What would it cost to own four cats?

[Isheabastard]

Im getting divorced after a very long marriage.

Ive had cats in the past, but my last boy died 2020.

Ive always wanted to have at least 4 cats, now I can.

Ideally they would be rescue cats, possibly the much older cats that no one else wants. I realise 4 cats getting on is not a given and I would work with the rescue on this.

But I know vet bills and insurance have gone up drastically. Can anyone give me ball park figures on this, and perhaps cost of special diets. Or would rescue charities let me do long term fostering?

I am fully expecting to become a cat lady stereotype.

We don't insure our 3. We put money in a "cat account" every month. If we're lucky and they never use it, the money is still ours. Ours aren't 2 yet so fingers crossed we'll have time to save a good bit before we need it.

Insurance is a scam. My friends cat had thyroid issues and cancer and the insurers told her after 3 months that they'd paid out enough and she was on her own. She'd paid £20 a month for 18 years. I make that £4320 she'd paid in, but they cut her off at £2.5k.

Put money aside yourself.

Per cat

cat carriers: ask around if anyone has some they just want to give away, or you can buy for cheap on ebay, etc.

house damage, kiss your nice carpets good bye...

£3-£10/week to feed
£5/month for flea stuff (shop around!)
£12+ for insurance (hard to get value out of that, if you have savings, it's more cost effective to just set aside £12/month each for unexpected medical bills).
£70 in my area for jab & checkup, every 14-15 months; £140 for baseline jabs if they are long overdue.

That's before they have any medical problems, like grass seeds in eyes, kidney failure, etc.

@Baldieheid insurance isn't a scam. My cat was 5 when he developed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy before he died. In 4 months from diagnosis to death his treatment cost nearly £4000 which was the yearly insurance limit. if he had lived longer I would have had to find the money from somewhere.

From when I had him as a 3 month old kitten I'd paid about £800 to the insurance company. I didn't have savings to treat him and I wouldn't have had the precious time with him that I did if it wasn't for insurance.

As a result my current cat has a £7,000 yearly insurance limit. Luckily I now have more than that in savings but why should I dip into them when insurance is available?

We have four. Food is expensive because they only like Felix pouches and refuse everything else. They have at least three a day each so it works out at nearly £30 a week in cat food for all of them. We also get insurance for them. I can't tell you how much that is as husband deals. Jabs once a year are nearly £100 each (I think £80) plus any treatment etc they need. We don't worm and flea as regularly as we should but you should add that in too.

It's pretty expensive tbh.

I'm very happy to hear insurance is working for some of us. Genuinely happy.

I have a different experience.

I have three older cats, two with long term conditions. Their regular medication adds up, probably £80 pcm. Also their checkups and tests cost. And omg the price of the massive investigations the vets want to do every now and then. Anything up to £2000 at a time. I am lucky as myself and partner earn good salaries.
When we had an older cat before we had the same issue as she developed old age conditions and eventually cancer.
I think you should go ahead with your plan, as I think it will bring joy to you and the cats.
Do start saving and expect regular monthly costs as well as occasional eye watering ones.
I never got insurance partly because of the expense and partly because my cats had pre existing conditions. By the way one cat is totally healthy but incredibly accident prone!
The vet bills make me appreciate the NHS every time I pay up!

Mine costs me around £100 a month but she has a medical condition. I’m lucky that my neighbour looks after her if I go away, otherwise that would potentially be another cost

Baldiehead, it sounds like your friend had taken out a policy that only insures up to a certain amount per condition. You have to shop around. I always go for the Lifetime policies. My last one was with Agria for £7000 a year and this limit renews every policy year. Yes, it was expensive (£60 per month for my elderly kitty) but when I needed it, I actually got out more than I had put in

I have five cats. I budget £50 per week for everything. I don’t have insurance - prefer to bank the money instead. My only extras cost were a large catio, as they are indoor cats and three large indoor cat trees, total extra cost of £1,300. (But are optional!)

I wouldn’t insure as someone else said save instead

Thanks for sharing that. That may be what happened then. She lost her cat over 2 years ago and is still paying off her credit card bill ran up over 2 years of diff treatments. I'll look for myself too.

You could put the equivalent of the insurance premiums into Premium Bonds - money is always there, easy to withdraw and you just might win.

The golden rule to costing how much a pet will cost you is that there is not one. I have had dogs all my life, one lived until 12 and was as healthy as anything, so just annual checks and vaccinations. Another was diagnosed with epilepsy at age of 4 and was on medication until he died at 8. Another was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer at 3 and died around 6 months later. My current dog is 10 years old as is also very healthy - just requiring annual checks. Long may she remain that way.

