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Cost of keeping a cat?
qwertyuiop12345
Posts: 603 Forumite
Hi, For quite a while I have been thinking of getting a cat and I know someone who's cat is currently pregnant, so I will have the option of getting a kitten around May.
I have been trying to work out whether I can definitely afford to have a cat in the long term. Could anyone who has a cat please give me an idea of the weekly costs for food, cat litter etc. and other things like vet bills and insurance?
Thank you
I have been trying to work out whether I can definitely afford to have a cat in the long term. Could anyone who has a cat please give me an idea of the weekly costs for food, cat litter etc. and other things like vet bills and insurance?
Thank you
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Comments
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qwertyuiop12345 wrote: »Hi, For quite a while I have been thinking of getting a cat and I know someone who's cat is currently pregnant, so I will have the option of getting a kitten around May.
I have been trying to work out whether I can definitely afford to have a cat in the long term. Could anyone who has a cat please give me an idea of the weekly costs for food, cat litter etc. and other things like vet bills and insurance?
Thank you
Hiya, well done for asking before buying! Cats can be as cheap or as expensive as you want them to be, so it's nice to see someone who's prepared to look after them properly! Ok some idea of costs:
* Worming 4x a year @ £6.80 (Buy online & no charge for P+P, £3.40 per 2 pack)
* Flea treatment x 12, once a month @ £33.98 (Again buy online with free P&P)
* Vaccination booster once a year, up to £45.00 depending if you have the FeLV vaccination done & on the area you live in, I pay no more than £45.00 for the lot, Flu/Enteritis & FeLV
* Insurance you can pay either monthly or yearly & can be anything from £5.00 a month up, for a good policy it'd be maybe £8-£10.00 a month.
* Neutering, a one off charge which you can also get vouchers towards, can be from £20.00 for a male up to £100.00 for a female, again depending on area, it's always worth calling around as even vets 3 miles apart can have hugely different prices for the same thing.
* Microchip, a one off charge of about £10.00-£25.00
Food - You can buy a bag of premium food for about £10 which should last a month, if you feed wet it will cost more, the premium works out at less as it's more filling & better for them so they eat less per meal. If you do get wet, but cans as they're cheaper than trays or pouches. My Cat is about £30 a month, but you can easily do it for about £10-£15.
Cat litter idk as mine goes out & won't use a tray unless she has to!
Vet bills, even with Insurance many/most Vets won't claim direct so you need to pay up front, plus often the Vet bill is under the amount of the excess, so you can't claim. For a basic consultation + medication such as Antibiotics or Painkillers, maybe £25-£50 a time, hopefully you won't need to go lots!
Cattery is about £6 a day if you need one, home sitter about £10 a day.
Setting up you'd have just one off costs, a good scratching post, litter tray, bowls etc maybe £150
The main thing is good food & lots of love & cuddles! I pay my Cat Insurance yearly (£107.59 for this year) so don't have it to worry about monthly, she does however need a dental this week @ an estimated cost of £231 & needs them 3 yearly, but you can buy a years supply of a dental product you add to food for under a tenner which helps! Many never need dentals anyway.
If you go to a Rescue instead it will come Neutered if old enough, if not you'll get help towards it, chipped & vax'd & they have many kittens too & you won't be supporting breeding!
Either way good luck!0 -
Our cat is 16 years old and worth every penny ever spent on him.
I spend about £4 a week in 12 Felix pouches and a box of Asda cat biscuits, These help scrape tartar off his teeth.
Flea treatmants (furniture spray too) and worm tabs about £60 per year.
Vaccine and check up once a year £30 to £40
Cat litter £1.19 a bag in Asda lasts about 2 weeks as he only uses it at night.
I would say keep you cat in when it is cold.
Basket, carry basket and litter tray one off purchases, probably get all for £25 in argos. Use old towels and blankets for bedding
I have never bothered with pet insurance as most fees come within the excess amount. A vet advised me to put £10 a month in a jar to cover emergencies.
Cattery £5 per day
Toys: I keep ribbons from gifts for him to 'fight' and when he was young he liked he little balls you could buy with bells in.
