Strange Behavior With Collar

So I have 2 male maine coons. They are brothers and about 6 years old. Yesterday evening I bought them each a collar with a bell on it, just because I like to know where they are as my new house has plenty of places for them to hide. I put their collars on yesterday, and the change in their behavior was...pretty dramatic haha. The searching I've done online hasn't really turned up anything sadly, so I'm turning to the forums.

Basically, I put the collars on and immediately they got that "Fearful" mood of running really low to the ground and hiding. To make it even weirder, its not like they seem mad or anything, but they seem like, depressed actually. My one boy Paolo doesnt really try to run and hide as much as his brother, but he just basically goes totally dead weight and hides his face in his paws. If I put them on my bed, they feel the need to get under the covers and hide.

My concern though is that I put the collar on yesterday afternoon, and they still have not eaten. I know they must be hungry, because they are pretty big boys and normally wake me up at 6:30 am for breakfast. But neither of them wants to eat. Is this normal with cats or maine coons specifically? It almost seems like they are offended or something haha. I'm hoping that I'll come home from work today and find some of their food gone, but I was just worried. Any thoughts or tips?

Thanks a lot!

Have they wore collars before....? If they haven't most probally having something put around their neck at that age is an indignity but the fact that when they move they have a terrible noise ringing in their ears is double indignity,if you really need to have a collar on them then try without bell & add that at a later time once they are used to wearing them,quite honestly I don't like collars on any cat where I work I have seen too many nasty injuries caused by them & also they eventually rub the fur down too which on a MC is such a shame....couldn't you try rattling a favourite treat packet to get them to come,mine will do anything for a reward of dreamies they hear the packet come out of the cupboard even when they are in the outside pen......xxx

I do think that putting the collars on them and then leaving them on after they've shown such evident signs of distress seems rather unkind. I wouldn't subject a cat with sensitive hearing to bells in the first place, but certainy would have removed them when they became upset. Something new is best tried for a short time period at first, increasing the time little by little, but I'm not sure that they'll ever really like having some noisy thing on them that jangles with every move. I know I wouldn't. Of course it's your choice, but please be kind and take the collars off now and try to reintroduce them slowly, if you really feel you must have such a thing.

I'm at the other end of the spectrum! It's collars with bells on for everyone!

Sid goes out into the (secure) garden and is a very effective hunter. I have had one dead bird too many in bed with me, so he now wears a collar with a bell, but it also beeps and flashes a light when he pounces. He is not impressed, but every time he took it off it got replaced so he has pretty much given up. He can still hunt, he just can't catch things!!!

I wasn't going to put one on Ava for a while, but she was taking advantage of being able to hear Sidney and him not being able to hear her. She pounced on the poor old boy so much that he was starting to get twitchy, so she is now "belled-up" too. Again, she is not impressed, but tough. After a couple of days she got used to it. (It helps to have different sounds to the different bells so that you know who is who i the dark.)

I keep the collars much looser than on a moggy and the ruffs are not too badly affected - they aren't show cats anyway and just knowing where they are is priceless. I only ever use quick-release buckles which come open if they bear the weight of the cat/kitten. It does mean the occasional sweep of the garden for discarded collars!

You mean the Liberator collar I expect Weasel & yes it is good for giving wildlife a chance but just be careful if you have collars too loose on your cats have had them come into work where people thought they were doing the right thing by having them looser & they have had legs caught through them & even one person found their cat hanging from a branch that had gone through a loose collar,all had been wearing quick release but hadn't worked......after 40 years of seeing results from cat collars sorry not for any of mine not even when they were free roaming little domestic furries .......luckily none of my domestic cats were hunters though & this lot haven't got that big a back garden to play in the worse thing they wander in with is the occasional frog in their mouth which is a nightmare for me but normally if hubby is out a bucket put over it when the frog is put down suffices until he gets home as pleased to say they have never attempted to kill....!!!!!!!