We have 3 and they do not wear collars.
My reason is probably selfish....but I do not the the feeling of having my "pettying" being disrupted by the feel of a collar. (They`ve never worn them before, so I`m sure they`d go "nut-so" if I did try to put one on them anyhow)
The only reason to have one would be for ID in case one of them got out, and Toby has only done that once in his 3 years....and the other 2 don`t even try.......so I`m hoping that does`nt ever happen.
We do live back in the boonies too...so we are`nt close to any real road....only live on a lane that the we and the neighbors use...and everybody drives slow because there are kids and dogs back here.
Linda

My kitties are indoor only. I put a collar on Sweetie and she seemed to accept it. Then a few minutes later she went under the coffee table and somehow pulled it off. It was on tight enough that it should have stayed. I've never put one back on. My daughter's Chester wears one all the time, but she has birds (16) so its mainly to warn the birds that he's around.

No, PHX does not wear a collar. :)

No collars, but my cats are all microchipped :nod:

None of the cats wear collars. I show cats (pedigree and HHP) and by wearing collars you leave a "collar mark". To the judges, this means the cat goes outside in their opinion - something that is frowned upon.

I've never had a cat/kitten escape from the house or show desire to get out. Ling did for awhile since she was a barn cat and for a short period of time wore a collar with bell so we could know where she was and discourage her from trying to go out.

She doesn't try that any more, so none of the cats will be wearing collars.

The dog wears her collar of course :)

I tried, but Chay is quite good at getting them off. :rolleyes: He's sneaky too - does it when I leave the house and in a place where I have to look for it!

Ginger and Ferris both wear collars with bells. Ginger was about 3 months old when she first got hers, and it took about a day for her to get used to it.

Ferris got his at about 3 months old as well, and took to it like a champ. He was a feral rescue, and I think it made him feel like he belonged. :heart3:

Penny is almost 2, has only been with me for three months, and does not wear a collar. I'd like to get one on her, just in case, but I don't quite think that will be possible at this age.

All three are indoor only.

No collars here... Two of my cats are microchipped and the one who isnt (which Im looking into) does not wear a collar. I bought him a collar the day i got him, put it on and he hated it (he didnt wear one with his previous owner)... So I took it off. I usually put it on when we take trips to the vet and that is about it.

None of the cats wear collars. I show cats (pedigree and HHP) and by wearing collars you leave a "collar mark". To the judges, this means the cat goes outside in their opinion - something that is frowned upon.
:)

I show dogs and dog collars can leave collar marks that do not look good when showing. They only wear collars when going outside of my property while showing. They are chipped and tattooed as well.

My indoor kitty does not wear a collar, does not show any desire to escape, comes when called (funny, I know!) but is chipped just in case.

All 3 of mine wear collars and are microchipped. I want to do everything I can to make sure they get back to me if they happen to get out.

I just put collars on them recently and none of them had a problem with it! I also put a collar on my parents' indoor cat (who is not microchipped) and although he tried to get it off for the first hour, he was fine with it after that! :)

Mine don't wear collars nor are the chipped. While Frankie used to be quite the outdoor adventurer at my parents (and she did wear a collar then) she has only tried to run once since we moved out of their house and got too scared and ran back in. Wickett runs away when you open the door so no problem there.

Riley wears a collar, because he tries to run out the door when we open it. I got one from ragtime collars so its super lightweight cotton and has my phone number embroidered on it. I also plan to get him microchipped soon. He will not tolerate a bell or any kind of dangly tag on it.

Once I get him microchipped, and he grows out of the door darting, I will probably take it off of him.

Lemony has a pink camo collar as she is microchipped. Tux had an orange harley davidson one with a purple tag that has his name and address on one side and 'I require a special diet' on the other. Smeg is going to get a collar as soon as I can find one handsome enough for him, as he requires the same diet as Tux. And yeah, the cats with collars have bald rings underneath them. They accepted them easily enough, though. But all my cats are really laid back and mellow.

My dogs don't wear collars, as I don't like the collar line, and I switch collars a lot depending on if we're training, playing, running, etc, and I get sick of taking them on and off. Plus I get tired of watching them scratch at it and listening to the tags dingle around when they walk. It's also dangerous if two get wrestling around and their collars get tangled (I've had it happen a crazy number of times). So they're nekkid unless we're leaving the property.

