Microchip? Yes or no?

My three cats are indoor only, but i still got them chipped incase (god forbid) they ever got out

Both of mine are chipped, just incase they ever get out

Both are chipped, and while indoor only, its just insurance. I don't have to pay a fee, and it has all of my information on it. In Australia, I believe its even the law for any new adoptions. Cats that are ID'd at a shelter, are also held much longer than those that are not from what I've read.

You can also have the cat tattooed as my two are.

Lastly, the munchkins don't wear collars indoors since it bunches up their fur and makes grooming more difficult, but if people are coming over or we are heading to the vet, they wear their collars with my name, address, and phone #.

Not that expensive, and just provides peace of mind even if its never used.

All four of mine are chipped. The first two because we wanted it, and the second two because it's required by the city for adoptees from the shelter. Also, if the shelter picks up a stray, the owner has to pay to have it chipped when they retrieve it.

All animals brought into the shelter are scanned, even road kills. And, occasionally, we call the owner of a stray brought into the shelter before the owner even knows it's missing.

My cat is an indoor cat, but like the others I had her microchipped just in case she ever got out by accident.

The small charge for it is well with the peace of mind.

Peanut is not microchipped (DH doesn't think it's necessary... I had to FIGHT him to get the dog microchipped, and she's a door-darting little fiend!), but if I had my way he would be. It's a lot less of a worry to know that Sylvie will be able to be returned to me- but if Peanut gets out... well, I don't like thinking about it.

At least he's pretty well afraid of doors?

Definitely. I have picked up too many healthy looking, well socialised strays that have clearly had a home but thanks to no chip we couldn't find an owner. Quite a few rescues here chip before homing which i think is a good thing.

when I get the extra cash, I'd like to have my cat chipped. Even though he's indoors only. One can never be too safe

Holland was chipped when I got her from the shelter. She is indoor-only, but she doesn't wear a collar (the risk outweighs the benefit, IMO) so it's nice to know that if she ever DID get out she can be ID'd. She's not a door darter and has shown little if any interest in being on the other side of the window.

Yes! All mine came from a shelter that microchips everyone, even offering the service to the general public for their pets, at a small fee. Before these cats, I got all mine done at my vet's. It's a help should your cat ever get lost. And after the initial fee to inject the chip and register, there is no further cost. Don't use a company that charges an ongoing fee. But do keep your contact info up to date with the company.

Robin

Jamie is only allowed outside on a leash, but has managed to slip his harness a few times or get out when a door wasn't properly closed. He's tattooed, microchipped and wears a reflective collar with tags. Our part-timer (shared cat) is indoor/outdoor, and both tattooed and microchipped. She doesn't/won't wear a collar.

It's really worth the one-time fee to get cats and dogs microchipped.

You should most definately go for the microchip!! We had a little girl once who went missing and she wasn't chipped. Luckily someone found her and took her in but they were tempted to keep her. Sadly we have lost her now to an car accident last year but learnt from our lesson and as soon as she was back, microchipping it was!

Both of my cats are microchipped now too. Its best to be safe than sorry!

Good luck

x
Carrie

Definitely chip! There is no downside to it and its great to know it's there just in case something terrible should happen to your kitty!

My cats are chipped, even the wild kitties

All of my cats (past and present) are also chipped. Just in case they somehow managed to get out, and if showing or breeding, they must have a chip.

I had cat microchipped

I'd ask around and see what people are paying though and call your vet in advance. I know some vets that charge outrageous fees for simple things like a squirt of frontline on the back of the head.

If they ask for more than $50, I'd shop elsewhere.

I bought mine (Home Again) on Amazon for $20.00 with free shipping and my vet put it on Lucky for free for me.

There is a one time fee of $15.00 to activate it. So.... $35 was my total. They have a whole bunch of things that I can renew if I want to by paying $15 per year. If I do not want to renew, no problem - she will be in the database for a lifetime for this initial $15 (the initial fee includes the first year of service).

It is a good service though, I might renew it - for example: Free 24hr emergency vet phone calls, Rescuers network, transportation if my cat is found after a certain distance... etc.
I will think about it when the time comes. For now I am just happy to have her chipped, and will definitely Chip the others.

Our shelter does low-cost chips one Saturdy each month. I believe they charge $20, which includes the activation and everything.

Both of my indoor only cats are chipped, more for my mental peace of mind than because they go outside. I can go online and update contact information. Hannah had to be chipped before they released her from the pound after we adopted her. I watched them chip her and it was done with a syringe and took all of 2 minutes. Tumbles was chipped at the same time he was neutered.

All my cats and my dog are microchipped. I had the litter of kittens I rescued chipped before they went to new homes.
Mine are not allowed outside but I like to have a permanent form of ID just in case.

All of my cats are indoor only.

I've gone the discrete ear tattoo route for my cats.

I prefer the tattoo over a microchip because tattoos are easily seen if you look into the ear canal vs. a micochip which is invisible to the eye. And to be honest, not everyone thinks to check for a microchip.

