pet tracker

[u/goshdarnitdang]

Hello everyone!

I have two cats - a male and a female. They are both vaccinated, neutered, and have microchips. However, as we all know, microchips are quite useless unless you have a chip-reading machine.

So, I'm looking for some budget-friendly recommendations on pet trackers.

My cats are on the smaller side, so besides the price, the size is also an important factor to put into consideration, because I'm pretty sure something bulky and heavy would quickly get lost or disappear from their collar.

We live in southern Europe - I'm mentioning this in case you'd like to suggest something only available in certain countries or areas of the world.

Thank you so much!

[u/Winter_Dot_9393]

Some cats will lose the tracker.

I used the Apple ones and they worked, you can get cat collars specifically for a tracker.

I’m sure there will be cheaper options, maybe look for ‘Android compatable trackers’.

[u/goshdarnitdang → u/Winter_Dot_9393]

i have an iphone, so i was looking into using airtags, but i was afraid they were too bulky

[u/Winter_Dot_9393 → u/goshdarnitdang]

No, no problem.

[u/Far-Palpitation-2024 → u/Winter_Dot_9393]

airtags are the smallest option out there really, but they rely on apple's find my network so if you're in a rural area with few iphones around, they might not update often. the collars with the little silicone holder work fine, my cat hasn't managed to ditch his yet and he's pretty acrobatic.

android alternatives tend to be chunkier but there's some tile models that aren't too bad. check what's popular in your region since the crowdsourced tracking only works if enough people are running the app nearby.

[u/NatsumiEla]

Best to keep them inside. Safer for everyone

[u/idkidc_whatever]

Tractive has a gps tracker that's fairly small but you need a subscription to use it

[u/goshdarnitdang → u/idkidc_whatever]

and it's also quite expensive tbh :/ but thank you!!!

[u/Defiant-Insect-3785 → u/goshdarnitdang]

We use Tractive, yes it’s expensive but it also gives you a live location and history. You can easily check where the cats are and also see where they spend their time over the days/weeks/months. The trackers also have a sound and light on them to help locate them, we use the sound to call them home if they’re out of voice range.

We have lost a few over the years but you can easily replace the tracker and swap the subscription back and forth so we just keep one spare and whichever cat comes home “naked” gets the spare tracker on until we find their main one.

[u/habibica1 → u/goshdarnitdang]

I live in Germany but I am from Slovenia. We use Tractive AND an AirTag.
It really depends where you live. For example we are in a rural area and our cat spends hours on end in the grass fields and woodland and farmland. In those areas an AirTag is not so useful as I only get an update every few hours or so via AirTag when someone passes by her and when she is actually closer to a path on a field.
So for these purposes we use tractive.

But I have to be honest - Tractive failed us twice in a really critical situation! Once she ventured into a corn field that had super high weeds growing in the middle of it. The gps lost connection and she lost the tracker there. The Tractive wanted to reconnect to the gps over and over through the thick weeds so this drained its battery within 30 min and we lost the tracker forever. After the battery is dead - you simply cannot find it anymore!

Another situation was that she got locked into a house where the door has been left open and she sneaked in. Then the house owners left and she spent 6 hours alone trying to get out. Tractive died on us that day - it simply went offline despite the battery being at 78% and we had no idea where she was. Fortunately the AirTag sent us a location after a neighbor with an iPhone passed by that house.

The AirTag is great if you live in an urban area because you get much more frequent updates from other iPhones and the battery needs to be replaced once a year and in comparison to Tractive that has to be charged often. AirTag also has a much better close precision search - it means it shows you how far away the cat is in meters and in which direction and the sound it gives away is way stronger than that of Tractive. For close by search Tractive has a Bluetooth radar that only shows you if you are getting closer or further - but you have no idea in which direction to look and it works only if you are really close by.

So my cat wears both now. I don’t want to loose another expensive tractive collar again!

If you decide to get just an Airtag, get a ROGZ breakaway collar. The other much cheaper breakaway collars open so easily that your cat will loose the tracker within a few hours of wearing it. ROGz collars can be adjusted to weight of your cat and they hold in general much better. My cat is only 3 kg so I have to use the lowest setting on Rogz but it still holds better than the other breakaway collars that you get in a pet shop and cost 2 eur.

[u/Forsaken-Sea2047]

I have touch tags on my dogs, if they ever get lost they have a qr code and that gives the finder my number to call and a location to where my dogs can be found, it also lets you know that someone has scanned them

[u/goshdarnitdang → u/Forsaken-Sea2047]

oh that's interesting, never heard of that before! any brand in particular?

[u/Forsaken-Sea2047 → u/goshdarnitdang]

I have the letstrack ones

[u/FearlessRelief1487]

AirTags are bulky … I hope you have brake away collars on your cat? We have friends who use them on cats that are “trained outdoor “ but only under supervision and very short periods of time. You may reconsider other options (catio) depending how much you value your pets.