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 think the difference between my two is about £5 per month, so I guess it’s not hugely more expensive. I notice that someone mentioned that boy cats are more cuddly and friendly than girl cats. I have one of each. They are both lovely but I would actually say that the girl one is the friendlier of the two and definitely more cuddly. I only need to start smoothing her or approach her and she will start purring. The boy one was more cuddly when I first got him but less so now. He might be going through his teenage phase though!

I think it depends on the actual cat. I know people who have female cats that are very standoffish and shy.

Agree - Black Cats are ace
This is our boy , gracefully draped over the top level of the tower .

His sister is identical (but female , obvs )

My cat generally is about £700 per year . But factor in vet bills ( he is an old cat ) I could add on another £1000

I think this demonstrates why his insurance is over 50% higher

Nothing unsafe about lolling at the edge of a tower 5' off the ground and sleeping with my head down so all the blood rushes to my brain ...

Good job he's castrated . Shallow End of the Gene Pool this one !

😂😂

This is my boy giving film star vibes. Black cats are just so luxe 🖤

Good point about cats protection and getting the cat neutered, chipped and vaccinated upfront from them but you will have to pay their fee

i'm absolutely sick of paying for very expensive wet food that they just don’t eat. They can have what they want as long as they eat it - which they don’t which is extra annoying in this heat

I now feed them mainly dry purina and iams dry food which they head for before any occasional wet food they are given. They rarely get treats unless I’m trying to get them in at night or my mother is visiting

I would never scrimp on insurance it’s about £20 each a month. I could raise the cash myself but would hate to be in the position of having to pay £15k on the spot for treatment if anything happened

Oh and you'll need to get two, them the rules

My only tip is to think twice before getting a white cat. My neighbours white cat
kept getting skin cancer on her ears. She was really friendly and loved head rubs, but its surprisingly unpleasant to pet a cat thats had its ears removed.

Our last lovely cat was white. We used to put sunscreen on her ears for this reason which she didn’t love but tolerated. White cats are beautiful!

We used to put sunscreen on our white cats ears. We used to use a purple kids stick. Fortunately cats are colour blind 😂

They absolutely are very special. I fostered a litter with a white flame-point boy who I still miss years later. He was a tiny nutcase who tried to suckle my nose.

Our girl had to be pts last year with intestinal lymphoma - she was only ten and it honestly broke my heart. She was the most gentle, loving girl. We have a little orange (bonkers) boy now who's an absolute joy, but we miss her so much.

I’m so sorry 🤍

(I thought I couldn’t do it again, but then my current boy just turned up in a bit of a state so the decision was made for me.)

I've got two boy moggies who were free as kittens from a neighbour, but they're fairly cheap to keep on the whole. I know some people love their pedigrees but after years of getting expensive breeds with lots of hereditary health problems and quirks, I'd always get a bog standard moggie.

These are the costs for just one of them:

Neutering, microchipping, and first vet checkup - around £100.
Monthly vet plan (includes flea/worming and vaccinations) - £20 a month.
Pet insurance - £7.82 a month.
Wet food (I used to get some really posh stuff but it was very expensive. I found HiLife from Amazon is much cheaper and still has a pretty high meat content) - £0.65 a sachet, costs about £40 a month to give them two sachets a day.
Scrumbles dry food - £15-20 for a bag depending on the price in Pets at Home. Lasts about a month.
Cat litter - £15-20 for a big 5L bag which lasts a couple of weeks. Didn't have to buy this once they started going outside.

It's worth saying that we haven't had any big trips to the vets yet. The pet insurance covers quite a bit though, I strongly recommend getting your cat insured immediately just in case.

Cats can be a bit fussy with things too, so there's been quite a few wasted purchases, such as different collars which were pulled off and abandoned. We also bought AirTags for their collars but they didn't get used for very long because they couldn't hold onto a collar. Sometimes they don't like a particular food and you have to try something different, so there can be a bit of trial and error. A lot of cat owners will attest that you can buy them a fancy bed and they'd rather chill in the cardboard box it came in...

Whatever the cost, they're the best and have hugely added to our lives.

We have 6 cats. The initial outlay was the most expensive with the spaying/neutering etc. The neutering was £160 each for the males and spaying was a bit more for the females but I don’t recall the specific cost. We pay £18.99 a month each for the pet health club but this includes all initial vaccinations and boosters, regular flea and worm treatments, 6 monthly checkups and an ad hoc appointment in case of illness or injury.

We pay £70 every 6 weeks ish for 10kg of a good quality dry food online and spend £160 a month on pouches. They each have one in the morning and one in the evening and graze all day on the dry food. We bought 3 fountains that are placed around the house as running water encourages them to drink more, these were £15-20 each on Amazon. We spend about £30 a year on replacement filters for these.

We don’t buy insurance and just pay as necessary for anything they need but our oldest cat has recently started getting age related health issues and we spend £40 a month on his medication which he will have to take for life. Depending on how his condition develops we could end up spending considerably more monthly on meds.

Insurance though for young healthy cats is really low, when we first got our eldest two we paid about £6 a month each. It does increase with age and isn’t really worth it anymore for our olds and we can afford to pay outright now if they need anything, although when we got them 15 years ago we were in a different position and it was definitely worth it for the peace of mind and for instant treatment if/when needed.