My new cat Bertie keeps losing his collars, one a week at the moment. It's getting expensive and annoying. I've tried standard elasticated ones and quick release, he loses them all. Any suggestions would be welcome. (I'm getting him microchipped tomorrow, but I like him to wear a collar too.)

Knicker elastic!!! LOL

No seriously - buy some elastic from a haberdashers or sewing shop, 5mm wide, dirt cheap (something daft like 35p/metre) and comes in a choice of colours: white, pink or black. Very easy to cut a generous length and tie a little knot, make it loose enough to stretch & slip over the cat's head if caught on something.

You may be able to write your details on it with a laundry marker, if not then get slightly wider 7mm. or buy a cheap round plastic tag, remembering that every collar they use means they lose a tag too. I use the elastic to get a kitten used to wearing a collar for the first time - around the house to start with. Cuba got through four very pretty sparkly expensive pink collars (and expensive tags too) before I gave up and went back to the knicker elastic. In pink, of course

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Sounds like a very economical idea, only trouble is that Bertie will have a microchip tag on his collar and first time he loses his knicker elastic he will lose his tag as well. Oh well, I don't suppose there is such a thing as an unloseable collar?

I know your collar pain!

I've given up trying to find one that DD doesn't lose, I must go through one every fortnight with him! Never had that problem with CC, but DD just manages to ditch them. Sometimes I get them back if the communal gardener pulls them out of bushes, but mostly I never see them again.

Somewhere out there is a nearly new stash of reflective collars!

I think it's a plot by the collar manufacturers

I think it's a conspiracy amongst cats, myself
At the time Cuba had a neutered young playmate, a ginger and white named Coffee. I always wondered where she went, and found out she was usually in Coffee's garden playing with him and cuddling up in the garden shed in the rain.

I didn't get round to asking, but I did wonder if there were a few pink sparkly collars lying around in that shed. I could imagine her zooming off to see her mate every time she got a new collar and the two of them working to remove it.

I've not heard of a microchip tag - surely it's better/less lose-able to have the usual kind implanted?

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Sorry, I meant a normal little circular metal tag that they give you at the vets when you have your cat chipped. It says "Scan me" on one side. It's blue coloured for a standard chip and red for the Bio chip (the one they can scan to tell your cat's temperature any time it's poorly without sticking a thermometer up its bum). Unfortunately they only give you one tag, not a little stash of them. Bertie's at the vets being neutered right now, so as he tends to lose his collars during the night I'm hoping he'll be more homeloving and get up to less mischief with his collars.

We gave up on collars. My mother has 2 cats, one is 9 and one is 2. The 2yr old used to wear a collar as a kitten with no problem until she saw how the 9 year old used to flick hers off with her paw. Then she started copying her!

I lost track of the number of cat collars that our neighbours used to bring back to us or pop through the letter box.

My cats are indoor only so don't need to worry about collar's although they are both chipped.

Most places will scan a cat anyway if it is picked up so don't worry too much about the micro-chip tag, as long as they are micro-chipped that is the best thing.