Tell Me About Your Trackers

[TiptoeThroughTheToadstools]

I have 3 kittens who will be ready to test the outdoors in the next few weeks. I would really like to have trackers on them. If you use a tracker, which one did you go for and why? They are quite slight cats so I'm looking for something not too chunky. Do you have to charge it or does it run on a battery that means replacing every so often? There's so many options and costs, give me all your pro's and cons!

We have Tractive trackers for both our kittens. The mini ones. I think they say the cat should be min 3kg for them but girl cat was a little under this when she started wearing hers but managed fine.
The tracker needs charging in its little docking station. How often depends on how far they go. I do girl cat every 3-4 days but boy cat doesn't go far and his lasts longer.
Neither of them seem too bothered to have them on even tho they look quite bulky. They have never tried to pull them off or seemed uncomfortable.
Ours stay in at night and we take them off frequently for them so they can have a break from them.

Been happy with them so far. You get a good map to show where they have been and they are quite accurate at showing where they are.

Here are both kitties with trackers to show you the size. Girl cat is the tabby x tortie and is very small. Currently about 3.5kg.
Boy cat much bigger at around 5.kg

Oh, well that didnt work. FFS...
Might work now I've made them smaller...

Boy cat modelling his!

Your kitties are gorgeous 😍 they do look very bulky. My kittens are 4 and a half months old, the girls have a very petite frame, weigh about 2 kg each, my boy is 2.5kg and has a much more substantial frame. The Tractive is being offered at a decent discount just now but I just cant decide what to do.

@TiptoeThroughTheToadstools Thank you! They are brother and sister and almost 11 months old.
Girl cat was similar size to yours. We had to wait to have her spayed as our vet wouldn't spay under 2kg! She is very delicate in her frame. Also her brother is a bit of a greedy pig!

Although they are quite bulky they are light and like I say neither of these has ever shown any bother wearing them. And they dont impact on them coming in and out through the cat flap.

We got ours from Amazon with the idea to try them and see how the cats responded to them for a day or two (indoors) and then send back if needed. They came with Rogz collars to use with them and the set up and app use is very easy. We have a subscription which again we didn't set up for a few days until they got used to them and we were sure they were OK with them.

However we haven't used any other trackers so I appreciate I have a one sided view!

@IamChipmunk thanks so much!

My cats are bigger, and spend more time outside so the cat minis were having to be recharged every day, or close to running out by the time they came in. The older model cat tractive has much better battery,so I use one of those plus a dog 6 which is exactly the same. They are wider but less girthy. Last a few days.

I hope these trackers are on safety collars.

@Ruggerlass thanks for your concern. Yes mine are on a snap off collar for safety, wouldn't use anything else...

We use Apple AirTag. It’s been helpful for our 10 month old kitten. Not as good coverage as it only works if within 30 feet of an iPhone, I think.

But £30/£40 one off payment and battery lasts for a year. Use with safety collar. It’s quite small and light. He’s already lost one in dense vegetation and though we could track where it was, we couldn’t retrieve it! But I feel better him having a tracker.

I got a Tractive tracker for my boy. It was perfect for the nearly 2 hours he wore it. He then waltzed in without collar or tracker. Tracker showed it was in a neighbour's garden 4 or 5 doors down.

Fortunately, due to his speed in removing the tracker, I was able to cancel the subscription well within the trial period 😀