Maisie is my indoor only kitty and she doesn`t wear a collar. Reason being her neck is so weeny she can only wear kitten collars, which I bought her a really pretty one of.

Few days later I noticed it looked odd and some how she had manager to pull it really tight!:paranoid: It was an adjustable type so I took it off and threw it in the bin. It had a saftey fastening but she still nearly strangled herself.

Since then I haven`t put anouther one on her. She is long haired and her fur isn`t like a young cats. It seems quite dry and tangles easily so I think a collar for her would just mean discomfort.

My indoor cat does not wear a collar. I don't see the point. He doesn't try to escape and even if he did a stranger would have a hard time catching him.

Nope. The bengals are chipped, but Eliza isn't. She has no desire to go outside, so I don't worry too much. However, when we had our house on the market, we had both Eliza and Penni (who is no longer with us) wear collars with nametags in case they snuck out during a showing. Penni took hers off pretty much every day, no matter how hard we tried to convince her that it was valuable jewelry!

No collars here either. Mine are very unlikely to escape (there's only me here to leave doors and windows open) and they're microchipped in case they do. I don't like the way collars flatten the fur and break up the line of the cat. I'm also not totally satisfied that even safety collars are actually safe.

Ziggy always works hers off despite the fact that they are pretty and pink!! so I don't bother anymore. She's microchipped though, and has got out a few times.. hence the pregnancy...

It's nicer to stroke her without it. I just miss not being able to hear her coming when I get up during the night and end up tripping over her!!

Yes. Should they ever get out, they won't be mistaken for strays. And Tiny is microchipped.

Baby is temporarily collar-free, so that her fleas can't hide underneath. She'll wear hers again when I'm no longer finding flea dirt.

Both Tiny and Baby enjoy being rubbed on the cheeks and head much more than having the rest of their fur petted, so collars don't get in the way of any lovin'.

My girls are indoor onlys.. They have collars, but don't wear them.

They were flea collars, but that's it.. They literally will spend all night trying to get the collars off, (the pretty breakaway ones, I spent a fortune on, with there name and number)..

They are inside,, but they are microchipped, so if they got out,, GOD FORBID,, they would be safe if they got taken to the vet or shelter.. :)

Wow, I'm glad they stopped wearing the flea collars before they got hurt. *shiver*

I don't show cats, but my oldest wore a collar for a few years and had a "collar mark" and it never grew hair back where the collar was.

I'll never put one of my babies in a collar again.

(It also helps that we have two doors and stairs to go through before anyone can escape out....not that anyone tries)

All three of my indoor cats wear collars (breakaway collars). All three are also microchipped, however, if any of them (God forbid) were to manage to get out the front door, anyone who picked up him or her up probably wouldn't think about the possibility of the cat being microchipped, so my hope is that when they see the cat is wearing a collar, they will know that it belongs to someone and then perhaps take it to a vet to get the chip read. That's my hope, anyway, should that ever happen. I don't have ID tags on them.

Peace is the only one with a collar, bell, and tag that he'll wear when his neck is bigger. The other cats have their special "going out" collars for vet visits that has an ID tag and rabie tag on it.

Oliver's collared and chipped... all precautions for the "just in case".... the collar is also for my health, haha... after Oliver's monthly bath, he's "naked" (aka collarless) until he's all dry (and/or til the collar's dry - it's a cotton one from ragtime and sometimes I give it a scrub when he's getting his bath)... if he's not dry by bedtime and is still naked it's like living with a sniper! I swear he gets that he's stealth without it and he's like a giant ball of heartattack flying at me in the dark, "just for fun" haha... if I had to live with him being naked on a daily basis, I wouldn't make it to 24! It doesnt seem to bother him ever and has a quick release if he gets caught (and it works, he's gone exploring in the basement and gotten caught on the boxes that hold various holiday decorations and all my college crap)... he also occasionally (loosely!) wears bandanas, hehe - again they dont bother him and he easily gets out of them

Isadora wears a collar because she has been known to sneak out (she's quite the houdini). Spot does not because she always takes it off somehow. Even if she did sneak out, she'd be an easy one to catch.

Demetri doesn't wear a collar as he's a show cat, he is microchipped though.

My past indoor only cats all wore collars with tags and were chippped. None of them tried to escape I just feel that the more forms of ID they have the better chance of them being returned should they ever get out.

