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Original poster

I think somone is stealing my cat's collars and I don't know what to do about it.

21 replies

Jenkeywoo · 14/02/2008 11:03

Our little kitty is nearly one, very friendly but very ordinary, not a posh cat in any way. We have a huge garden which she has the run of and also visits other gardens in the area I'm sure. She is not a wanderer but sometimes off playing for hours at a time. She does also climb trees sometimes. We have a magnetic cat flap and the magnets bit costs £7.99 for 2! She had the same collar for the first 9 months and then has got through 5 collars since xmas - by the time we've got the collar, name tag and magnet it is working out at over £12 a collar! I put a new one on her on Sunday which she lost yesterday, then another new one this morning which she has now lost. We get her the quick release type as I worry that she'll get caught up in a tree or something - and I guess as she is losing them some often that is a possibility .
However I just can't believe she'd lose them that often - I think someone out there is taking them off her for some stupid reason. I just don't know what to do - can't afford £50 a month on cat collars but I refuse to let her go collarless and she will just look like a stray and also she needs her magnet to get into the house. Any ideas?

OP posts:

FioFio · 14/02/2008 11:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

beautifulgirls · 14/02/2008 11:15

Don't be tempted to get anything except the quick release collars. I have seen too many cats with elasticated collars get their arms caught up in them and horrible injuries as a result.

Cant offer any other advice though other than a new cat flap that is not magnet collar controlled.

ib · 14/02/2008 11:16

Once my cats figured out how to get the collars off there was no way of getting them to keep them on...we gave up and got rid of them.

TattyCatty · 14/02/2008 11:23

Sounds like my cat - he's a complete houdini when it comes to collars, they usually last a couple of days at the most. If you really want her to continue wearing a collar, put a plaster over the sensor on the catflap and then you won't need to worry about the magnets. After 7 years of catflaps, I've never had another cat try to get in, so think that the whole magnet thing is just a bit of a money making con to be honest.

pirategirl · 14/02/2008 11:23

BUy some normal ones, and see if it happens as quickley again? If someone is nicking them they wont want a normal one??

My cat has no collar, she fretted so much, and also kept geting them off. I know she should be chipped at least, but I take the risk.

bluenosesaint · 14/02/2008 11:28

Our cat chewed through his collar within a day of us putting a lovely shiny new one on him!

In the end we gave up. We made sure he was chipped though. Not sure how this helps you with the cat flap, although it might help to know that your kitty is maybe just taking it off himself rather than getting it stolen ...

bluenosesaint · 14/02/2008 11:28

herself sorry

TigerFeet · 14/02/2008 11:29

We had a magnetic flap put in after an awful lot of visitors meaning our cat started spraying inside the house on a daily basis.

Quick release collars didn't stay on him at all - we were forever ending up with a locked out cat.

Do you really need a name tag? Our mog is ID chipped so we don't bother with a tag.

We find the elasticated collars best (sorry beautifulgirls ) - not the very stretchy ones but they have a bit of give in them. We just make sure they aren't so loose he can get his paws in them. He doesn't seem to try anyway, he is happy to wear his collar, we only lost them when they fell off, which was a lot when we used the quick release ones.

Washersaurus · 14/02/2008 11:33

I think collars are dangerous. I stopped putting one on my microchipped cat when I saw her get caught on a neighbours fence - she panicked and twisted it round and round until it was so tight she would have strangled herself if I hadn't been there. That was a quick release collar with stretch in it btw.

I don't think they really need one as long as they are chipped.

Washersaurus · 14/02/2008 11:34

I doubt they are being stolen tbh, you cat probably just doesn't like them

Hobnobfanatic · 14/02/2008 11:38

I don't put collars on mine - too many horror stories of them getting tangled on branches etc, meaning the cat can starve to death or even get strangled. The ones that snap off under pressure do just that - so you have to replace them incessantly!
Just microchip! It's safe and permanent!

