Cat Tracker - Small and Lightweight Waterproof Bluetooth Pet Collar Attachment, 328 Foot Range, Replaceable 6 Month Battery Life, Android/Apple iOS Compatible

We are currently staying in a large multi-building apartment complex where our (normally indoor/outdoor) cat is not allowed out. Needless to say, he's not happy about being stuck inside, and tries to escape every chance he gets. With the Cat Tailer, he's escaped outside three times now, and every time I've located him within 20 minutes. This is -not- a GPS tracker that reports map coordinates. Instead, an app on your phone uses Bluetooth radio signals to estimate the distance from your phone to your cat. As you're out searching, the app tells you if you're getting closer or further from your cat if it's within the radio range. The range is listed as 150', and I've found that to be true in an open area. Obstructions (cars, buildings, etc.) will reduce the range. The distance reading is not super accurate, but it's good about letting you know if you're getting closer or moving away. The battery life is great - we've had it for a couple months now, and it still shows full (the specs say it lasts for six months). The unit is small, lightweight, and fits snugly on your cat's collar. Our cat doesn't seem bothered at all wearing it. The phone app is easy to set up and use. There's no monthly fee or service cost to worry about. Before getting the Cat Tailer, our cat was sometimes lost for several days, and we spent hours searching for him. With the Cat Tailer, I've been able to quickly locate him.

After a year or so of use, I am satisfied enough to buy another tracker for my other cat. Once I got the hang of the Bluetooth "getting warmer/cooler" tracking, I was satisfied. But it is critical to have unobstructed Bluetooth signal for this to work properly -- and I believe that is one reason these reviews vary so widely. I've successfully changed the battery once and it is a job for small, nimble fingers (luckily mine still work). The rest of this review is from my initial purchase and I will leave it for informational purposes. I am using this to locate my cat if he doesn't come when called. He generally hangs around our flat terrain yard so it's fairly easy to home in on him -- and this works great. After more than a month of continuous use, the tracker battery is still close to 100%. The small tracking device fits into a rubber-ish holder (comes in the box) that fits neatly on his collar so it doesn't hang down or fall in his water/food bowl. The app is simple and easy to use on my iPhone SE. However, there are a couple of app functions that are supposed to work in the background -- that is, notification of when the tracker device either leaves Bluetooth range or returns to it -- or both. I was looking forward to being notified when my cat left Bluetooth range -- so I could immediately go outside and look for him before he strayed too far. Well, this doesn't work for me at all. When I contacted Cat Tailer, they responded very promptly with a thorough explanation. Here are some quotes from their reply. Note that these are isolated quotes and their reply is more detailed. But these snippets explain the gist of why I cannot make use these background functions. Cat Tailer told me that, "In order for [background functions] to work we need to run a portion of our app when your phone is asleep. Both Apple (iPhone) and Google (Android) severely restrict what we can do in the background and how often." "On Android we still have fairly good availability to background activity. On Android we only need to wait 6 minutes before we are fairly sure the Cat Tailer wasn’t nearby. Similarly on Android, we will normally notify within 1 to 2 minutes when the Cat Tailer comes back in range." "On iPhone, Apple gives us largely zero control over how often we can look for a Cat Tailer." "Currently Apple specifies that they will look for Bluetooth devices like Cat Tailer every 10 to 15 minutes. Because the phone might not see the Cat Tailer on that one peek every 10 to 15 minutes we wait a full 30 minutes before reporting that a Cat Tailer is out of range. For an in range notification and your phone deeply asleep you can expect it to notify within 10 to 15 minutes. If you have been regularly using your phone and it is only mildly asleep then it will report an in range within 5 minutes or so. But, out of range reporting still waits a full 30 minutes." My bottom line? I like this device and feel like it's very good quality and value for the money -- even without the background functionality. But I would have appreciated being able to find the background limitations information -- either on Amazon or on cattailer.com -- so that I could have taken it into consideration prior to purchase. It should also be referenced in the manual.