They were flea collars, but that's it..

Please take the flea collars off your cats, besides not working they are poisonous and can cause death.

My cats do not wear collars. Mickey gets out of the house sometimes.....I tried keeping collars on him, but he would always come back with it gone. I gave up.

Oliver's collared and chipped... all precautions for the "just in case"...
Same thoughts as me :)

everyone has there own ideas on wheather a cat should wear a collar or not i see it being a good idea if the cat can or might take off for any given reason maybe something would scare it and it would dart out at least he has I.D but if you put a collar on them make sure it is a collar made for cats so that it stretches when it is pulled on in case kitty gets stuck on something it will not choke him he will be able to get out of it

Twinkle does not wear a collar.
She FREAKED out when I put one on her, a two different times she got her lower jaw 'stuck' in it! It was one of those break away collars, but still she was running around and squirming something fierce, and hollering; I would hate for that to have happened during the day when we weren't home.

They are all trained to wear collars and they are all chipped.
They wear their collars when they travel only.

The only exception is Cassi.
Since she's a formal feral and a door darter, she wears visible ID because chances are pretty good that she'd revert to a feral state if she got outdoors since she was grown when trapped.

Mittens and Cassy do not wear collars nor are they chipped.


Cassy used to be a 'door darter', after being with her adopted mommy for a while, she knew she had it good, now, she is afraid of going outside!

Gizmo has had a collar from the beginning. He accepted it pretty quickly and I've never has issue with him or the collar. He's a totally indoor cat but on the off chance one day he does decide to make run for it, I feel better knowing he has some kind of ID.

When I first brought Jasmine home a few weeks ago, I put a collar on her with a bell so I could hear where she was since she was hiding a lot.

Now she is not wearing one. She somehow managed to put her leg through it lol. I guess I didn't make it tight enough. She's an indoor only cat and seems to have no interest in going outside. When we're traveling I will probably put one on just in case. But when she's home, nah.

My best friend's kitty wears one with bell on it just because she's so hyper that they like to know where she is/when she is coming.

It was actually pretty useful - they'd been losing stuff (forks, pens, coins, etc.) and they were trying to figure out where it was all going. They figured it out one day when they heard her bell under the couch - moved the couch and found 75 pens (yes 75) about 10 dollars in change, and half their silverware.

This is a teeny tiny cat - I don't know how she manages to drag all that stuff off!

I don't like the idea of collars on cats because they can accidentally strangle themselves on most. Microchipping works for life. My indoor cats don't have collars either.

X

Blossom doesn't wear a collar. She's indoor only & its law in my state to have all dogs & cats microchipped, which she is. When she was a baby I tried putting a bell collar on her & she went nuts. It is & was a great struggle to have her hold still long enough to put a collar on her. Now I don't bother.

My three do not wear collars :( It is only because of bad past experience. When I was younger, one of our cats almost hung itself by it getting caught on a fence. She was saved only by the fact that I saw it happen and get her uncaught before the worst happened. Anyway, I know they have the safty collars but I guess I was so traumatized by the whole thing, I just have a hard time doing it even though our cats are all indoors.

None of my cats wear a collar, but all of them are microchipped.

I don't like collar cause of all the inherent risks so i use harnesses. or i did until someone took my kitten out of it. it fit him perfectly. i want to get a bell because he likes to walk around you legs when you walk and he almost always manages to try and get out the way, right about where my foot goes as i try not to fall. my roommate's cat has one and it is nice knowing where she is. however, jake doesn't want me to get a bell. he hates the bell on mama kitty(roommates cat). he is bright orange, but that doesn't tell me nothin if its dark or the lights are out. i have had pets get their collars stuck until me or my sister helped them. my sister's dog has a collar that we use when we take her places but none of their cats do. Had and Sadie harness would work on because they pretty much just stay around the house but stripes hasn't been fixed yet so he roams and gets in fights and it would probably end up getting him seriously hurt.

All three of my indoor-only cats don't wear collars. I've put one on them before just to see how they'd respond, but Luke and Pooch both don't like it. I've yet to try it on Kelly though.

I don't feel the need to give them a collar if they're at home 24/7. If we were going for a long trip and the cats are coming with us, then I'd put a collar on them when I have to give breaks, to prevent losing them (and if they get lost, I could catch them more easily). Plus, when I pet them, I don't want the collar to be in the way. :)

I don't like collar cause of all the inherent risks so i use harnesses. or i did until someone took my kitten out of it. it fit him perfectly.

