Cat harness - a good or bad idea?

RacyRed

deedeeliz wrote: »

Where did you find the walking jackets in the UK?

I haven't seen them anywhere!

Nor can I! The one place I did find that stocked them, Ultimateanimals only show the large size available and haven't responded to my email enquiry about standard size yet.

May not be a problem for me though, Daisy hasn't taken to the jacket at all, I'm not sure why, maybe it is because it encases her body, but I've had to go back to the training harness.

One thing is for sure, she is a different cat! She's spending much more time in the living room, seems to be moving better and is racing around having mad half hours even, which was not a Daisy thing at all previously.

So as long as she is enjoying and benefiting from it, we will keep going with our walks.

Kimberley

Cat harnesses are fab if you have an indoor cat and you want them to have the run of the garden. I put my Bengals on harnesses in the garden. I know some people take them for walks in parks but i'm not brave enough to do that.

RacyRed

The cat walking jackets are really hard to find, but I have found something called Walk 'n' Vests which look quite interesting. I'm a bit worried about the fact that they are fastened with velcro though. They appear to be quite widely available.

Has anyone tried them?


Daisy is now "demanding" her daily walk with even more determination than she demands her dinner

My tom cat either goes with us or meets up with us outside, he seems to think it is really great that Daisy is out and they scamper around together quite a bit, it is lovely to watch (if exhausting to keep up with :rolleyes:)

evilsheep

I've ordered one of these (picture of a cat wearing one here). Made by Puppia, and available in various places online. I found out about it after having searched for harnesses on various pedigree cat forums. My moggy's not particularly interested in going outside, so I recently bought one of the standard cheap PetsAtHome harnesses to try and encourage her to have a wander in the garden. She didn't mind the harness that much, but it seemed quite poorly designed in that it kept slipping and sliding under her belly. This Puppia one looks as if it would be a lot more comfortable, and far more secure. I'll try to post some pictures when it arrives.

RacyRed

That looks like a really good find evilsheep, I'm interested to hear what you think of it when it arrives, and what you think of the sizing.

The walk n Vest still hasn't arrived so I can't comment on that yet :-)

RacyRed

evilsheep wrote: »

I've ordered one of these (picture of a cat wearing one here). Made by Puppia, and available in various places online. I found out about it after having searched for harnesses on various pedigree cat forums. My moggy's not particularly interested in going outside, so I recently bought one of the standard cheap PetsAtHome harnesses to try and encourage her to have a wander in the garden. She didn't mind the harness that much, but it seemed quite poorly designed in that it kept slipping and sliding under her belly. This Puppia one looks as if it would be a lot more comfortable, and far more secure. I'll try to post some pictures when it arrives.

evilsheep, did your Puppia harness arrive yet? what do you and your cat think of it?

The walk n vest went walkies, bl**dy eBay :mad: so I'm back in the market again.

evilsheep

Excuse the size! This is the pusscat modelling the Puppia harness. She looks strangely proportioned due to the angle I took the picture (honestly, she's not a squitten). I haven't quite made a decision on whether me & her like the harness yet. She certainly doesn't mind wearing it, but she's never minded wearing a collar either so perhaps she's just a particularly tolerant cat.

It's very easy to fit - just pop the head hole onto the head, place left foot through appropriate hole, and then buckle. The 'weight' of the lead (so to speak) is then on the animal's chest, not the neck or belly. I didn't tighten the harness enough the first time I put it on her and she manoeuvred her front paw out of it accidentally whilst crounching, but tightening the harness solved that problem.

She has wriggled out of the whole harness once, I ran into the kitchen for about 5 seconds once to retrieve her toy, and suddenly she was at my heels, having Houdini'd out of the harness which was looped over a chair. No idea how she did it, and I've never taken my eyes off her since when harnessed.

She's still very timid outside and, as demonstrated by my foolish 5 second abandonment of her, she doesn't like being in the garden alone. She's had a slow amble around our (very small) garden, with me following at a distance behind, but always in a crouched low walk/crawl type gait (the cat, not me!).

So, in conclusion, I don't really have a conclusion! I'll keep testing it out with her, and post if there are any developments though. I think the harness is probably great, but I'm not tightening the chest strap enough (I don't want to hurt her by fastening it too tight!). I'll try to post some more, clearer photos tomorrow.

Excuse the slightly incoherent ramble, it's been a long weekend and the cider has relaxed my, ahem, fingers

RacyRed

How cute does pusscat look in her harness! :T What a beautiful girl

Thanks for the photo and update evilsheep. The Puppia looks really good, my only concern is that my girl hates things being put over her (rather large) ears, so she may not take to this particular type if her head has to be put into the hole.

Strangely enough, mine always used to move around at a crouch until we started her walks; now she's started moving properly most of the time.