Original poster

Jenkeywoo · 14/02/2008 14:17

She is micro-chipped, for some reason I have this recurring horror that she will get run over and no-one will check the micro-chip so we'll never know what happened to her. I'm also worried that if she's collarless someone will assume she's not owned and try to entice her away (suddenly realised I'm exuding quite a lot of paranoia about potentially disappearing cat and wondering where it's coming from?!). The reason I suspected sabotage is that this week she had one of those barrel ID tags that you put a bit of paper in and screw up and she came home this week with just the top half of the barrel -and even if she's worked out how to remove the collar I don't think her nimble paws would be able to unscrew a little metal barrel! I've also never seen her trying to remove a collar, she isn't bothered by it being there. I think I might at least disable the cat flap magnet but she has been in season recently and I didn't want a whole host of furry suitors following her home.

OP posts:

BabiesEverywhere · 14/02/2008 15:19

What about getting her spayed the Cat Protection League and RSCPA will do it cheap or free if money is an issue ? That will elimate suitors and improve her long term health.

hecate · 14/02/2008 15:22

what about writing STOP STEALING MY COLLAR YOU BASTARDS and putting that in the barrel.

Lennsuey · 14/02/2008 16:11

Our cats used to have the quick release collars as kittens but kept losing them so i've given up with buying new ones.
They are both micro chipped, i think that's enough.
Collars are the work of the devil,I think cats look better without them anyway!

CanvasFran · 15/02/2008 19:57

I've had cats for 23 years, and in that time have been through varioius cat flaps. The one we have now is magnetic, but is unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons:

When we wanted to keep the cats in following their spaying, one was able to unlock it and get out!
The magnets are so strong, both of my girls often have sundry items of cutlery hanging from their necks - rusty nails, pennies, screwdrivers, tent pegs and even scissors!
The catflap latch is too weak - we have a nightly visit from an unneutered tom, who bashes his way in, and then perfumes our house. At the moment I'm sleeping downstairs, as I've a bad leg, and keep a bottle of water, which I squirt at him when he wakes me with his yowling!
The girls like to lose their collars and magnets - they are both only 8 months old, but have each lost 3 collars and magnets already (at a couple of quid each collar, and seven quid for 2 replacement magnets, that's £33 I've spent already!)

So, as they both have petlog microchips, I'm considering getting a Pet Porte catflap - at £100 odd, it may seem pricey, but if it does its job, it'll be as cheap as replacement collars over a couple of years!

AdamRomANTic · 15/02/2008 20:04

lol Hecate - I was just about to post that the OP should get one of these collars with 'Keep yer mitts of my fucking collar'

BCLass · 15/02/2008 21:04

Is it tight enough? you should only be able to get one or two fingers under it max. Our collar loss rate went down when I tightened them up.

I always use the kitty collar quick release ones.

NutterlyUts · 15/02/2008 21:09

Get a catflap that works by reading the microchip (Petport), do away with collars, and expect kittens if she's unspayed and playing out. Then spay her when the kittens are 8 weeks old (keeping her in so she doesn't get pregnant again) and bob's yer uncle

Olihan · 15/02/2008 21:19

We used to have the barrel id tags and the bottom bits constantly fell off. They just work loose with the cat's movements so I doubt it's anything sinister, more a persistent cat who doesn't like her collar!

rickerlove · 12/11/2015 10:07

Your certainly not crazy to think someone is taking them. Ask me how I know... We love our cat; she is part of the family so naturally we do what we can to keep her safe. She always goes outside with her collar on and we remove it daily when she arrives home in the evening as part of a routine. And it goes straight back on again in the morning when she goes out. Just like a dog, she is happy to put it on as it means that it is the start of her daily adventure and she is about to go outside! She actually likes her collar.

That all went well for a couple of years until her collar started to go missing about once a week. We lost a collar with a nifty "blue-tooth" short range tracker on it. Then the following week a "hi-vis" reflective collar, and then another one lost the following week.

As it turns out, she was venturing into one of the beer gardens behind a pub that operates in the green space of the city block. One of the patrons (I'm guessing slightly intoxicated) had amassed a good collection of "bracelets" from our friendly kitty and the novelty wore off, or they moved to another pub. So we kept up with it, putting on new collars and eventually they stopped going missing.

I think the greatest value of a Cat collar is to communicate with the people in the neighbourhood that the cat is not a stray. So it is important to quickly replace a collar if it goes missing. It's removal could be someone's "acid test" to see if this cat does go back to a home. There are so many "good intentioned", but otherwise dim people out there who think they are "rescuing" animals that they falsely identify as strays.

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