Safest Cat Collars

[smartyfoj]

I've heard horror stories of cats getting tangled by collars both on this website and others.  My family has a cat that would love to go outside but he is an indoor only kitty. We want to get him a collar that would be safe and allow him to be identified as pet should he ever get lost. He is of course microchipped but I don't trust our neighbors to take him anywhere to be scanned if he looks like a feral cat. I've heard beastie bands and break away style collars are the safest.  But I was wondering which one is safer? It is my understanding that beastie band collars won't necessarily come off if the cat gets stuck but the beastie band stretches so I'm confused how that would be safe, but they advertise it as such. 

Overall my main concern is the safety of our kitty so any help with collars would be appreciated. 

 

[jcat]

That's a tough question, because an awful lot depends on your cat. The clasp of a safety collar is supposed to pop open if the collar snags on something. Our last cat, Jamie, wore safety collars for almost 14 years, and as far as I recall he only got them off two or three times (when struggling at the vets' office). It's important to check that the clasp "gives" under pressure.

Mogli went through safety collars like nobody's business the first few months we had him, because he either pulled on his ID tags till he popped the clasp, or he deliberately snagged the collar on something like the safety net on the balcony till he got it off. He then chewed the collars. He now wears Beastie Bands and doesn't try to get them off. They're quite stretchy, so in theory the cat can slip out of them if the collar gets caught on something. Mogli hasn't put them to that test (:cross: that he won't), and he now has a slide-on Boomerang tag that he can't use to pull the collar off.

There are members' reviews of various cat collars here that might be of help to you.

 

[fluffybeard]

My cat wears Beastie bands. They stretch the entire length of the collar, so if the cat gets snagged, the collar stretches and they can safely pull their head out and escape.

My cat tested this out one day when I noticed he wasn't wearing his collar and I found it stuck to the carpet, still fastened, lol. The jump ring somehow looped onto the carpet. But he got out without much fuss.

But the safest would be to keep your kitty indoors. Cats don't often "get lost." They are killed by cars, animals and people who don't like cats.

Out of the 5 cats I has growing up that went outside, 3 were gone before age 2. That's a high early death rate.

 

[smartyfoj]

My cat wears Beastie bands. They stretch the entire length of the collar, so if the cat gets snagged, the collar stretches and they can safely pull their head out and escape.

My cat tested this out one day when I noticed he wasn't wearing his collar and I found it stuck to the carpet, still fastened, lol. The jump ring somehow looped onto the carpet. But he got out without much fuss.

But the safest would be to keep your kitty indoors. Cats don't often "get lost." They are killed by cars, animals and people who don't like cats.

Out of the 5 cats I has growing up that went outside, 3 were gone before age 2. That's a high early death rate.

Oh I guess I wasn't clear enough we keep all of our kitties inside but the cat we are getting a collar for is a sneaky little cat. He has managed to get into our closed garage twice in his 2 years with us so just in case the garage is open and he escapes under our close watch we want to have the best chance that he would be found and brought back to us.  We have a neighbor that has outdoor cats and are totally against that because it is way too dangerous out there for cats. 

Also thanks to you both for explaining how Beastie bands work.  I've seen the boomerang ID tags and I like those so no matter what collar I think that ID tag looks good, I like that it doesn't hang down from the collar.  

Seems like it might be good to try out both then seeing as how collars are not that expensive. 

And If anyone else has input feel free to add to it the more opinions the better.