Tractive GPS Cat Tracker (2021) with Custom Cat Collar, Follow them Everywhere, 24/7 Location and 365-day History

This is the second Tractive GPS Cat Tracker for our Burmese cat and it is very good (the product and not the cat). The first one was bought as a Christmas present in 2020. Our cat initially didn't like wearing a collar and at 7 years old "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" probably applies more to cats than humans. I had to write to Tractive after he would try to pull the cat collar off and damaged the silicon rubber bands used to attach to a cat collar. On each occasion, Tractive sent free replacements. The battery life is not dissimilar to a smart mobile phone and so it may be possible to get close to the manufacturer's claimed life, but it is more likely that you will want to charge the battery daily. It is certainly a good idea to keep the battery charge level up because there will be times when a "search and rescue" type operation to retrieve the collar will be required. The product has similar functions to a phone e.g. works with GPS, has a unique eSIM and has a phone (pet) contract. A cat collar will have a breakable mechanism that allows the cat to break free of the collar so that he doesn't get injured and it seems that our cat likes to get into scrapes with bushes, etc. at night when out hunting. It doesn't happen very often, but the App provides an indication of where the collar is and retrieving it isn't a problem. Usually it is behind a potting shed in dense brambles. Inevitably, after 18 months the cat returned home without the collar, and (this time) the collar with the tracker couldn't be recovered. I guess it's not dissimilar to losing a phone on a contract and there is a need to get a replacement with the ongoing contract. Tractive did offer to supply a replacement at a discounted price, but I had already ordered a replacement from Amazon. The new 2021 model of the Tractive Cat Tracker now includes a leather-look cat collar which we had high hopes for. Unfortunately, our cat weighs over 6kg and barely seems to fit through the cat flap (he is on a diet). The new collar is quite stiff and for whatever reasons, the collar detaches 100% as he (frequently) exits the building. Fortunately, the Tracker includes the original style blue silicone rubber and plastic collar attachment. Using the blue-collar he can exit the building OK. It is quite an eyeopener as to where a cat goes, especially at night. Typically he will travel about 6km a day and the routes used are predictable. In the country, the routes will pass across neighboring properties and rarely will the roads be used. At one point, he would venture further into a field and then appear to move back very quickly. More than likely this was a problem with the GPS and there have been "over the air" updates from Tractive that seem to resolve and improve the unit. The product uses a removable rechargeable battery. Why would you want a second one? It's for the "handover" or "hot swap" of a charged battery. It doesn't take long for the battery to be recharged, but if your cat goes outside with the collar on and loses the collar, then you can (obviously) can't track and retrieve it. If you remove the collar whilst the unit is recharging, then the safety clasp will eventually become a bit loose - so you can't win. On balance, it might be better to have two batteries and "hot swap". Cats are not known to be cooperative. Eighteen months on and our cat is both tolerant of wearing a collar and the Tractive Tracker. He is very accepting of both products. A pack of six cat collars is not expensive on Amazon at it may be best to think of them as a consumable item e.g. replace with a new one after a couple of months. The supplied black collar is just too stiff to sit flat against our cat's neck so that his exit through the cat flap is always a problem but colored Amazon collars seem to work better. the black collar also errs on the side of being safer to easily detach, but also too loose. Having a contract for the tracker is not really any different than for a mobile phone. For this reason, we started a two-year contract which seems to be a balance between a lower monthly price and too much initial expense. As a phone, there probably aren't too many cat owners that buy the product and then decide not to keep the subscription going. There isn't much to say about improving the product. The combination of the App and the Tracker work well together and the Customer Service is good too. It might be better to raise the price slightly and include a second battery, which would be my only suggestion. Owning a cat is not a cheap hobby, and knowing where your cat goes is interesting and it is reassuring to know when he doesn't come back on time, exactly where he is.

