How much does it cost to keep 2 (young) cats?

LJD1_2

My only recommendation would be to go for insurance that pays out for life time of illness. We have a diabetic cat and the insurance only paid out for a year and he's proving to be a very expensive old man indeed. So, make sure you check the small print!

eamon

Hi There

I have two cats, both now 9.5 yr old. Touch wood nothing serious has gone wrong with either cat and they are not insured. However I get both vaccinated every year and thats about £30 each.

As for food mine are on dried food (Friskies) after much trial and error years ago its the only brand that they will both eat and they both thrive on it. One of the cats (Zeb) will hunt and will eat mice, seen it in action, two bites and gone! I was well impressed! The other cat (Bonnie) won't eat meat at all (maybe a wee bit of chicken). When I first got Bonnie it was funny to watch her lick up all the jelly & juices from wet food leaving the meat for Zeb.

All the advice I've had would suggest that dried food is best for cats, avoids tooth decay, keeps much better in their dishes. As for cost a 2kg bag of Friskies is about £4 and lasts about 3 weeks i.e. 9.5p per cat per day. Cats are not like dogs and it is rare for cats to overeat and get fat.

yours

Eamon

Tuttifruitty_Theresa

i'm so glad you're getting them from a rehoming centre, i've got two cats and their wet food costs £8.97 from pets at home (felix) and dry food costs £5.00 a month (whiskers). I don't have mine insured as i have had cats for over 20 years and i've found in the past that it's more expensive to have them insured then to pay the vet's fees (but i have a lovely vet who's not too expensive). You will need scratching post, toys and as they are kittens make them a cat climber with cardboard boxes (they will love you for it). Worming tablets will cost you about about £2.55 and you will need to worm your cats every 3 to 4 months. It's up to you how you deflea your cats i two different products for my boy cat i use flea drops (you put them on their neck) from my vets but it also kills hook worms etc and that costs £10.00 per month but he roams all day long and hunts anything and everything but my girl cat only goes in the garden and doesn't kill anything (so doesn't need the extra's from other drops) so i use bob martins flea drops which cost £1.99.

Good luck with them, they will bring you many years of happiness and there's nothing nicer then having a cat cuddle up on your lap.

xx

forgot to say about vaccincations mine cost £20.00 each but is well worth having. Cat litter is another little expense you will have but i use a wood pellets which i find better then ordinary cat litter as it doesn't stain cats paws (both of mne have white paws) i buy a medium sized bag for about £5.00 from sainsburys and it lasts ages.

Hels_Bells_3

we have one cat who's 12 in April - and spend £8 a month on food for her and buy flea collars every 12 weeks as advised but that really is it, as she goes out at 8am (after breakfast) and doesn't come home till 9ish at night to be fed again she does all her business outside. We tried buying a bed for her but she always looked for a towel, jumper, jacket she could lie on and if the door to the airing cupboard is ever open you'll find her in there. Don't have insurance and haven't ever needed to take her to the vets apart from when she was neutured 11 and a half years ago.

Murtle

bucksliz wrote:

Any more recommendations for insurance? We've just had a kitten from RSPCA rescue and it looks as though she is going to be a sickly cat. Already spent approx. £100 on vets fees this month :eek: I've never bothered with pet insurance but a nil excess policy would be interesting. How do they work? do you end up not paying any vets fees?

Sorry kittie is so poorly, but have a look at the Marks and Spencers policy. AFAIK that is the only one with nil excess around at the moment. I may be wrong so do check others, but when I looked in October that was the only one I found. Yes it means no vet fees at all up to a certain maximum (I think mine is £7000 per cat per year)! As with other insurance policies I don't think they'll take on existing conditions, so check that as well.

x x

keatergreyhound

Hiya
Ive had 2 new kittens just before christmas after the loss of our beloved dog.
There jabs were £52 (thats the very cheapest I could find them)
There insured with M&S with the nil excess policy which is £5.12p a month
Kittens have to have kitten food so assuming that the cat you adopt is under a year they should have kitten food. I know some pople dont bother but having worked iin a vets I know how important kitten food is to them. But the good news is the own brand kitten food is no more expensive than the own brand adult cat you just get a little bit less.
47p a box and about 20p a sachet
They really dont eat that much at the moment, boy do they sleep. The other posters have listed the costs involved with worms and fleas
Good luckxx

Wickedkitten

keatergreyhound wrote:

Hiya
Ive had 2 new kittens just before christmas after the loss of our beloved dog.
There jabs were £52 (thats the very cheapest I could find them)
There insured with M&S with the nil excess policy which is £5.12p a month
Kittens have to have kitten food so assuming that the cat you adopt is under a year they should have kitten food. I know some pople dont bother but having worked iin a vets I know how important kitten food is to them. But the good news is the own brand kitten food is no more expensive than the own brand adult cat you just get a little bit less.
47p a box and about 20p a sachet
They really dont eat that much at the moment, boy do they sleep. The other posters have listed the costs involved with worms and fleas
Good luckxx

If its 47p a box then surely ingredient wise its poor.

keatergreyhound

All supermarkets brands are full of fillers even the likes of whiskas and felix (the more expensive tinned food)
Weight wise the 47p a box stuff is a lot less then the likes of go cat
I guess it works out to buy a own brand is about 50p per kg cheaper
If you study the nutrition of it all theres very little in it until yuor talking brands such as Iams and Hills which when fed correctly to the manufacturers guidlines can be a slittle as 19p per cat per day.
Personally I feel that the amount of Hills to give loooks tiny (or is it that my 2 kitts are piggies)

jembie

I have 2 cats they are both 7 years old.
I buy 1 large tin of catfood a day from Lidl which feeds both of them adequately and costs 59p.
If I can't get to Lidl I buy tins of Whiskas which are 2 tins for 89p.

I do buy a box of biscuits once a week but they don't like them much and will only eat them if there is nothing else offered during the day.

bexbex

I have 4 cats and for all of them my insurance costs about £8.50 a month.
http://www.healthy-pets.co.uk/cat-insurance.htm
They go outside but have 2 litter trays indoors.
I feed them pouches and a tin of tuna (in spring water as brine is too salty for their kidneys) and sardines/kippers in sunflower oil (sunflower oil brilliant for their coats and eyes) I feed them this mised in with their pouches twice a week. They also get the left over chicken bits from sunday dinner and the chicken is picked dry for them. I fine usinf the fish and chiken in with pouches makes the cat food last twice as long and it's better for them.
I've never (touch wood!) had any problems with mine yet. Oldest is 17 now and the yougest is 1 in March.
I had to pay to get them neutered which isn't too expensive and at night they're shut in the outhouse out of the cold and sleep in a big plastic dog basket with old jumpers etc in for comfort, no need to buy expensive pet beds etc//