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.

Mine’s expensive enough. I’m not in the UK so exact costs are not really relevant but taking everything into account: food, flea treatment monthly, worming every three months, annual vet check, cattery whenever we go away (probably twice a year) it all adds up. I looked into the cost of insurance and decided it wasn’t worth it. Have bought some things over the years like a scratching post and a carrier but these are only occasional/one-off costs.

My cat is 5 years old so not really had any major health issues yet like an older cat would. But she had to have surgery once after getting bitten and then it got infected. I also spent a fortune once on different treatments, medications and even a specialist appointment when she had a skin problem, none of it worked and just as I was about to say that I was out of money so we couldn’t try anything else, the problem resolved itself.

Mine is now 12
I don't insure
Flea when I remember
Yearly booster jabs
No boarding costs as she goes to family

She eats Hills 7+ dry food which I usually buy 10kg at a time so works out about £50 a bag but lasts her months. However in her old age she is looking quite thin (age related vet not concerned) so we've now started adding in a wet food. She's always stuck her nose up and refused so seems to be going well. I'm happy to spoil her though as she will be our last and she is quite easy to look after in all honesty.

No-one’s ever mentioned a microchip fee to me. He was chipped when we brought him home and the breeder transferred it to us, then we changed it at the vet’s when we moved house. He’s 9 now - I didn’t know it was a thing.

Kitten food helped my old boy a lot as it’s high calorie, he developed a love for a food that’s meant for mum and very tiny kittens when he lost his teeth!

Agree black cats are awesome. I don't have black cats now but they are good!
Worth considering cost of wet food particularly if getting a boy because of aforementioned urinary issues and because cats don't generally drink much. Mine do luckily although I also spent a load on a fountain which they approve of but cats get most of their fluid from food so wet food important particularly for boys. That said you can give wet food more cheaply than I do. I pay something like £50 a month for two of them. But they'd be just as happy with tesco/aldi own brand. It's not the same in terms of quality but they would be happy with it and fluid wise I'd guess it's no different. That would be more like £12 a month. Dry food is also cheap. Litter can be cheap, depends on rhe needs of the cat. Toys can definitely be cheap and things like FB marketplace, olio etc are really helpful.

What I pay is what's affordable to me. Plus they have me wrapped around their beautiful little paws. It's more than I'd planned but what they give me is immeasurably more than the financial outlay is worth to me.

My lovely late tortie point siamese girl Kona I adopted her from a cats protection shelter. I paid £80 this included her KC papers as she was a pedigree and micro chipping and vaccinations. She had been spayed by her previous owner prior to her going in the shelter.

I bought her sheba cat pate and i paid insurance with animal friends to cover vet bills and a emergency out of hours vet service. So around £16 a week.

Current cat £20 vet plan, £20 insurance, £30 food and litter. So £70 in a typical month.
£12 per day for a cat visitor when we go on holiday.

Our late elderly cat cost a bit more towards the end of her life as she had a couple of ongoing health conditions and then very expensive investigations (which ultimately led to her being PTS) I reckon we spent £3k on vet bills (she was insured so this was just the excess/ percentage/ excluded items) in 2 years. Hopefully you won't incur these costs or at least not for several years but bear in mind you can never guarantee a long and healthy life.

Ours is still quite young, so insurance is about £25 plus around £25 a month on food. Add in flea/worming plan, cat litter, plus the odd toy, and it’s probably around £60/month all in. But we could get slightly cheaper food and litter to be honest.

Ah thanks for the recommendation, didn't think of that. I wonder if it would be too rich though? Some flavours I've tried even within the same brand she brings back up. She's ended up on a mousse type of feed and can seem to tolerate the tuna fine but kept bringing the chicken flavour up. She's only getting one sachet a day as it's quite expensive and she meows all day for more but happily eats the dry stuff when she realises she isn't getting more wet food. She looks to be filling out around her face, the rest of her needs to catch up haha

The day to day costs are around £100 a month for food-she eats Pets at Home premium wet food and Purina One dry food. I used to give her Felix but she would leave quite a bit of it, and much prefers the nicer stuff. £8 a month cat insurance, £10 cat litter, £45 every three months for the flea and worm stuff that actually works. She recently had an operation that was about £1.6k which I claimed back through the insurance but I had to pay upfront. She’s only about 18 months old but got caught by a car.

I’m going to go against the grain, and say that I got a girl as they are much less likely to pee on furniture and carpets etc, as they don’t tend to mark their territory. I spent a fortune on a boy cat trying to both clean and prevent the peeing, which stank and ruined soft furnishings like no other.

Liquivite is good stuff for older cats:

www.liquivite.co.uk/

You can also order it from VioVet and Pet Drugs Online etc.