Our cat Harry - normally quite reliable in his routine - has recently started staying away from home for some unknown reason. We had, on a couple of occasions, reported him as missing and even put him on social media. Luckily for us, he had been staying in the area, and a neighbour had spotted him so we brought him home, however he has since done his disappearing act a couple more times, each time being found in the same area. We didn't want to keep him in as he is very much an outdoor cat, so we decided to get him a tracker. After a bit of research we decided on the Tractive GPS tracker. After reading some reviews of the included collar being a bit weak we bought another collar to put the tracker on and so far, so good. Tracker is easy to set up through the app, and offers a lot of features - with an annual subscription. We opted for the Premium cover, at a cost of £86 a year. The tracker itself is fairly compact and doesn't seem to impede Harry's movements, but even so, when he is home we take it off him to give him some relief from it. The app is good with a lot of features such as live tracking, activity monitor and history, which provides a view of his movements in the form of lines and a heat map. There's even a leaderboard so you can see how well your cat is doing in comparison to other cats in the local area. There's also an option to switch on light and an alarm on the tracker through the app, in case your pet loses their collar (this has happened to us on a couple of occasions and on both times we located it easily which is testament to its accuracy). However there is a downside - if cat is indoors or in a built up area, the GPS signal can be bit weak or non-existent. The map on the app is also not as up to date as it could be, but it does the job well enough. The map on the Tractive website is certainly more up to date, but it's not possible to use the live tracking and virtual fence at the same time like it is on the app. Speaking of virtual fence - this allows you to set a "boundary", so that if your pet roams outside of this, the app will alert when they have the area, and again when they return. For battery life, I have only given 3 stars here, mainly because Tractive states up to 5 days battery, when in reality this is around 2-3 days depending on how much you use the live tracking feature (live tracking increases battery life). I would have like a spare battery so that I didn't run the risk of it running out of juice if Harry stays out for a bit longer than normal but after having been in touch with Tractive themselves, they no longer supply spare batteries, which I find really short sighted, so I drop a star for that. To help preserve battery life we tend to turn the tracker off when Harry is home (there is a power button on the tracker - hold it down for 3 seconds or so to turn on or off) and charge it every couple of days. Minor niggles aside, I really recommend this product. The app has a load of features that are both genuinely useful and entertaining at the same time. Being able to see where Harry is when he's outside is really fun, and gives us peace of mind. It's also good to know that if/when he loses his collar, we can locate the tracker relatively easily. It allows us to let him out of the house secure in the knowledge that we can always locate him.

I bought two of these (2 cats) . My cats are constantly roaming and I wanted to know where they were. Initially the tracker works well. The app is easy to use, however they are not fit for purpose as the tracker attaches to a collar (both included in purchase). The collar stayed on, no issues with that. However the tracker that clips onto the collar fell off twice within one week. My cats are active climbers, squeeze through tiny gaps. I can only assume this is why the tracker was lost twice. Because of it falling off, I have sadly returned both to Amazon for a refund. Alas it is not so easy to obtain a refund from Tractive for a mandatory subscription. I wouldn't buy a product from them again, not because of the tracker because it could be a good product but the Customer Service. What use is a subscription that they won't refund if I have returned the trackers. They supposedly have a 14 day cancellation policy on the subscription. Unfortunately due to work commitments etc I didn't cancel in time. My own fault for not reading the small print. UPDATE on 22 Jan 2021. I paid for the subscription via a PAYPAL. I used their resolution centre to create a dispute. I then received a full refund for the subscription from Tractive.

My wife and I were after a way of tracking our cat who has recently expanded his territory. We had hopes for this and thankfully they we’re all exceeded. The accuracy is great, even where we are which is quite rural. Our cat goes into the woods nearby and is still very accurate. He can be hard to find at times when he is trying to hide (especially given he is all black) but the tracker has a built in sounder which you can turn on via the app when you are trying to find them which makes things so much easier. The app also has other great features so you can see the past 24 hours of history where they have been which you can overlay on a satellite image which makes things SOOO much easier. Battery life tends to be around 4-5 days. When you use the live tracking function, it use use up more battery power... but charging only takes less than 2 hours. The tracker stays on the collar really well... so don’t need to worry about it coming off. Collar is leather and really well made. You do have to subscribe to a subscription in order for it to work... but in the grand scheme of things, it’s worth it... just having peace of mind knowing where they are and that they won’t get lost is such a massive benefit. I would recommend anyone who has a cat that likes to roam getting one as the cost is nothing when you know your family member is safe. Great great product!!

