What is the best type of collar

Breakaway catch or elesticated ?

I've got breakaway ones and they seem to need quite a bit of force to break the catch. I think my adult cat would be ok but not too sure about my 6 month old kitten.

What does everyone else prefer ??

Breakaway! If your 6 month old squirms enough - he should be able to break free.

I just got some beastie bands for my kitties (www.beastiebands.com) and they are nice and lightweight, velcro (that pulls apart if it gets tangled) and really cute designs. I founds that my cats would break their breakaway ones by scratching at them and breaking the adjustment thingies on them and then they would slide right off them.

I believe that breakaway collars with ID tags are essential for all kitties nowadays. I have read so many sad stories about lost cats that were "indoor" kitties. There are so many ways an indoor cat can get outside.
There is a lot of good info. at the thread link that Laureen posted above.
Better safe than sorry is the way I look at it.

Lei

ooo i learned something new once i get a cat soon, lol

I have breakaway collars on two and the seniors I don't have any collars even they venture outside (they don't wander too far from the house).
I have a beastie band for Bakker too.

I would recommend either the breakaway collars or the Beastie Bands. My cats currently wear the Beastie Bands because I love all the color & pattern choices I do find them laying around the house a lot more than when they wore the breakaway collars because they come off when the cats wrestle, but that could be a good thing - you definitely want the collar to come off if the cat gets caught on something.

If you want to use the breakaway collars, you can test their "breakaway strength" in the store to find one that breaks away easily enough for your kitty.

I really don't like the collars that have a single elastic insert, because my cats have had trouble getting those caught in their jaws before...and one time I came home & found one of the cats stuck with the top part of his front leg stuck through the collar - poor guy!

If you can't find a breakaway that's light enough, or if you just like a stretch collar, the Beastie Bands are nice because they stretch all the way around - enough to come off completely.

My kitties have stretchy collars with a regular clasp, and we seem to be doing fine. Leo busted out of about 3 different breakaway collars just by pulling and scratching, which didn't give me any hope for if he were to get outside. The stretchy ones seem to be a good compromise

Mine wear breakaway. Once in a great while one will manage to get one off. My problem was that one cat scratched the Safe Cat brand band so much it got really shredded! He got a new one that is made of a silky strong material at Petsmart, and it has lasted much longer, but its almost time for a new one.

my two wear break aways

We have breakaway collars on ours, the beastie bands ones which are great.

Carla...Along with collars with ID...microchips are important for their protection too.

If your furkids have not been chipped yet...there are some informative threads about microchips in this forum. Just put microchip into the forum search.

Let us know what kind of collars you get for your kitties.

Originally Posted by Carla

Breakaway catch or elesticated ?

I've got breakaway ones and they seem to need quite a bit of force to break the catch. I think my adult cat would be ok but not too sure about my 6 month old kitten.

What does everyone else prefer ??

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Hi everyone!

On the breakaway collars...is there a particular brand those of you who have used them successfully prefer?

I recently purchased a breakaway collar called "The Safety Collar" for my new 3-year-old (one of the Hurricane Katrina cats that I adopted at our local shelter ). Kali likes to roam on the windowsills and only a few days after putting this collar on her she had gotten the strings from the mini-blinds (kind of constructed like smaller versions of the old venetian blinds) wrapped around the plastic part of the collar that adjusts its length.

Not only did it not break off, it took a LOT of strength for me to get it off of her...that darn fastener just didn't want to budge. Obviously know I'm petrified of putting another similar one on her. (What if that had happened when I wasn't home?)

I did some research online and it seems people are happy with the breakaway brand called "Safe Cat" made by Coastal.

I'd never heard of the Beastie Bands until reading this forum. Would that type have expanded to let Kali get free in the situation above?

Living in a hurricane-prone area, it is crucial that even indoor cats have ID tags so I need some kind of collar for her. Any comments, experiences you all have had with different brands of the breakaways?

Thank you in advance!

Czari

Beastie bands are velcro....so with enough pulling the velcro will let go. The are also pretty stretchy and they have nothing to get things caught on. I always found my kitties would scratch at the collars and end up breaking the adjusters so that the collar would come undone. And since lucky has started pulling the houdini trick when the front door opens...i want to make sure her collar stays put. I haven't tried many other kinds so i can't tell you anything about those!

Hope you find one that works!

My cats have NEVER had a collar on them - it leaves collar marks. Indoor cats don't need them anyway. I showed household pets and we stress indoor only; so to see a "collar marked" cat would usually mean the cat is outside part of the time.

And you can't show cats with a collar on anyway.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

My cats have NEVER had a collar on them - it leaves collar marks. Indoor cats don't need them anyway.

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I'm gonna have to disagree with Golden Kitty on this one. I think as a precaution indoor cats should have a collar with an ID tag just as much as outdoor cats. I've heard stories and have experienced it myself where my kitties decide to dart out through the door or knock out a screen etc.

Better safe then sorry for me!! I'd rather have my kitty and have collar marks....then not have my kitty because she accidently got out and got lost.

Better safe then sorry for me!! I'd rather have my kitty and have collar marks....then not have my kitty because she accidently got out and got lost.

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Agree. As I stated in my original post, although all the cats I have ever owned have ALWAYS been indoor cats, living in an area where I may have to vacate the premises quickly due to hurricanes (Wilma heading our way as I speak) necessitates ID which then means collars. Also living in an apartment, although our maintenance people are excellent, one never knows when a cat will decide to dart out.

Thank you for your suggestions. Will need to investigate the Beastie Bands. I've never seen them at PetSmart or PetCo. Any idea where they're sold?

Czari

Breakaway collars we find work very well

I know it leaves 'collar marks' on his neck, being as he's such a longfurred fluffball, but with my boy being the escape artist he is, there's no other option. That is why Lucifer is an indoor cat with a blue breakaway and dinglybell.

Now, of course, I myself never let him escape outside. But mom's nearly done so once or twice on accident, and up in NYC my roommate's mom let him get away all the time. So that's why I've taken to the practice of it.

Thanks to his ears, there aren't going to be a whole lot of cats like him if he DOES somehow get outside down here, so it's not on my list of must-haves to get him a nametag yet. I probably will at some point though. Better safe than sorry.