How to unlock the cat cages and the door in Animal Well

Once you make it to the room with the three cat cages in Animal Well, how are you supposed to unlock their cages, as well as the door in this puzzle room? This section took me over an hour to figure out, so to make things easier for you here’s how to pass through.

Animal Well: How to unlock the cat cages

Depending on where you’ve gone first in Animal Well, you may not even have the tool required to continue this area. You can unlock the cat cages in Animal Well by using the Animal Flute. This is an item that is required to free the cats from the cages and is only attainable by collecting at least eight Secret Eggs.

How to unlock the Animal Flute

If you’ve ever explored an area but accidentally found a strange egg, these aren’t just useless collectibles. Once you’ve found eight Secret Eggs you’ll gain access to the first room in the Egg Room, which is a room just northeast of the first place you spawned.

Head through the first available door on the bottom left and open the chest to unlock the Animal Flute. This unlocks the ability to fast travel, but it can also have some other unique effects.

Cat cages animal flute combinations

Once you make it back to the room with the three cat cages, pull out your Animal Flute. Pushing on the arrow keys will add directional inputs for flute notes, and there are ones from up, down, left, and right, as well as diagonal directions. Each cat cage requires a code combination of five directions, and they’re discoverable by finding these secret codes in hidden places throughout Animal Well.

Thanks to some incredible sleuths on the Animal Well subreddit, there are five codes available for all five cat cages (there are only three in this room but two others you can find). Here are the codes:

• ⇖⇖⇙⇙⇓
• ⇘⇐⇗⇘⇒
• ⇘⇑⇘⇘⇐
• ⇒⇗⇑⇖⇓
• ⇐⇓⇙⇘⇑

That’s all it takes to free these three cats! But unfortunately, this isn’t the solution to unlocking the blocked door in the same room. You need to hit three yellow buttons, and hitting the final one is the trickiest.

Cat cage door puzzle – How to hit three yellow buttons

First button

The first and easiest yellow button to hit is the one at the top right. Head up to the room on the right and you’ll find a rat in a wheel and some rat platforms moving horizontally. There are four yellow buttons to push at the bottom to reach the main yellow button. Drop down to the left-most button, but since your Yo-yo can hit through these platforms just stand on the lowest platform and hit the button.

If you’re struggling to make it back up, you can make these platforms move by hitting your Yo-yo in the opposite direction of where the rat is looking. This is important to remember for later. Now you can get the yellow button on the right side with the same maneuver, and the middle two buttons by climbing onto the middle platform to reach those buttons with your Yo-yo. Now that the door is unlocked, head through and hit the first main button!

Second button

To hit the second button, jump onto the lower two cat cages and reach the platform on the left to make it to the left room. Use your Yo-yo to break the spikes ahead of you, then hop down, using the rat platforms to boost you up.

You can’t reach the third level yet since the cat platforms are going downwards, but you can walk to the right and break the spikes to reach this yellow button. Stand below the open pathway above you to the yellow button then hit your Yo-yo upwards to have it hit the button.

Third button

This is the trickiest button that took me over an hour to figure out. You can only get to this button by switching the movement of the cat cages. How you make the cat cages move upwards is by making the rat on the top level change directions. But how can you reach this area?

First, go back to the room on the right and make the rat change directions. This will make it so that in the room on the left you can access the area in the bottom right. Hop down, and break the spikes with your Yo-yo to reveal a secret fish passage. Use your Bubble Wand to give it a bubble and hop through its tube.

You’ll get sent back to the area where you first entered the cat cage room. This time, head east until you make it to the fish passage on the right side. Use your Bubble Wand to head through this passage, leading you to a new room with a red detonator and a yellow button.

Jump on the detonator to access a new area, then hit the yellow button to unlock both doors. Don’t walk left yet, head right and throw your Yo-yo out to make this rat turn to the right. This will allow the cat platforms to move upwards!

Now you can head left and through this next fish passage that leads you back to the lower level. Since the rat platforms are moving against you you’ll need to be smart with this parkouring. Just time your jumps right and you’ll make it to the fish passage that leads you back to the cat cage room.

Finally, head to the room on the right one more time to make the rat turn in the opposite direction, then make your way to the leftmost room. Both the rat and cat platforms are moving in the correct direction which can lead you to the top level and the final yellow button! This will unlock the door in the cat cage room, leading you to a Telephone save spot and the next main area.

The Bubble Wand and the Yo-yo aren’t the only important tools in Animal Well, since you’ll need the Disk as well.