Identification
The number that follows the cat all its life
France’s national register of domestic carnivores
Identification is the cat’s identity card: a 15-digit microchip, recorded in the I-CAD national register ↗. It is mandatory in France before any sale, and in any case before the age of seven months.
It is a simple number, but a precious one: it lets you know where a cat comes from and trace it back to its breeder. A lost kitten is returned to its family thanks to it. It is also this number that ties the cat to its pedigree: the two go together.
📌A point often misunderstood
The identification number does not exist before the chip is implanted. With us, that happens around two months, at the same time as the first vaccination. Before that age, a kitten simply has no number yet: it is neither an oversight nor a bad sign.
It is also the moment when early neutering becomes possible. We practise it for kittens destined for pet homes: identification, first vaccination and neutering are grouped together, which spares the kitten an extra anaesthesia later and guarantees its family that it will leave already neutered.
A pedigree without its matching identification number proves nothing: it is the cross-check of the two that certifies that this kitten is indeed the one on the document.