To ask how much a cat costs to keep?

[caravancapers]

We are desperately saving for a house deposit but would also desperately like to get a cat. How much do you spend on your cat each month? Anyone managed it on a budget?

Putting off getting a cat until after we have a house deposit isn’t an option as it’s a 10 year project (long story) and we’d like to have a cat while the children (teens) are still at living at home.

We both have very good job security so it’s not a case of one day being in a position were we can’t afford to keep the cat, we just want to see if it can be done on a budget.

I have two and they cost me about £100 a month in total - that's for food (wet and dry), flea and worm treatments, and standard vet bills. There are other things on top like vet incidentals, treats, and cat sitters when we go on holiday (about £14 per day).

I went to the pet shop today and got massive bag of cat litter and her usual food. Both last about a month. Cost: £50

Pet insurance with Waggel is £17 a month

Vet visits not very often, just for a check and flea/worming treatments: about £35

When she was a kitten I had to do her vaccinations and spay her but I was surprised how inexpensive that was. Maybe about £300 in total.

She does like toys and I buy her something every now and then but those are cheap.

I love her. Best decision I have made in years.

Ah yes, @2catsandhappy, the £80 handmade Etsy scratching post that he refused to even look at, let alone touch 😕

I pay about maybe 20/30 quid a month for food. She’s 14 now and I’ve never paid insurance because honestly, she’s needed the vet about 3 times in her life, I just take the hit when she needs to go.
i get flea stuff from some pet pharmacy online- I can’t think of the name off my head and tend to stock up. That’s literally it. She’s a happy little moggy ❤️

Ah yes I forgot about cattery fees which are £14 per night

Mine is pretty eye watering for a cat, but she's old, is on medication, specialist, food etc.

Insurance: £55 a month (will only pay 80% after the excess now)
Food: her specialist food is about £50 a month
Supplement: May or may not help with her kidneys, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt £30 a month.
The rest of her vet spells after the insurance is at least a few hundred a year, plus some expensive dental surgeries.

We have 3 cats, £44 per month insurance, £38pm for food - grain free as one cat has an allergy. I was £389 at the vet a few weeks ago for annual vaccinations, worming, flea and tick treatment for all 3 - not covered by insurance. Regularly flew and worn treated every month at £34ish. I paid for the treatment at the vet recently as we found a tick on one of our cats. 🐈‍⬛
Cats are wonderful and my children love them so much. We have had them for 8, 7 and 4 years. Eldest DC is 6 and the cats respond when he shouts 'babies' - all 3 come running 🥰 usually because they think they're getting fed

Cats are well cheap in comparison to a dog for example. We pay about £30 a month for insurance & pet plan (it gets you cheap neutering & it includes flea, worm & vaccinations). £18 bag of food lasts 6-8 weeks, £20 pouches every 20 days (we give 2 per day) and some treats. Had a couple of vet trips for £100-150 each time but we have had him more than 2 years so not too bad.

Things to consider.

• holidays - cattery is around £12-15 a night
• prone to gingivitis on their teeth (biscuits & teeth brushing helps)
• prone to not drinking enough & having kidney issues. Wet food & running drinking water helps. We have a great cat fountain
• decapitated mice & birds are terrible. We moved house a few months ago & now he does it all the time. Prior to this it had happened once only the first night we brought dd2 home from the hospital!
• might trash your house as a kitten

Also really recommend an automatic biscuit feeder. We can leave our cat for a day or 2 if necessary with a neighbour popping in to give him wet food.

This, our insurance is about a tenner for a moggy.

The only thing is you have to factor in that if your cat develops a sensitive stomach or any ongoing issues this may be a bit more expensive as special diet / meds cost a bit

@Ted27I’m so sorry to hear about your cat. Sounds like he had a long happy life and was very loved

I pay £13/month insurance, I think roughly same again for his health plan which covers flea and worm treatment from the vet. He is fed smilla wet and scrumbles dry which is more expensive than basic cat food but not much really, maybe £1/day on food, max. So maybe £50/ month. We did buy the AI prey catflap though which was £400 🤣🤣

ETA that we have a reciprocal agreement with our neighbour that we feed each others cats when we're away. It works really well. And if we're both away at the same time then other neighbours are happy to do it. So that is free.

Mine are both chipped back to the separate rescues. 1 rescue realised they were being charged and has transferred the chip to me. Any changes from now on I have to pay a charge. Probably including the correction of both my name and the cat's name! The other rescue not heard a word.