I Have always had rescue Persians. They are very expensive little beasts. My five year olds insurance premi has just skyrocketed by £400 a year. So now £58 a month. Plus £15 for vet plan. She also has a savings Account. Probably £30 a month for food and litter.

Our orange boy is two and costs are:

Insurance - I think it’s about £15
Food - he has Sheba wet and Royal Canin dry. The RC is about £25 a bag which lasts six weeks or so. He prefers cheap GoCat tbh
Flea and work - £60 every three months via our vet
Annual booster and health check - I think this was £60 this year but it was back in March and I really can’t remember
Litter - averages a bag of catsan a week, around £7

He also gets “snacks” which depend on what we pick up but usually Lick-e-Lix, and he’s currently in thrall to Bonkers chicken lollipops. Loves toys, and has a basket of them.

Our previous lovely girl had much lower running costs - didn’t use the litter tray (this boy comes in to do the toilet and goes back out) and wasn’t fussy about food. We did spend over £3k on tests last year to have her diagnosed with cancer aged ten, then pts, private cremation/urn though. Our insurance were great but it’s worth bearing in mind that you might need to pay upfront and claim back. The excess gets higher (or did in our case) the older the cat is.

We are possibly unusual but both our cats have slept in actual cat beds which get replaced sporadically but don’t cost much. We have three identical furry donut beds in different rooms that he sleeps in, plus a big ugly cat tree in the kitchen with a bed “floor” on it. He does also like his Amazon box on top of the fridge though!

Our cat was pretty cheap until the last couple of years of her life (she lived to a ripe old age) when she got very expensive so make sure you factor in that / save for it.

The last couple of years was prob £50 a month food, £25 a month litter, £150 a month vet meds costs (not covered by insurance) and £40 grooming costs as she stopped grooming herself and got easily matted.

cats are brilliant, they don’t bark and they shit where they’re supposed to. I keep dry food topped up and available constantly, and they get 2 pouches twice a day, they’re on Sheba atm. The only thing I will add to everybody else’s advice is you may not have that much choice over the food your cat will eat. They can be very fussy , don’t buy big boxes of cat food until you know they reliably like it. We also have a cat flap which will only allow our cats in ( you programme the cat flap and then hold your struggling angry cat under it for 30 seconds until their chip has been recognised. ) We have it so only our cats can get in but anything can get out . We also don’t leave water out for them as they never drink it. They will only drink out of our unattended glssses.

£30 insurance pm
£55 in food pm
£14 cat litter pm
£14 vet plan

If there’s one thing I’d say, never scrimp on insurance - I also learnt quickly £4k max claim on insurance is not enough for a sick cat and paying into a bank account monthly wouldn’t touch the sides unless you are vet free for many years

We adopted a cat when she was 9. The cost for insurance was £18 per month plus flea treatment at £15 per month. Before she died at 14 the insurance premiums went to almost £80 per month plus thyroid medication. We had made lots of claims and fortunately they always paid out. Food is variable and depends on cat. It’s pot luck I think

For each cat we spend £100 a year on Nexgard. It’s a prescription only flea/ worm treatment but does both with one pipette.

Annual booster is about £70. Then food which is down to you what you buy and how much you spend.

We don’t have pet insurance for our cats, but there’s a risk of high vets bills whatever pet you have .

£65 a month for insurance and vet plan
Probably £10 a week on food - but he is spoilt and has hollow legs!
Previous cats were less than £5 a week on cat food
I do bulk buy and look for offers
Worth every penny

Let me recommend Nexgard to everyone. It’s prescription only, there are some vets that will sell it. Most online vets do it and you need to shop around for the cheapest deals. But use a trusted online vet company.
It does everything in one pipette, once a month in the neck. Seems to kill everything quickly.

Works out about £100 for 12 months worth if you shop around for it. I’d never use anything else.

Biggest expense was restricting our house-buying choices to houses on very quiet roads, not near any big roads. As my cats are very stupid. Like to lie around on the road.

But I love them more than any money.

About- £20-25 a month in food, £15 in litter per month (I use cheapest Tesco one about £2.19 a bag it really doesn't make a difference as long as you clean it regularly), £18 per month for pet insurance (Mines elderly it used to be half that when I first got her when she was 2) and £30 every 3 months for monthly Flea and worming. Not that expensive really in monthy costs.

Just to add to my post from a few days ago OP. You need to bear in mind the cost of any vet’s bills that come under your insurance excess. I had to take my smallest kitten to the vet recently. My insurance excess is £250. So as the cost was lower than this and not enough to warrant claiming on the insurance, I still had to fork out £53 for the cost of the consultation and for some medication. All because she has had a bit of on off diarrhoea over the last few day. They are worth it though and I have no regrets getting them whatsoever.

I think I probably pay about £15 per month for food. We got her vaccinated when she was a kitten but not again. We got her spayed but I can’t remember the cost. And it never occurred to me to have her insured.