Suki my 6mth old kitten is now out and about in the back garden and establishing herself as a fairly good hunter - caught her first 2 field mice when she was only 3mths old and loves climbing trees.

i'm just wondering if i should get her a collar with a bell to forwarn birds of her whereabouts or if its dangerous for her incase she gets caught on something.

i'm leaning towards 'no' at the moment but obviously dont want her killing the birds.

In my experience with cats who have been hunters, collars haven't made a single difference! So i would lean towards no..
But maybe you could try it for a few weeks / months?
If she's still quite young, it might be better getting a kitten collar. - not sure what age this are suitable up to.

You can get quick release ones which supposedly come off if they are to get caught on something.

One of my cats simply will not wear a collar, she takes it off whenever i've tried to put one on her so eventually gave up.

My other cat had one, but then one day she was sat cleaning herself & somehow managed to get the collar caught in her jaw & it terrified me, i luckily managed to get it off her, but it scared me so much i've never put another one on her.

yes, you should put a collar on her but not because it'll help her prey get away... unless you intend using a bell so big taht she can't move at anything less than a crawl
The main reason for having a collar is that it identifies the cat as having an owner very quickly.
I think it's almost impossible to buy a collar that doesn't have some kind of safety feature but just in case make sure it does

its always a battle of wills it reached the point with one of my girl cats that she would take the collar of and bring it to me to put back on
All three wear collars now tho'

Collars and bells have no practical purpose. Most of them end up chewed off and abandoned,

Very true. Mine are generally indoor cats so having a collar on isn't so much of an issue, although if they were outdoor cats i would prefer them to have them so people knew they had an owner. Mind they look very well looked after so i can't seem them being mistaken for strays!

haha

btw thanks everyone

not quite true both my cats have collars with one small and one slightly bigger bell on true they do nothing to stop them catching mice but the bells do allow me to know where the cats are when I call them in . As for the OP's question we got Milley, when she was about 12 weeks old and didn't put a collar on her untill we started letting her out . DFrst time it went on she hated it and even now she still resists having a new collar put on when we change them but once it's on she's ok with it.

I would say yes. My cat had to be put to rest last month age 22, it was heartbreaking, When she was about 2 there was a knock on the door one afternoon, it was a man from the local Kwik Fit about a quarter of a mile away, he had my cat and brought it back in his car, he said she was in the garage forecourt roaming around. She would have had to have crossed a very busy main road to get there as well. If she had had no collar i reckon i probably would not have seen her again.
She brought birds and mice in when she was younger so i am not so sure if the bell on a collar has any effect. I had never ever thought about the safety aspect of a collar to be honest.

Depends what kind of area you live in and what type of cat you have.

If you have a cat who lives in an area with lots of trees and loves to climb, a collar might be a bad idea. If it snags on something while climbing, the kitten could end up with a broken neck. There are some collars that come loose easily in case that happens, but I found my cat just refused to wear those and tugged himself free of them.

If it's an area where climbing opportunities are limited, but there's lots of places where the kitten might get lost, a collar could be really useful.

Personally, I've settled on microchipping with no collar, as our street has no cars on it and there are loads of gardens and trees to explore.

My cats have always worn collars because my cat flap is magnetically operated. My Millie hated her collar at first (back in June) but when she lost it a few weeks ago she was happy for me to replace it, in fact she looked miserable and worried until I replaced it . My Tabitha never lost her collar in 16 years (obviously I used to change it) and Bernard has lost his just once in the past 5 years. Unfortunately, both Millie and Lucy have each lost theirs once in the past 6 months - but they're a necessity when you have a magnetically operated cat flap. I've always removed the bells, the noise irritates me so it must be awful for the poor cats. As others have said, it makes no difference to their hunting, they just learn to move more stealthily.

I would personally prefer not to use collars because they can be a danger to the cats but, whenever I've removed them in the past and removed the magnetic element from the cat flap, I've always had lots of cat visitors to the house - I don't know how they know the cat flap is now open when they've failed to get in previously but cats always try their luck.

I know the answer is a microchip cat flap and I would consider that in the future.

Both my cats have collars simply for the reason people know they have an owner when they are out. They are both microchipped. If they were indoor cats I wouldn't bother with collars.

Same here, mine just have the microchip but I have a cat flap that reads the chip to only let them in - works well but not cheap!

A safe collar tells other people she has a home. However do get her microchipped as well.

Watch out for these flea collars. One of my outdoor cats was allergic to the insecticide, and years later he's still got a "collar" around his neck where the fur doesn't grow. He looks like Frankenstein!

I've tried putting collars on my outdoor cats, but they always lose them. The indoor cat has one, so that I know where he is when I have to open the door!

thanks everyone - i think i'll put a collar on her afterall and make sure it's not got much 'give' in it so hopefully she wont get caught on anything. i'll take it off her when she comes in.

she's getting microchipped on the 23rd jan aswell as getting 'done' poor thing

All cat collars that I've ever seen have an elastic panel, so if the collar does get caught (as often happens when tree climbing!), the cat's weight will enable the collar to loosen enough to allow the cat to get free. You should fasten the collar roughly so that you can easily get your fingers between the collar and the cat's neck, but the collar isn't too loose. That should be enough "give", with the elastic, to be safe.

I reckon all the trees in my neighbourhood must be draped with cat collars by now!

Both of my cats wear collars and bells. The kitten went nuts for the first couple of hours trying to get it off but she hasn't bothered with it since. They do get lost every so often though so I assume the safety clips do work.

Yes - and get your contact details on it. As other responses have said, it lets people know she is not a stray for one thing. It is amazing how people treat cats they perceive to be owned as opposed to stray.

Get one with a snap fastener- not a buckle one. If she gets caught on something it should come apart instead of choking her.

Mine have bells on theirs. Doesn't stop them catching prey but it helps me know if they are about when I call them in (they stay in most of the time and always at night).

I also think it makes them look really pretty