Pet trackers for cats?

[4horses]

My very beloved indoor cat decided to go exploring in the big outdoors. Completely left the yard and wandered into very dense woods in the neighbors property. I started calling and he started meowing back so I was able to locate him but that was a near miss. I think he was completely lost as the woods is incredibly dense. I couldn’t even walk in there to get him with all the limbs down. I had to call him until he came out.

I’m wondering about pet trackers (apple airtags) or any other trackers that work well on cats. Has anyone successfully used one? I always thought my cats would find their way home if they escaped. Now I’m not so certain.

My cats usually just stay by the house so I don’t know what he was thinking. Indoor cats have no street smarts. At least he went to the woods and not towards the road.

[OnAMission]

My daughter has an airtag on her cat; he always lived rural until she took him to live with her in town. It’s located him for her twice, after she lost him once without it due to door dash and was able to find him under a car in the parking lot by random. She was in tears and he was terrified. It’s big and I think as he has settled down she has used it less but if it’s on him it works perfectly. It found him in a dresser drawer in the apartment and when she left him here with us her phone was quite upset when her phone got too far away from the “target”. I’d say the locator is the size of a big key fob? so a chunk on a cat but it works really well.

[FrittSkritt]

My parents and sister use Airtags on their cats and they work great. I think you can adjust the settings so it’s not constantly being pinged and your phone won’t go ballistic. The other advantage is that you can send a signal to the tag so it beeps, so if you know kitty is nearby, you can hear it beeping wherever they’re hiding.

[LCDR]

I would not put any sort of collar on my outdoor cat. My first cat unfortunately hung herself by hers and I have not used a cat collar since. Yes, I’m aware that there are breakaway collars.

[4horses]

I’m aware of the risks and I do have a breakaway collar. I think many breakaway collars would fail to break in an entanglement. I tried to find one that opens without too much force, even though it will probably fall off easier then it should.

[Belmont]

I know someone that puts a Tractive on their cat.

I had a Tractive on my dog and she ditched two of them to never be found again. I haven’t bought a third one. I liked the concept of the tractive and how I was able to track her over GPS. However, I can’t keep buying $100 units for the dog to ditch them in the cow pasture. A cat might not be able to ditch it as easy.

[Djones]

There’s a kind that the clasp is like a fat oval with a pac man mouth, and a smaller oval pops into it. Those pop loose well but are still secrure.

[trubandloki]

@4horses

I’m aware of the risks and I do have a breakaway collar. I think many breakaway collars would fail to break in an entanglement. I tried to find one that opens without too much force, even though it will probably fall off easier then it should.

My experience is that cat break away collars do a wonderful job of parting ways with the cat. At least they do with my barn cats who lose more freaking collars than I care to admit I have replaced.

[trubandloki]

@Belmont

I had a Tractive on my dog and she ditched two of them to never be found again. I haven’t bought a third one. I liked the concept of the tractive and how I was able to track her over GPS. However, I can’t keep buying $100 units for the dog to ditch them in the cow pasture. A cat might not be able to ditch it as easy.

How do these things work that you can not find them, but some how they will help you find your dog?

Once the device is not attached to the dog anymore it does not work?

[Belmont]

@trubandloki

How do these things work that you can not find them, but some how they will help you find your dog?

Once the device is not attached to the dog anymore it does not work?

So I tried to track it to a certain degree but its not 100% accurate on the exact location, just within x amount of feet. Ideally, you’d be able to see your dog/cat within that area of feet. It said we were close to or on top of it while we tried to find it. We think it got buried. We did find it the first time she ditched it, as it was on top of the ground so we could hear the sound. However, we couldn’t hear it or see any flashing lights when we went at night the next two times she ditched them… and they were always ditched in the same area where my dog was likely joy rolling in the leftover round bale/cow poo area and bothering the cows. My biggest complaint with the tractive is the cheap plasticy rubbery piece that attaches it to the collar. Its easily broken by a rough housing pit bull that loves to wallow.

[trubandloki]

Can not blame a dog for liking to wallow…

[Belmont]

We call her a “pig-bull” for good reason
Picture of some wallowing for tax, of course.

[trubandloki]

Love her!!!