Tabcat Cat Tracker Review
I recently received a promotional sample of the Tabcat Cat Tracker. If you have ever struggled to find your cat inside your house or around your garden or nearby streets, especially when you need to take them to the vet (they always “just know”!), then this may be for you.
The package I received consisted of two homing tags, a couple of splash proof covers, and the handheld tracking unit. Registering a tag is extremely easy, and once you have attached the tag to your cat’s collar, you can start tracking your kitty!
The homing tag weighs just 6 grams and is small enough not to bother your cat in its day to day activities. It has a range of up 122 meters (400 feet), but if there are walls and doors between you and the cat, this will be significantly less. Tracking one of my cats was easily achieved by following the beeps and the lights on the handheld unit, which increase in pitch and turn from red via amber to green respectively – green meaning that you have found your cat. A little beeping sound will also emit from the tag on the cat’s collar, which can be used to teach your cat to return to you once you have located him/her with the Tabcat tracker.
My cats are indoor only, but they do go out for walks in our pedestrian only alley under my supervision twice a day. They don’t wear collars, so for testing purposes I put on one of their many colourful cravats (see picture below) and attached the tag to that.
Inside our apartment, the tracker works really well. So when your cat hides away because of a forthcoming trip to the dreaded vets, or after being scared by fireworks, you will easily be able to find where he/she is hiding. It works through walls, and probably upstairs/downstairs too, but I was not able to test the latter because our apartment is on one floor only.
As soon as I opened the front door, my boy Spider escaped and ran down the stairs into the alley. Using the handheld unit I was easily able to track him down, hidden in a nearby alcove, where I would not have seen him because he was obscured by foliage. However, another test revealed that the tracker will not penetrate more than one thick garden wall, and when my ginger girl Ruby was in the alley and behind two walls, the handheld unit did not pick up her signal until I was clear of one of those walls.
So here is my opinion of the pros and cons of the Tabcat Cat Tracker:
PROs
- Lightweight and small enough not to bother your cat.
- Good range, works through at least one thick wall and through doors.
- Possibility of training your cat to return to you when the beep on the cat’s tag is activated.
- Great for apartments or small upstairs/downstairs houses, and to find your cat in the vicinity of your garden and nearby streets.
- Great to find your indoor cat – especially when he/she has escaped outside!
CONs
- May not work in large houses, or gardens bigger than 100 meters square if the cat roams further than that.
- If the cat loses its collar, it will lose the tag with it.
- Does not work through more than one thick wall.
- Not suitable if your cat has a huge territory outdoors.
** Click here to find out more about the Tabcat Cat Tracker on their website **