I never bought a scratching post, he uses the fence.
As I write he is soundoh on his blanket on the best armchair.
Lovely. lovely creatures0 -
our cat is 11 years old now, we rescued her from the rspca when she was 4 and she was already spayed and had all her vaccinations done, at the time they charged about £30 for a rescue cat not sure if thats still the same? they had also microchipped her. we never bothered with a bed for her as cats are stubborn and will sleep where they want to, and as far as vet bills go she has had 2 ops on her teeth which were about £100 each and one on her foot which was about £40, so i agree with the other posters, pet insurance isnt really worth it. having said that a friends cat got run over and it cost him about £600 in total, so if you can afford a few pounds a month for peace of mind then i guess its advisable! we also have a anti flea and worm injection every 6 months which is around £30. the only thing i would say is dont spend out a lot on a carrier, the amount of time they spend in them its pointless, just get a cheap one and put a towel or something in the bottom! if the one you get is anything like ours you will need to wrap it up in a towel just to get it through the door of the thing lol! good luck.Mummy to
DS (born March 2009)
DD (born January 2012)
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I think you can easily feed a cat for £6-£7 per month.
Buy worming / fles treatments online, as has been said - much cheaper.
Don't bother buying a bed - the cat will much prefer a cardboard box!
If you are going for a kitten, consider getting 2. They will keep each other amused and you might save some money on replacement furniture!One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other0 -
A poster on here spent £12,000 over 18 months treating her Cat, luckily it was Insured, Insurance is more than worth it IMO if you land a bill like that & nobody can predict if their Cat will get ill or injured. Mine's having a £230 op on Wednesday which isn't her first, then the Dog needs a £400 op the Wed after, so I for one am very glad i'm insured!0
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Pudge just cost me £80 at the vets for her injections and six months supply of Advocate, a spot treatment for fleas, ticks, mites etc. Worth every penny.
Best advice I can give is to buy the sturdiest and best stratching post you can. We bought one that cost £15 and Pudge hated it as she felt it was not stable. Therefore she used our carpets. We then bought this and she loves it - which means she eaves our carpets alone!0 -
Pudge just cost me £80 at the vets for her injections and six months supply of Advocate, a spot treatment for fleas, ticks, mites etc. Worth every penny.
Best advice I can give is to buy the sturdiest and best stratching post you can. We bought one that cost £15 and Pudge hated it as she felt it was not stable. Therefore she used our carpets. We then bought this and she loves it - which means she eaves our carpets alone!
That's a nice one! Tess doesn't scratch hers, she likes to climb to the top (5ft maybe?) & sit there :rolleyes: I just paid similar (£75) for Tess's Flu/Enteritis/FeLV booster, a Miblemax wormer & 6 months of Frontline0 -
Thanks to all of you for all the great advice! 0
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qwertyuiop12345 wrote: »Thanks to all of you for all the great advice!
We WILL require piccies btw, so a good camera/film is essential!0 -
yes, that was me with the £12,000 bill - it was for chemo and ongoing treatments. although I had insurance, I was also liable for 20% of the bill as an excess because my cat was over 10 years old. bear this in mind when taking out a policy!
from my own experiences i would say insurance is now a 'must have'. vets are able to do so much more for our pets than used to be possible - but all at a price of course! so if you want to avoid being in the position of having to put an animal to sleep because you can't afford the treatment, get insurance.
with insurance you get what you pay for - go for a cheap supermarket insurance and most likely it won't be a 'for life' policy (i.e. the amount you can claim will be a fixed amount over the cat's entire life-time i.e £6000, and will not renew each year when the policy does i.e. you get £6000 a year, each year) . the best policies are by Pet Plan and AXA in my opinion. AXA also do not discrimate against elderly pets, they do not charge a % excess once a cat exceeds 10 years old. Pet Plan charges a 20% excess.
i have two cats and my monthly outgoings are as follows (just shy of £100), exlcuding vet costs:
insurance for 13yo - £19
insurance for 14yo - £27
food (Hills dry) - £15
litter - £25
litter pan liners - £70
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