Monthly costs of owning a cat?

[jobnockey]

Just that really. We’re definitely set on getting a rescue cat or kitten soon but just wondering roughly how much money we’ll spend each month . For food mainly, but also anything else I haven’t thought of! Have looked at pet insurance so I have an idea of that but would be interesting to hear what other people pay.

Also considering 1 vs 2 cats and DP is against 2 based on additional costs so will be good to give him some figures!
Thanks!

We have two & except for the one off costs of cat tree, scratch post and litter trays, our regular costs are:

Wet food: bought in bulk every 2 months £60
Dry food: bought in bulk every 3 months £20
Cat litter: £40 every 3 months
Vet/vaccinations: £200 per year

We don’t have insurance because we have significant savings and would prefer to just pay when/if we need to.

I have four cats but will try to work out cost per cat. Our fixed costs are:

Insurance approx £15 per cat (after multicat discount)
Vet's health care plan (includes flea & worming treatments and annual vaccination/health check) £13.50 per cat
Litter approx £12 per cat

Food and treats I think come to about £30 per cat each month but we do buy some of the most expensive brands (feeding the cats the best is one of the few things in life I spend a lot on!).

Other things you might need to budget for are a cat sitter or cattery costs for your holidays. They are usually around £10-20 per day so not lots...

And obviously initial costs like buying cat furniture (scratching posts/cat towers), cat carriers, litter trays, toys, bowls, and getting a catflap fitted if you plan to have one.

I have a one-year-old outdoor cat, re-homed from Cats Protection in March. Had bed, scratch post, litter tray etc from previous cat who sadly died of age related illness in February. I’d allow £50-100 for all that otherwise.

Wet Food (Co-op cans) £10/month
Dry Food (Burns) £19 on auto order every 10 weeks
Vet cover for vaccinations, worming and flea treatment, 6 monthly checks - £15.99/month
Insurance (Pet Plan) - £17/month (£85 yearly excess per condition claimed for)

Insurance is cheap just now because he is young. Old cat’s had risen to £50 a month with an excess fee of £125 fixed and 20% of final bill by the time he was 15. They did pay out around £3000, with no quibbles, in his final few months though and the fact I could do a direct claim through vet meant I felt free to choose the treatment plan I wanted for him not just what I could afford.

This is all really helpful, thanks! Can I just also ask if there’s a financial benefit to doing The ‘petplan’ thing for vaccinations etc? Do you save on this rather than just paying for it as and when?

No pet plan, sorry I meant the vet cover... for routine stuff...

Currently (but bearing in mind she's 18 and has a lot of special needs) £13 a week for cat litter
£15 a week for food as she can only eat certain types of specialist food £15 a month for annual vaccinations, flea and worming treatment and 6 monthly checks, this is a vet scheme it also gives you a big discount of prescriptions and food
£50 a month for health insurance - I have run up almost £8,000 on specialist treatment which is why the monthly insurance payment is so high
Sundries - toys, grooming products, other needs £10 a month

Total:£187 a month.

Obviously a kitten will cost a lot less but you could be paying this for an old cat with health problems.They can live into their 20's.

Oh yes and because she is over 10 it's £100 excess for each new condition claimed for so you can add £500 for excess I have paid.
I've had 5 other cats over the years and this has been the most expensive one.

Just chipping in I have a 2 yr old who this year was diagnosed with non regenerative anaemia (the weight just fell off him it was horrid he looked skeletal withing a few months)I had to shell out for blood transfusions and all sorts of tests, I claimed some of it back but it was a 4 figure sum, which took some doing as I don't have that kind of money.
He's now on steroids, likely forever but they cost about £6 a month and he's doing well enough.
I've had cats and dogs from infancy till death and this is the only young pet I've had to shell out that kind of money for. Insurance is important

Our regular costs per cat:

£12/month insurance (2 yr old neutered male cat, no previous claims)
£13.49/month Healthy Pet Club. This covers all annual vaccines, working and flea treatments (and worked out cheaper than paying for these on an ad-hoc basis)
£10/month dry cat food (James Wellbeloved)
£2/month tinned cat food (Sainsbury's own brand)

Our cats don't use litter trays, but as kittens we spent around £10/month on cat litter (2 kittens)

If you go on holiday, don't forget cost of cattery / pet-sitter.

Vets bills. Big ones will be covered by insurance but minor injuries / illnesses may not be worth claiming for (our excess is £60) but you're still looking at paying at least £40 per visit. DCat cut her paw and it cost £110 for antibiotics and two or three checkups.

For a new kitten - spaying / neutering and microchipping. If getting a rescue kitten, the rescue may cover these costs.

Do you save on this rather than just paying for it as and when?

For cats who go outdoors and need flea-ing & worming monthly there's a decent saving on this usually. Good quality prescription flea and worm treatment isn't cheap - advocate for example is well over a tenner on line & you need to get a prescription first which costs as well. My vet's health plan covers 6 monthly checkups as well as the monthly treatments and annual vaccinations, plus a 15% discount off the food they sell and all treatment including dental.

