it can even be stressful, says Strassel, “especially if there are other pets that they are not particularly fond of.” They might want to be able to freely run away from a rambunctious dog or another cat in the home.

That said, even if there’s nothing on the other side of a door, cats may just be experiencing normal curiosity, which of course gets amplified when they’re bored. Cats simply don’t like losing any of the “three Cs” — choice, control, and change — and will get busy causing trouble if there’s nothing else to do.

If cats want to get through a door, they will find a way.

There are many ways through a door, and not every door is always closed, which means there are a number of ways cats learn to cure their feline FOMO and get across those forbidden thresholds.

Cats are naturally very intelligent, and according to Zawrotny, “some cats are more ‘optimistic’ and will troubleshoot things until they figure them out.” This experimental confidence can lead cats to try a little bit of everything, from headbutting, persistent pawing, to even simply observing other cats to see what behavior is effective. 

Anecdotally, Zawrotny adds that another kitty cliché about the most troublesome Houdinis is possibly true: “I see this [behavior] with orange and tabby cats, especially if they have a history of going outdoors.” 

“Cats are naturally curious and may experiment with different behaviors to see which ones lead to positive outcomes,” says Kristyn Vitale, PhD and certified applied animal behaviorist. “If a cat happens to push against a door with its head and successfully opens it, the cat discovers that this action leads to a desired outcome — the door opening. As a result, the cat is more likely to repeat the behavior and use its head to open the door more frequently, which shows that the cat has learned from the experience.”

Many cats learn to use their body weight to push doors, while some pry their paws into very narrow gaps to leverage open slightly ajar doors and even pull sliding doors open. As for doorknobs and door handles, any gained knowledge will become universally applicable to savvy cats, rendering no door safe. 

And as one Reddit thread illuminates, doorknobs are much trickier for our feline friends than handles. User Mikeyboy2188 states that his cat “fully understands the knobs need to rotate but, fortunately, he can’t turn the smooth metal knobs. If I had levers he’d be everywhere. 😂😂” In another thread, user dawng87 describes a Siamese cat that would open cupboards and even some drawers: “He used to crack me up and also make me ponder my sanity when things were just open.”

Still, not every cat is guaranteed to pick up these meddlesome tricks and talents, according to Vitale: “Just as every person is unique, each cat is an individual with its own distinct personality. Some cats may simply lack the urge to open a door, or they may not have the coordination to do so.”

What’s (actually) on the other side? Not much.

Of course, cats’ FOMO is often hilariously undermined by the present situation. It’s always funny to see a cat mount an impossible struggle, spending minutes, hours, or days on a problem like your bathroom’s door handle, only to realize that there really isn’t much going on in that other room.

Because the reality is their prey-drive instinct fuels their boredom, and the outcome is nowhere near as important as the enrichment they’re receiving from problem-solving your closed closets.

If you’re worried or concerned about door-opening, just know that it is much harder to permanently stop a cat’s behavior than it is to redirect it. You can (and should) introduce baby locks or other methods if your cat is in danger of accessing something that can hurt them or take them outside, but if your concerns are more about them being annoying, consider play. Cats who constantly raid cabinets might need a problem they can’t solve in order for this exploratory behavior to dissipate over time.

You can also consider their fiddling with things to also be a social solicitation: When you see them acting out, consider how it may be time to introduce puzzle toys, more social play, or even fetch. New smells and items can also create a novelty to offset the novelty of closed doors. Per Zarwrotny, “the more fulfilled they are with appropriate novel experiences, the less likely they are to stir trouble elsewhere.”

This really is a nature vs. nurture situation.

When we live with cats, we live with opportunistic little geniuses, and a some occasional lock picking is perhaps just part of the deal. The key to a happy cat and less chaos might be extra play, additional puzzles, and genuine connection. Just know that their drive to pry, open, and unlock is natural, and keeping them out of a room is not going to damage them long term no matter how hard they howl.

If you keep this in mind — and keep them busy and enriched — you may even find your cat’s inherent Houdini a little endearing and pretty darn impressive.