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Pawtrack gps tracker - any experience?

5 replies

CatServantIII · 21/11/2021 19:48

Does anyone have one of these? Cat gets let out next weekend for the first time and I am an anxious cat mummy 😬

OP posts:
CatServantIII · 21/11/2021 19:49

And I know the rules

Pawtrack gps tracker - any experience?
OP posts:
KristaK · 24/11/2021 06:26

We had Pawtrack for a while (and tabcat and then Ubequee I think). We loved Pawtrack at first for getting a sense of where the cats went and how far they travelled in the day (and it made it much easier to bring them in at night if you had a vague idea of where they were!).

Eventually we abandoned trackers - one of our cats doesn’t go anywhere and the other was losing the trackers all the time as she is very adventurous 😂. While we were using them, Pawtrack was our favourite although expensive once they started losing the collars!

violetbunny · 24/11/2021 06:49

Yes, I had one. I have trialled 3 GPS trackers, plus Tile and Airtag. This is because one of my cats went missing for 2 weeks, and once he was found I was terrified of losing him again!

Pawtrack had the best app experience (very well designed and easy to use), but I had to abandon it because the battery life was so poor. The first lot of batteries I received were duds and never charged properly at all. Then the second set they sent me as a replacement never lasted more than about 12 hours, which really defeated the purpose of tracking (it would probably take me that long to know he was missing!). Lastly, I had some serious concerns about the safety of it, because the tracker is built into the collar. The cat I bought it for is super active and the collar did not release easily at all.

I now use Tail it trackers on both my cats, the company is based in Norway I think. The battery life is very good, the longest Ive gone without charging is almost a week and it still had juice. The main downside is that you can't see a map of where they have been throughout the day, however realistically that's not actually so useful - cats are fast and can easily run a long way between tracking intervals if something spooks them. Tail It refreshes their location on demand, it also has a "live" tracking function which can be used as needed but this obviously burns through battery faster. The app experience isn't quite as slick but it's perfectly fine.

I have also trialled a cheap tracker from China which just ran off a SIM card without needing a subscription (I'm not in the UK), this was fine but the battery life was only about 48 hours. If you are in the Uk then you will have access to other brands as well which I don't.

Be aware that GPS tracking requires a line of sight to the sky to work - if your cat is locked in someone's garage or under a house or dense bush then it will be of little use. For that reason, my cats also have Apple Airtags, which I put in a special holder designed for a pet collar so it doesn't dangle (better for safety). Both the Airtag and Tail It are fairly lightweight, so it doesn't seem to bother them too much and I remove them at night (as they get locked inside when it's dark). I only attach them to collars which have a decent safety release - Boycat loses his every few weeks but between the GPS and Airtag I have always managed to find it again!

Hope that helps.

violetbunny · 24/11/2021 06:52

Oh and this is handsome Boycat wearing his Tail It tracker. I stuck a reflective sticker on it for safety, which makes it look a bit ugly, but safety always comes first!
(I'm such a helicopter cat parent, haha!)

Pawtrack gps tracker - any experience?
violetbunny · 24/11/2021 08:07

One more thought! If your cat doesn't mind a harness, we let ours out on harnesses for their first time outside the home. We took them on walks around the garden for the first few weeks until we were sure they had their bearings.

It's still nerve wracking letting them out that first time though!

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