The real cost of having pets

gettingready

Missmontana - no, dogwalker would not do this.. Teddy may not come back to her etc this would be a worry....

Artyarty - yup, the grey hair LOL Thanks

My lot will be out for hours and first thing when they get back in - a quene to the litter boxes... tey only pee/poo indoors... Looking forward to coming home to 2 litter boxes full of whole day's "deposits" next week... Actually, I better get another box or 2 to make sure they have a clean-ish one all the time while I am not here to scoop every 15 min

I may try that Oko Plus so highly recommended by FridayCat...Hmmmm

missmontana

You're just gonna have to move to a garden flat, with a dog flap, so they can all come and go as they please!
I am so lucky I have a house with a garden:o

LittleMissAspie

gettingready wrote: »

Zara's dog walker 230 per month

Ouch. Do you have any neighbours or friends with dogs that you could share the walking with? Eg they walk yours and their dog the first half of the week, you walk them the second half.

Costs seem to go up massively when you have more than one pet. My cat costs £20 a month for food, litter, worming and vet checkups. She's not insured though and we don't deflea her (got lax on it but she didn't get fleas so don't bother with it now. I have a theory that her fur is too long and fluffy for any fleas to find her skin ).

I would recommend Oko Plus as well, my cat only goes to the loo indoors and we definitely spend less than £10 per month on the litter.

Also, if you like Orijen you could try their cheaper foods called Acana and Taste of the Wild. Same company.

Buttonmoons

Holy bobbins @ what you spend.

I have 3 indoor cats, and I spend probably less than half of the amount you spend on cat litter, I use the wood pellets, and I find it smells more "earthy/soily" than pure raging stink fester like it does when I use clumping stuff.

I must be a right scrote because I rarely empty my cats trays properly and clean them, the kitten needs to know where his stink is at, at the mo, because he is liable to go and do it somewhere else *scowl*

Saturnalia

I have one cat and my landlady has 3 of her own. They get through a box of 12 pouches a day and while we have tried them with tins, they won't entertain them. (Although if it were up to me, the wee horrors would be on the "like it or leave it" diet. )

The pouches are £3.50+ a box :eek: I always look around for where has the 2 for £5 offer on (S always has either Whiskas, Felix or Kitekat on offer, A often has offers too) which cuts the cost a bit.

They also have biscuits available to them all the time too. The wet food has to run out before they'll eat the biscuits, but they'll gobble them when it does, so they clearly like them but prefer the wet stuff. Again, we could probably cut costs with more dry and less wet food.

Flea treatment & wormer - landlady has been buying these and the flea treatment is £60 from the vet's surgery and does bog-all.

Yep, cats are a pricy hobby alright!

gettingready

My cats are not on Orijen, my cats eat Classic (£2.75 per 6 tins at Asda) and Go Cat mixed with HIlls Oral Care, Hills Dental Care and Taste of the Wild.

As I said, already tried wood pellets litter with my lot and it did not work out. Used it fo ages when I had just one cat but with 4 this is not a good litter.

All are insured, all regularly treated for worms/fleas "just in case and get the stuff online not from vets (prices).

To be honest, I am not looking for advice to bring costs down as I do not think it is possible and realistic - just wanted to show what I came up when added all up......

warwicktiger

Hope your job is well paid, £482 per month means you have to earn £679 pm before tax and NI, or £8140 gross per year just to keep your pets!

Buttonmoons

Saturn - How many sachets!! :eek: I have 3 cats, and I put out around 4 sachets a day, or 1 can, sometimes I put out 5, if the kitten has been growling at the bigger cat and she can't get no food, but they can eat biscuits if they are hungry inbetween, no way would I be paying £3.50 a day on just wet food - That's about £100 a month :eek:

gettingready

Job pays half of what I used to have in my previous one - unfortunately.. and the travel will be 1.5 hour each way.. sigh.... Life, huh?

1/3 of my wages on pets
1/3 on rent/council tax (council flat...)
1/3 for the rest of the bills/travel to work and myself......

Fair split you say? LOL

I give my lot 1 tin in the morning between them and 1 in the evening so 2 tins per day between 4 cats - Fred gets bigger portion as he is the one that never ever eats any dry food, the others top up with dry food....

Mrs_Z

We have 2 cats, both getting on a bit... 12+ and 15+. The eldest one is on medication @ £55 every 6 weeks, as well as uses a litter tray. The 'young one' goes out. To be honest, I've never really added the costs as I prefer not to know :rotfl:
I also use wood pellets for the litter tray, I like the smell... I line up the litter tray with some newspaper first as well as a puppy trainer liner which then soaks most of the liquid.

Anyways, what I was wondering... given the high cost of dog walker... would it be an option to work fewer hours, part-time if you can not share the dog walking with anyone.