Looking for opinions of the Weenect tracker please

[Nathalie1975]

Our cat is just over a year old. Up to now we have kept her indoor (we've had her for 12 months) but we would like to start letting her out in the garden. We would like to use a tracker, at least at the beginning until we know she can make her way home. I wanted to get a Tractive GPS tracker but she is too small for it. The Weenect seems a good alternative. If you use a Weenect tracker, would you recommend it?
Thank you!

Hello - we have two cats and trackers are one of my obsessions! I don't know Weenect (apologies!) but we use Pawtrack for one of them and Tabcat (which I think is Tractive) for the other as they are very different cats so thought it might be helpful when you are choosing!

Tabcat is brilliant for Cara - she isn't very adventurous and doesn't go far - the main challenge we have is knowing whether she is in or out at the ned of the day as she likes to nap under beds so is quite hard to find! The Tabcat thing just lets us know she is in the house so we can close the catflap (or shake some Dreamies outside if she isn't!)

Her sister is a real adventurer! She has the Pawtrack collar which means that we know how far she roams and we have a sense of her routes and favourite places. We don't use it to 'track' her as such but if she is late back home in the evening, for example, we will check where she is (roughly) and shake some food nearby. The collar doesn't bother her - she sits by the catflap in the morning to have it put on and for the flap to be opened and then she is free for the day!

Your cat is beautiful - our adventurer cat looks very similar but a paler grey and a bit tabby (she is also very small - that's why we went for the Pawtrack as the others look huge next to her!)! xx

Thank you! I am also considering the Pawtrack one but I was a bit put off by the bad reviews on Trustpilot saying that it is very inaccurate. Good to know it works well for you.

We were worried about the reviews too but it has been fine for us. It takes a while to set it up (we don’t use the wifi setting as we don’t use it inside). We have only lost one collar in the year we have used it and it was exactly where the tracker said it was!

We have also got Tabcat trackers for our two seven month old kittens. They work on radio frequency and the handheld tracker device lights up when it picks up their direction. The lights increase as you get nearer. The tracker beeps on their collar so you can often hear them before you see them. I like them because they don't need to be charged....the batteries should last for six months or so before replacing and they are small and very light. Obviously it doesn't record where they have been but helps find them if you haven't seen them in the last five minutes few hours.

Thank you, I will check out the Tabcat too.

Collars are a real hazard so I wouldn’t use a tracker for that reason.

Just in the point about collar safety - the quick release ones , in my experience, do release. Both our cats have lost collars at different times because they have released by getting caught on something. Nothing is without risk but, for us, being able to find the cats if they were lost makes the risk worth taking. Personal choice I know but definitely not a clear cut one.

My Bengal got his leg and tooth stuck in a quick release collar. He came through the flap on 3 legs.

Cats are smart, when we started letting ours out he knew the way to the front door from the back door which meant walking down a row of cottages and up the front to find our front door. Their thought processes are similar to humans apparently.

@KristaK

Just in the point about collar safety - the quick release ones , in my experience, do release. Both our cats have lost collars at different times because they have released by getting caught on something. Nothing is without risk but, for us, being able to find the cats if they were lost makes the risk worth taking. Personal choice I know but definitely not a clear cut one.

I agree. I have some quick release collars and they do release very easily. And there are so many "lost cat" posts in our local facebook groups that I would be too nervous to let her out without a tracker, at least until I know she stays close to home.

Yes - same here. It is helpful to get a sense of where they each see their 'patch' as being too. It is amazing how they don't really cover the same kind of area and also how it changes over time. So, for example, one of ours used to go to the house over the road's garden all the time but then stopped and now rarely goes over there. Last week I found out that the new owners have 2 cats which explains the change!! I always think we would at least know where to start looking if she got into trouble (the other one, as I say, doesn't go anywhere!)