Hiya!
I've just fallen in love with a cat and I think ill be having him..

Can any cat owners please tell me their total costs of foods they spend?
I know everyone is different!

Also can cats just eat iams? If so how long will 1kg bag last?

Thanks

I buy 2 boxes of pouch food a week, usually for about £6 for both though some brands are cheaper, and then she has tinned tuna, and bits of whatever meat or fish I cook for myself, plus I buy her cat 'treats' like chew sticks, usually £1 for 5 or 6. I probably spend less than £10 a week on her food. Dry food looks pretty cheap, but our cat won't touch it unless I feed it to her bit by bit and she thinks it's a treat!

Roughly £12 a week on cat food. We have 2, and they eat quite a bit.

About £5-£10 for a bag of cat litter, which lasts quite a while since they're pretty big bags.

And for treats, they cost around £1.00-£2.50 per small bag. But they only get maybe four treats a day, so they last a while too.

My cat eats Iams and very little canned food and a 3kg bag lasts about 6-8 weeks, always remember to provide fresh water with it too. I vary the cat's diet with other things as everyone appreciates a variety of food.
As others have said a bag of litter lasts a fair while-I resent having to lug the awkward bags home far more than the cost!

Seriously consider pet insurance and get him microchipped too. For the companionship and amusement they give they're worth every penny imo.

Also factor in the yearly trip to the vet to get injected.

Seriously get your cat insured, I have two, the insurance costs me £12 a month, one of them got sick in January, and the bill came to over £700!

As others have posted its not the food that costs, its insurance, jabs, worming/flea treatments and cat prison when your away.
I've got mine insured at £10 a month though some of my friends put aside money into a seperate account for their pet instead.
My cat loves purina dry food but I only give her that half the time with a pouch of felix/whiskers the other. She also gets cooked cheapo frozen chicken and cooked white fish.
Jabs I think are about £50 a year (maybe less) and worming is about £10 a month. I don't know how essential these are as our old family cat never had such things, nor did we have him insured - luckily he had the good sense not to get ill!
Cat prison is about £6.50 a night round here though if you can get someone to pop in and feed them you won't need it.
Theres also cat litter to consider, but it depends on the cat - now its warmed up mine isn't using her tray as much but if you can't let your cat out you will need litter though the cheap stuff is only a couple of quid a week.
According to my local vet the cost per month for a cat is £25 - less than a quid a day!

eta My vet reckons there's something addictive in Iams as she treats so many overweight Iams cats - just a warning

We have 5 cats & a 6 month old kitten.
They eat mostly a supermarket own brand dry food @ €16 or just over £13 for a 25 kilo bag.
This lasts over a month & they also get our food scraps.
They like chilli con carne, curries & if any is left from our sunday roast they like vegetable & yorkshire pudding
Two of them will try to drink coffee from our mugs
A 5 kilo bag of litter is €2.90 which lasts about 10 days

We feed our two cats on James Wellbeloved dry food. A 2kg bag from our vet costs around £14.00. I bought a 10kg bag from Zooplus for £35.00 including delivery. As for cat litter - I have not found too many online bargains. I try and make the cat litter last a little longer by removing the waste as carefully as possibly. It is surprising how much longer you can make it last.

yorkieUK
Your cat food would be far too expensive for us to use
10 kilos for £35 just dont compare to £13 for 25 kilos

My two cats eat 2 pouches each per day. I get them when on offer - they like any "own brand" (including pets at home) so I just keep an eye out to see whose are on offer, and stock up.
So the last few times I got several lots of 2x12 packs for £5 from Co-op, and prior to that £9 for 24 pack from pets at home ... I just shop around so that works out at about £12 a week. Plus I leave dry food out but they eat very little of that.
Treats readily available from the pound shop!
I also get catmilk for them, but thats more my weakness cus they love it!
Litter - wise, they now both go outside so I usually get 2 bags at a time (big bags of Thomas £5) and I have to get more about every 3 weeks, so thats about £3 a week.

Sounds good! What is this particular food that you buy for that price?

i use about 2 3rds of a can per day per cat. i run a self funding rescue too. i use anytype of food very rarely pouches . i also very rarely buy treats.
My cats also eat left overs but i never give them currys or anything that has onions in them as its poisonus too cats.
At the moment i am running short of food for them and have enough till friday morning. getting desperate now. I NEED HELP
Still i love them and dont let it put you off getting a lovely furbaby.
Vetuk is a good one for worming and flea products.
Also dont forget too get your furbaby neutered and chipped. around about £60

Science diet Light 1.5kg for about £13 lasts nearly a month. I measure out the dry food as she is a little porker. I x pack of Tesco value chicken pieces, approx £2 per week (not all of it used).
Stronghold Flea and worming treatment (6 pipettes - 6 months worth for about £22) - Viovet
Vets prescription for above £10 (3 pipettes cost £25 at my local vets, so even with prescription costs it is much cheaper)
Annual injections about £50 (am in London so may be more expensive than elsewhere).
Litter - a cheap bag from the supermarket costs about £2 and lasts for months. Mine will only use it in an emergency if she really has to. She always goes outside.
Nights at the cattery - £11 - £13 per night depending on time of year, but mine will give a discount or free weekend after 4 visits.

Like other FM's have posted with their moggies, the Beast eats all sorts as well as comercial cat food.

Out of all of them he likes 'Felix' most, which we buy in bulk and will last as long as it does, what with him sharing our grub.

With him snarfing stuff that we prepare for ourselves, I probably don't spend a lot on on cat food.