This tracker saved my cat's life!! He was way out of his normal range and nearly 30 feet up a tree. Many people believe that if cats get hungry enough they will climb down. While that may be true for some, not all cats are able to. The tracker is frustrating in a lot of ways- its accuracy is probably about 60-70%, partly because there's often a big lag. Even in the more battery hungry tracking mode where it is constantly updating, I can walk 50 feet or more and the distance it says the cat's at doesn't change. That being said, I was able to use it (with a LOT of patience!) to get within roughly 100 feet of my cat. The tracker wouldn't narrow the distance any closer than that, but at least I knew where to call for him. Finally I heard him cry, and after several more minutes of frantic hunting, saw him up in a tree. I'll be honest- under normal circumstances I would only give this 4 stars because of how frustrating it can be to use, and the fact that no matter how many times I turn off the annoying flashing green light, it always turns itself back on. But I was driving around with the tracker and it alerted in a place I never thought my cat would go to, and I wouldn't have looked for him in. For that, it gets 5 stars and my enthusiastic recommendation! I would love a gps tracker for my cat, but from the research I've done, they are expensive, much heavier than this tracker (more meant for dogs than cats) and need to be charged every few days. And they likely won't work well in my area. The battery in this tracker lasts several months before it needs to be changed. So you could still use it even if your cat was missing for a few weeks or a couple months, as long as they still had their collar on.

My cat is old and we've turned him into an indoor only cat. He still tries to get out every chance he has. Since he was catnapped once already by a well meaning cat lady in the neighborhood, we ordered this. pros: the battery is always charged. It is supposed to last up to 6 months as opposed to gps trackers which are more accurate and cover distance but need constant charging. the chances of my cat escaping on the day his device was all charged and ready just defies murphy's law. So this tracker solves that issue. It also has a little blinking light that lets you know it's working. The light can be easily turned off if you find it annoying. The app also allows you to check battery. I use the light. I figure, if the collar falls off as breakaways tend to, it could help me locate it in the dark as well as the cat pressuming the collar is on. It is lightweight, quiet and doesn't seem to bother him at all. I have been able to locate him a few times when he was very close and we thought he'd escaped. Turned out he was curled up in a closet. Another time he was heading up the street to a favorite hangout where people feed outdoor strays. I was able to intercept him. cons: it isn't very accurate. As you stare at the screen while using the app, the distance will jump all over the place, from 30ft away to 135 feet, meanwhile the cat is sleeping and hasn't even moved. The same issue occurs while using the alert feature. This is supposed to tell you when your cat is leaving the preset range which is simply near or far. However, my phone is constantly dinging telling me he's leaving. Again, he's just sleeping. In both these situations, I am also not moving. It makes that feature totally useless because I will just ignore it now. The device will only help you locate your cat if you know where he might already be. If a passer by takes your cat to a different neighborhood, out of the zone, you won't be able to find them unless you are walking around close enough for it to ping. Of course they tell you this up front. But I am bringing it up anyway because of my biggest gripe: the price. It's way too expensive for what it is. The tags they make for kids are cheaper and have better tracking on the app. I can't see the justification for the high cost. The parts and technology and limited accuracy don't warrant that price tag. It feels a little predatory, taking advantage of a pet owners' love for their pet. We'd pay anything not to lose our babies, right? But this tag only eases my mind somewhat. As far as the app, it would be nice to see two dots moving closer together or futher apart as you approach your cat or walk in the wrong direction rather than numbers jumping around. If you are frantic in your search that makes it all the more frustrating. It also should have a place on the tag to add the cat's info: name, phone and address. Instead, they largely display the logo. Let's focus on the point of the device for a moment: Getting pets safely back home. The company has already made their money, why not make it so we can write our pet's name on it? Many of us don't want to have multuple tags clanging around their pets neck, especially if they are outdoors where dogs or coyotes might be drawn to the sound. I went ahead and put a small round label and wrote his info on it and covered in clear packing tape. It will need to be redone, but works for now. A printable or write on tag would solve that. I'll be checking for updates. I appreciate that this product is made by a small business and that there was a hand signed thank you in the box. Hopefully my feedback helps improve the product. I really want it to work as best as possible. :)

