Do your indoor onlies wear collars....why or why not?

ilovemykitty

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I don't like collar cause of all the inherent risks so i use harnesses. or i did until someone took my kitten out of it. it fit him perfectly. i want to get a bell because he likes to walk around you legs when you walk and he almost always manages to try and get out the way, right about where my foot goes as i try not to fall. my roommate's cat has one and it is nice knowing where she is. however, jake doesn't want me to get a bell. he hates the bell on mama kitty(roommates cat). he is bright orange, but that doesn't tell me nothin if its dark or the lights are out. i have had pets get their collars stuck until me or my sister helped them. my sister's dog has a collar that we use when we take her places but none of their cats do. Had and Sadie harness would work on because they pretty much just stay around the house but stripes hasn't been fixed yet so he roams and gets in fights and it would probably end up getting him seriously hurt.
 

naia

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All three of my indoor-only cats don't wear collars. I've put one on them before just to see how they'd respond, but Luke and Pooch both don't like it. I've yet to try it on Kelly though.

I don't feel the need to give them a collar if they're at home 24/7. If we were going for a long trip and the cats are coming with us, then I'd put a collar on them when I have to give breaks, to prevent losing them (and if they get lost, I could catch them more easily). Plus, when I pet them, I don't want the collar to be in the way.
 

arlyn

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Originally Posted by ILoveMyKitty

I don't like collar cause of all the inherent risks so i use harnesses. or i did until someone took my kitten out of it. it fit him perfectly.
I'm sorry, but as you were told in the other thread, your neighbor did your cat a favor.
Cats should never be unsupervised while wearing a harness, cat harnesses usually say so right on the tag/package.
Harnesses get stuck on things too, and they do not prevent strangulation, not to mention that a thrashing, stuck cat in a harness is much more likely to break bones, including back or neck.
 

callista

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Baby has no more fleas, so back on her collar goes!! Yay for no more fleas!! (I'm sure Baby is as glad as I am!)
 

auchick

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No because everytime I try to put one on, they go crazy trying to get it off. I'm afraid they will injure themselves trying to get it off, like strangle themselves or break a jaw or something. Even though I buy the breakaway collars, I think it's pretty hard to get it to "breakaway" myself, muchless a little kitten.
 

littleraven7726

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My cats wear a collar and ID tag. That's the rule for living at our house. Right now they have break-away collars and a tag that doesn't dangle in their food/water and they really like that. Their tags have both mine and DH's cell phone numbers on them.

I worked at a shelter for several years. I know how many cats came in without collars (or even collars with no tags) and never got returned to their home.

My cats are not microchipped. I have a few reasons for that.
 

taterkitty

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My indoor boys don't wear one because they never go outside. If they were indoor/outdoor cats then I would put one on them but I never let them out for fear of losing them.
 

danad

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My two kittens wear break away collars with ID's & a bell, so we can hear them when not in sight & avoid stepping on little feet. I do plan to have them chipped at there next check up next month.
 

dragoriana

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We thought it best just in case he somehow escapes from his enclosure or the house by sneaking past, so his registration tag is on there if someone finds him.

But he is NEVER escaping!!
 

flisssweetpea

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Tippy and Felicity wear collars and are microchipped, but they are indoor outdoor girls. We have never been able to get close enough for long enough to Addie to put a collar on her; but when we got her to the vet she was microchipped. Still, now she has adopted our garden as her own, she never leaves it.

The indoor babies, Lily and Tolly are pedigrees and have never worn collars. Both are microchipped. They would escape if they could, but we have a strict "double-dooring" policy to make sure that the indoor kitties are behind a second door before we open the door to the outside world.

If we have anybody else in the house, we place a big notice on the second door telling them not to open it and an obstruction in the way so nobody can just open the door by mistake.
 

rosiemac

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Originally Posted by flisssweetpea

we have a strict "double-dooring" policy to make sure that the indoor kitties are behind a second door before we open the door to the outside world.
Beth that's the same way i work as well, because with having three now you really need eyes in the back of your head
 

jarvis

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My attempts to make Ike wear a collar all failed. Either she would get mopy and upset, or I would find she had magically gotten it off somehow. She is still a bit young, but I plan to get her microchipped soon.
 

jellybella

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right now, no collars, but they are microchipped. We live on the third floor of the house right now, so the chances of anyone getting outside are slim (two flights of stairs and two doors to get out). Eventually, we'll be done working on the first floor and then it will be much easier to get out.