I'm sorry, but as you were told in the other thread, your neighbor did your cat a favor.
Cats should never be unsupervised while wearing a harness, cat harnesses usually say so right on the tag/package.
Harnesses get stuck on things too, and they do not prevent strangulation, not to mention that a thrashing, stuck cat in a harness is much more likely to break bones, including back or neck.

Baby has no more fleas, so back on her collar goes!! Yay for no more fleas!! (I'm sure Baby is as glad as I am!)

No because everytime I try to put one on, they go crazy trying to get it off. I'm afraid they will injure themselves trying to get it off, like strangle themselves or break a jaw or something. Even though I buy the breakaway collars, I think it's pretty hard to get it to "breakaway" myself, muchless a little kitten.

My cats wear a collar and ID tag. That's the rule for living at our house. Right now they have break-away collars and a tag that doesn't dangle in their food/water and they really like that. Their tags have both mine and DH's cell phone numbers on them.

I worked at a shelter for several years. I know how many cats came in without collars (or even collars with no tags) and never got returned to their home.

My cats are not microchipped. I have a few reasons for that.

My indoor boys don't wear one because they never go outside. If they were indoor/outdoor cats then I would put one on them but I never let them out for fear of losing them.

My two kittens wear break away collars with ID's & a bell, so we can hear them when not in sight & avoid stepping on little feet. I do plan to have them chipped at there next check up next month.

We thought it best just in case he somehow escapes from his enclosure or the house by sneaking past, so his registration tag is on there if someone finds him.

But he is NEVER escaping!!

Tippy and Felicity wear collars and are microchipped, but they are indoor outdoor girls. We have never been able to get close enough for long enough to Addie to put a collar on her; but when we got her to the vet she was microchipped. Still, now she has adopted our garden as her own, she never leaves it.

The indoor babies, Lily and Tolly are pedigrees and have never worn collars. Both are microchipped. They would escape if they could, but we have a strict "double-dooring" policy to make sure that the indoor kitties are behind a second door before we open the door to the outside world.

If we have anybody else in the house, we place a big notice on the second door telling them not to open it and an obstruction in the way so nobody can just open the door by mistake.

we have a strict "double-dooring" policy to make sure that the indoor kitties are behind a second door before we open the door to the outside world.
Beth that's the same way i work as well, because with having three now you really need eyes in the back of your head :)

My attempts to make Ike wear a collar all failed. Either she would get mopy and upset, or I would find she had magically gotten it off somehow. She is still a bit young, but I plan to get her microchipped soon.

right now, no collars, but they are microchipped. We live on the third floor of the house right now, so the chances of anyone getting outside are slim (two flights of stairs and two doors to get out). Eventually, we'll be done working on the first floor and then it will be much easier to get out.

They have collars, but neither has worn them for more than an hour. I recently bought nametags for their collars and I think I'm going to start getting them used to wearing them before we go downstairs for good.

Roxie wears a collar and is micro-chipped. We originally got her the collar because as a kitten she would hide and sometimes get stuck in small places so the bell always helped us find her. Plus, she has her microchip ID tag on her collar in case she ever did get out. We travel with her sometimes and even as careful as we are you can never be too safe!

Mine are microchipped and do not wear collars when at home, but they do have one each for vet visits and other times they are outside, because a person may not bring a cat in to scan for a chip. but they will see the collar

Mine did when they first came in, until I felt sure that they were comfortable here. Unfortunately, Reyah and Hera kept figuring out how to tighten the collars, which scared me. I still haven't figured out how in the world they did that. Any other collar they would get off. Now, none of them wear collars.

Marlowe wears a collar and is microchipped. He tries to bolt for the door, but I'd still want one on him even if he didn't. It's a breakaway style, and I've found it lying on the floor once or twice - so I know he could get it off if he became entangled in anything.

Plus, she has her microchip ID tag on her collar in case she ever did get out. We travel with her sometimes and even as careful as we are you can never be too safe!

When I had the name tags printed, I put the word "microchipped" on it. The tag has our home phone, the microchip registry also has a cell phone # in case we're away from home...

My two wear break away collars. Primarily with Barkley because he is so rambunctious and I want to know where he is at all times. The collars also have bells on them so I can hear him coming and going and when he's getting into mischief.

