Collars

I don't put collars on my kitties. Hannah got her lower jaw stuck in the one we got her when she was a kitten, so I decided not to do collars. I have heard good things about Beastie Bands, though.

I second beastie bands! Our kitties got them the other day. They had safety collars on before, and they slipped out of those in the blink of an eye. These they can't get off so easy! I love them too- there are a billion patterns, and they are basically one size fits all. They are awesome collars!

Lmao, they have had them for a week...immediately after posting that, I look over, and Lucy was taking hers off...the stink!

I also meant to say how wonderful that you've gotten them to the point of being integrated into your home!! Great progress! Do you have updated pics?

Collars aren't going to help you find a hiding kitten more easily. You'd think a bell would, but a cat has to move to make it ring. A hiding cat isn't a cat that is moving. If they have a habit of crawling under or even into things to hide I really really suggest you don't risk collars. They'll snag them on something eventually and you can't trust the collar to come loose if a kitten panics in that situation.

I have three former feral kittens myself. The girls love to hide in spaces that you'd think they couldn't cram themselves into. They'll even attempt getting inside the couch from time to time. The male doesn't so much, but that's only because he's big.

Breakaway collars are a no-brainer if going that route.

I was told that the bells are not so that you can find them, but so that they do less damage to wildlife, or in multicat homes to ensure the peace so that none of the aggressive cats can startle one another.

The benefit of the collar that I can see is that if the cat does get out, it immediately identifies to all that its not just another one of the strays you see all over that may have fleas or be aggressive so no one even bothers approaching.

A bright reflective collar can also help a car avoid the cat at night, and can hold an ID with a phone number and promise of reward so an average Joe would actually bother trying to return it.

To get the cat to accept the collar, it can't be too loose. You should be able to fit two fingers under it, as much more and it will agitate my kitties at least.

We've discovered that the breakaway collars are useless in our house. They can pop them right off so they serve no purpose. Instead we get the collars with a piece of elastic on them so they can stretch. I've seen my cats get the stretch ones off of them, but they are much harder to get off that the breakaways. So knowing they can get them off if needed, but that they stay on the majority of the time works for us. All of my cats are indoor cats but they wear collars in case they get out. A few years ago one of my cats ran out the door late at night, and it took all of 30 seconds for him to completely disappear into the woods/swamp behind our apartment. Exactly 3 months to the day later, we got him back. We had put up fliers everywhere, called every shelter, talked to people by going door to door, but none of that got him back. In the end, a construction worker found him when he wandered into the construction site. He read his collar, called us and we got him back! I'm still amazed at that story, but for me that sealed the deal that mine will always wear collars. I know they can be micro-chipped, but I have some former ferals who have their ears tipped so my fear is that if one of them runs away, and someone sees them, the ear tip will make a person think they were just trapped, neutered and released and it wouldn't cross their mind to check for a microchip. The cat that ran away had an ear tip, so I'm so thankful that he had the collar on. The man who found him said that it took a week to earn his trust, but he kept trying because he could see that he was wearing a collar so he figured he had to have belonged to someone.

So my point is, mine all wear collars, but the stretch ones. They can get out of them, but they also stay on. One stayed on my cat for 3 months and its what got him back to us, so thats my reasoning!

ETA: The previous posters are right about the bells though. Mine have bells and name tags and when they are playing or just wandering around I can hear them, but if they want to hide, they'll hide. I'm amazed at how quiet that can be if they don't want to be found.

I'm not sure how to get your cats to keep the collars on. I've never had a cat take their collar off before. *shrug* Maybe it wasn't tight enough?? No clue, sorry!

Nora wears a collar, though. Hers doesn't have a bell, but she has worn one from the moment we brought her home. She is an indoor only cat, but her collar has an id tag on it so that if she ever WAS to get out, hopefully someone would see her tag and try to find us. At least I hope it would keep people from thinking she is a stray.