How much does it cost to keep a cat?

KILL_BILL

I am thinking of getting a cat from the cats home etc

however before i do so what should i budget for each week/month

i know that insurance should be about £5 a month

but other costs includeing food and worm flea treamtent will cost how much

i live in a 1 bed house with a smallish garden at the fron but dont want to let it out due to the fact that there is a busy road outside

so i resort to a cat box - where should i keep it - in the bathroom ?

where do people who have indoor cats/ flat cats keep theres?

cheers

Emmacw

Hi

I've recently become the proud owner of 2 kittens and used the posts on this forum to cost out what I could expect to pay. Have a quick search as you'll find a wealth of info from loads of helpful people.

I worked out the cost to be approx £40 per month for 1 cat and £70 for 2.

Insurance - check the discussion thread out after reading Martin's article :money: on cost cutting Pet Insurance (sorry can't do links!) Cheapest is not always best - problems with certain underwriters and yearly/condition limits. I went with Axa - £7.80 ish pcm each.

Food - check out the sticky on this forum. I use a mixture of Asda's and Whiskas (using coupons) kitten food at the moment.

Cat litter - you'll need this if cat is to be a house cat. Anything from £1.19 for 10 litres of Asda smartprice to £10+ for posher stuff - depends on your budget and your cat. (Asda Smartprice stuff actually clumps - you'll pay 10x the price for advertised 'clumping' cat letter).

Worming, flea treatment etc - good products can be bought cheaper online than at Vet's - not got that far yet myself

Injections and yearly boosters - phone around your local vets as prices do vary but could be £60pa?

Most important of all - get a cat and enjoy them!!:T :T

cheers

Emma

tankgirl1

Initial vaccs - £30-60.00 depending on vets (one off)

Booster vaccs £30-50.00 depending on vets (anually)

Microchip - £15-25.00 (one off)

Neutering £50-60.00 (one off)

Insurance £5-10 per month - as someone else said- cheapest isnt always best - look for lifetime cover - ie if they develop a life long illness, that the insurers will pay out for it year after year, as long as you renew the policy each year. Also bear in mind that the usual excess on vets fees is about £50 per condition per year.

Flea treatment - £10.00 ish for 3 months supply - highly recommend frontline spot on - get it off the internet though - it'll be twice the price in the vets

Wormers for kittens - £10.00 ish, all in for the first 6 months - again get the name of the stuff off your vet (I use panacur paste) and shop online

Wormers from 6 months on - needs doing every 3 months, at about £2 a tablet - again shop online- I use drontal cat tablets

Food/Litter - varies greatly! I currently have 2 cats who eat Tesco's own dry cat food ad lib, and it costs me about £3 a week for the pair of them. They rarely use cat litter now, but when they were indoors 100% I used a couple of bags a week- Tesco value stuff at about £1 a bag

Hope that helps!

tankgirl1

I have a cat loo (like a covered litter tray) in the kitchen, and its fine as long as you clean any poo out straight away. Some folk do keep them in the bathroom too though - If I had a utility room or back porch I'd use that.

I kept a cat very happily in a small flat for a couple of years before we moved - just make sure you provide them with plenty of oppurtunity to excercise (play etc), and lots of things to stop them from getting bored.

Mr_P_5

Hi.

Right looking at possibility of getting a cat, which I have been looking at for a while now. Will be getting one from a cat home. Just wondered if anyone can give me a hand on how much getting/having a cat would cost? Know some costs but not all.. if anyone can think of anything I have missed or I am way out on prices also let me know.

Get Cat from home: £60

Set up (ie toys/litter tray): £30

Food Per month: £

Litter per month: £

Injections per year: £

Insurance per month: £



Thanks again,

Mr P

elvis_girl

Food per month depends on whether it likes dry or wet food but I imagine if it comes from a home so one bag a week is about £2. tescos value litter is as good as any & its about £1.50 odd for a big bag. Injections per year about £30 & I'm not sure about insurance as it depends on the cats age but I think kittens start from about a fiver a month.
My cat loves to scratch so you may want to factor in the cost of a lot of wrecked furniture (my last suite lasted 3 years!)
Hope this helps

~cleo~

monthly flea treatment - depending on what you go for prob £3/4 per month
wormer - approx £8 per year

Set up (ie toys/litter tray): £30

Food Per month: i spend about £10 a month on wet pouches and boxes of cat biscuits

Litter per month: £1.50 bag from Tesco per 6 weeks-ish

Injections per year: £35

i assume the cat will already be spayed or neutered by the home?

Bella198421

Vaccination Boosters-£30 a year (£60 for me cos I have 2 Cats)

Litter-£4.75 for a massive bag-every 6 weeks to 2 months (Again cos I have 2 litter trays for them) this is will probabley last longer for one cat

Your'e gonna also need a carrier which cost about £10, Stratching Post-you could make one out of a piece of wood and some old carpet and Toys -get a few at £1 each or less, balls, toys on stick etc . You could even just give them an empty toilet roll or roll up some tin foil as a ball, it's keeps them happy enough and doesn't cost anything, my cats play with old shoe laces and even straws or plastic bottle lids-big ones from Milk.

I have Gold cover Insurance with Argos-£5.03 a month online discount.

patchwork_cat

Hi
A cat can cost as much or as little as you want. The cat we had when I was growing up never had insurance, flea treatment/ wormer, cat carrier,injections and lived a happy healthy life until 18. Lots of cats live like this fine - no litter tray just a tin or so of food a day - These days that could be dried as they are much better.
Now I breed pedigree cats and you can spend a fortune on insurance, flea and worm treatments ( if they are allowed out and hunt or you miss a bit with the flea treatment - could go into the lifecycle of tapeworm but prob not necessary!) carriers, toys, collars, bedding, expensive litter gold plated bowls!!etc.

Sensibly nowadays I would say dried cat food brekkies 57p per 500g Home Bargains - last about 10 days. Cat litter £1 or so a week, litter tray - pennies from Wilco . Possibly insurance that is for you to weigh up. Injections are advisable if they are mixing with other cats or going out, but only for first couple of years. There is a school of thought that beyond the first few years they have developed enough immunity.

Ping pong balls in an old tissue box, old laces, pipe cleaners, tin foil scrunched in a ball, newspaper on string for toys.

Nicifer_noonoo

As for insurance, the RSPCA are by far the best I can find...my moggy is insured for just over £5 per month, and 20% of that goes to the RSPCA to help other animals who have been abandoned just like he was.