Mytabcat Reviews 474

I have been using this product with my two cats for five months. It has helped us to locate the cats when they’ve been gone for longer than usual and was especially useful in the dark early evenings over winter.
It therefore gives some piece of mind, but its temperamental nature leaves me nervous and lacking the reassurance I hoped it would provide. In common with another reviewer, we have found the handset sometimes appears to go a little haywire, emitting random beeps with all the lights flashing/illuminating. Usually, when this happens, I turn the unit off and on again (sometimes several times) and it tends to resolve the issue. On a number of occasions we haven’t picked up a signal until we’re within a couple of metres of the cats.
I ordered a couple of extra locating tabs in addition to our original two. When replacing the batteries in the tabs, the electronics appear a little flimsy and I have to play about with the battery to get it to connect and then close the tab with very firm pressure to ensure the battery remains in place. One of our original tabs no longer appears to work at all. We change the batteries in the handset and tabs monthly just to be safe.
I think this product could be so much better. Unfortunately the poor quality feel of the components leaves me worrying it might not work when I really need it to and feeling I have paid a lot of money for something that employs a very basic and cheap technology.

We used Loc8tor for our cats for many years & it was a Godsend. We had two handsets over an 8 year period.

Unfortunately since the design changed and they became Tabcat, we have had to buy 3 full sets in the last 18 months, most recently in September & it's always the same problem.

Even straight out of the box the handsets only work about 20% of the time, usually emitting one long screeching beep & the tab within days of replacing the battery gives intermittent beeps much to the annoyance of our cat - so sadly I have lost faith in its ability to find our cats if they go missing.

So sad the product isn't as good as it used to be, especially at the price, as we've had to replace it so many times.

The old lozenge style homing tags worked so well. They broke a great product. New round tags work for a while, they break, their battery life is short, the stupid silicone case breaks and isn't for for purpose. That's why I've just bought a girufas today because after many many years, I've lost my last lozenge tag. The round ones are totally unreliable.

Easy to set up at beginning. I found my cat under the bed with it. However, NOW, when I really need it cuz MY CAT IS LOST OUTSIDE, the tracker keeps turning off and doing weird beeping. I'm searching in the night with a flashlight and had to take battery out every 4 minutes because of the eratic beeping that would not stop no matter what I did. Been searching 3 days using the Tabcat Loc8tor with no luck. And the darn thing keeps turning off when I am using it. I go thru the turn-on process, full lights then depress my cat's locator button. But 3-4 minutes later, the device beeps again (I don't know why) then a few minutes later it beeps and seems to turn off (instructions do not explain why this is happening- or is my tracker malfunctioning?) Then I have to go through all of this again, while hunting for the cat through all the blocks in my neighborhood. Frustrating and now seems like maybe it just doesn't work if your cat is hiding in dense areas or is VERY close by in an unobstructed place.
Also had to replace batteries after 5 months of use (did this last month).
I should have bought a GPS

I have had this for 3 weeks now and I must say it is exactly what I expected. When tracking any of my 4 cats, it takes a few seconds until it finds the position of the cat and then it starts blinking. I have used it everyday for the last 3 weeks to track my 4 cats when it is time to come home. Whilst the positioning is only an approximate, it is sufficient to you close enough that you can spot him or her. You will still have to look or listen to see where your cat is. Once my cat was on a roof and it started to blink, I looked everywhere but could not see him until I heard a meow coming from above me. But it is definitely good enough and I have recommended all my neighbors to purchase it!

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Update on 3rd Sept 2020

My 4 cats have been using this since 31st July 2020. Sadly as of 30 August, I have been unable to locate my 7 months old Ginger using Tab Cat.He was out for just 2 hours and when it was time to come inside, I failed to locate him. I walked all around the neighborhood within a 500 m radius, around the fields, and my neighbor's house. No Ginger. No meow, no beep. Silence. The range of Tab Cat is really, 10m (32 feet) and if you have to search a wide area, it is almost impossible. I have walked around for 3 days and night and there is still no signal. One star for my (still) lost Ginger. I wish I had bought a GPS tracker instead. I can only hope he comes home.

Absolutely amazing from a start!!!
I've bought Tractive, because everyone said it's epic..well... my cat was standing in front of me and tractive was saying he's 30m away...nexy cat was sleeping next to the window...tractive said he's running all around the neighborhood, absolutely crap. After some research I've found TABCAT and FINALLY SOME GOOD RELIABLE DEVICE. RADIO. YES RADIO IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE GPS, it's a bit of navigating and a game of "hot & cold" but it took me less than 5 minutes to find the tracker!!!! EPIC, now I know my Savannah Cat if out, will be easily found. Plus this tracker is SUPER LIGHT, where Tractive is chunky and looks super uncomfortable.

