Average cost of a cat per month

[Thirtyrock39]

Hello we are currently looking after my parents cat as they had a break in their property chain and have to live in a hotel for a month and it has made me and the kids desperate to adopt a cat of our own . Dh is a tad reluctant and his main arguments against are not being able to go away (we rarely do and live next door to a pet sitter) and the cost . I have calculated it'll cost no more than £50 per month averaging out insurance, vet bills, cat food, litter etc... yet some websites say it's about a grand a year - what's a realistic budget? I would want to buy the good quality food and hope to get an outdoorsy older cat so hoping won't need gazillions of toys (dh has included £10 per month of toys in his budget!?)

I’ve got four (initial male cat was a female pregnant cat ) and it’s £14 per month insurance and about £30 per month food. Biggest expense was at the beginning with spaying etc. Ongoing costs other than holiday care are cheaper than the dog.

You don’t need toys !

Insurance - 10
Flea and worm treatment, inc annual boosters - 10
Food - 15 - 18

It's worth it! I have a neighbour kid who feeds him for £2 a feed when we go away so a week would cost £28. A bargain

£10 toys per month?

I know re the toys!! I said that the garden will have all the toys the cat needs! Good to know I'm about right re insurance and vets bills hoping the cat would be neutered chipped etc already if adopt a mature cat from a rescue place

We spend about €20 a month on litter and food for our two. The vet is about €80 a year on average for routine maintenance. There's no point buying them toys, cats never use things you've bought for them. They sleep on your bed and play with small pieces of paper and the rings off milk bottles. And mint Viscount wrappers.

Food- £30 ish a month she is a spoiled fussy cat with allergies.

Flea treatment- £25 a year, we only treat her in the summer months and have never found any on her. Vet is keen we do it though, because of her overgrooming.

Boosters- £35 a year

Insurance- £11 a month

Cat litter- £4 a month, she mostly goes outside.

Toys budget is vanishingly small- equipment wise she has a couple of scratching posts, some blankets, a plastic bed, litter tray, dishes, travel box and a catflap. The catflap was pretty pricey, but worth it for keeping stray moggies out.
I suppose these things add up but much of it is 10+years old.

She is definitely worth it.

Of course a cat needs toys, I would also advise to buy a really nice decent scratching post and bed when you get cat, scratching post and beds can last over 2 years if they are of good quality. But yes sometimes even less than £50 a month.

A good website for food and accessories is Zooplus and make sure insurance is all inclusive which wont cost you too much. We used Compare the Market to find a good insurer.

Another Thing is my cats don't use a litter tray they just go outside so you may save some money there too.

Colin costs me a FORTUNE but he is worth it.
£22 insurance per month
£13 flea and worming treatment per month
£60-70 food per month (he has fancy stuff!)

He’s worth it though 😻

Also OP Pets at Home does a thing where they post your flea treatment to you monthly and you pay by directdebit £4 a month. And do not forget to worm too Panacur is good and you can buy the paste in a syringe for £7 at PAH and it has 3 doses in it also you can buy Advantage online from places like Viovet for £11 and it has 4 pipettes in it.

Mine do occasionally play with toys - fishing pole type ones like Da Bird are their favorites especially if there's feathers involved, followed by a laser pointer. However the laser costs about a fiver and the batteries are cheapo button ones that last ages, and once you have the fishing pole it last for ages. Maybe the odd kicker type toy or mouse they can throw about, but again one off purchases (got a bag of 10 mini mice for about £5 off Amazon).

Insurance about £15 per month per cats, food hard to calculate because I get it in bulk from Zooplus, food (including treats) probably £15-20 per week for the 2 of them. Annual MoT, jabs etc around £60 per cat which includes Advocate for fleas and worms - mine are indoor so only get that annually unless there's a suspicion of anything going on.

