You might be planning to put a harness on your cat to possibly take her out on a walk. Or you probably are willing to harness a cat while traveling. For any of the reasons, putting a cat harness is perfect thought, but what if your cat slips away? And what when you are doing it for the first time? Or if you just don’t know how to make your cat wear a harness.
We will try to help you resolve the problem. Read on to know how you can harness your cat properly with the following tips.
A Short Guide on How to Put Harness on a Cat
There are two types of harnesses available: the Figure-eight and the H-harness (You can read this thorough guide on the best cat harnesses). There is nothing particular about which harness is the best. You can choose to buy the one your cat feels more comfortable in.
However, you have to choose the correct size of the harness according to your cat’s size. You may also choose the one you find easier to put your cat in. However, you first need to know why a harness is required for cats.
Why Harness a Cat?
Harnesses are primarily useful as it is not safe enough to attach a leash on the cat-collar. Cats have delicate necks and their throat can get choked if you walk her this way. And therefore to distribute the pressure it is essential you use a harness to walk her outside the house. However, you can get the Best Cat Collar for her safety.
The first thing is to understand the two styles of harnesses that are available and how to fit them on your cat.
Fit a Figure-Eight Harness on Your Cat
Steps on how to fit a Figure-Eight Harness:
- Hold the harness from the straight part of the strap between the two loops. Look the two loops that are hanging down from the waist. Find the smaller one. You do not need to unbuckle the smaller loop as it can easily slip over the cat’s head. You have to unbuckle the larger loop which has to go around the cat’s chest.
- The place where the loop connects at the connecting strap should stay just over the cat’s shoulders. The small loop must be over the cat’s head and slide the harness so the middle of the figure-eight comes on her back between the shoulder blades.
- Put the ends of the bigger loop under the cat’s chest. Correct if any twists and tighten them out. Now fasten the buckle. If the loop does not fit around the cat’s chest you should loosen out some of the lengths by using the adjustments.
- A comfortable fit is when you can easily put a finger between the harness and the cat’s body. Do not tighten it more than that, but it shouldn’t be too loose that the cat slips through.
Fit an H-Style harness on Your Cat
Steps on how to fit an H-Style harness:
- An H-harness will have a strap which will stay under the cat’s chest between the front legs. This strap is an addition to the loops along with the straight piece that a figure-eight harness has. If the loops are appended by two straight pieces on opposite sides of the loop, then your harness is the one with a back strap and a chest strap. You can easily see the back strap as it will be shorter than the chest strap.
- Hold the short strap(backstrap). Slip your cat’s head through the small loop.
- Unbuckle the larger loop. One half of the loop will form a D-shape with the chest strap. Just feed the front leg on the side of D, through space within so that the leg stays enclosed.
- Feed the left lengthy strap under the cat’s chest, then up to the other side, and fasten the buckle.
- Again take care you do not tighten it too much.
Other than these two options you can also opt to choose a walking vest also called walking jacket, which can give a better distribution of pressure than normal leads.
Let the cat adjust to the harness
This way you can make your cat wear a harness. Be sure your cat get used to wearing it. Most of the cats do not like wearing a harness, so be patient while you put one on your cat. You can try giving her some treat to relax her while making her wear the lead. You can even make her wear the harness at home for a few minutes daily until she is fine with it.