Collars and CatBibs

CatBibs and collars are a delicate balance of safety and effectiveness. The CatBib will not be effective if the cat loses the CatBib. The CatBib is folded over your cat’s collar and attached with strong (made according to military specifications) Velcro(hook and loop) closure. Before I switched to the stronger velcro customers complained about lost CatBibs. Once I improved the hook and loop material and enlarged it, those complaints stopped. Cat owners want both a safe collar, which usually means a collar that releases if it gets caught on something, but are not happy when the cat loses a collar with ID tags. Most customers use safety collars. All cats in the Research Study wore plastic snap type safety collars.

Choosing a collar for your cat

1. According to the Research Summary....."Seven cats lost their CatBib at least once during the trial and one lost its CatBib six times." Seven out of fifty-six cats is 12.5% of the cats in the study. The one cat out of 56 cats who lost it's CatBib 6 times is not the norm, in other words, 1.7% of cats wearing a CatBib may be expected to lose their CatBibs multiple times. Woe to you if you have a clever cat.
2. Most cats wear safety collars (all the cats in the study also wore safety collars). There are several types of safety collars on the market. Different types of plastic snaps and another design that has a small elastic insert. You may want to try different types of collars. The collar that may work the best is the collar with a small elastic insert. This type collar will not release completely, but can stretch enough so the cat can pull it's head out of the collar if need be. Customer feedback would be very helpful. (I don’t like the completely elastic collars, because they have a tendency to stretch too much and the cat gets it’s arm though the collar.) Watch your cat for a few days to make sure your cat adjusts to wearing a collar and CatBib.
3. It's very possible your cat lost it's collar/CatBib because he was thwarted from catching a bird. When a cat stalks a bird, the CatBib gravitates to the front to be in position to interfere with the cat's final lunge. This interference can happen several ways....1) the cat lunges and the CatBib flaps up to come between the cat and the bird, giving the bird just enough time to escape....2) or if you've ever noticed how cats hunt....the cat will crouch and wait for the bird to get closer, the cat now has it's front paws on the CatBib, when the cat lunges for the bird, the CatBib stops the lunge because the cat is stepping on it....this may have the unfortunate result of putting pressure on the safety collar, and it releases, but the other result is the bird escaped unharmed.
4. And finally a controversial issue: People have been told that cats with collars may get caught on bushes or tree limbs. I sometimes wonder if this is an urban legend or not. I'm old enough to remember when there were no safety collars available to buy, and I don't remember seeing any cat skeletons in trees or hearing cats yowling to be saved because their collar was caught on a bush or fence board. If you think this opinion has any merit, you may want to try a non-safety collar.

Once you have decided what type of collar to purchase and if your cat has never worn a collar before, let the cat get used to wearing the collar for several days, before attaching a CatBib to it as well. Most cats are surprisingly not affected by putting a CatBib on their collar. Many people don’t believe that (please read the testimonials as real customers tell about their cat’s reaction to the CatBib.) This belief that the cat won’t wear a CatBib is one of the reasons the CatBib is not used more often. Spread the word, save more birds.

CatBibs have the potential to save millions of birds, if only more people knew about them.