How much does your cat cost each month?

[Moaningturtle]

I am researching getting a cat. I’ve finally moved into my own home and can have pets again!

I've owned cats before, but in the early 2000s so need to do my research. My plan is to go on a waiting list at my local rescue and wait until a suitable cat is available, however long that takes.

Ideally a cat (or kitten) under 5 with no known health complaints. I have older children (9,12) a house with a small garden and live on a quiet estate. I know it might take a long time to match with a cat, but I’m fine with that!

So my question is, how much do you pay each month for your cat? Insurance, food, flea and worming treatment, litter, miscellaneous toys etc?

Any advice?!

No idea really, insurance is paid yearly, so don't have that each month and flea/worming stuff I bulk buy. Maybe £100/month altogether? including food, litter and cat stick things (food treats).

Probably average out just over £70 a month. It will go up as she is soon about to be 9 and her insurance is due. Last year's reminder told us it will go up in bigger amounts due to age .

Thank you, so far that’s within budget.

I forgot to ask about pet sitting/boarding if you want to go away?

I would say about £100 a month. Insurance is a lot because I went for the ultimate lifetime plan from PetPlan and our cat is 4, came from a rescue.

Litter and food are the main costs I guess, plus litter tray liners. Plus we are trialing different litters. And feliway.

I registered with 2 rescues, thinking it would be months and we had 2 offers within days so may not take as long as you think.

Not very much. She puts on weight easily and doesn’t exercise much so can’t have too much food. No special diets either (yet). I am thinking something like £30-40 a month including annual vet visit. That’s very rough.

We don’t insure her though. I will pay out of savings if and when needed and that is a very deliberate choice. I think I’d feel differently if I had a cat that was roaming about, but she’s inside over 90% of the time and in our back garden the rest. There have been extra vet visits over the years as a bully cat visits the garden to beat up our cat resulting in wounds that haven’t healed easily, however, so it’s not entirely danger-free!

Cat sitting is £15 a day (2 visits) or £9 for just a morning or evening feed. I hadn’t included this above as I consider it part of the holiday costs and it varies so much depending on the year.

We pay £30 for a bag of stupidly expensive what's wrong with lidl cat food that lasts 6 weeks. Not many other costs really, vaccinations every couple of years are £50, £5 every 3 months for worming. No idea on insurance as she's added to ddogs policy and they only added £7.50 a month to the stupid amount I already pay

About £10.00 a week on food, big sacks of purizon dry food from zooplus last ages and then a wet food twice a day.
No insurance here but savings in case needed.
Cat sitter/ feeder was 10.00 for. One visit or 15.00 for two visits when we went away for Weekend.
Cat flap was £180.00 which included fitting.

I haven't added it up but it's a lot.
There is insurance for the old cat which is about £50 a month now, the kitten is £20 a month.
Microchipping and annual vaccinations £70 each.
The old one needs a dental and thats going to cost £300 as it's not covered by insurance.
The older cat is on the prescription kidney diet as she has early kidney disease and that is around £30 a month/
Cat litter as they both stay in when I am at work and only go out when I'm home due to bully cat a few doors down is £13 a week.
6 monthly blood tests for old cat £100 a time.
Boarding in cattery when I go away is £9 per cat per day and I provide the food. Neither cat can be left for more than a day due to being too old and too young.
Then there are incidental expenses like toys, scratching posts, prescription flea treatments which are around £50 for 3 months per cat, any injury or medical needs below the insurance policy excess which is £100.
Its not cheap.
Cats have to be microchipped now before they are 20 weeks of age or they will incur a £500 fine.

Pouches from Sainsbury's or Tesco and biscuits from same. Left over chicken or ham as treats. Its almost negligible in the great scheme of things pretty much.
She doesn't seem to get fleas. The treatment runs out of date usually as I only treated her on the rare occasion when a person or dog she brings fleas in.
So again negligible.

Wet food - £15
Dry food - £25 (prescription diet)
Litter -£40
New collar £3
Vets bills inc. flea worming vaccinations £12

We don’t have insurance as Dcat got sick the day we brought him home and now has numerous exclusions so it’s better to pay out of savings.

