Collars for Ferals

Help! I have a dilemma. Hopefully some of you with collar experience can help.

I have 3 ferals. When I had them TNR'd they were kittens and at the time, the clinic that fixed them was not doing microchipping. So of course my ferals are not yet chipped even though I am hoping to be able to get them done in March. My dilemma is that I feel uncomfortable with them having no form of identification if they get taken to the shelter (TNR is not recognized in my county and they will certainly be euthanized).  I decided I wanted to put collars on them until they are chipped. They are becoming more and more brave and travelling greater distances. I did some research which is full of scary horror stories and ended up buying Beastie Bands. I was surprised to see how hard it is to break the collar open. I would not consider these to be  safe collars. It takes a lot of effort to pull the Velcro apart and I am pretty sure a cat could hang from it, so I did not use them. I went ahead a purchased cheaper breakaways and wrote my cats names/phone number with permanent marker as I don't want anything dangling and making noise. I was able to put a collar on one of my ferals (she lets me pet her) and now I am freaking out about it. I am scared it won't break away right. She is a longer haired cat and it was impossible to put collar on her without some hair getting in the clasp and I think it is a little too loose. She ran away before I could fix it. Was this a good idea?  Is it better to just leave them with no identification? These cats are very spoiled and live a happy life in my barn. I consider them more as outdoor cats than feral. And my thought process is that most people collar their outdoor cats. UGH! This is so scary.  Any input from you Beastie Bands users or other collar advocates would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

I've put collars on all my rescued feral cats. Some of them are a lot easier to pet than others, I just have to guess how much I need to adjust the collar to fit their neck and snap it on as fast as I can. They fall of quite regularly, I need to replace them every 3 ~ 4 months. I often find them at the bottom of trees or snagged on bushes so I think they break off as soon as they get caught on something. They also come of when the boys are wrestling with each other, I've never had a cat get caught up with one.

I use these ones. I take the bells off as they get upset by the jangling noise.

Lochness350 said:

. I did some research which is full of scary horror stories and ended up buying Beastie Bands. I was surprised to see how hard it is to break the collar open. I would not consider these to be  safe collars. It takes a lot of effort to pull the Velcro apart and I am pretty sure a cat could hang from it, so I did not use them.   Any input from you Beastie Bands users or other collar advocates would be greatly appreciated.

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The Beastie Bands aren't designed to "break away", but to stretch so the cats can pull their heads out of them if they snag on something. If you pull on both ends you'll see that they stretch about 35% to 40%. That, coupled with allowing some leeway when you fit them (two fingers should comfortably fit under them), is enough. I've tested them on our cat (by holding on to the collar with both hands) and one of the shelter cats who had to be distinguished from her sister, and neither of them had any trouble slipping out of the collars.