Pursley has a bald ring aound her neck from a nylon collar she wore for years, it literally wore her fur off
so now I only put collars on mine when there is a real need.
Like now, Ivan is new to us so is wearing a collar and tag to, hopefully, prevent people from feeding him. I also have a collar on Theo because he's a little tramp and keeps telling the neighbourhood kids he's unloved and homeless.
I also had a cat who got her front leg through the collar and hurt herself. Thus was an elasticated collar so I won't use these again.
If she's on a quick release clip collar and it's too loose she will either get it off or get her paw or lower jaw stuck in it so they need to be properly fitted. The rule of thumb is that you can just fit two fingers under the collar, this allows her free movement but not too loose so she can get a paw in there.
You alo need to check and double check the action of the clip, so they DO fail and may get stuck in the closed position, this could be catestrophic so it's really important to test the collar for damage regularly and change it if the clip seems to be either too slack or too tight.
I've used Ancol collars for a few years and had varying degrees of satisfaction with them, they're nylon so are robust and do keep their size once set to length, but occasionally I've had to ditch them because the clips were way too stiff for my peace of mind. The clips also become brittle with time so need to be checked regulary.
I also have penny sized ID tags engraved with my postcode, house number and phone number on, which I attach to the collars. Not only does it identify the cat as being local, but I often get calls from people who have found shed collars so I get them back, along with valuable information as to where my cats have been roaming.
Hope some of this is helpful. God luck with the move, I can picture your cottage.