UPDATE JANUARY 2021: My original review (below) was written after a couple of weeks of use (and while many of the problems still exist) I thought I should add a few words about the Tractive customer support. I was contacted by their customer support team a few days after my first review. Since that time they have gone out of their way to find a solution the problems. They've done long range tests, provided lots of advice and even sent not one but two replacement units. From my own tests I'm now pretty sure the majority of the problems stem from the area I live in being in a satellite blind spot. My advice now would to tread carefully, in areas with a strong signal you should be fine but you won't know for sure until you try it. Review: I bought this for my cat Daisy who has a nasty habit of getting lost. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to the hype. THE TRACKER: Made of a light plastic. It clips easily on to the collar and seems fairly secure. The battery can be removed fairly easily by pressing two buttons at once and simply clicks back on. The tracker features a flashing blue light and a noise generator which supposedly helps to you to locate it. This you only need to turn on when actively looking for it. I didn't find the noise feature helpful at all, presumably it can only be heard by teenagers and dogs. THE APP: It works fine but I wish they'd put all the functions on one simple drop down menu instead of scattering them all around the app. ACCURACY: The whole point of a tracker is to lead you to your target but this is the biggest failure of the system. Buildings, trees, bodies of water and even moisture in the air can all affect the accuracy. Unless you live in the middle of a field you're not going to get the results you need to locate your pet. Also, you might have to wait up to an hour for a location update. Results are displayed on a map (google or apple) and are also hit and miss. I know my cat is clever but the tracker regularly reports that she's swum across the Gloucester to Sharpness canal and back again!! To test the accuracy of the system I recently set out to track my cat. The tracker showed me her last known location and I put myself as near to there as possible before turning on the 'Live Track' feature. Due to the poor signal it took several attempts before it finally kicked in. At this point it showed that I was just three feet from her...... er, well actually no, she was no where to be seen. I then turned on the flashing light and sound features in the hope that they might give me a clue, but no. In the end I had to give up, thankfully she came home by her own accord a couple of hours later but my confidence in the tracker has been severely shaken. As I sit here typing this both the app and Tractive website are telling me that the tracker is connected to the 'Network' and that the GPS is accurate - this is nonsense as I had removed the battery over an hour earlier and hadn't replaced it. BATTERY: The ad-copy says that the battery should last 2-5 days. Again, this is nonsense. The best we've managed so far is 20 hours and that wasn't using the 'Live Track' feature which drains the battery even faster. This isn't a lot of good if your cat goes missing for several days. Also there are regular battery level discrepancies between the app and the website - sometimes as much as 50%. I've followed the advice given on the website but it's made no difference. There is a battery upgrade you can buy which supposedly lasts 5-10 days but it's so much larger and not really suitable for cats. COLLAR: The tracker comes with it's own quick release leather collar which is pretty awful. It's like something belonging to Madame Whiplash. The quick release feature works well but, as I discovered this morning, it also means kitty was able to undo it whilst playing with her toys. This does not inspire confidence. Overall the idea is a brilliant one but until they sort out all the problems I can't recommend this product. UPDATE: Just hours after writing this review Daisy came home minus her collar. Thankfully, this was the one occasion that the tracker actually worked and I was able to retrieve it.

I've been looking for a GPS cat tracker for a while and bought this model on recommendation from a colleague. It arrived very quickly and was very simple to set up and register. Buyers should be aware, however, that the advertised subscription price, whilst accurate, must be purchased in block periods of 1, 2 or 5 years with payment up front. We went for 1 year of the premium rate as we didnt want to commit too heavily and then find our cat didn't like wearing it. The tracker unit itself is small but not tiny, it still looks quite large on a cat and I can see why Tractive only recommend it for cats over 4kg - Our 5.5kg male doesn't seem bothered by it but I certainly wouldn't put it on my smaller female cat. Despite the size, the unit is fairly light and easy to charge with the supplied USB lead (we're finding that we get 4-5 days of use per charge). Our cat DID manage to detach the tracker from the collar clip twice in the first three days but, one quick email to Tractive's customer support dept later and they despatched us a replacement collar with integrated clip, plus a spare clip to use on any collar, completely free of charge. Very impressive. Tracking is achieved via a mobile app (you can also access it via a web page, but the app offers more functionality) which is best described as 'Garmin Connect for cats'! You can see a GPS trace of where your cat has been (or, indeed, is right now) and also heat maps of commonly visited areas, this is fully customisable by whichever time period you choose. You can also input your cat's measurements and weight to see a daily calorie burn count and even a local leaderboard of active minutes/distance covered, with the option to befriend owners of fellow Tractive-equipped cats! Additonally, you can upload photos of your cat, together with their chip ID, whether they've been spayed/nueutered or not, plus your contact details. All in all, this seems to be a good quality product with excellent support. It isn't the cheapest but I guess the adage of 'you get what you pay for' applies here. If I could improve one thing, it would be a reduction in size of the tracker unit by at least half. I imagine this will come over time and will be interested in upgrading when it does.