They have collars, but neither has worn them for more than an hour. I recently bought nametags for their collars and I think I'm going to start getting them used to wearing them before we go downstairs for good.
 

roxie225

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Roxie wears a collar and is micro-chipped. We originally got her the collar because as a kitten she would hide and sometimes get stuck in small places so the bell always helped us find her. Plus, she has her microchip ID tag on her collar in case she ever did get out. We travel with her sometimes and even as careful as we are you can never be too safe!
 

icklemiss21

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Mine are microchipped and do not wear collars when at home, but they do have one each for vet visits and other times they are outside, because a person may not bring a cat in to scan for a chip. but they will see the collar
 

tnkittymom

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Mine did when they first came in, until I felt sure that they were comfortable here. Unfortunately, Reyah and Hera kept figuring out how to tighten the collars, which scared me. I still haven't figured out how in the world they did that. Any other collar they would get off. Now, none of them wear collars.
 

gavigan

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Marlowe wears a collar and is microchipped. He tries to bolt for the door, but I'd still want one on him even if he didn't. It's a breakaway style, and I've found it lying on the floor once or twice - so I know he could get it off if he became entangled in anything.
 

jellybella

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Originally Posted by Roxie225

Plus, she has her microchip ID tag on her collar in case she ever did get out. We travel with her sometimes and even as careful as we are you can never be too safe!
When I had the name tags printed, I put the word "microchipped" on it. The tag has our home phone, the microchip registry also has a cell phone # in case we're away from home...
 

barkleysjester

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My two wear break away collars. Primarily with Barkley because he is so rambunctious and I want to know where he is at all times. The collars also have bells on them so I can hear him coming and going and when he's getting into mischief.
 

jenc511

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Originally Posted by alwaysaangel

It was actually pretty useful - they'd been losing stuff (forks, pens, coins, etc.) and they were trying to figure out where it was all going. They figured it out one day when they heard her bell under the couch - moved the couch and found 75 pens (yes 75) about 10 dollars in change, and half their silverware.

This is a teeny tiny cat - I don't know how she manages to drag all that stuff off!
Lol...maybe she's part ferret (my ferret steals everything and hides 99% of it inside - not simply under - the couch). One of my cats (living with his mother and my ex-husband now) had an obsession with hiding things under area rugs. I have no idea how, but he managed to hide an impressive collection of straws and Q-tips under an 8'x10' area rug under our dining room table (not to mention all of the other rugs he stashed things under). I have no idea how he got things 4' under a rug securely weighted down on all sides by a very heavy estate dining table, but he did. We moved several times with him and always found the strangest things under rugs.

My ferret doesn't get too many opportunities to steal silverware, but he has a freakish obsession with my car keys, to the point of attacking my purse when he finds it zipped up, so he can't steal my keys. I have a rubbery Brian (from The Family Guy) keychain that he can't seem to resist (the only reason I'm using that keychain is because it's my spare; my other keys have gone missing, most likely stolen by him!).

As for collars, I live on the sixth floor of an apartment building, so people would have to open at least four doors for my kitty to get outside of the actual building. When we go anywhere, she wears her collar, but I generally prefer my cats naked. If I lived in a townhouse/SFH, I would insist on collars 24/7 for any escape artists, and I always keep a collar on when I'm outside (to go the vet, etc.), but I don't really like them. I just don't find it that hard to keep most cats inside. I don't like collars, and I know it's a personal preference. I think people who keep collars on their cats are doing them a service. However, like a previous poster, it interferes with my petting. I have generally lived in very rural areas on the east coast, so a cat escaping isn't really the end of the world (no real predators or roads, and most of my cats have been easily caught immediately after any sort of escape). If I lived in suburbia or an urban environment, I imagine I would be more concerned. Now, in the apartment, a lot of people would have to be involved to let my cat outside. The building promotes that it is cat-friendly, so I doubt any other tenants would just assume she was a stray that managed to make it through four different doors.

Edited to add: All my cats have been microchipped since they became available.
 
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