Does your cat wear a collar?

[MidnightMeltdown]

I got quick release collars with address tags for both of my cats, as they started going outside before they were microchipped. They've been wearing them for about a year now, but the other night, one cat came home without hers. I assume that she must have got it caught on something, and fortunately, it functioned as it should and released her. I'm wondering whether or not I should replace it now that she's microchipped. I'm not sure whether the potential risks of cats wearing collars outweighs the benefit. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

No
Didn't want them getting paws caught in it or getting it caught in a tree and not releasing

No, they are cruel and dangerous.

Mine loses his, so we don't bother anymore, but he is microchipped.

Only the one that likes to hunt

No ... girl cat tore off and cunningly hid lost three collars so I gave up with them.

No, definitely not, after my boy was hit by a car and we found his collar snapped on the road ( safety quick release catch still closed!) and vet his broken jaw and damage to his paws was consistent with him trying to dig his claws in to the ground to stop him being dragged along the road by his collar getting caught on underside of car. Thanks to the kindness of strangers seeing it and getting him straight to vets he survived, but without the accident being witnessed he'd have likely not done!

No.

Mine lost theirs so I gave up. I had them microchipped.

No collars for mine. Mine is chipped, will never understand owners that won’t chip their animals.

Mine is a weird mix of indoor, but allowed out whenever I’m home (ie all the time!). He’s never free-roamed, stays within my decent sized garden. So collars have never been a thought process for me.

No. My cat has a complete freak out if I put a collar on her. She would seriously harm herself trying to get it off so it’s safer for her to not have one

Yep, and a tie. Sometimes a top hat too but he struggles with the silver-topped we bought him.

I honestly think it's down to the individual cat and circumstances, so something you have to weigh up. There are pros and cons.

Our cats are young and active so spend a lot of their time outdoors. While our road isn't busy, I do worry about cars, so in addition to them having a curfew at night they also have light reflective collars. I tested numerous ones to find some that will release quite easily.

They also have GPS trackers on their collars (after one went missing for 2 weeks and was found badly injured several streets away after intensive searching, worst 2 weeks ever). This also makes it pretty easy to retrieve their collars. The trackers have our phone numbers on them too. Sadly the experience of my cat going missing made me realise relatively few people will notice a stray cat, let alone take it to a vet to be scanned for a chip.

No. Ours do not have collars after a bad experience with one of our previous cats we decided never to collar our cats. They are microchipped.

Delayed reaction …@TwoLeftSocksWith Holes lolololol

Never ever put a collar on any of my cats I have seen too many cats injured or killed by 'safety' collars.
If you want to identify your cat have it chipped and keep the details updated.

No. Tried, but they kept losing them! They release too easily or are being pulled off when they fight with rabbits etc!

My cat seems to be an avid hunter so a collar with a bell has seemed to reduce his kill rate.
The first one we used was quick release, as it was adjustable it was slowly tightening every time he scratched his neck. Luckily I noticed before it choked him, was bloody tight. He now has a buckle one but its fully elastic and can easily be pulled off.

No, I've had cats all my life and the few times I've put collars on them have caused injuries. One cat somehow managed to get it stuck around her front leg and nearly strangled herself. A long time ago some collars we used shrank in the rain and again nearly strangled our poor cats.
And more recently one got her jaw caught tight in her collar and we had to cut it off before she broke her jaw in her fright to try and release it.
Microchip them, no need for collars.

Cheddar does, but only because she's completely invisible after dark. So hers is reflective. She's not a climber so the chances of getting it stuck are slim. Magic doesn't as it causes knots in her long hair.
All out cats have worn collars. Never had an issue.

A visiting cat near me wears a bow tie., my two just Haifa at him.

No. Another one here who had a cat who got his leg caught in his collar. He cut all the side of his mouth and his leg was injured too. He was stuck like that all day whilst we were at work. Just awful.

I would never put a collar on a cat after one of mine got their leg stuck through one. I would just point out to those who don’t know that Lonecatwithkitten who posted about injuries above is a vet and knows what she is talking about. Many people don’t have issues with collars …until they do.

No collar but microchipped. I'd love to get him a tracker so I can see what he gets up to but I think I'd be disappointed and he'd lose it anyway.

Surprised so many people are against collars on cats, but very sorry for all those who’s cats have been injured ours has a quick release collar, he’s taken it off himself in the garden on branches before so I know it will work when it needs to. It hasn’t come off again for a long time now so it’s stayed on him. I think it’s personal preference really, his collar is also reflective which makes me feel better if he doesn’t come back in at night with cars and such. I feel he’s safer with it on, but I wouldn’t panic if he came back and it wasn’t.

Not after my cat somehow caught her jaw in the collar (I must have put it on too loose). Fortunately I was working from home that day and found her quickly but that incident put me off collars for good.