Bells on collars- Cats

[Dr Murdoch]

Some may know that we adopted a kitten last Autumn, found in a bush.

However , Albert is 9 months old (ish) and has been wearing a collar with a bell on it for the last 4 months.

He seems fine with it, but I'm no expert at reading cat behaviour.

Is it cruel? Does it save birds?

He really doesn't seem to care, but struck me that I wouldn't want to jingle jangle every time I moved!

[Einion Yrth]

Dr Murdoch said:

Is it cruel? Does it save birds?

I don't think it's cruel per se, although probably a bit annoying for them; in my experience though it just makes them better stalkers, they have to learn not only not to disturb the prey, but also not to set the bloody bell off...

[DKL]

The other advantage to a good bell is that you can hear them when you can't see them, assuming they are moving. So lost cat stuck or trapped can be found a little mor easily.

[edc]

If the bell is on a safety snap off collar and your cat goes outside I'd be surprised if the collar lasts much more than a month.

[dci]

My parents have this cat, a 1 year old ginger Tom and he is an absolute killing machine. Fitting a bell did nothing but allow him to further hone his killing skills. Within a week he had figured a way around it and back to bringing in rats, mice, birds the lot. They have since fitted him with bell the size of a squash ball which you can hear coming a mile away and he’s still troubling the local wildlife. Short of fitting him with a flashing beacon I’m not sure anything you can do to stop him..

Anyway, if you fit a bell make sure it’s on a stretch or safety collar.

[untakenname]

My cat has a smart collar which beeps when it thinks the cat's about the pounce, it works but the trade off is that you sometimes get abruptly woken up in deep sleep by the cat just wanting warmth in bed with a beeping and a red flashing beacon but imo that's better than having 'presents' dropped on the pillow.

[anonymous-user]

edc said:

If the bell is on a safety snap off collar and your cat goes outside I'd be surprised if the collar lasts much more than a month.

mine kept loosing them as well. Cats are crafy buggers with bell collars, they learn to move silently.

[DKL]

If you use something like loc8tor the transmitter is on the collar. If the cat loses the collar you can find it again. A regular occurrence in our house.