Best cat-tracking devices?

[SarahAndQuack]

My bad cat has just taken years off my life by disappearing for several days (turns out she was locked in a shed). I am aware this is an occupational hazard of owning cats, but I would just as soon not spend another long weekend walking all round the village listening for faint meows and turning grey. What is the best tracking device I can buy? We just bought her a tile (bluetooth tracker), which was brilliant at telling us she was snoozing on our bed while we were downstairs. Unfortunately, she was hell-bent on getting it off her, and she's almost immediately slipped her collar and left it behind. And of course, we can't now find it.

I would be in the market both for things that are less easy for her to discard (eg., things that are smaller that won't bother her so much), and for things that'd let us track her to the place where she slipped her collar.

Any ideas?

Thanks very much for reading!

I have used Pettracer collars for my three cats for 2 years. Very accurate. Quite bulky but cats don't mind the. Can 100% recommend (I don't work for them, just a very happy customer!)

My cat has a Tractive. £49 for the device, £5 for the collar which he's tried hard to remove but can't, and £120 for 2 years GPS on it.

Frustratingly, it doesn't work when he's not out in the open. A neighbour regularly has him in her house 🤬 and if he's in there, Tractive can't locate him. It'll only tell me where he was 1 minute before he went into the house.

My niece uses an Air tag on her cat. She says it does the job brilliantly.

Thanks! Will check them out - but mine are tiny (they've not grown beyond kitten size yet, though they are over a year), and they do hate anything round their necks.

Thanks. Gosh, that doesn't sound very good about Tractive! I will check out Air Tag.

We have tractive.

Bit bulky but cat doesn't mind it.

Very accurate as long as in a signal (can't locate precisely when in our wifi zone but that doesn't matter) - we have a couple of dead zones unfortunately near us.

Device 1 - lost it after a week. Collar came off. Its in the ravine near our house - could see precisely where it is on map but cant get to it

Got device 2 cos I paid the insurance.

Lost it once in neighbours huge garden. Neighbour found it when I asked - it was exactly where the map said it was.

Lost it again last week but unfortunately is in a dead zone so can't find it. Am not buying another tracker so have paid for a years susbscription for 4 months of use....

However i found the app very good. And we can se wherever he has gone so now we know his patrolling ground and where to look if he goes missing again (which is why we got it in the first place).

Not sure it would work in someone else's house though

Crikey AirTags are bulky and heavy to be putting on a cat. I’ve no idea if the other options you suggest are too.

Personally I think collars are dangerous on cats.

I read that air tags shouldn't be used on pets but I can't remember why.....

FWIW, our cats have safe release collars for that reason. We only put collars on them because they're both black, and a reflective strip helps them show up in the dark. But, obviously, if we hang something heavy off their collars, it's quite easy for them to ditch the collar, so we need something that is either light (so they don't mind it), or easily found when it's been ditched!

Most trackers rely on gps only so don't work if cat is in a house/garage/shed etc. Pettracer uses both gps and radio waves and the latter means cats can be traced if in a building. Clever Swiss inventors.

Our bad boy has a Tractive.

He can take the quick release collar off in under 30 minutes. So we have reluctantly put him in a buckle collar - turns out the git can take these off as well (how!) but he usually returns with it clinging on.

He reacted like he was being murdered when we first put it on, now it doesn't bother him. The newest model is smaller than ours.

It's been very useful for knowing his usual circuits and where he tends to stop off and get second breakfasts

Your neighbours will think you weird when you knock on their doors asking if you can poke round the garden looking for a missing collar/cat. Despite switching on the light, the tune, the fluorescent collar and the Find function, you can spend a lot of time wandering about in circles and looking under leaves.

Quick release collars are the better option but my vet relative still deals with numerous near death and fatal injuries a year from cats who got caught by quick release collars… and that doesn’t include the ones who don’t make it to the vets. It’s personal choice, of course, which risks people are willing to take. Collars aren’t one I would risk even for the luxury of knowing I could track my cat. I keep hoping they can do a microchip that can tracked but I assume that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

A microchip to track cats would be magic!

We've got a collar on our cat that comes undone easily (proof - he's lost it 3 times in 4 months...). There's so many strays here we don't want someone thinking he doesn't belong to someone (he's a very pretty cat if I do say so myself! And different to your average moggy round here)

My two, very small, cats have Tractive. It’s OK, and they don’t seem to find the collars annoying but, as PP has said, Tractive doesn’t tend to work inside, or in thick woods, or in my not very remote but crappy phone signal area of North Wales. The charging connection is also a nightmare.
However, I would always recommend a tracker. It was a Godsend when one cat was chased by cattle and ended up stuck at the top of a tree overhanging an old quarry. It was worth the subscription to find him as he was way out of his normal range, even if I did end up with stitches after having to climb a barbed wire fence to escape the evil cows myself!

We don't have quick release collars - we have safe release.

It would be lovely to have a microchip for a cat, absolutely!

Your poor cat! And poor you.

It's such a tricky one, isn't it?

We got these cats to be mousers - we really need it, and they have done their job wonderfully, and are also the most affectionate pets. They are incredibly patient with my DD and they always put their claws in when they play with us. But, because they're good hunters, we know they will always go for tempting mouse-smelling sheds or any nice dark garage, and they do climb threes too, though neither of them goes for birds.

The one who disappeared is also the one most likely to go into other people's homes. And while that isn't likely to be a safety worry round here, it would at least be nice to know where she is.

I thought they meant the same thing or similar? Either way, we both have equally valid but different views on collars. Hopefully we will both happily have microchip tracked cats soon!