As mine are indoor cats they only need an annual checkup, their vaccinations & I give them an annual spot on for fleas & worms in case I've brought anything in so it isn't worth it for me, but if they were outdoor cats there's definitely a saving.

My costs are
Bravecto for fleas which lasts 3 months
A wormer
Mine needs a steroid jab every 3 months
I do the above all at one time at the vet and it comes to around £45 but £27 of that is the steroid!
Wet food - don't ask, he eats like he's bulking, and I give him as much as he wants because he needs the weight on
Dry food - I feed crave or applaws
Try and go for high meat content grain free food as it is better for them, and wet food especially if a male cat (you don't want urine issues)
Cat litter
Keep an eye out for offers on zooplus as they often have buy one get one half price on food or special cat litter offers
I've just done an offer with blink which was a trial pack for £1 and then a months worth of wet food for £15 (can cancel subscription after that)

Oh and get a pets at home card as they send vouchers too

I have one cat, a male.

General weekly/monthly costs are:

Wet food £3 a week (whiskas pouches)

A couple of cans of tuna for a treat £2 a week

A box of go cat biscuits £2 a week

Dreamies/felix treats £2 a week

Pet insurance £12 a month

Flea and worming treatments around £30 every 3 months

Toys, new scratch post each year maybe £40

Annual booster £35 a year

When we first got him, we had to get him a full set of jabs, a health check and neutered (he was 10 months old when we got him) and that was £120. Also a cat box

He is an outdoor cat as in he goes outdoors but not heaps, just for the toilet and if it's a nice day so we don't have litter or anything to buy. He had to stay indoors at first as he was rehomed from a horrible home and we did need a tray and litter then but once he was going outside, the litter tray went. We have a litter tray, litter and a scoop away in a cupboard if he ever needs it when he's ill for example or needs kept indoors for whatever reason

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful. It definitely seems affordable for us which is great. Off to meet a 4 year old ginger boy tomorrow, hope he likes us!

Re insurance, make sure you choose carefully. Lifetime cover is more expensive than basic but better.

We don't have lifetime cover so each ailment is only covered for a year so we are in the fun position of having one condition no longer covered and another condition about to not be covered. I did not consider this carefully when we first got her. She now has a third condition so here we go again. But she's 14 and cats are prone to certain things as they get older.

I hope he likes you, cat ownership is on the whole-fantastic.

Hope your visit with ginger cat went well.

Monthly vet cover suits me as spreads the cost of vaccination. I also like knowing I am getting good quality worming and flea treatments and veterinary advice with it if required. It does work out a bit cheaper too.

As pp have said if taking out insurance make sure you get lifetime insurance cover. My dog has serious allergies and pet plan were paying out £100-300 most months for his first three years while we got it under control.

Hope your visit goes well tomorrow, just realised it wasn’t today.

He’s home with us! Currently hiding under the bed so we’re leaving him to it for a bit. He’s got all his things he needs in the room with him. Hard being patient though, we just want him to come out and hang out with us!

we were our cats 3rd home and we gave her some space and let her stay in a room by herself but by the 3rd day she was playing with us quite happily, give him time he'll come to you :)

Our cat who is 20 - food approx £15 a month, litter approx £12 per month. Flea treatment don't know as dh buys it but otherwise she is very cheap to run.

Enjoy your ginger boy

We are very glad our cat is insured - we pay about £13.50 a month and she had an incident with a car last month which has cost more than £7,000. She made a mess of one ankle and dislocated her hip. We do not have that amount of savings so if we hadn’t been insured we would have been in a difficult situation.

Wow your cats are expensive, my 20kg dog doesn't cost that much - Aldi wet food, burns dry food and £12 a month for the vet plan. Insurance is a killer when they get older but it's worth negotiating, got a £15 a month discount by asking this year

Depends on the cat. For comparison, dcat 2 ex feral is insanely cheap to keep.

About £4 a week in food as she prefers supplementing it with fresh food.
£7 insurance a month, only time she's seen a vet is vacs.
Has only needed flea treatment twice in a decade.
Uses any old litter when she's in overnight.

Cat 3, ancient ex stray.
About £10 a week in food
Up until a year ago when he slowed down on the fights, at least £100 a month in vet bills.
About £5 a week on litter. He'll only use compost in a flat planter, with a bottom layer of gravel to help it drain. Uses outside a lot too or that cost would double.
Tendency to fleas and on meds for arthritis, don't particularly want to know exactly how much of the prescription costs are his.
At least £10 a week for damages. Eg he decided last week my new sheepskin numnah was his bed. It's never going to recover, and anyway at his age after a rough life I haven't got the heart to stop him.

Cat 1, similar to pps.

In short, cat 2 is the same budget as a couple of Starbucks. Cat 3 costs significantly more than one of the ponies.

Thanks everyone for your responses, cat came with 4 weeks insurance so have a bit of time to find another plan. Next question is good: what? So many choices! When I had cats as a kid they just got whiskas or go-cat that was about it! I am now led to believe that is the equivalent of McDonald’s for cats. The New cat has come equipped with felix pouches and whiskas dry food as that’s what he’s used to. So do I try and change what he eats? What to? How? Should I start a new thread? So many questions!

Good= food