Plus annual costs boarding at least twice a year (£110 per week) new scratch post and toys £50.

Plus new stairs carpet every could of years (knobhead)

For my two indoor Persians:

Insurance £137 monthly
Food £27 every three months
Vet plan £28 monthly
Litter approx £15 every month.

Maybe £30-50 a month for food. She has stomach cancer though so we also spend £54.00 every 2 months on her medicine. No insurance as we are lucky enough to be able to pay medical bills as they arise. She has not been in a cattery for ages but that was £7.50 a day. She is very fond of Aldi frozen scallops (defrosted and lightly poached) so i buy her a pack of that every week- another £5 I guess.

We have three cats, so the amounts are for all three of them.

Food - probably about £15 a week. They get a pouch of wet food each per day and unlimited access to dry. We get through about two boxes of Felix wet (£4 each) a week, and I biscuits in bulk online - about £20 for a big 8kg bag of urinary food as one of ours is prone to cystitis.

Insurance - £22-ish a month for all three with Tesco. We pay for the highest level of cover which is 15k per year lifetime.

Mine are indoor cats so we don't vaccinate. I buy worm stuff online but I'll be honest and say they're not treated on any kind of schedule and they've never been treated for fleas due to being indoors. The worming stuff probably costs £25 a year or something but if yours go out, you'll need to vaccinate annually and flea and worm monthly, so it will cost more.

Litter - we buy in bulk, Cats' Best from ZooPlus. A 40l bag costs just under £30 and lasts about 6-8 weeks in total.

I find them to be very cheap pets but they don't go out so I think the costs come down drastically if they're indoors as you don't need to worry about fights, parasites, injuries from being hit by cars etc.

Ten quid a month for wormer/ flea plus annual check up at the vet. Maybe an additional ten quid on food. He's a prolific hunter so barely needs feeding in the warmer months.

Not a lot really.
Litter is probably £20 monthly
Food (biscuits and tuna) another £20-30
His insurance is £32

He's an indoor cat, so I don't pay for vaccinations.
So all in all £100 would be the absolute max. The only time he costs more is if we have a vet visit, but again that's why we pay insurance, because it still doesn't cost us much (depending on what he's had, and treatments etc). I find cats to be one of the cheaper pets to have.

Yet again the Toddler Girls win the costliest cat competition. Good job they are worth every penny!

Wet and dry food - about £20ish? It is just standard on the online shop so I don’t think about it.
Insurance is £15 a month.
Rarely buy litter as she prefers to go in the garden, and only uses one of the trays in absolutely terrible weather.
Vaccinations/checkup around £50 each year.
Things like toys are very ad hoc - one of my friends knits little mice stuffed with catnip which she really likes, but we get those as gifts, and she goes through phases with other things. The last toy I bought was a flapping fish which it turns out she is terrified of!

Monthly costs for mine:
Insurance: £12
Pet Health Club: £12
Dry oral health food: £12
Litter: £10

I expect the insurance to rise with age in the future.

Also needed a couple of dentals over the last few years, which aren't covered by insurance and have been around the £400 mark each time.

Thank you all! Very useful

I need my kitty now!!

We got a 3 year old cat from a rescue. We only pay for food, and she's not a big eater. She's 13 now and has never been ill - so I'm glad we haven't paid for insurance.
You won't need litter if you let the cat go outside. We paid a lot to have a cat flap installed in a glass door, but it's so worth it.
We've never paid for boarding, because we tend to go on short holidays of a few days, and she's fine left at home on her own. On a few longer holidays, she's stayed with relatives quite happily. She's very easy and low maintenance.

50 quid a month incl vets payment plan, wormer and flea. Food and insurance.
Also a rescue.

Cost a fortune when we go away to a cattery though or if she gets ill.

£40

Oh I forgot- when IcedCat had her scans for her stomach cancer that was circa £600.

Food £15 a month
Pet plan £10 a month
Insurance £14 a month

Local teenager to feed her when we go away is £5 a day.