If he is unwell or hurt then I stump up; a week ago he cut his paw and I had to cough up a bit then

I took the bill on the chin, was the first time in nearly nine years he needed treatment, and he got it.

I don't really think about, or know how much the Beast costs to 'run' he is not a car or a washing machine, he is part of the family.

The git of the family.

yorkieUK
Maybe you have not noticed, but we live on Rhodes, Greece
Its a Greek supermarket own brand cat food that we buy.
We introduced this to our cats when they were about 6 months old.
That way they didnt become fussy eaters & they still love it now @ over 3 years old

I've got 2 cats and they 1 pouch between them a day(anymore and it just goes to waste), so roughly 2½ boxes of pouches a month and they get through 4kgs of dried food a month,

Pouches = £7 - £9 a month
Dried = £8 per month
Both are whiskas as mine won't eat anything else.

No litter as mine go outside all the time for toilet duties, which suits me fine

I've definitely gone wrong somewhere. My cat Cato will only eat Felix As Good as it Looks. Not on offer at present so £4.50 approx for 12 sachets. He continually wants feeding so that's 4-6 sachets a day. He refuses to leave the house so now I have to buy cat litter.
On top of that his meds are £42 a month and £50 every 3 months for blood tests.
He's worth it though.
My other cat
Lily who's half feral just eats 2 sachets a day, some dried food and uses the garden as a toilet. She's no trouble at all

Aly 1
I presume Cato was given the Felix food from the off.
That was your mistake.
If cats are hungry they will eat anything.
We had been told cats wont eat peanuts or chocolate.
Ours do & drink coffee

I definitely do not agree with cats eating anything if they're hungry! Mine would have to be absolutely starving or lost on the streets to do that and I would never ever let them get to that point. My cats hold out for days until the 'right' wet food is made available, meanwhile they will eat science plan dry food. They won't eat any other dried food although I have tried them on other good quality and equally expensive brands.

I buy individual sachets or gourmet tins of wet food from Pets at Home, usually Hills or Applaws, between 40p and 89p for a single serving, That and the dried food costs me about £70 -£80/month on average (for 3 cats). I pay about £45/month for total life cover insurance, £30/month for advocate flea spot-ons, about £170/year for their annual boosters and check-ups and about £10 each per night for a cattery stay if I go away. I don't use a cattery as often as I used to now that I have 3 cats - I am happier leaving them at home because they love each other's company. The water fountain cartridges are about £5/month and I buy a giant bag of catsan litter every few weeks though only one of my cats uses a litter tray - the other 2 go outside to toilet.

My Bernard is due a dental this year (the vet has been putting it off because of his weight, he's mainly indoors) which insurance will not cover and the cost of that will be at least £200 and much more if he needs teeth extracted.

I could keep my cats much more cheaply but, to me, they're worth every penny I spend on them. I rarely look for cheap offers because I know what my cats like and what is good for them, my vet actually labels Felix and Whiskas brands as McDonalds for cats and cheap cat food is expensive if it just gets thrown away.

There are other costs. I had to replace my old cat flap recently as the magnetic element was no longer working. The cats need to wear collars with magnets and these need replacing every few months. Once-only costs would be scratching posts (the older the better for most cats), cat beds (my Millie adores my late Tabitha's 18 year old cat bed) and litter trays (the hooded ones are best) - also cat toys though these do tend to get lost quite frequently.

My parents have a cat who they just feed and bring to the vet when she's ill. They flea treat her on an ad hoc basis. I don't believe she was ever vaccinated but she was obviously neutered. She's pretty cheap to keep - though she too is a fussy eater and won't eat just 'anything'. My friends and family say I spoil and pamper my cats and spend far too much on them but that's my personal choice. I definitely don't deprive myself of my own luxuries in order to pay for my cats!

No. He only ever used to eat dry food. I stopped that because he was vomiting. I used to just give him what was on offer but most of it just got left. If he can lick the jelly and gravy off he will and just leave the meat.
I now invest in the as good as it looks because although its expensive I don't throw as much away.

I feed mine Kitten and Senior Felix As Good as it Looks. I usually manage to get it on special offer 2 for £6 either in Jollyes or the supermarket. They each have 2 pouches per day.

With pouches i always find you can over feed them too which can make them sick and as them eating too fast too.

I tend to only give him half a sachet at a time so it doesn't go dry and get wasted.
I have the fattest blackbirds and magpies in my garden due to the amount of cat food they end up getting.

For my cat he gets a mixture of wet and dry food.

So a Box of biscuits a week at roughly £2.00 plus wet food sachets at around £3.00 (I get whatever is on a deal and my cat is not fussy) evens out at around £6 to £10 a week depending on what I buy that week.

He does go outside a lot and gets plenty of exercise so biscuits in the morning and a wet packet in the evening does not really effect his weight much. He's a muscular kitty despite NONE of the food going to waste.

On top of that I spend about £2.00 a week on cat treats and around £10 a month on worming.

I am ashamed to admit I don't currently pay for boosters as I'm in a little bit of money limbo at the mo. However I do intend to get him on a lifetime plan with Vetsforpets once I know what the hell is going on there. That would add an extra £10? a month on top. (Need to save up for the initial shots)

(He was getting regular boosters before but I hit a low)



This does not include any potential vet emergencies.

So I would say a Month it would cost me around £50? for him, taking into account any inaccuracies.


Oh almost forgot the odds like collars and beds and toys. I replace his collar like once every 6 months as he keeps losing them.