Collars

Hi there!

I use Safe Cat collars on my two kitties. I just used pliers to take the bell off. My one year old is microchipped so her tag reads:

Zoe LastName
123-456-7890
*Microchipped*

My kitten will be microchipped when she is spayed so her tag will be the same.

Embrordered tags wouldn't work for me because my cats have more collars that most people have clothes...it's a bit of an obsession for me.

The most important thing when looking for a collar is to make sure it is for cats...cat collars are supposed to break apart with minimal pressure. That's the biggie - MINIMAL. Some cat collars I've come across were way tool hard to open. They need to release quickly in case the cat gets caught on something.

Hope that helps!

Megan

I used to have my cats wear collars, but I always have the same problems with them and then had a terrible accident with Presley and a kitten collar I will explain.

First of all, somehow my kittens and Pipsqueak for that matter get the collar in their mouths. No matter how tight I put it, and I don't want it too tight, they are able to get in their mouths and they just pull it apart. I was always looking for collars around the house. Once, Pipsqueak, couldn't get the breakaway to break apart and must have walked around with this collar in his mouth for two hours while I was at the store.

Then, I decided to try those kitten elastic collars and figured if they got caught on something they could slip out of it. Well, thank GOD I was home and I still get sick about this. I was downstairs getting the laundry, and I heard a VERY loud crash and smash noise going on in the kitchen. I raced up stairs and by then Presley was tearing around my bedroom in a state of panic. He had been sleeping on the heat register that rests on the floor of the kitchen. His tags got caught and twisted in the register and he raced off pulling the register out of the floor and it was dragging along side of him while he ran in terror. The register turned and turned as he ran and that elastic collar turned into a tourniquet around his neck and was cutting off his air supply. I had to get a scissors and cut the collar off. He was choking to death right before my very eyes. It was the most frightening experience of my life and now I am afraid of collars and none of my cats wear then now.

I do like collars and wish they could wear them but the choking incident has be still choked up

I use break away collars. I cut the bell off otherwise Luna and Midnight will go nuts trying to get it. The problem with break away is they come off to easily. Midnight always manages to get Luna's, and his own collar off.

speaking of going nuts trying to get the bell off. I was wondering how you tag the collar with ID info if your cat goes nuts trying to remove the danglie tag? I got a custom engraved plastic one and Aya kept chewing on it till it finally broke off. I'm worried that she'll simply break her teeth eventually if I get another so I haven't. I wonder why nobody's thought of a flat tag that runs along the collar? I'm tempted to borrow the label machine at school and print a sticker out with her name and my # on it.

Yes, that is another problem I have had with the collar nightmares, the cat's get their teeth caught on the tags and then pull the collar off, or worse have it stuck on a tooth.

I am thinking of ordering the embroidered collars for my furbabies...

All of my cats are microchipped, but I also have them wear collars as I want to ensure their safety should they ever manage to get out of the house. And, while I don't have them wear their collars constantly (I remove them during grooming or occasionally just to give them a break during the day if I'm home), they do wear breakaway collars. I also have Beastie Bands for all of the cats, but they don't tolerate them as well as they do the regular collars.

I don't necessarily clip the bells off of my cats' collars. They don't seem to mind them. Even with their tags, the cats don't mess with their collars or anything that jingle-jangles off of them. So, for me, it's not an issue to have dangling tags. However, when they wear Beastie Bands, I attach a tag that slides onto the tag. These can also be used with regular breakaway collars. The company I ordered mine from was Boomerang Tags. Embroidered collars are also available from a multitude of sources, but I have chosen not to use them. My dogs, in the past, have had embroidered tags and they did not stand up well to a lot of rough-and-tumble activity. Perhaps for cats it would be different, but I haven't had issues with my current collars and tags. Therefore, I can't see spending the additional money on embroidered collars.

Good luck with whatever you decide on. Thankfully, there are a lot of options out there for those of us who feel strongly about having our cats wear collars and tags.

My cats don't wear collars anymore, but I liked this combo: http://www.boomerangtags.com/store/?A=S&ID=38

I use the embroidered collars and love them - much better than a dangling tag. Only problem is they're expensive and one of my cats has learned to take them off in a secret location, he's gone through 6 so far

Tried different ones and tensions, but ultimately they seem to bunch up the fur and don't appear all that comfortable for them, with mine itching at the area on occasion. I think some just give in to the futility of trying to get them off, rather than actually liking them.

Since my cat is indoors only, I instead focus my efforts on just entering through the garage, and they are microchipped and tattooed.

I do throw the collars w/ ID tags on the kitties when I have guests coming over, since you can't count on them not leaving a door open. Since its only part time, which seems to be best for their comfort and coat maintenance, I would just not spend a fortune if doing it again.

And my cats are too active for bells, drove me bonkers hearing ringing almost 24x7 heh.

Love these!!! Thanks for the link, I am planning on ordering these for my five. I don't seem to have any luck with collars and my cats and hopefully these will work for us.

I use breakaway collars with Collartags from Boomerang Tags. These tags are like slide-on (or hook-on, if it's an adjustable rather than buckle collar) nameplates that are flat on the collar and not dangling, so there is nothing hanging off the collar to get caught anywhere, or get chewed on by the cat.
I am always afraid if they have something hanging off they will get it caught somewhere, it's happened before and since my cats wear breakaway collars the result is a missing collar and a "naked" cat.
Since the tags slide right on the collar, they can easily be removed and put onto a different collar if you wanted to switch collars.

One of my cats does have a hanging tag instead, because it is a medical ID tag and a) I wanted it to be as visible as possible so people would see it right away (the nameplate type are not quite as high-visibility) and b) I wouldn't have been able to fit all the medical info on a Collartag, because the hanging tag I got has info written on both sides which you can't do with a nameplate type tag.

I have also used embroidered collars with my phone number, and I still do use that for some of my cats but I like to have the CollarTags too because they fit a lot more info than what you can have embroidered on a collar. Before I used to have breakaway collars from Ragtime Collars for all my cats with my phone number embroidered on them, but they came apart way too easily and most of them are now missing somewhere in the house.
I got an embroidered collar for Harley which I quite like though, it's made out of a very soft material and backing that is supposed to be gentle on their necks. It's from K9 Closet, called a "Kitty Smoothie" collar. I decided to have "Indoor Only" embroidered with my phone number instead of her name, just in case she ever was missing:




I attached a photo (you can see it the very end of the message) of two of my cats' collars and you can see the CollarTags (the metal "nameplate"-looking things) on them.