The tracker works ok although it isnt that accurate - it gives a radius of about 20 feet where the cat could be. There's a a slight delay even on live tracking, so if the cat is running around its unlikely you'll find them easily with the tracker - the tracker will tell you roughly where they are but you'll always be slightly behind them. But if the cat is walking/sitting (as ours often is), or if your cat is likely to approach you when they see you (as ours does), the tracker is very useful. Battery life seems pretty good as it lasts for a few days - we keep our cats in at night so we can just charge it then. The tracker is larger than i would have liked (maybe I've just watched too much James bond but I assumed that GPS trackers could be tiny, and this is not the case!) However our cat doesn't seem to mind it at all (he is a big cat, weighs around 6kg and he is not overweight). The size /weight of the tracker might be more of an issue with a smaller cat. All in all it works well and I would recommend it for large cats. HOWEVER the issue with this particular tracker (not sure if this is a generalised problem or just an error with this particular one) is that the tracker has repeatedly become detached from the collar, meaning that our cat has lost it a few times. Luckily we have been able to find it again using the app but if this happens in a neighbours garden or another area we can't access then it will be money down the drain. It also reduces our peace of mind about knowing that we could find our cat if he gets lost (what if the tracker falls off and then he gets lost??) It is disappointing that the tracker is designed to attach onto only one collar rather than being something that can be slipped onto any collar. (Also an 'interesting' decision from the design team meaning that when their collar wears out, you must replace the whole thing, given that the tracker can't be fitted onto any other collar ..) Overall a good product but with some major flaws.

This is a great little product which I cannot be without now. The battery can last 2 to 3 days if you do not use live tracking. Occasionally the device will tell you your pet has darted a few streets away, however, I know my cat cannot move that fast and never in a straight line so common sense tells me to ignore these erroneous readings and within a few seconds it is back to a correct reading. The fence works well and alerts instantly if my cat has wandered further than I am comfortable with. It was accurate enough for me to find my cat when he disappeared one night and I managed to retrieve him from garden in the neighbourhood. The only problem was that the battery died after a couple of months and I could not recharge it. I rushed to replace the battery with a new one from Amazon as I had no idea how long it would take Tractive to reply to my customer service request. It is frustrating not being able to call the service centre, and also not knowing how long it will take for them to respond to my email. However, credit where it's due, once Tractive replied (within 48 hours) their replies were frequent, helpful and sensitive to my concerns for my cat. I would certainly recommend this product it is worth the money and the annual subscription cost.

Do not buy this if you live in Australia. It does not work. It operates on the obsolete 2G network. I had read previous reviews but thought that the 'Newest model' meant this had been updated. It hasn't. Customer service were very helpful and apologetic and immediately refunded my subscription (and hopefully will refund the cost of the tracker). However, I can see this has been a problem for almost a year. I can't speak to the functionality of this tracker. It looks like it could be quite good and straightforward to use. Unfortunately I'll never find out. The one star review is solely based on the fact that they continue to sell a product to Australia that simply does not work here.

