Hi everyone

Me and my boyfriend are moving later this year and we really are hoping that we'll be able to get a cat.

But for our planning ahead of costs etc.. , I wondered if people could let me know the general costs of having a cat, food, vets, injections etc..

Or at least what you all spend on your cats!

It all depends on area and prices within that area.

Injections 50 pounds.
Neutering 25-50 pounds
Chipping usually free with the neutering
Flea treatment 20 pounds every three months
Food 20 pounds a month
Insurance 10 pounds a month.
Bed 25-30 pounds.
Toys around 10-50 pounds
Additonal fees 25 pounds a visit to the vets.
Plus you need food bowls,drinking fountain and a brush for the fur.
50 pounds for a cat flap plus fitting.
One indoor cat lavatory with a roof so nothing gets kicked out.
Cat basket/carrier.

It is cheaper to buy Eye Pet on the PS3.

They aren't cheap. Especially if you are also laying out for a house move!

Initial costs: litter tray, cat bed, cat carrier, scratching post, cat bed, cat brush, food and water bowls, toys, cat flap *Depending on where kitty is coming from you may need to take it to a vet for it's injections (plus kitty may be need to de-fleaed and de-wormed) aprox £50 depending on location*

Ongoing costs: Food and litter (if your kitty is going to an outdoor cat the litter cost will be less). Our girl is an indoor cat and goes through £5 worth of litter a week and the same in food. So that's £10 per week aprox. Also insurance is another on-going cost. Plus Kitty needs to be wormed and de-flead on a regular basis, you can get a combined treatment which works out as aprox £5 a month

Vets: Kitty will need annual boosters (£60 per year where I am for Boosters and complete healthcheck) and also if you get a kitten at 6 months they will be neutured and microchipped (£70 aprox)

As I say not cheap - but worth every single penny!

My vets are expensive but then they are in an expensive location , I pay around £ 120 each for my two annually for jabs and a health check , so thats £ 240.

Plus the never ending stream of toys, flea and worming, food ( and mine are bloody fussy sods ) and all the treats etc .

But I dont begrduge a penny they are worth it .

But as we all know pets arent cheap .

Well it's not so much that the costs will put us off, rather that we want to add it into our budget so that we know roughly what we'll be spending and we can plan ahead putting money aside for the cat.

I'm not sure about some of the 'accessories' you can get. We had a cat (well one when I was little and one when I was a bit older after Fuzz Buzz died) when I was growing up and I don't recall anything about drinking fountains and things? We're happy to spend the money if needed and our cat will no doubt be utterly spoilt but do you really need stuff like drinking fountains?

Drinking fountains weren't really around years ago but they are an excellent additon to a pets feeding regime, I find my cats drink far more water from a fountain ( and play with it as well) than they ever did from a bowl which is good for their health and the water stays nice and fresh.

Sounds good, I am just a bit rusty with the stuff you can get. When I think about it my cat from childhood Shrody never drank from her bowl, prefering the stagnent water in plant pots and things in the garden! I'll google drinking fountains and have a look.

They aren't cheap but if you both work, keeping two cats is only marginally more expensive than one and they have a playmate for life (and saves your furniture if they are house-bound).

Also, if they are indoor cats/is an indoor cat, expect to pay more for toys and scratching posts (a must ..again to save your furniture!).

We do both work but we have staggered shifts most days so the cat will be on his/her own for perhaps 4/5 hours a day. And only for 4 days a week as my boyfriend works Saturdays but not Mondays. I'd like 2 cats but I think at this stage just 1 is perhaps better for us especially as we are relatively new to it (both of us have had pets as teens - me a cat, him a dog).

We are anticipating the cat being an outdoor cat but we would get scratching stuff as Schrody used to hack the settee arm and when Mum bought a scratching post, Schrods had already committed to the settee so we couldn't stop her.

