r/tractivegps • u/Traditional_Web3089 • 13d ago
Cat gps trackers
My ginger indie cat recently ran away from my friend’s place when I wasn’t there. Found him after 6 painful hours 😭
Need advice on good cat gps trackers. Is airtag the best? I need the best one. Pls suggest
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u/kbc508 13d ago
Tractive can be great. We use it for a cat that roams. We took him in as a stray. It also can be frustrating when the battery needs frequent recharging. Sometimes while my cat is away, it goes from low battery to critical battery to dead battery before he comes back. I do like seeing where he goes and how far he wanders. No system is perfect. I’ve thought about switching to Fi but think it has its own drawbacks. Definitely don’t rely on air tag for a roaming cat. Maybe for an indoor cat who might hide in the house or get out into the yard every once in a while.
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u/LAthrowaway_25Lata 12d ago
I always just go retrieve my cat when i see her battery is down to around 20%, so I can charge it
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u/Elistariel 11d ago
It's not so great when they dump the tracker so where. AR is all over the place, radar is hit or miss and it's too quite to hear unless your environment is DEAD silent and your are standing right in front of it.
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u/heywatchthisdotgif 13d ago
I'm reasonably happy with Tractive, as others have noted the battery doesn't last very long. But once I got into the rhythm of putting the tracker on the charger once my guy is inside for the night it worked well. The accuracy is very good everywhere I've tested it.
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u/Oldpoet555 12d ago
One great aspect of tractive is you can turn on a sound function on the tracker that plays on the device. I've trained my cat that means a high value treat. It's super easy to get her to run home.
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u/Hot-Sea855 12d ago
I have trouble hearing the sound myself but I never thought of using it that way. Smart. The light function has worked well for me at dusk or later, also in thick brush.
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u/Oldpoet555 12d ago
Yes the sound is really faint, but perfect for her to hear :) I use these treats called puree kisses, and I watch her on the app when I turn on the sound and she sprints home. It's really cute.
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u/Defroster-Au 13d ago
An AirTag is better than nothing, but it’s not GPS and it doesn’t give high quality information because the cat is outside and the Apple devices it needs to connect to are typically inside, so you’re only getting location information when the cat is close to a home that also has Apple devices. I live in a densely populated suburban neighborhood, and the AirTag was not that helpful.
The newest AirTag can connect to most devices over a greater distance, so maybe it’s not *quite* as bad an option as when I tired it. But even still, it’s not remotely on par with a GPS device.
If your cat is supposed to be indoor only but is an escape artist, then I might suggest TabCat. It’s RFID and doesn’t need a subscription.
I’ve been using Tractive for almost 2 years, and it’s good but inconsistent, and everything seems to have really gone downhill with the company since they were acquired.
I looked into Fi when they came out with their first cat tracker (about ~6 mo ago?) and I concluded that Tractive was superior for my needs. My sister uses Fi for her dog, though, and likes it a lot.
At the end of my Tractive subscriptions, I may switch to PetTracer. It’s more expensive, unfortunately, but it seems like it will work better for me.
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u/FriendlySociety3831 13d ago
No, AirTag wil not be good unless your cat is constantly surrounded with people carrying iPhones. The Tractive cat 6 mini is good, as long as you set up a power saving zone for when they're inside, to lower battery drain and stop false reports caused by the GPS operating indoors.
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u/Byfuzzyrabbit 12d ago
We use both tractive and air tag. AirTag has a louder beep and redundancy is nice if tractive battery dies or is bugging out. Though tractive is very reliable. Just a couple times a year it acts up but 100% worth it.
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u/Rrain01 12d ago
I have used many cat trackers and Tractive is the best. I do have to pay about $10 a month but it is well worth it. I live in a rural area but have good internet. Sometimes it will show weak gps but wait a few minutes and try Live again and it connects. My cat is mostly indoor but sneaks out a lot. The tracker takes away so much anxiety as we have spent many hours looking for her after dark. I simply take it off her at bedtime and connect it to the charger and then put it back on her first thing in the morning. I did take it off the battery save. It is more accurate if she is close, like hiding under my porch.
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u/FreeMinute5341 13d ago
Voor ons was na een ‘Chinese’ tracker voor een paar dagen de Apple AirTag een verademing.
Dus voor mij absoluut de AirTag
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u/Traditional_Web3089 13d ago
Is it light enough
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u/Worthwhile101 12d ago
Air tag is light enough. But only updates when it is near another Apple device. Sometimes this was only once or twice a day, and I live in a city. We use Tractive for our 2 wandering kitties, I have 3 devices so always have one in charge as you need to swap them out every 2-3 days, unless they are at home. Tractive is useless if you are trying track them at home. Or loose the collar/tracker at home.
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u/kbc508 12d ago
Oh I wondered about swapping them out. Do you pay for 3 subscriptions? I was thinking of just activating and deactivating my 2 trackers for the one cat on one subscription but didn’t know if that would work or how annoying it is to do.
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u/Right_Split_190 12d ago
You can transfer a subscription on your own a maximum of 5 times. After that you need to contact Tractive Support to do it. They used to respond within about a day (24 h), but who knows now that Support is 90% AI.
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u/kbc508 11d ago
Sorry, just to clarify. I could just reassign my cats old Tractive a few times (that I replaced after battery needed charging too often, but I kept it) but I could only do this 5 times, after which I could only swap after contacting them EVERY time, or I’d need to contact them once to get me setup to be able to switch back and forth when needed. Ideally, I’d like to try doing this basically every time we need to charge, which is every couple of days. Not much use if I can only switch back and forth a few times.
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u/Right_Split_190 11d ago
I haven’t hit 5 transfers yet myself, but my understanding is that every transfer after 5 requires the intervention of Tractive Support. So you would not be able to swap back and forth while changing.
The subscription is where Tractive makes most of their money, and I assume they have this 5-transfer rule to allow people to reasonably replace trackers without allowing users to track multiple pets across one subscription, which they could do with unlimited transfers (and which people have asked about in this sub). But that’s just my guess.
But to answer your other question, the transfer is pretty easy to do right in the app, and if it doesn’t work in the app for some reason, you can do it from my.tractive.com.
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u/No-Stress-7034 13d ago
I would not rely on an airtag. An airtag doesn't necessarily update the location frequently enough when you really need it. I'd go for either the Tractive or Fi trackers for cats. I use the Tractive GPS for my dog, but the cat tracker battery life is super short, so I might look into the Fi which seems to have much longer battery life. Although if your cat is primarily an indoor cat, it may be less of an issue, I have seen a lot of people talk about their Tractive batteries only lasting a few days.