Bells on collars

morg_monster

Our cats wear breakaway collars (that I make myself :-) - personally I don't use the elastic ones as there is still the potential to get them caught in the mouth, or under the forelegs. The only thing with the breakaway collars is that there will be a certain breaking force which is different across the brands, and you might need to try a few before you find one that provides a good balance between not breaking off all the time, but breaking when kitty needs it to (stiffer buckles better for fat cats!).

I put tags on our cats' collars - they're both microchipped but if they strayed, the person who found them might not be able to take them to the vet (or even know what a microchip was!), so I want to make it as easy as possible for to get them back home. Our cats' tags have the 1st line of our address (so near neighbours know what house they belong to), postcode and my mobile number.

Bells - Some people say it must be torture to have a bell around your neck so bells are cruel, but that's not a viewpoint I subscribe to - however sure, some cats really just don't seem to get on with them, just take it off, it's not a big deal. You may find they will get used to it though, we put collars without bells on our girls first, then once they got used to those we added the bell & tag, they were freaked out to start with but got used to them. Re hunting - many cats learn how to hunt with bells on but they will stop some cats from hunting successfully. I like them cos my cats can't sneak up on me ;-) initially it was to stop them hunting but Lila and Mia are TERRIBLE hunters with or without!

A bit off the OP topic but might be useful... It could take a week or two for a cat to get used to wearing a collar (and that might go for the bell too). When you first put a collar on your cat, just put it on for a few minutes at a time, while you're around, and then play with them, give treats, distract them from the weird feeling around their neck. Once you can't distract them any more and they're starting to do gymnastics and amazing contortions to try and get it off (might only take 30 seconds...), take it off with as little fuss as possible and give them a treat, tell them their a good boy etc... Then try again a few hours later, or the next day. You will be able to leave it on longer and longer; eventually perhaps the whole time that you're around. Once you're happy that they're not noticing it any more you can leave them unsupervised with it on. They will probably still scratch that area sometimes - that's not a problem in itself unless you can see the skin is sore or they're losing hair.
If you put a breakaway collar on a cat for the 1st time and then just let it out, I can virtually guarantee it will come back without the collar! You've got to get them used to it first.

ok sorry for the ramble...

pinkmoo

We didn't bother to start with, however after he bought the second live :eek: bird in I decided something must be done.

Well he still catches things and when I've watched him stalk grass/spiders/bees/feet etc the bell barely tinkles!

He came home a couple of weeks ago minus the collar so assuming it got snagged somewhere, don't think we will be replacing it this time. He's chipped, and the rate he loses collars it's just not worth it anymore!

missmontana

I always found it the most entertaining part when you first put their collars with bells on, spent many an hour giggling as they run about like loons!
My lot used to have them on when they were little as more of a warning for me or there probably would have been a fatality by now (of the human kind)
Nowadays I have given up as it was costing me a fortune in collars!