Safety collars?

I just got a collar for our newest civie, Frankie. He tends to try to RUN OUT the front door. I got him a safety collar but he takes the damn thing off all the time, then keeps it in his bed like he's saving his kill.

Do you guys use safety collars or normal collars? Have they ever gotten caught on anything, if you use the normal kind?

Many thanks!

 

Sorry I don't have collars on my cats, but had to comment, the picture that comes to mind of what you describe makes me chuckle. :lol:

 

I used to use one of those collars with the elastic on it that would supposedly stretch and break if it got caught. Problem was, it never did. Not that Gwyn ever got it caught on bushes or fences or whatever, but a few times she came home with one or both of her paws trapped under the collar; the two times she had both paws trapped, she wasn't able to use her front legs to walk and it took her quite a while to work her way back. I stopped using the collar after the second time it happened. She's a very shy but extremely intelligent cat and I was more afraid of what might happen to her while she was unable to move freely than I was about her getting lost.

 

I use safety collars on all my (indoor/outdoor) cats, and I go through a ton of them. Both my civvies squirm under fences and in brambles and they snap off if they catch on something. Good news is they don't get choked, bad news is I spend a fortune on the damn things. I use the ones with the reflective paw prints on them:

http://www.petco.com/product/7806/Petma ... SiteSearch

 

Only my cat Callie wears a safety collar because she has a bad habit of running outside.

 

All my kitties are indoors, but they all wear breakaway collars just in case they get out. Those safety ones that stretch never stayed on. These collars stay on with a loose fit.

 

Ditto for me until I got the collars with the conventional buckle but with the ENTIRE collar stretchy.

I would never....ever.....use the collars with the elastic insert. Those collars do not expand enough to make them safe. I actually went to one local store and begged them to stop selling them after one of the volunteers in our group found her cat dead under her bed wearing one of these collars. The collar got caught on the bed frame and then the cat just kept spinning around.....

I used to use the breakaway collars on my barn cats but got tired of them losing them.

When I finally went to the collar where 100% of the collar is stretchy.....AND...put them on very snuggly....I lost far fewer collars.

I honestly think that the breakaway collars are the safest but the ones that I use are very safe also.

The BIGGEST PROBLEM with collars is the fact that people do not put them on snuggly enough. If anyone has ever seen a cat panicked and near death from struggling after getting their lower jaw caught in a collar....you know what I mean.

Keep those collars snug!.....and they will be far less apt to get caught on things.

 

http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/aspe ... rs-reviews

I use the Aspen stretch collar but I take the bell off. I would be annoyed if someone hung a bell around my neck.

Oh...and I am a strong believer in microchipping in addition to a collar and a name tag.

Speaking of name tags.....in my rescue work I have found cats with collars but no name tags.....or tags that are illegible.

Pretty frustrating when trying to reunite a cat with is owner......

I put minimal info on the tag. Just my last name and TWO phone numbers. BIG and LEGIBLE.

 

I think I'm guilty of having the collars too loose. I've been going by the 2 finger rule, but perhaps that's too much room? I think I was scarred by seeing too many imbedded collars on Animal Planet cop shows, so I literally check them every day, and adjust them if they feel snug. I switched from fancy, expensive stainless steel printed tags to making my own with Shrinky Dinks and Sharpies. At least then I save the cost of replacing the tag as well as the collar, and the tag is much lighter, which is probably nicer for the cats. And everyone is microchipped, of course. Every once in awhile someone down the street calls to say they've found a collar, so I do get them back sometimes....

 

I make my own collars from 1/2-inch sewing elastic. VERY stretchy and will come off by pulling over
the head if caught.

Sew into a loop, overlapping the two ends by about an inch...leaving a space between the
two ends for the tag attachment thingee.

VERY cheap...easy to make exactly the right size.

Very comfortable for the cat. No weight and no bulk or irritation from sharp edges.

 

Clever girl. Can they be sewn by hand or is a sewing machine necessary? Forgive me, but I don't know what it looks like/how thick it is (Shrinky Dinks are about as crafty as I get).

 

I like the all stretchy collars. However, I do use the bells on my two "attack"cats. It helps warn the the others who is coming.

 

When mine are outside, either on leash or free (yes, I know...), they are in figure 8 collars just in case they do get hung up as the figure 8 seems to support them rather than just one around the neck which could strangle them (watched them hang once or twice on a regular collar). Plus it is harder for them to wriggle out if they are trying to escape their leash.

 

You could sew them by hand, if you want to.

Another thing I do is get several 'generic' metal ID tags.

I put "I'm Lost" and my phone number on the tag.

That way I have a quick replacement tag if a tag gets lost.

 

You guys are so helpful! I have this one:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... 8&lmdn=Cat

But he manages to work at it and work at it and take it off. So far, he's had it on 2 days.

In fact, I took a picture of him lounging with his cute little tag showing:

http://twitpic.com/12lpc6

He's a cutie, huh? He looks like a model.

I feel a little weird asking... but what the heck is a Shrinky Dink??

And elastic collars are okay for when they get stuck on stuff?

 

Oh my, he is quite handsome.

Shrinky Dinks are plastic sheets that you draw on--back in the day (we're talking mid-to-late-70s here) they came with special pens. Now you can use colored pencils or Sharpies on them, and they even have some that you can print photos on using an inkjet printer. You cut out whatever shape you want, then bake them in the oven. They shrink in size, but get thicker and quite brittle, so you have to punch a hole in it before you bake it.

http://www.shrinkydinks.com/

ETA: I'm officially OLD. ;-)

 

Every time I see people adhering to this rule....I find the collars to be much too loose.

That is only going to happen on a GROWING animal when someone is not expanding the collar in line with growth! :smile:

 

I have never been keen on metal tags. They are often so hard to read.

I like BLACK writing on a WHITE background. The older I get and the worse my eyesight gets....the more annoyed I become with things that are not BIG and easy to read.

Also, think of a wriggling animal......you don't want the rescuer to have to take a lot of time to read the tag. And if the animal is still outside, you don't want the rescuer to have to take the collar off to read it....because your cat will now be running around without a collar if he skitters away from the 'rescuer'.

Jen - have you ever used the 'H' type of harnesses? I never liked the Figure 8 harnesses. In order to keep them tight enough around the chest so that they can't get out of them if they panic and struggle.....you have to make them so tight around the neck.

The 'H' harnesses have independent buckles that allow you to make it snug around the chest but looser around the neck.

Of course, they are not 'safety' harnessess but I would be worried about letting a cat out of my sight with *any* type of harness on.