Cat Collars, Leashes & Harnesses

A cat harness is not a small dog harness. Cats have loose skin, flexible shoulders and a talent for reversing out of anything that only crosses the chest, so a harness that works on a cat wraps both the neck and the girth and adjusts at each point independently. Everything on this page is either that, a breakaway collar for identification, or a lead light enough for a cat to ignore.

Getting a cat used to a harness

The harness is the easy part; the introduction is what decides whether it ever gets used. Leave it out where the cat can sniff it for a few days, then put it on indoors for a couple of minutes with a meal or a treat at the end, and build up over a week or two before a lead is ever attached. A cat that has been carried outside in a harness on day one usually flattens itself to the ground and will not walk again. Fit is two fingers under any strap: any looser and the cat will back out of it, any tighter and it will not settle. Check it again on a long-haired cat after a groom.

Breakaway collars are the safety version

A cat collar should come apart under load. Cats climb, squeeze through gaps and hunt in vegetation, and a collar that cannot release is a strangulation risk on a fence or a branch — which is what a breakaway buckle is for, and why a cat should never be walked on a collar. The Catit Nylon Adjustable Breakaway and Expandable collars are built this way, and the Max & Molly Smart ID Cat Collar carries a scannable tag so an escaped cat can be identified without an engraved barrel. A bell is a reasonable addition if your cat hunts, though a determined hunter learns to move without ringing it.

What is on this page

Catit covers the nylon adjustable harnesses, the harness and lead sets, and most of the collars including the rhinestone and expandable versions. Anipal makes matched Australian-animal harness-and-lead sets and collars — Gigi the Gouldian finch, Bertie the bee and Bobby the butterfly — in recycled materials. Lilly and Dash make patterned everyday collars, and Flexi's Classic Cord cat leash is the retractable option for a cat that is confident outdoors.

• Cat carriers and travel
• Catit
• Anipal
• Cat toys
• Cat trees and scratchers
• Dog harnesses