Cat trackers - does anyone use one?

[WinkOnlyCellophane]

Hello

I’m getting a cat this weekend. She’s a Bengal cross and I’d expect her to start roaming pretty widely once she’s let out. With my previous cats, it stressed me out not to know where my cats were - for the risk that they might get lost, stuck or get nicked.

Has anyone used a cat tracker to track where their cat is?

I haven't, but placemarking as I'm interested in this as well.

When mine were young I tried a couple. The tabcat one with the handset that beeped and flashed when it was in line of ‘sight’ of the cat and a GPS tracker.

The tabcat one was ok and the tags were small and relatively inexpensive to replace. It was pretty useless if the cat was in a building though. Also, the cat would lose the collar and all you’d find is- a collar.

The GPS one was large and expensive. It showed mine roaming way further than they actually went so it wasn’t that accurate. Because of the cost there was the embarrassment of knocking on doors to search gardens for it. Again, they lost their collars so often it was too expensive. The alternative is to get a collar without a release mechanism but then you risk hanging the cat.

We need a tracker to be invented that can be implanted like a chip.

I wouldn’t recommend but the tabcat was probably the better one.

I wouldn't ever use one as I hate collars on cats.

Either you need a quick release one for safety which means the tracker/collars will just get lost, or you get a "normal" one which is incredibly dangerous.

I’ve got a tractive one for the pampered baby cat (but not the older cat because he can be trusted, although I do plan to put it on him sometime, for interest) It is quite big but she is a small cat and it doesn’t bother her. She hasn’t lost it yet - my previous cat used to lose his collars all the time so maybe that depends on the animal. I find it highly reassuring knowing where she is, I guess it is the modern uptight way - much like find my phone is reassuring when I wonder where the family are!

We use the Tractive tracker for our cat, never had any problems with it and it's nice to be able to see where she is as I'm an anxious first time cat owner!

(We used to have a radio one that was great for finding my naughty boy cat who never wanted to come home in the summer! But gps trackers were bonkers expensive then. This one is much better)

I tried one and simply could not fathom the set-up requirements - and I'm tech savvy

hi, we have a tractive tracker. I did a bit of research, and it seemed to meet requirements. Only thing is, they say it's £x per month, but you actually pay upfront for 2 years (or at least, I did). I find it works well, and gives me reassurance that the fluffy one hasn't wondered too far (after she didn't come home one night). It has decent range, and you can see where they've been etc. Keeps it's charge pretty well too.

My cat isn't bothered by wearing it, and she's fairly small (3.7kg approx) so I don't think it's too big/heavy. I take the collar off one she's in for the night (she is out in the day, in at night).
you can set a 'home zone', and then it alerts you when your cat goes outside of that.