Can anyone recommend any that are suitable for Switzerland? Preferably with GPS so I can also monitor their movements.
We've recently arrived with our two cats, who now get to use a garden. I am very anxious about them getting lost and want the best tracker I can get.
Pawfit is great! I tried others for my dog and they had real issues, but Pawfit works really well. https://www.pawfit.com
Something I did with our cat when we moved here was walk her around her new garden. Since it didn’t have any fencing I wanted her to know this was her new area so made a makeshift harness and walked her around the boundaries for the first couple of weeks rather than just letting her out on her own. Of course once she was off the harness she took off down the road, but at least she knew where “home” was now and soon came back.
Trackers are good, but make sure they know where home is as well.
Those kind of trackers are great, I used them for my kids when they were younger and had to walk to Kindergarten. For small cats however the weight may make them prohibitive, so another suggestion would be a simple and inexpensive Apple Airtag. These are much lighter and you can get collar holders , plus the battery is good for a year so you won’t need to constantly recharge every 3-5 days. Finally there is no monthly subscription to pay.
The downsides are that they only work well in built up areas where your cat is likely to be close to people with iPhones. If you live near a forest then forget about it.
Thanks, yes this is what I'm looking for. One of my cats is quite small, though. Maybe she has no choice though. Where do you buy it in Switzerland? How to get? It says it is available in Europe for a subscription -- does this include Switzerland? Pawfit 1 is UK only it seems.
We are along a forest and that's the part I worry the most about. I looked into this before, but it seems you actually need to use an iphone yourself, too, which I don't (is that right?).
I bought a Girafus tracker before I came, but I find it's not very reliable and seems to eat up the battery quickly.
They are slowly learning the landscape and where home is, taking things gradually over months with a temporary fence (that I think the landlord wants gone?), but we had a real scare yesterday. One is so easily scared and then she just hides - impossible to find. Other one is very keen to become king of the neighborhood.
Has anyone tried the Trackactive which is advertised everywhere?
Apple have released an App for Android phones, but its not going to be as comprehensive as using it with an iPhone and there are hoops to jump through to get it working. However you will need an iPhone, iPad or Macbook to set it up and place it into Lost mode if your cat goes missing.
There are alternatives for Android phones like Tile and Samsungs Smartag, but the point is you want a tracker that can talk to the largest number of handsets to ping its location. And that seems to be Airtag since in Switzerland at least, enough people have iPhones to make the mesh network viable.
One solution would be to buy a cheap second hand iPhone 7 for around CHF 100 and just keep it in a drawer until its needed. The only thing you won't get is the close proximity finder, that only comes with iPhones that have the U1 Ultra Wideband chip (iPhone 11 and above)
Works fine in Switzerland. I ordered off their website and they posted it here.
I had tractive, but it constantly broke when my dog swam, prob not an issue with cats.
We chose Bluetooth over GPS because of the weight and as GPS needed much more frequent recharging.
The Apple airtags were a little big and heavy.
We chose cat tailer, www.cattailer.com for our two moggies which uses Bluetooth. It displays a (very) approximate distance but it is relatively easy to find them as the displayed distance increases or decreases. A bit of trial and error but it does work. Battery (CR1632) lasts for about 5 months.
We have Tractive trackers for our cats. They work fine, though the GPS can take a while to update if the cats are close to the building. If you connect it to the WiFi it stops the light/sound to find the animal from working, which is irritating if your cat hides deep in the hedge, like mine.
We have the Tractive insurance and have used it numerous times to replace trackers left in the neighbours' gardens/hung on the top of trees etc.
I wouldn't have thought that an AirTag would have been much good. In order to locate its position, someone with an iPhone needs to be in connection range. If your moggy is in the middle of a forest or a field, that condition is hardly likely to be met.