Cats and collars

[floridafam]

We put a collar on our cat tonight (the cat we brought home last week) and she just seems different. She isn't trying to get it off with her paw or anything but she just seems nervous. She does purr when you pet her and everything.

DD said it will take her a couple of days to get used to it. It does have a bell on it. She has been sleeping in our screen enclosed Florida room and DH said the bell will help to keep critters away from her.

Any advice?

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I had a cat who practically hurt himself trying to remove his collar. Since they are all indoor cats we decided it was not worth it. If he isn't actively trying to get it off, I would give it a few days. Maybe remove the bell for now so he can get used to having something around his neck and then put the bell back on. Maybe it's just too overwhelming.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We never used collars with cats, too dangerous. The places they can go can accidentally choke them. If I had to use a collar I would use a breakaway collar.

 

[browneyes106]

We never used collars with cats, too dangerous. The places they can go can accidentally choke them. If I had to use a collar I would use a breakaway collar.

I agree with you on breakaway collars. I had a coworker a few years back that lost a 5 month old kitten when his collar got caught on an outdoor pet enclosure. A vet told her about breakaway collars and she told me about them.

 

[puffkin]

Both my girls have breakaways with bells. I come from a dog family and was not used to how "silent" cats can be, so I put bells on them from the beginning so I could keep track of them. They still startle me from time to time, but generally they don't get underfoot too much.

Lilly scratched at hers for a few days and then she was fine. Riley could have cared less. They don't even seem to notice them anymore.

 

[monkey68]

My cat absolutely refused to wear it. We even got it engraved with his name and our number because he likes to sit at open windows, and has jumped/fallen out before. He always runs to the door and starts crying so we hear him, but just in case. He also likes to go outside with us, we have a small enclosure with dirt and grass, and he likes to prowl in there. He doesn't run off, but again, just in case, we thought it better he wear a collar. Unfortunately, he had other ideas. So now the lovely collar is hanging from the window bar.

 

[Kath2003]

Mine freaked out then I gave him a treat and he was over it

It's got a bell on it. It's much better now we can hear him coming Also it's brightly coloured and reflective which is vital when you have a mainly black cat

They get over it, kitty treats fix everything.

 

[wendy46001]

Our cat refuses to wear a collar ...he's a hyper thing so we got the break away for safety...he figured out how to get it off in an hour...every time we put it on ...he’d take it off...after a few days we gave up

 

[BountyHunter]

My cat loves his collar. He will go get the collar when i take it off when he gets a bath. he loves the little bell.

 

[Imzadi]

I put a breakaway collar on my kitty when we went traveling. I wanted her to have a tag on her in case she got lost. She ended up bloodying her rear paw trying to get it off. Also, I realised the bell made her more apprehensive. She went into hiding almost all the times I left her alone. (We visit a house with dogs in the other room.) She felt like she was an easy target they could hear.

As soon as I took the collar off her, she would spend most time laying right on the bed, in plain view. (Dogs still sequestored away from her.) She was so much calmer and fine... except when it comes time to put her into her carrier. Then she becomes Cujo.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Kitty has a breakaway. She had a (much cuter) regular collar, but (like everything else I do) the DIS told me that what I'd done would kill her, so she now has a breakaway.

Doesn't mind it a bit.

 

[flying_babyb]

My two cats have break aways too. One is a VERY nervious (since we got her) cat, who is now doing ok with her bell. Both cats have bells since it allows me to know whos sneeking up to eat my feet (bandits a foot biter) or whos about to pounce on my head. Also keeps me alert when there trying to kill birds through the screen door.

 

[Morganpics]

Both of our cats wear breakaway collars with tags showing their name and our address. They are indoor cats, but we wanted them to be comfortable with collars should we need to leave the house and take them with us. Didn't take long for them to get used to them. The funny one is putting a walk harness on. They immediately drop to the ground and do a low crawl, so we haven't put that on for a while. That all started after we watched the results of Hurricane Katrina. I thought it would be helpful if they were in a carrier we could take them out if they were used to a harness and leash, but so far, they don't think so.

 

[safetymom]

I have 3 cats and they wear their collars all the time. No problems with them trying to get them off.

 

[Imzadi]

That all started after we watched the results of Hurricane Katrina.

I also did something with my cat in reaction to Hurricane Katrina. My cat had never eaten human foods. She had no reaction to the smell, or even knew it was "food" in one sense.

I live extremely close to Times Square, which many security studies, hypotheses, films like, Fail Safe, and the ball dropping at Times Square on New Years Eve show, that this would be the target area if a major bomb is dropped in NYC. It literally IS the midpoint of NYC. I was worried that if a bomb drops, it could take out the side of my building. If my cat gets out, runs free and no one is able to find her, she'd be roaming the streets in the chaos, not knowing how to look for food to eat.

So, I started giving her scraps of human food as I was eating it. Now, I have simply created a mooch who stares at me till I give her some of my dinner.

 

[Robinrs]

I have 4 cats and one of them will completely HIDE if I put a collar on her..

I have tried to put a collar on her 3 times and all 3 times she would hide and never come out until we took it off...

I only have one who will NOT take it off and that's little Princess Xena. She has a red breakaway that she thinks is a diamond necklace and just worthy of HER....

 

[Tazicket]

Our kitty has a breakaway collar. She was an itty bitty thing when we brought her home - too small for even the breakaway collar. Once she got a little bigger (and I was confident she was heavy enough to snap the collar should she get stuck), we put it on her. It had a bell on it, but the bell really freaked her out. We took the bell off and she fiddled with it for a couple of days and then she was fine.

 

[OK!]

I also did something with my cat in reaction to Hurricane Katrina. My cat had never eaten human foods. She had no reaction to the smell, or even knew it was "food" in one sense.

I live extremely close to Times Square, which many security studies, hypotheses, films like, Fail Safe, and the ball dropping at Times Square on New Years Eve show, that this would be the target area if a major bomb is dropped in NYC. It literally IS the midpoint of NYC. I was worried that if a bomb drops, it could take out the side of my building. If my cat gets out, runs free and no one is able to find her, she'd be roaming the streets in the chaos, not knowing how to look for food to eat.

So, I started giving her scraps of human food as I was eating it. Now, I have simply created a mooch who stares at me till I give her some of my dinner.

My cat also had to be "trained" to eat people-food, and I still have to tell him that everything is chicken, or milk if it's a liquid. Those are the words he knows, so if I tell him I'm giving him shrimp, he has no reaction. Call it chicken, though, and he's all over it.

 

[Katieinwonderland]

One of my cats (Cheeto, the baby) WILL NOT wear a collar, he will wiggle and fight until it comes off. But the one time he got out he just hid under my car and cried until we found him! Hershey will wear it but he sulks, just sits and whines and cries until it's easier to take it off.

Our lonly female cat, Magic, LOVES her collar! It's pink with sparkles and she's very proud of it! I take it off to clean it every now and then and she sits right by the washer until it's done!

 

[OK!]

Oops, forgot to add that my cat couldn't care less about his collar. He's been wearing one--with the Mickey icon ID tag, of course--since I found that they make St. Louis Blues dog collars and, being a large cat, he fits into a size small. I need to get him a new one, though; his old one is tattered and gross looking, so he's been wearing a St. Patrick's Day collar instead (black with shamrocks and faint gold sparklies). I'm Irish anyway, so I figure it's not TOTALLY inappropriate.