Many people have just one cat, that's fine. I had one when I was a child (well for 16/17 years) but I got two 3.5 years ago and I was grateful I did. They demand soo much attention and get bored easily so having each other to knock about with and play with meant that I wasn't spending too much time entertaining them...and they entertained me.

But, they do get bored easily and I still had to redecorate as they took a shine to the wall paper and began peeling it for me and also chewed through the phone cables and used the bed as a scratching post and the sofas as a climbing frame and assault course.

Turns out they were very expensive..little monkeys!

I get a prescription from the vets for advocat flea and worming treatment. It costs me around £10, but I can buy a 6 month supply on the internet for around £26, so even with the prescription charges it works out much cheaper.

Beds cats can take or leave - mine sleeps on my bed so refuses to use any I have bought her. She is an indoor/outdoor cat and I have 2 litter trays (one upstairs, one down), which she very rarely uses, so a bag of litter will last me weeks. As for insurance, I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be more worth setting up a savings account for the cat. Thankfully so far, in the 4 years I have had my cat the only times she has had emergency treatment (not usual check ups and injections) is for 1 x urine infection and 2 x antibiotics for fights. I do have insurance, but will probably end up paying more in over the years than using.

Dont forget the cost of a cattery or house sitter if you go away
can be £10 - £15 per day, unless you're lucky enough to have friends or family feed them

BTW, I have two cats and I have never spent as much as £20 in one month on cat food, depends where you get it but I spend about £12 - £15 pm

Getting a bed + toys are up to you really, my cat is more happy with a cola can or piece of paper than he is with his own toys!

I do spend a lot but if i average it out it isnt very much. I dont buy all there food in one go i tend to go twice a week. I buy extra bags of catsan from the local shop. I have 7 litter trays. I use around 14 pouches a day or 4 cans and dry go cat food for a couple of them. I go through about 2 big bags of it a week. I get there flea treatment ever couple of months and ever 3 months get there worming tablets. They do get tip bits any leftover meats etc. My cats are not over weight either. They are not insured as for me i couldnt afford it but if anything comes along it is dealt with. I have 15 cats who are all asleep in everthing apart from there beds. They like the settee

This is the same with my cat, her favourite toy is a piece of folded up paper with string attached. She'll drag it around with her for ages, even takes it out of the garden when she goes on her rounds, bless her! Never been interested in anything else, aside from cuddles.

Well I've just adopted two and so far

£45 each adoption fee from cats protection, they are both microchipped, neutered and they provide a voucher for their first vaccinations and a months free pet insurance.
Cat bed I paid £5 from Aldi - it's big enough for them both to fit in and they both use it and love it
Cat blanket - I got a fleecy blanket for a couple of quid and then I've also given them an old blanket which they seem to like
Scratching post £7 and toys for a few pounds I will buy them some more once I find out what they like
Litter trays - I've got three. 2 are just plain ones from poundland and 1 is a covered huge one from pets at home which was on special offer for a tenner
Then cat collars were a couple of quid each.

My boys are at the moment eating felix kitten pouches they eat 3 between them per day - I get them in boxes of 12. They are on special offer at the moment 4 boxes for £10.
Then dried food which costs about £3 per week
Cat litter they seem happy with wood baed so they are using a cheapo one from Sainsburys at the moment which costs under £2 a week. Litter liners are also an option although mine don't seem to like them at all they seem to prefer their trays lined with newspaper.

Then there is pet insurance, worming, flea treatments and any vets bills. Mine are already taking some medicine from the vets.

They are worth it though even though they are timid and poo all over my house instead of their litter trays.

£20 for food? If you choose to feed your cat organic food, the price will be more like £50/month.

Thanks everyone for their responses, it's been really useful seeing what everyone is spending.

Our cat I think will be spoilt but we're not going to go crackers on food and toys and stuff. I am sure you can spend £100s on your cat but we'll just not be able to do that. Luckily I'm a good shopper and I'll look around for the best offers if I can.

wow... I wanna be a cat in your household!