It was actually pretty useful - they'd been losing stuff (forks, pens, coins, etc.) and they were trying to figure out where it was all going. They figured it out one day when they heard her bell under the couch - moved the couch and found 75 pens (yes 75) about 10 dollars in change, and half their silverware.

This is a teeny tiny cat - I don't know how she manages to drag all that stuff off!

Lol...maybe she's part ferret (my ferret steals everything and hides 99% of it inside - not simply under - the couch). One of my cats (living with his mother and my ex-husband now) had an obsession with hiding things under area rugs. I have no idea how, but he managed to hide an impressive collection of straws and Q-tips under an 8'x10' area rug under our dining room table (not to mention all of the other rugs he stashed things under). I have no idea how he got things 4' under a rug securely weighted down on all sides by a very heavy estate dining table, but he did. We moved several times with him and always found the strangest things under rugs.

My ferret doesn't get too many opportunities to steal silverware, but he has a freakish obsession with my car keys, to the point of attacking my purse when he finds it zipped up, so he can't steal my keys. I have a rubbery Brian (from The Family Guy) keychain that he can't seem to resist (the only reason I'm using that keychain is because it's my spare; my other keys have gone missing, most likely stolen by him!).

As for collars, I live on the sixth floor of an apartment building, so people would have to open at least four doors for my kitty to get outside of the actual building. When we go anywhere, she wears her collar, but I generally prefer my cats naked. If I lived in a townhouse/SFH, I would insist on collars 24/7 for any escape artists, and I always keep a collar on when I'm outside (to go the vet, etc.), but I don't really like them. I just don't find it that hard to keep most cats inside. I don't like collars, and I know it's a personal preference. I think people who keep collars on their cats are doing them a service. However, like a previous poster, it interferes with my petting. I have generally lived in very rural areas on the east coast, so a cat escaping isn't really the end of the world (no real predators or roads, and most of my cats have been easily caught immediately after any sort of escape). If I lived in suburbia or an urban environment, I imagine I would be more concerned. Now, in the apartment, a lot of people would have to be involved to let my cat outside. The building promotes that it is cat-friendly, so I doubt any other tenants would just assume she was a stray that managed to make it through four different doors.

Edited to add: All my cats have been microchipped since they became available.

When I first got Callie, she wore a collar. Mainly because she was an outdoor kitty. That changed when I got rid of the roommate and moved. She's now an indoor only cat and shows no desire to go outside. She's microchipped, too.

Hannah wore a collar for all of 5 minutes, until she got her bottom jaw stuck in it. Decided then and there that she would not wear a collar. Her neck is so tiny I can't find one small enough and I've tried everywhere, including the dog section of the pet store! She's also microchipped.

Stephanie

I don't like having a collar on her because it makes me nervous..heard too many scary stories. I do have a collar w/name & phone #s on her carrier to put on her if we have to go outside but I refuse to put it on her when she's inside.

P.Kitty wears a break-away collar with a reflective tag since he is all black. If he got out, and he does try, I'd want cars to have a chance of seeing him. I had gotten him a reflective collar, but he scratched the reflective stuff off, and that can't be good for him. Also we got him as a cat from the pound, and he was absolutely someone's pet before we were lucky enough to get him. I still wonder if his last family misses him and wishes they had had a tag on him..

I've thought about microchipping but read that there are 2 systems, and neither is ubiquitous, so I could chip but if he was taken to a different vet/shelter/whatever, they might not be able to read it. Anyone know more about this? Is it still a problem?

We had collars on Joey and Kahlua, but we got tired of the bells constantly ringing during their 2 AM Kitty 500...

I bought collars for all 3 of mine and they don't like them. When i found KitKat she had a collar on and it was very loose but she was happy to have it off and i never put it back on. I live in an apartment and they would have to get threw 3 doors to get outside and down stairs. the other 2 have never like them. Angel and figured out how to turn them around to the clip and chew it apart. Amazing, i watched her do this.

Isaac has a tattoo so doesn't need a tag. We've had him 4 days now so he's only been inside. I too like the uninterrupted feel of petting sans collar but since I make collars as my very part time job, my kids INSISTED he have a kitten sized collar made especially for him. Since he's grey with some white he looks smashing in red and so is currently purched atop my shoulder, sporting a red bandana collar without the bell. :)