Hola. Mi gata tiene 6 años y sabe volver a casa sola perfectamente, pero cuando llega el verano a veces desaparece por días. Hace poco despareció 5 días y me preocupé mucho, pues nunca había estado más de dos noches seguidas sin volver por casa. Además este invierno le detectaron degeneración en los riñones y está muy flaquita por lo que tengo que asegurarme que beba mucha agua y coma un pienso especial. Así que no puedo permitir que pase días fuera. No soporta estar en casa encerrada todo el día, por lo que este GPS ha sido mi salvación. La tengo controlada y si no vuelve por la noche puedo ir a buscarla. Además he salido de dudas de dónde se metía. Lo probé antes de dejarla salir con el GPS y me sorprendió mucho su precisión. Después de leer comentarios muy dispares, he llegado a la conclusión que quizá los comentarios negativos son del modelo anterior. La aplicación envía su situación cada x tiempo. Me parece que si está mucho tiempo en un mismo sitio porque está durmiendo no lo actualiza (quizás para ahorrar batería) y en cuanto detecta movimiento empieza de nuevo a enviar su posición. Aún así si ves que hace más de media hora q no actualiza, puedes poner el modo live que es super preciso y te indica dónde está en ese momento. Pero consume mucha más batería, así que tampoco lo puedes tener puesto todo el día en ese modo. Aún así, yo lo miro varias veces en modo live y nunca ha bajado del 79% en un día. Otra opción que está muy bien es el historial, que puedes ver el recorrido que ha hecho y cuáles son los sitios en los que pasa más tiempo. En esta opción a veces salen picos muy extraños, esto es porq en el modo normal no es tan preciso. Pero igualmente te haces una idea. Incluye también la opción de poner vallas virtuales. Yo he puesto dos. Una por donde considero que es seguro que pasee y otra que se limita más a mi casa. La aplicación te envía notificaciones cuando entra y sale de las vallas. A mi esto me resulta muy útil para saber cuándo está volviendo a casa por la noche y meterla. No tengo que salir 20 veces a ver si está. Y si silvo y me oye pongo el modo live y veo como va volviendo a casa. Tengo que añadir que sale libremente porque vivo pegando a un extensión de campos bastante grande y me ha demostrado que no sale de la zona segura. En las fotos lo podréis ver. Jamás dejaría salir a un gato aunque sea con el GPS si tiene que cruzar carreteras o directamente vives en una ciudad. Sí podría ser útil si pasea con correa por si se escapa en un descuido. Otras opciones que también te pueden ayudar a localizar al gato son la luz, que en la oscuridad se ve mucho (por el día nada), y el sonido, que es un pitido un poco desagradable pero puede servir de ayuda. En cuanto al tamaño es un poco grande para mi gata. La marca lo recomienda para gatos de más de 4 kilos. Para ese peso lo veo bien, pero para mi gata de 2,8 kilos se ve grande. Aún así ella no se lo intenta quitar y se mueve con total libertad. Se lo he puesto en un arnés, porque me parece mucho peso para su cuello. Estaría bien que en próximas versiones sacarán de un tamaño más pequeño para que lo puedan llevar más cómodamente. Por último, en cuanto a la suscripción que hay que hacer para el GPS tenga señal, yo cogí la mensual, que aunque es más caro que la anual al mes, quería asegurarme que funcionara bien. Os aconsejo hacer lo mismo y ver si en vuestra zona funciona igual de bien. Porque tienes 15 días de prueba y si lo quieres devolver al final solo has perdido 10 euros. Me desagradó que en la página web ponía q la suscripción por mes era de 7,99 y cuando fuí a pagar fueron 10.49 euros. El resto de planes sí tenían los mismos precios. Ahora que ya lo he probado lo renovaré seguramente con el plan anual que son 49,90 (hay una premium por 59,90). Espero que se de ayuda.

Doet wat ie moet doen,duidelijke app en kan precies zien waar de kat uithangt

Sto provando questo gps da quasi un mese, acquistato per agevolare i compito di amici nel recuperare il mio gatto la sera mentre ero in vacanza. La batteria dopo 2 giorni con un utilizzo continuato per 12 ore arriva a circa il 15/20% quindi direi ottima ! Leggerezza: è veramente leggero e poco ingombrante nella confezione ci sono 2 supporti, uno è un collarino semplice mente il secondo è il supporto per poterlo mettere a qualunque collarino in uso. Praticità: Lo sgancio dal collare è veloce così come il fissaggio, il tutto rimane ben saldo e non mi sembra poter staccarsi facilmente. Abbonamento: il costo mensile può spaventare ma considerando l'alternativa è quella di utilizzare un tacciatore gps generico a cui però va inserita una sim dati per la connessione che costa come se non più dell'abbonamento al servizio, senza contare che c'è l'app apposita che permette di vedere cronologia e recinti virtuali (non tutti i gps permetto un recinto così piccolo). Senza contare una simpatica classifica per vedere altri gatti e le loro statistiche di movimento. Mi sento di consigliarlo a tutti quelli che temono che il gatto si allontani troppo da casa, o che faticano a farlo rientrare la sera. Ideale per gatti di medie dimensioni (il mio ha solo 1 anno) per i cuccioli l'apparecchio risulterebbe un po' grossino Unica nota negativa, non ci sono in vendita batterie di ricambio ma ho provato ha scrivere una mail al produttore per informazioni.

I've spent countless dollars trying various trackers for my cat. Thank God Tractive finally made it to US soil! This is the best, most reliable tracker ever. Completely worth the money. You do not have to subscribe to a specific carrier service to activate your tracker, subscription is right through Tractive. Easy to use, reliable.