Update: one of the cat tailers that we purchased 2 months ago ended up getting damaged most likely from water and most likely because I put it in upside down. The customer service is truly phenomenal!!! Richard was my customer service person and he helped me out so fast. Replacements are on the way - overnight delivery and the devices they're sending are already put together and I was sent a handy photo that shows how to put it together when I change the battery. Out of this world customer service! And the other two cat tailers are working perfectly still. I have fun just viewing how many feet away my kitties are even if they're right next to me and when I lose one the cat tailer never lets me down. Thank you so much for the amazing service and product!!! Our indoor kitty got outside - dead of winter...and he ended up staying in one spot for 5 days getting frost bitten ears and the tips eventually fell off :( he is one of the adopted triplets we have and we wanted to be able to find them next time an event like this happens. We were leaning on buying expensive gps tracking for them, but they have to be turned on (how are we supposed to know if they get out without us noticing?!) And turning it on drains the battery in 4 hours! The Cat Tailer is perfect. It's small. It's definitely waterproof. The battery lasts montha and it alerts you when the battery is dying. The distance is a bit squirrly, but it's pretty accurate. When I want to find one inside the house I just open the app and I'm able to track them down! Thank you for making such an affordable well made product!!!!

Schneider went missing for 4 days and came back looking like he had been trapped in a shed. Temperatures had been in the high 80s those days and he was very dehydrated, very, very sick and had pink insulation stuck to his messy bottom. For me, a senior on fixed income, (I'm going to be paying down the vet bill for awhile.) a gps subscription was not an option. So, I decided to try the Cat Tailer. The first one wouldn't pair with my phone and so I contacted the company. They were extremely prompt in answering me and shipped a new one right away. I'd give the customer service an A+++. They were great! The Cat Tailer unit is not big but, still not as compact as we all prefer for our delicate feline babies. It IS the smallest device I could find that was affordable. Schneider is 12 lbs/12 yrs old and wears it with little problem. (The silicone cover helps keep it close to the collar and not dangling in his dish when he's eating.) Tracking takes a little work. Especially, if you live in a heavily wooded area like me or, have lots of barriers/buildings that can be between you and the Cat Tailer. What I love is that I can look on my phone and see that he's in range and nearby. When I stand at the door and call him, the numbers showing his distance start going down as he gets closer. This gives me GREAT comfort. One day, he managed to get the breakaway collar to breakaway and, lost it in the woods. This was the first real test we had for the device. It was more or less a game of hot and cold and, the distance wasn't exactly accurate. (heavy woods) It took some time and a little work/strategizing but, I did manage to find the Cat Tailer. (with collar still attached) It is now re-attached to Schneider and I'm very happy with it. I highly recommend Cat Tailer as a very good option for keeping a closer eye on your pets. It's NOT as simple as gps but, there is awesome customer service and no subscription.

The Cat Tailer works as described, but I found that it didn't really do much for the cost, and what it did do, wasn't very accurate. I bought this when one of my occasional outdoor visiting cats went missing a second time and tested it on my other cat that wanders further, but without getting into trouble. While they say the Cat Tailer has a range up to 300ft, I found that my cat would be "out of range" after 170ft. That was pretty much always the max. And it was easily blocked by a house or shed. The other annoyingly obsolete feature is the notification function. It supposedly notifies you if your cat comes within range (would be more useful to notify me if my cat leaves the range as well), but the device can only detect their distance when the app is in use and your phone screen is on. So you won't get a notification unless you are actively using the app, and i never got one anyway. The app is also pretty poorly designed, complete with black fonts on a grey background for many of the buttons. For reals? I happen to work with an industrial designer - this is pretty low tech for the cost. You are pretty much paying for the convenient cat sized dangle, which is still a bit cumbersome. Honestly I would recommend TabCat Loc8ter, which is a better deal and more useful and user friendly product all around. I wanted to give this a better review - but this product has a lot of potential. Just because the market is thin for this kind of tech doesn't mean design should be this sloppy.