Been using for about 6 years now and wouldn't be without them for my two cats. Helps me locate my cats even when they deliberately hide. I can usually locate any lost collars as well - although sometimes if they are in the middle of brambles or nettles I don't bother trying to retrieve - but at least the technology works well.

Absolute waste of time and money! Buy a keyfinder on ebay for £5 and you'll get the same quality. Don't be fooled by the fancy packaging and fake clearly paid for reviews online.

My cat, literally 30ft (if that) directly in front of me and it couldn't find him.

They're so called 'guarantee' is a lie. It means you lose out because you have to arrange for the return and pay for it yourself. So in covid times, they care so much about their customers they're willing to risk their lives rather than stand behind the product they likely know is worthless.

Complete waste of time and money, and now having wasted my time to buy it might just be what kills me -what a world!

The silicone cover, which is the piece that goes over the locator disc and attaches to the cat's collar, is paper thin and tears easily. I had my Tabcat for only six months when it was lost due to a torn/shredded collar. When I contacted the company to ask for a new locator and silicone cover they said "no." Then, "as a gesture of goodwill" they agreed to send me a new silicone cover. I replied saying that the cover is too easily torn and if the cover doesn't contain the locator securely then I shouldn't have to pay $35 for a new one. They apparently didn't like that I was holding them accountable since they didn't return my email and never send me the cover they promised. When I emailed again asking when I could expect my cover, they didn't respond. As a result, my cat was without her locator for a good six weeks while I was waiting for the cover they promised to send me. Terrible product, worse customer service.

Great product. I use it to find our cat's gps collar when they loose them. It would be much more difficult (or impossible) without it. The TabCat has more than paid for itself.
One criticism, should the handset fail or is lost (my case) then the tags are useless. Once the tags are registered to the handset that's it, they cannot be used with another handset. No way to reset them. You will have to buy a whole new kit!
I would have given a 5 star rating if it weren't for that.

We have been using tabcat for our two cats for about three weeks now and, overall are very pleased with the product.

The range is quite short, so bushes, walls etc must have a considerable effect, compared to the maximum range stated on the website.

However, as we live in suburbia and our cats stay more or less within two or three houses distance from ours, the range for us is fine, it just means we walk around the area to pick up the signal.

We bring our cats in every afternoon and they are shut inside overnight, so being able to easily locate them has been great.

One of them came home yesterday without his collar and I was able to find it next door in a spot where it might have remained hidden forever without the tabcat! It was our first real "blind test" of the tabcat and it came up trumps :-)

I've read reviews where people have had difficulty when changing the battery, which we haven't done yet, so I'm hoping that it is straightforward.

Pros:

1) Peace of mind when it picks up the signal.

2) Being able to quite quickly locate the cat when we need to

3) Easy to use, definitely worth spending a bit of time getting to know the product. And also getting the cats used to the beep on their collar before letting them outside (both cats were quite startled the first few times but now pretty much ignore it)

Cons:

1) Quite limited range, even if the cat is close but behind a wall/bushes etc

2) The website should make it VERY clear that if you pay for International Express Shipping, that there is a considerable delay if it is addressed to a PO Box, as we did.

Our order took just over 24 hours to get from England to Australia, which was amazing, but then was passed to Australia Post for the final leg of the journey which took a further 6 days as it incorporated a weekend. If I'd known then I would have shipped it to our street address and got more value out of the considerable extra cost of express international shipping.

Overall I'd definitely recommend Tabcat.

It has its limitations but is a great product to have attached to your cat's collar.

We plan on adding a gps cat collar once it is made available for use in Oz, hopefully in Feb 20, so that we have the best of both worlds by using a radio tracker, combined with a gps tracker