I rarely think about the cost, because the blissful snuggles on the bed with Boycat and the cute cries for attention from Girlcat are priceless

Also a rescue cat would have been neutered, microchipped and had its vaccinations so you will just have to do the yearly booster. :)

50 absolutely maximum.

Though don't forget part of your soul also 😁. My cat is due boosters today. Appointment is at 10, so I let him out when he 'suggest' I should (at 5am 😐) and I've kept him in (so he's actually here when I need to go) since he come back in for breakfast. I am offically the most wicked and evil person alive I have no soul, if how he's looking at me is anything to go by.

A cat who goes outside at will doesn't need toys.

PP-
How much does the labour costs of cleaning your cats shit from other people’s properties cost?

git tae fuck

I have one 6 year old rescue boy and £50 pcm sounds about right. I spend:
£30 pm on food ( bulk buy sachets from amazon)
£10 pm on litter (30l wooden pellets from amazon)
£6 on insurance (animal friebds)
£5 approx on treats and toys from pound shop. He loves little toy mice to throw around but looses them a lot.
I also invested in a large scratching post which set me back about £60, litter tray at £10 and a cat carrier which was £20. I would recommend buying both as he scratches it often despite being an outdoor cat so I reckon it's saved my sofa and obv a carrier and tray is needed x

@DC06 look at Zooplus a lot cheaper and the same food if not better from Zooplus also I buy my woodpellet from B&M 30ltr is £5.97.

I'm pretty sure mine cost about £80-100 per month each.

Senior girl costs the most as her pet insurance is now around £30 a month (she's 17), and she eats special food and gets through lots of litter as she has kidney disease and pees a lot...

If you use the good quality wet foods (Thrive, Almo Nature, Nature's Menu etc.) it's easy to end up spending £2 a day just on that.

A cat can be very cheap. Get a rescue one, so just the £60 donation to cover spaying, chipping and immunisation.
Food is about £40 a month, to cover wet and dry food plus the odd bag of treats. During the field mouse season in the autumn, the cat may be too stuffed from hunting to want her dinner at all!
Use the garden for toileting, so no litter tray costs.
A scratching post can be restrung with coarse string from a hardware store after the cat has shredded the original. They last for months anyway if she can scratch outdoors.
I’ve had cats for the past 40 years and never paid for insurance. I’ve had healthy non pedigree moggies, and the vet has never cost more than £30 a year for immunisation boosters. My previous cat lived to the ripe old age of 21.
I’ve never found a flea on my cats, don’t use insecticide and only worm them once a year.
The cattery is about £70 a week for holidays, but you could probably find a neighbour or teenager who’d do it for less.

I've just got two little chaps, who luckily were neutered, vaccinated, flea and worm treated last month, so don't know too much about current costs.

The vet I intend to use charges £30 for an appointment and £70 to include a health check for vaccinations. You can't not buy a few toys, but don't spend loads, the two things my two like most are ping pong balls (get 10-12 as they get under everything) and old shoe laces. You can buy things like bedding, but they'll be more than happy with a chair or your bed (if they're allowed)

I've just got them on Felix pouches for now, they're eating 7 a day (12 cost £3) and a little dry. They're five months, so they're food consumption will go down as they get older.

We didn't have cat insurance with our previous two, but just put something aside each month, we still have £2500 in the pot which will be there for the newbies, which will be added to each month. Obviously you'd have to make the call whether to have insurance or pay as and when.

If you can afford it and would enjoy the company and fun, tell your husband they are so worth it!! Also, it helps teach the kids that animals need to be treated well and look after, but also will hopefully build up their confidence with them.

@Beaverhausen
Thank you for the tip x

2 persian house cats.
Insurance £52 a month. (Worth every penny, they've run up £15,000 vets bills in less than two years. )

12kg bag of food lasts about 3-4 months and costs £50 ish

Litter £15 a bag and lasts about 6 weeks.

Health plan at the vet £20 per month for both.

@DC06 you are welcome they also deliver within 3 days and you get bonus points which you can use to buy toys etc or donate towards charities