The description for this device is mostly accurate, so you do get what you're told you will get, and therefore can't really complain when you receive it and find it doesn't do what you expect, so read the description carefully. It's a Bluetooth device, not a GPS, so you are not given coordinates of where your cat is located, and the range is fairly small. It says, 328ft range, which may be true, but so far, my cat appears to be out of range under 300 ft. Basically, your phone will show how far away your cat is from the phone, up to about 300ft. After that, it will say "out of range," and you can even have it make a sound to alert you when your cat is out of range, at which point, you can call your cat and bribe them with treats to come back before they get too far. However, you won't know what direction the cat has gone up to that 300ft. The Bluetooth signal is once per second, which is frequent, but it does feel like a lag happens because it's not a constant signal, so if the phone says your cat is at 299ft, and if she is running toward you, the reading can suddenly jump to 50ft, and surprise, there's your cat coming onto the porch when you thought she was at the neighbor's house or in the woods. This device is by no means perfect, hence the 3 star rating. But, it is useful to a point. It is somewhat accurate, enough to give me a good idea of whether my cat has left the yard or is approaching me. If I move toward/away from her, it doesn't read the change in distance as well as when my cat moves toward/away from me. Doesn't really make sense, but that seems to be how it works. If she is moving, the distance change will read on my phone, so as she approaches me, the distance gets closer, and as she moves away, the phone will read a greater distance, or get out of range. When I am looking for her, I am looking blindly, since I don't know what direction she is in, and if I walk in any direction, the change in distance doesn't seem to make sense, and makes it more confusing, so this isn't really a device for locating your cat, as much as it is a device for knowing whether your cat is nearby, which is useful enough to keep tabs on her, and make sure she comes inside before dark, but probably not enough to find her if she's gone missing for days on end. Other things to note: It says that structures/trees, etc. will affect the accuracy, however, I live in a wooded area, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. The device still reads where my cat is, even with trees and my house in the way. There is a green light that blinks, which is supposed to help you find your cat in the dark, however, I have never actually seen the light from a distance outside. I only notice it when it blinks inside the house. Overall, this is a useful device for knowing whether your cat is nearby or outside of the periphery, and for that purpose, I would say that the cost is a bit high. $35-40 would probably be a better price tag for this service, since I cannot actually locate my cat using the device, or do much of anything else. If it was able to locate my cat, then the $65 I paid would be an excellent price compared to GPS devices that are in the $100-200 range.

Mi gato se escondió en un lugar inaccesible bajo las escaleras del edificio donde vivo, no hacía ruido ni se movia. Si no fuera por este rastreador habría estando dando de vueltas por toda la colonia perdiendo el tiempo, porque nunca se me habría ocurrido que estaba donde estaba.

Pas trop grand et léger. Fonctionne très bien

Hello, I've thoroughly tested this tracker and here are my observations: 1. This is a Bluetooth dependant product. This means that if your cat is behind a big physical object the reading you will get will be fairly inaccurate. ie: My cat was in my neighbour's backyard, however my tracker displayed 44m when in reality the distance was more around 20m. 2. The tracker's radius works (fairly) accurately for 40m-50m in a suburban area. 3. It requires effort on your behalf to make it work the way you want to, if you spot your cat via the app you will need to find the direction it is in by walking north, east, south, west until you determine the direction your furry buddy is. In other words it's trial and error. In conclusion, if you lose your cat (with the collar equipped) this product would be perfect for determining where your cat is hiding. A walk around the neighbourhood will 100% reveal your cat's location (unless the cat is underground). The tracker is also pretty useful for when your cat wants to come back inside! It also has a bonus feature of telling you when your cat leaves the collar range or comes back inside of it. Overall, amazing product if you don't want to pay 15$/month for a paid subscription GPS tracker.

works ok it tracks our cat easy to install not very accurate off by about 10 foot

El producto Cat taller recibido NO tiene las funcionalidades que anuncian, es un fraude. No tiene el alcance que ofrecen y no despliega mapa de geolicalizacion, tampoco es verdad el rastreo por sonido.