I don't spend anywhere near that on my cats and before you make any commenst about it, my cats are very healthy and very happy cats.

They don't get boosters every year, I don't fill myself full of drugs and see no reason to do so to my cats.

They don't have a bed as such, they sleep where they choose.

The combined food bill is no more than £15 to £20 a month at the most.
They don't get flea treatments and it doesn't seem to be a problem
Cat flap, 1 time cost about 30 quid fitted it myself
I don't have insurance, they are all chipped and neutered but that was over 10 years ago and I have no idea how much that would cost now.

Good grief. I paid £75 for a "vaccinations for life" deal some years ago. Includes a bit of veterinary prodding.

I'm personally cynical about the need for annual vaccinations, but an up-to-date vaccination certificate is essential if you intend to use a cattery.

Food: about 11p/day. Mixture of Iams & Tesco's own dry food, precision weighed to avoid excess weight gain.

Cat litter: clumping variety bought in bulk online. A bit trickier to work out how much this costs me, but my rough calculation is that it's about the same as the food.

I feel like a cheapskate now! But I have a very contented cat.

My cat is nearly 14 and has a beautiful shiny coat and stills runs and jumps around like a kitten. She has never been wormed or had flea treatments as she does not need them. Apart from her original injections she has only ever been to the vets for a small abscess. I think the annual injections are a waste of time and money. Apart from a few toys I spend £15-20 a month on food and treats and maybe 1 bag of cat litter a year so either I have got lucky or this is the best way of keeping a contented cat.

Hi , I agree with another poster who commented and said you should think about getting 2 cats instead of 1, i adopted 2 kittens from Cats protection league and it's truly the best thing to see when they are curled up together and playing!
And really it doesn't cost much more than having just the one.

Mine had already had their first vaccines, & were microchipped courtesy of CPL, the neutering was about £50 each i think.
I tend to buy cat food when it is on offer, sometimes you can get boxes of 42 pouches for £12 at the supermarkets ( felix) , mine are fussy eater s though so usually just have biscuits, so i pay no more than £20 a month on food, and cat litter about £10 a month or so.
As a lot of other people have said, cats are usually more happy playing with newspaper & cardboard boxes than expensive toys you buy! but i spoilt mine, so they have a bed each and loads of toy mice & balls & such!

just wanted to add - mine are about a year & a half , they don't have any flea treatments as theyre indoor cats, so don't see it as a problem, and they havent had any other vaccines or boosters since their first ones, as i've read they can make them ill. I also need to look into insurance for mine, as i worry if anything goes wrong.
Last edited by Missjef : 12-01-2011 at 21:17

Our late cat never used his water fountain, I ebayed that and the scratching post so probably not necessary maybe?

I recommend at pet insurance - we had Sainsburys who were really good as we started our cat off when he was young and in the later stages of his life when he had renal failure it was worth every penny. As the dog was older we didn't do this and I regret that.

Do look at 'pet supermarket' sites online to see if you can get food cheaper. We used to get our food from them in bulk deliveries including his special renal diet and saved a few pounds.

You could check with your local vets. Some have a monthly plan which covers check ups and annual boosters etc.

I'd also definitely get pet insurance. Mine were a shade too old and had some ongoing health problems when insurance first came out. I've regretted not having any ever since.

My two have never had a water fountain, although one will only take his water from a glass container. The other doesn't care where it comes from, what it's in or how long it's been there.

We have nine cats - yes nine! Cost us a fortune in food and vet bills but we don't begrudge a single cent. Love them.

A box of 12 Whiskas pouches is 4.50, a 2kg bag of Whiskas biscuits 6.00, snip 100.00 - 120.00 depending on sex, vacs 25.00 (all in euros). Plus grooming for three x long haired ones, brushes, toys, chews, collars. We bought a couple of cat beds/igloos bit they would rather sleep with us or in a cupboard.