I live out in the country and our Maine coon covers 3 or 4 miles every day! Twice a week or more he pulls open magnetic catch and loses GPS tracker, difficult to find with 24 feet or lesser accuracy. Sheep fence netting or brambles
Fitted a Tabcat on the gps collar as well, totally brilliant. We use the phone app to go to the rough location then switch on Tabcat to find the collar to the inch!!. Tabcat range is not good out in the country, ave. 40 feet. Tabcat does not appear to affect GPS signal.
Highly recommended, have best of both worlds. Would have lost the collar number of times without Tabcat , big cat does not notice the collar. Wife likes to track his movements around the parish
Tabcat works well , even better with a GPS collar
Still 5* after many months. lost one tabcat due to silicone cover splitting and signal stopped.Otherwise cat has lost his gps collar more than thirty times but we are still on original collar!!
Tabcat has found his collar every time it is needed, we would have lost it numerous times with gps alone.
We have found it on the roof,in dense undergrowth, a stream and upto 1/2 miles from home down a steep bank
Recently bought a new (old stock) Loc8tor tab previous version of tabcat. WHY did they change the design !! So much better, smaller much more robust stronger silicone cover. Better in every way
If you can find one BUY IT
no tabcats available to buy anywhere
UPDATE FEB Tabcat are now selling Tabcat V2 which looks like old Loc8tor (much better) but not interchangable with old tabcat sorry

We did lots of research about cat tracking devices, both radio and GPS variety. We bought this because it's a decent size and supposedly more reliable and accurate than GPS devices, and we're really glad we did.

We've used it a few times when our cat has stayed out longer than usual, and each time we managed to locate her both easily and accurately. It requires a short walk around the cul-de-sac but the immediate relief you feel when it gets a signal makes it worth every penny.

What if somebody removes the device from the cat?

I LOVE MY TABCAT. I've had it for about a year now. It's still on the original battery and I have located my cat many times and am very grateful for it. It takes getting used to, at first, I even thought of returning it because I hadn't figured out quite how to use it, but once you get used to it, it works like a charm.
You have to be patient as it sometimes takes a while to respond, but once the red bars start beeping you can find your cat's direction. It seems to help to turn it off and on again if it loses the 'scent'.

We recently moved to a new area with our 1 year old and 5 year old cats. After a couple of weeks we have let them go out supervised. I chose the Tabcat over the GPS because of the size and the ease of use (instant results, no waiting for the server etc). I bought a GPS and sent it back because it was much too heavy for my cats (however we did have a good laugh at how the cat looked like they were 'on bail' - They were not happy with it all with the collar).

We use the Tabcat several times a day to see where they have got to as there are lots of trees, fences and bushes where we live. The cats do not come when called so at least we can pinpont where they are hiding (or whose garden they have gone into). The range isn't massive so a brief walk around the general area is needed.

I'm not sure it would work well for every area but for us it has been a God-Send. We couldn't have done without it.

Update 30/8/19
We are still using the Tabcat daily. Very occasionally it doesn't show a signal and it's difficult to know when it is a glitch or the cat is not there. Pressing the correct numbered button twice (on and off) rectifies it. We use the handset with the sound turned down so we can listen out for the beeping on the cats collar (we live in a quiet neighbourhood). It helped us locate our youngest cat on the roof of neighbours late last night where he had got stuck. We couldn't get him down without waking the neighbours up but at least we knew where he was and could spend half an hour coaxing him down. Ha ha cats are not always 'easy' pets.

I much prefer the old loc8tor as it is far less obtrusive for the cat. That said, this RFID tag has given me amazing piece of mind. I used to spend an hour or two every night trying to round up cats. Now it takes me minutes to locate the only one that still leaves the yard. And she'll usually come on her own once her collar starts paging her - even now as her favorite season has come again bringing the frogs she loves to hunt with it.

I love the battery long life,the pinpoint accuracy and how light it is.Before she had to wear a jingle bell collar a harness dragging a lead behind her.She can be invisible outside not any more.

I have been through so many tabcats, 5 or 6 I think. They are poorly made and have all broken down in a very short time. It has become very expensive. The old version loc8tor was better and lasted 2 years. Tabcats have lasted a few months, some of them did not even work on arrival. Customer service is rude and not helpful. The only reason this company is still in business with their non-working tabcats is because the competitors are even worse. Tried most of them. At least tabcat works sometimes. Really hope a new company will offer a similar product soon that works. Because this company does not care.

I've had the old Loc8tor with the oval tags for years, and they worked great. I recently purchased the new Tabcat. I immediately noticed the tag case doesn't click shut as securely as the old tags, but I put it on the new cat anyway. The first two days were fine. On day 3 he had lost his collar and the unit will not locate the tag anywhere. The battery can't be dead in only 3 days. I assume the weak case has popped open just enough to cause the malfunction. I'll be contacting the company or returning for a refund. It's a shame the performance of the new design is inferior. I hope my old tags outlive me, but it doesn't help cover my need for the new cat.