I've got 2 kittens in January this year and even the vet said that they prefer the ear tattoos over the microchip for the reasons I mentioned above. So much so that they offer an incentive for people to go that route instead of a microchip by offering the ear tattoo free.

The way a tattoo works is that the tattoo ID is sent to the local Humane Society. The tattoo ID contains your name, address and phone number. And just like a microchip, the data is only good if the person updates the information. So if you move or change your phone number, you need to call the Humane Society to have them update their files.

If I found a cat and it had no visible ID marking, in order for me to find out if the cat belonged to someone, I would have to take it to a vet and have them scan for a chip. And there might not even be a chip there when they scan. Waste of a trip to a vet for me.....and I don't drive, so that would be a double taxi cab ride.

Now on the other hand if I found a cat with an ear tattoo, I could simply pick up the phone, call the Humane Society and give them the tattoo number. The Humane Society would be able to tell me who the kitty belongs to without me having to spend my time and money driving around with a terrified cat.

Everytime I visit the vet, they check that the chip is still in place and working. Last time when Luna was at the vet, they couldn't find the chip at first. I mentioned that it was a foreign chip but they said it doesn't matter. Turned out that their chip scanner (or what ever it's called) had almost empty batteries so it wasn't working properly. They tried with another scanner and found the chip immediately. So this kind of stuff can happen too..
From my shorthairs I can even feel the chip.

I am curious as to how the ear tattoo works and how it looks, i don't think it is done in the UK I assume they have to be done under anaesthetic? What if you picked up a stray with bad ear issues, how readable would it be then? Another downside - although dependent on the colour of your cat - is if they develop cancer they would then lose their identification so would need something else

I do understand that they can malfunction or migrate or the scanner may not be working. However, my point was that the cat may not even have been micro chipped at all. The only way to find out is to take the cat to a vet and have it scanned.

Tattoos are visible if you are looking for them. Micro chips are not. Therefore people are more likely to look for a home if they see a tattoo, vs having to go out of their way either by taking time off of work, or spending money on taxi fares etc, to take the cat to a vet to be scanned.

Also, some people may not even be aware of micro chipping. I didn't know about micro chipping until I saw it mentioned on this site.

This is why I advocate for ear tattooing. I was extremely happy that my vet felt the same way and that I didn't have to argue my case.

I know because this is the computer era that micro chipping is popular. Pretty soon we'll be micro chipping our skin kids. However, visible is better than invisible so far as I am concerned.

I guess it all depends on who does the tattoo.

My RB kitty, Chynna was spayed at the spay and neuter clinic in 1992. While it's a cheap place to go, the procedures are done "assembly line", and therefore rushed. She was an all white kitty with pink skin, and her tattoo was not done very well at all. It looked like it was done using some kind of fancy gothic type font. It was too big and difficult to read not only because of the font but because the letter/number thickness was too thick. And it was not placed far enough into her ear canal so you could see it when you were looking right at her. It was in the lower 1/2 of the inside of her ear, but not far enough so it was very visible. It was my first experience with ear tattooing.

I vowed never to do the ear tattooing again. However, my vet changed my mind when I took Abby in. They had seen Chynna's tattoo and were just has unhappy about it as I was, and they couldn't believe that whomever did her tattoo did it so large and so visible, especially seeing that she was a pure white cat.

Abby (orange and white) was spayed at the same vet hospital as Spencer and Katie (both grey tabbies) were in January. All of their tattoos are great! They are inside the ear at the base of the ear so you can't see them unless you are actually looking into their ear. To read it, you have to push the tufts of hair in the ears aside and fold the ear back a little because it's placed into a dip inside the ear.

You also don't have to have it done on an ear, mine are not.

For short hairs, they can do it where the fur is very thin on the belly or inside the hind leg.

I'm not sure that tattooing is terribly useful, though. . .what about dark cats? I know I wouldn't be able to see a tattoo in several of my kitties. It wouldn't occur to me at all to check a stray's ear canal (or tummy/leg) for a tattoo, so unless it was immediately visible or the cat had ear mites that needed treatment it's not likely I would see it. Plus, if the cat took a cross-country journey in a moving van (I hear so many of those stories!), the shelter that found the cat on the other end wouldn't know what the tattoo is for. Unless there's a national database for tattoos (like the microchip databases), it's a very local kind of thing.

It seems that tattooing pets as a method of ID is pretty common in Canada, though. If everyone knows that pets are commonly tattooed, and the shelters check for them, usefulness would be greatly increased. Here in the U.S., it's so rare that I don't know that there's any good in doing it at all.

The main usefulness of microchipping is that all shelters scan for microchips. Even the tiny shelters have scanners now. An individual person who finds the cat may not know to check for a chip, but if the cat ever ended up at a shelter it would be scanned. All ID methods have limitations, but in the U.S., microchipping is probably the ID method with the broadest reach. Nothing wrong with using multiple methods, either .