What do your cats cost to keep?
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I didn't have insurance for my last cat, and while that probably saved money over his life as a whole, it meant the last 2 years when he was on thyroid meds costing £1 a day, plus 3-monthly vet checks and blood tests came expensive.
With the current pair, I decided to get insurance - I pay £22 a month for the pair of them.
One of the reasons that I decided to get insurance this time was that medicine has moved on - there are lots of conditions which are treatable now which were not, in the past, so there tend to be more things you can test for, and test are not cheap. With my old cat, the vet recommended against a scan when he started to get worse, due to his age and the stress to him (he was very shy, and was traumatised by visiting the vet, let alone having to stay in) and his age and general condition which meant that the anaesthetic would have been a big risk, but had he been younger, I would have wanted him to get the tests and that would have been (from memory) about £600, and of course operations and long term treatment can stack up. I have a friend who spent over £6,000 on one of their cats' treatment after she was injured.
I buy food in bulk from vetplus - I haven't worked it out precisely - my last order was around £65 which will last me 4 months.
You need to budget for initial vaccinations and spay / neuter (if not already done by the shelter) and then regular boostersAll posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)0 -
Erm, once everything is added up and divided by 12 Wallace costs £30(ish) a month in regular outgoings. That's food and litter (bulk buy every 3ish months), boosters (annual), parasite treatment (usually buy 6 months at a time, once at the booster and once at his 6 month flea/worm check).
I, personally, do not have insurance for him as after doing the sums using my credit card and having a separate savings account worked out much sounder financially. Even using worse case scenario figures the long term outlook indicated it was better to use my vet fund and credit card than take out insurance.
If you're not going to go down the insurance route (or perhaps can't due to their age or pre-existing conditions), I would recommend making sure you have a back up plan for the "what if" situations. Even indoor cats can jump from a high place and end up shattering their leg, just by landing on that limb in a peculiar way. Then you have to seriously consider where you're going to dig up the £600-3,000 needed for treatment. It's my greatest fear that Wallace, during one of his more idiotic attempts to dive bomb someone from the top of a door, is going to stop breaking objects and seriously hurt himself.
You can get single older cats who really don't care if they're left alone all day, and you get bonded pairs who become neurotic wrecks if their owners leave them for less than an hour. Go to a good rescue, explain your situation and they should help you find a suitable cat or two for your home.0 -
The best insurance policy you can have against sickness is to feed a quality food. Don't go for the majority of anything you can find in the supermarket. My cat though ended up only liking pouches 3 per day costing about 60-70 pence per pouch. She didn't like food from cans she might start eating a bit of it when opened but refused to finish the can off so it went to waste. I don't have insurance. Other costs were litter, flea treatment and the odd toy.:footie:
Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money.0 -
I tend to feed mainly dry food (james wellbeloved,a bowl left down and topped up) then a couple of meals of wet. Whatever cheapest or on good offer.
Cat litter is normally dirt cheap 1.
I put money aside each time im paid for flea and worm treatment plus booster jab, food, and any vet bills.0 -
We have 5 and I reckon they cost about £80 per month in total, not including vets bills. Cat litter is minimal as they have outdoor access - no insurance and no vaccinations.0
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Roughly £20 a fortnight i put away for my cat to cover it all.
Only as im between jobs, on benefits and get help through pdsa for her.
When i worked i put more away.0 -
I have five cats.
No insurance for any of them- we live in the countryside, no main road near. They go to the vets when needed- all saved up for, rather than to insure 5 cats.
All loved to bits, we have one old lady, who is 20. She now refuses to wee in the litter tray, or outside. Despite spending her days out there sunbathing. She prefers to do her number ones on some 'puppy pads' next to the litter tray! Those cost £12.99 for 100. Cheapest price we can get.
One cat loves Dreamies, the other 4 aren't too keen.
2 love Wet food.
1 will eat whatever is given.
The other likes dry food and the odd bit of meat.
We do get though a lot of food/treats, but they are very much worth it.0 -
Our cat sleeps in thee house but likes being outdoors very much. Usually we buy him fish as his tastes are difficult to please)) But I can't say that we spens much money on him.So, a lot deponds on the cat himself)0
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Kitty litter - Wood shavings and sawdust free from a local wood turner. Not the cleanest of stuff, but it is certainly a lot more environmentally friendly than much of the other stuff on the market.
Food - £2.35 for a bag of dry which lasts six to eight weeks, and 50p a tin of Whiskers which is good for three days. Of late, a friend has been trying various foods on his cat and bringing the rejects over to me.
Insurance - No one will insure a 12 year old moggy, so I just save a bit for the day when a trip to the vet is needed. The cat will not go outside, so risk of injury is minimal.Her courage will change the world.
Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.0 -
My cat costs an absolute fortune!
This is mainly in vet's bills though. She was healthy when we got her but now she has a lot of problems (none associated with her going outdoors as she was always mainly and indoor cat, so even an indoor cat should be insured).
She is insured, and luckily we got a lifetime cover policy but each condition is limited to £2000 per year, and we have a co-payment of 35% now she is over 10 years old.
All told she costs us about £200 a month.
If she wasn't insured she would have cost us over £10k so far!0
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