Had my 2 cats for 20+ years. Literally cat food and flea treatment, and cat litter occasionally as both went outside. Oh and a cat flap. Vet costs were £200 so worked out at £5 a year to each cat.

I probably spend 30 pound a month on food for both of them, as they have specific needs. Then insurance is 60 pound for both.

I would get a good quality cat scratching pole and plenty of toys. Dont waste your money on beds 😂.

Cats aren't cheap, but to me they're worth it. Go for a moggy, not a pedigree and adopt from a rescue. If it's your first time with a cat, I'd try to get one that's at least 12 months old - from a rescue, it will already be chipped and neutered and it should also still be very active and fun, but less chaotic than a kitten!

It can vary quite a bit depending on how much you want to spend on food and insurance. I got 2 kittens this year (both moggies from our local rescue). The initial cost was a cat tree. It was a nice one from Zooplus which I think was about £140. Then there were feeding bowls, litter trays, claw clippers, cat food, litter and toys.

Ongoing costs:
I buy them nice food, so mine get a mix of wet food from Untamed and dry food from Royal Canin. Ive started to add fish oil to their wet food. One bottle lasts more than a month. So monthly cost estimate is:

Insurance £36 (for both cats) I’ve insured them with a high level of cover of up to £20k per cat). Male cats cost a lot more to insure than female cats.
Wet food plus oil: £65
Dry food: £32 per bag
Healthy Pets Club: £32 (for both cats)
Cat litter - I use cheap wood pellets which are about £10 per bag. I probably get through 1 1/2 to 2 bags per month.

You could do it a LOT cheaper than I have. They can have cheaper food. I think the Sheeba Kitten wet pouches are about £5 for 12 pouches. And I think you can insure them for a lot less than I have.

I do get a multi pet discount on the wet food, insurance and healthy pet club.

Do you mean like the one on the ad below your post. I have done very well with nearly unused scratching posts at boot fairs or local Facebook groups. Boy cat loves them; girl cat - only the stair carpet will do.

Oh and just to say my kittens were only 12 weeks old when I got them. The rescue gave us a voucher which covered the cost of neutering. The rescues are often overrun with kittens, so don’t feel guilty if you want to get a little one.

I probably pay around £100 or more per month (altogether) for my 2 cats, but the food I buy is quite pricey and they are fussy.
Insurance costs around £35 for the two of them. They are 8 now. I don't allow the cost to keep creeping up every year if they don't have anything I need to continue cover for - I cancel and start again to get the cheaper price. They tried to significantly raise the cost after I claimed when my cat had a one-off injury by calling it a 'condition' - it was 6 years ago and no issues since.
When I go on holiday family members stay with them.
They have the odd trip to the vets which can be expensive as it usually comes out of the blue. Dental work is the most expensive as it often isn't covered on insurance. I had to pay £750 for one cat to have extractions.
They are lovely though and I wouldn't want to be without them.

I have two who cost me approx. £1500 a year for both. Not including care when I'm on holiday (£10-15 a day for both) and set up costs (probably around £200-250 plus vaccinations and adoption fees). The £1500 covers insurance, food, flea and worming treatments, litter.

We have 2 - don’t insure them. £35 for food a month. Odd bag of litter. Pay a friends teen to pop twice a day if we are away abs bond iv mine can feed then. They are telling you not to flea preventatively now, so we worm and do boosters.

I have two cats but when we had one it was £15 a month for vet plan including jabs and flea and worming prevention treatment, food probably a fiver every week or so. She has one pouch a day and some dry food. Then cat litter every month and some liners. Not much at all.

Oh and insurance £6 a month

That’s a really good idea about the insurance. I always though you had to stick or lose cover

Our cat (who we had to have put to sleep about 6 weeks ago) cost us about £110 per month in her latter years, not counting pet sitters when we were on holiday:

• £50 on insurance from age 15 (cheaper when she was younger). We went with Many Pets who offer free video consultations 24/7 which we found very helpful
• £30 on premium vet club which included boosters, flea and worm treatments, and free consultations
• £20 on food - Hills prescription diet, first for obesity when we rescued her and latterly for kidney issues. We've always just fed our cats a high quality complete dry food which, we're told, helped keep their teeth very healthy (and helped minimise dental treatment which can be expensive)
• £10 on good clumping litter (which changed my life 😃)