What would you recommend for being most reliable, comfortable, and less stressful on the first try?

We bought a harness today at petsmart and I knew it was a bad choice from the start. It only had a neck and girth loop. We have another smaller harness for my Foldie that has two connections on the back and under the chest from neck to girth. That way the cat doesn't feel like it's strangling. We couldn't find any today that would fit our fatcat, Olley and the one we put on him made him freak out pretty bad. He's been in a harness before and never went as crazy as this time.

Have you found any that you thought were safe that you really like?

Thanks guys :)

Which type of harnesses did you buy? Were they the figure-8 kind? I can't stand those! They're very uncomfortable and also pretty easy for some cats to squirm out of.
The harnesses I like the best are the vest-style harnesses. They are a little harder to find unless you have a very small cat or kitten, though. I bought a Super Pet Comfort Harness for my kitten from Petsmart, which is a type of harness made for other critters, they have sizes for rats, ferrets, and rabbits. I bought the rabbit size and it fit my kitten perfectly. He's 6.5 lbs now at 4.5 months old and it just barely still fits. It does fit my brother's slightly younger Maine Coon kitten though. You can find some people who hand-make similar vest style harnesses and sell them online, or you might be able to find some made for toy breeds of dog at boutique pet stores.
If you can't find a vest harness, I'd recommend a H-shaped harness rather than a figure 8 style. I have a large previously overweight cat, she weighs 13 lbs and is too big for most cat harnesses (she was 16 lbs when we adopted her!) I bought her a harness made for a small dog and that works well.

I use Roman style dog harnesses, they sit in a V down the chest rather than around the neck.

http://www.petsuppliesathome.com.au/images/kramarharness.jpg

I use roman style harnesses as well. You usually order them via the girth size. The ones I have are made by Lupine and they have a warrenty. The company will replace the harness (or collar) if chewed, etc. FOR LIFE even if the damage is caused by your pet. Now that's a company that stands by their products. :) They come in many neat patterns as well with leashes and collars to match.

Art

We are using the roman style as well--found one with a matching leash on the clearance rack at Petsmart for like $5 for both harness and leash--it should fit him through adult size--he's 6.5 months and 7.3 pounds right now.

Leslie

Which type of harnesses did you buy? Were they the figure-8 kind? I can't stand those! They're very uncomfortable and also pretty easy for some cats to squirm out of.
The harnesses I like the best are the vest-style harnesses. They are a little harder to find unless you have a very small cat or kitten, though. I bought a Super Pet Comfort Harness for my kitten from Petsmart, which is a type of harness made for other critters, they have sizes for rats, ferrets, and rabbits. I bought the rabbit size and it fit my kitten perfectly. He's 6.5 lbs now at 4.5 months old and it just barely still fits. It does fit my brother's slightly younger Maine Coon kitten though. You can find some people who hand-make similar vest style harnesses and sell them online, or you might be able to find some made for toy breeds of dog at boutique pet stores.
If you can't find a vest harness, I'd recommend a H-shaped harness rather than a figure 8 style. I have a large previously overweight cat, she weighs 13 lbs and is too big for most cat harnesses (she was 16 lbs when we adopted her!) I bought her a harness made for a small dog and that works well.
Yeah it was the really awful figure 8! I felt so awful when I put it on him because as soon as I saw it I could tell that he would think it was choking him. We're taking it back tonight and will look for the H-shaped harness, that's the one we have for my foldie and it works really well. I think we actually picked hers up in the doggie isle too...


I use Roman style dog harnesses, they sit in a V down the chest rather than around the neck.


That's the same shape/kind we have for our foldie, I tried finding another one while we were there but they were out. We're taking the figure-8 one back tonight in hopes they'll have the one above instead.

Yeah, the one that someone posted a photo of is what I meant by H-style harnesses.
I also got one of those at Petsmart recently on clearance for a really low price, $2-3 and it fits my large kitten pretty well.

Found one! :D

Olley didn't pitch a nightmare fit when I put it on and it fits just right. As my husband would say, he's a rather ill proportioned cat. Little neck and a wide girth, it was hard to find a decent harness, but we got the Roman style :)

Thanks guys!

i like Lupine brand H-style harnesses (http://www.lupinepet.com/cat/cats.php) best.

I like the H type. I will have to try that. Has anyone had any experience with the "walking jacket"? http://www.hdw-inc.com/walkingjackets.htm

I love the walking jacket. I've used the one I bought on several cats, and it's perfect. Even the squirmy ones who got out of every other harness couldn't escape from the walking jacket. It comes in two sizes now too, and it's adjustable so it fits the cats really well.