Three cats gone every second

• To date, 264,933 cats are reportedly missing in the UK according to popular missing pet websites, with 55% of owners confessing their cat has gone missing from home
• Nearly 61% of the missing cat population are male – with 27,000 more male cats reported missing than female cats
• 184 cats go missing every minute, equivalent to 3 cats every second
• Admiral Insurance carries out unique experiment to reveal what cats get up to when away from home – with male cats found to be 60% more active than female cats
• Black cats make up a third of all missing cats
• Cats are most likely to go missing when their family move house, with 19% of owners saying their cat scarpered whilst they were packing or had recently moved to a new home
• Cat behaviour expert, Lucy Hoile advises how to prevent your cat going missing...

Despite a plethora of recent reports about missing dogs, new research from Admiral Pet Insurance reveals our feline friends are also in danger of going missing. In August, there were 264,933 missing cats listed across five of the most popular missing pet websites, with 55% of cat owners saying their cat has gone missing at least once with 22% saying their cat has left home more than five times.

Admiral Pet Insurance is warning cat owners to keep a close eye on their pets as the days grow darker, as research across the five biggest missing pet websites reveals that 184 cats go missing every minute and 3 each second.

Survey data from cat owners across the country revealed the top circumstances where cats go missing. These include when owners move to a new house (11%), go away on holiday (10%), have builders in the home to renovate (9%) or get another pet (9%),

With more than half (53%) of Brits confessing they’d feed a cat who appeared in their garden, it’s no surprise many cats explore their surroundings for food, attention and adventures. The good news is, 41% of people who reported a cat missing had them turn up again of their own accord. Meanwhile, 18% of owners found their missing cat near their home, 16% received a call from someone local who found their cat, another 16% reported their cat had been found trapped in a shed or outbuilding, and 13% said they found their cat at an old home.

To explore what cats get up to when they are away from home, Admiral Pet Insurance partnered with Tractive GPS pet tracker. The data from the Tractive GPS collars reveals that the male cats Admiral tracked were 60% more active on average than their female counterparts, which is probably a factor in their making up 61% of the missing cats in the UK.