The biggest cost has always been kennel cost for when we are away - the cost of four cats in a cattery would be very high. Long term fostering could be a good thing to look into.

I would start with one and see how you get on. They are expensive. Food, flea treatments, possible medical needs. And depending on the cat, exhausting!

My dd and I got rescues at almost the same time last year , at one time she was going to take both of them and is now so pleased she didn’t, hers is a poppet, but a bit of an undemanding couch potato which is lucky as she wfh a lot, mine is a poppet too but but is also very full on, demanding, playful,fast, adventurous , active and loud . I love him to bits but he is quite hard work.

I have 3, and feed 2 local strays so, I equate this to 4 cats 😁. I buy supermarket brand wet food and whiskers biscuits, so the cheap stuff basically. I also buy the supermarket value cat litter. I'd say I spend £100 a month on food and litter. If you were to go with expensive brands you could double this easily. I only insure one of them, the others are too old for it to be viable, this is £7 a month. I buy flea treatment each month from an online vet which works out about £10 a month for my 3.

Insurance is not a scam. Mine have run up bills of £23k. Tesco have met every claim without fuss.

Cats will cost you an arm, a leg and your soul. At a bare minimum. That's not pro rata.

Like PPs, I got very good value from insurance with our old boy. So far, with 2 5yo, we're just giving them money every month, but after what the last one cost the insurers, we're probably still quids in. Ours are on a monthly payment at the vet which gives us flea and worm treatments, 2 check ups a year, neutering and their annual vaccinations for free, and money off other meds or appointments. I can't imagine it costs less, but it does spread the cost.

Mine are costing me a new stair carpet right at this very moment. They've already destroyed the curtains, so now it's the carpet....

I have four cats. Felix pouches (8-12 a day) works out at approximately £100/month (Costco prices). Litter approximately £40/month. Additional dry food/Dreamies c. £40/month
We don't insure them and only flea / worm as necessary. Bizarrely they have all been completely flea free since the first Covid lockdown, despite being outdoor cats.
Annual MOT/jabs at the vet now about £70 per cat.(so c £25 per month for the four).
So roughly £200 per month plus any extra vet bills.

Thankyou so much for all the replies. I’m just filling my face with chocolate and am checking the maths in my budget.

I also absolutely recommend getting insurance. We’re on Petplan covered for life and it’s been amazing. Our very beloved older cat has an extremely rare spinal condition. We thought it was arthritis, then our vet sent us to the specialist vet hospital in Winchester. Petplan paid out the max for the year (£4K). Without it we would have thought he had spinal cancer and he would have to have been PTS. As it is we don’t know how long we have with him, but his current gabapentin and steroids twice daily has given us so many more months with him (thus far) and may even be more years.
And that 4K limit renews again come the end of the policy year. Having done the maths, we haven’t even put in that in premiums even with him being an older gent.

We have four cats. We pay around £400 a month for food, insurance, vet health care club (vaccinations, flea and working, claw clipping etc), litter and meds for the oldest.

I have 5, madwoman that I am and the are always hungry, very fussy so only like certain foods and Cat litter for 4/5 needs changing a lot you can buy in bulk though but it’s hard work at times keeping up - I’ve insured younger cats my old girl is too expensive so will cross that bridge if she ever becomes unwell. Just insure as soon as you get them. Personally I’d just have 2/3 max love all mine but it’s expensive now

I have 2 cats, one of them a real nasty bastard that we inherited that my kids are almost unhealthily attached to (otherwise I would be rehoming it)

Since Christmas one has cost me nearly £2k in vets bills (plus about the same last year), I've also had to replace the mattress due to the other wee-ing on it and not being able to get the smell out. A fortune in rug doctor hire, a new vax and I've got a chap coming on Tues to measure up for new carpets in 4 rooms. If they weren't piss-stained they've been scratched to fuck.

The sofa is a disgrace having been similarly scratched but I just can't afford to replace it.

I pay 10 quid a week for food, £15 each a month for vet programme for vaccines, dental and health checks.

Quite a few rescues do long term fostering for old and ill cats if you take them to their in house vet for treatment. Like Celia Hammond.

Insurance isn't a scam 😣 you just need to make sure enough is covered. I've racked up over 5k in bills over the last 18 months and haven't paid anywhere near that amount. I got 15k per year cover and unlimited claims. It's now £50 a month but definitely worth it.