Running costs - of a cat?

Author
Discussion

Riknos

Original Poster:

4,700 posts

210 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
I know there's a lot of cat fans on here, so hopefully this should be a good place to get this answered; I'm after getting a cat - probably a kitten round about 12 weeks old, and hopefully house trained and wormed etc prior to purchase. I was just wondering what are the standard running costs of a cat (typically) in people's experience? Including vet bills etc.

Thanks.


evenflow

8,799 posts

288 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Riknos said:
I know there's a lot of cat fans on here, so hopefully this should be a good place to get this answered; I'm after getting a cat - probably a kitten round about 12 weeks old, and hopefully house trained and wormed etc prior to purchase. I was just wondering what are the standard running costs of a cat (typically) in people's experience? Including vet bills etc.

Thanks.
Pet insurance! PetPlan will be about 10/month and will cover you for most nasty vet bills (ours certainly has).

Food is probably somewhere between 20-30 / month.

joewilliams

2,004 posts

207 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
My vet does a plan which covers annual injections and the good quality worming/flea tablets for something like £15pm.

Insurance is around £12pm.

Food is around £15-20pm per cat. Mine eat a lot of dry food.

Edited by joewilliams on Tuesday 26th October 11:07

Crusoe

4,072 posts

237 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
GF has a rescue one, buy dry food from the vet which works out about £20 a month, insurance about £8 a month and about £200 a year on vet costs for various jabs and flea treatments etc. Fine unless something major happened when the 10 or 20% you pay towards any insurance claim could become a large bill.

Merlot

4,121 posts

214 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Food: Ours is on dry food only, costs about £8-10 per month
Treats: Maybe £1-2 per month
Flea / Worm Treatment: £6-8 per month
Vets Bills: Checkup is about £30/year
Insurance: Between £8-12 per month

Total £25.50 to £34.50 per month.

Of course, it is entirely possible too do it on less (no insurance, cheaper food) or more (expensive fresh cooked food etc) but £25-£35 is a realistic figure for most. This is per cat.

paulmurr

4,203 posts

218 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Ours is about £7 for insurance, £15 for a bag of Hills science plan, flea treatment is a tenner for three vials and you use one per month, worming powder is a fiver for three treatments (again, one per quarter. Litter is about £7 for 10kg of Catsan from Makro and is regularly on offer. Add another £50 for one offs like beds/toys/scratchy posts/tickle sticks/treats/litterbox etc and they're pretty cheap.

Neutering was £100 including microchipping her and her yearly jabs are £45, but I might have made that up.

All in all, not that dear. However, she has eaten about £100 worth of headphones in the last two years, but your cat might not be such a little bd as ours.

Famous Graham

26,553 posts

231 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Riknos said:
I was just wondering what are the standard running costs of a cat
Depends on the model. A long wheel-base Maine Coon will consume more fuel than a Smart-esque Devon Rex. Similarly, the more flamboyantly coated examples will require more upkeep in terms of detailing - both regularity of application and work involved to preserve shine.

Unusually, this is one of the few areas where a cut'n'shut is actually your best bet.

Whitean3

2,191 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
I think we have the worlds most expensive to run cat. Oddly, there's no pet insurance in Switzerland (the land of insurance....) and given that one of our 2 cats is on his 5th of 9 lives now, he's probably averaging a grand a year running costs.

Crusoe

4,072 posts

237 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Merlot said:
Crusoe said:
GF has a rescue one, buy dry food from the vet which works out about £20 a month, insurance about £8 a month and about £200 a year on vet costs for various jabs and flea treatments etc. Fine unless something major happened when the 10 or 20% you pay towards any insurance claim could become a large bill.
You are being fleeced by your vet!
Quite an evil cat when it wants to be so needs to be sedated to get claws trimmed etc. needs quite a few quick visits a year which all add up.

mike325112

1,070 posts

190 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
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Blimey there are some expensive cats on here! Ours will only eat Sainsbury's or ASDA cheapy cat food it wont touch Whiskers or any other brand I have bought in an emergency. Ours costs about about £12 a month in food, about £6 a month in cat litter and about £50 a year for cat and dog flea treatment.

Too old for insurance, as is our dog so I guess there is a risk of a big bill.

Mazda Baiter

37,068 posts

194 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
rofl at some of these costs.

Mine is an indoor Bengal.

Big bag of Whiskas chicken dry food (with real chicken flavoured bits hehe ) £7.99. This lasts about 3 months.

A few drops of olive oil on the food (keeps her coat shiney) cost is negligable. It might be a litre every couple of years.

Tit-bits off our plates. Negligable cost.


£3.79 bag of cat litter lasts a fortnight.

£20 yearly jabs and the vet says that she is the healthiest cat he sees all year.

We don't buy her toys or any of that crap, when my little girl gets bored with a toy, it might become the cat's.

Most of the time she is asleep anyway.

Riknos

Original Poster:

4,700 posts

210 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Some good (and suprisingly mixed) feedback here, cheers all.

I like the idea of having a cat who wont touch the expensive food and only likes the cheap stuff - sounds like a winner to me! Especially since I very much doubt they can taste much of a difference, it's not like the difference between a restuarant steak and a tesco value microwave meal, is it?

B.J.W

5,816 posts

221 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Insurance a must!

Our male was insured the day we got him. A month later he was diagnosed with a gum condition that means he has to have two injections per month. Cost of injections is circa £60. Insurance covers this.

He is now 7 years old. So, current total is running at around the £4500 mark.


paulmurr

4,203 posts

218 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
You'd be surprised Rik, ours turns her nose up at pretty much anything that isn't Hills science plan. We've tried her on lots of other cat foods and she wouldn't eat it. We tried IAMS and she didn't eat for two days. She also doesn't really like wet food, unless it's the expensive tuna and prawn stuff which she doesn't get unless it's worming time.

She does like bacon and cheese, oddly. Also, she loves plaice but wont eat cod or haddock, loves tuna but turns her nose up at salmon. Then spends ages using her tounge as toilet paper.

I wanted a dog.

hornetrider

63,161 posts

211 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
The most expensive cost of 'running' cats is the bloody cattery bills. We have 3 of the little bleeders and a if we go away for a fortnight we come back to a bill for ~£300 squid.

Stablelad

3,815 posts

210 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
B.J.W said:
Insurance a must!

Our male was insured the day we got him. A month later he was diagnosed with a gum condition that means he has to have two injections per month. Cost of injections is circa £60. Insurance covers this.

He is now 7 years old. So, current total is running at around the £4500 mark.
I'm astounded at this! No cure?????

hornetrider

63,161 posts

211 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
Stablelad said:
B.J.W said:
Insurance a must!

Our male was insured the day we got him. A month later he was diagnosed with a gum condition that means he has to have two injections per month. Cost of injections is circa £60. Insurance covers this.

He is now 7 years old. So, current total is running at around the £4500 mark.
I'm astounded at this! No cure?????
Me too. Sounds like the vet is on a nice little earner rolleyes

okgo

39,209 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
How can an indoor car be the healthiest the vet sees?

Surley its overweight?

Wacky Racer

38,919 posts

253 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
hornetrider said:
The most expensive cost of 'running' cats is the bloody cattery bills. We have 3 of the little bleeders and a if we go away for a fortnight we come back to a bill for ~£300 squid.
We have two cats and a magnetic cat flap in the back door.

We just leave them a enough dry cat food to last a week or so, plenty of bowls of water all over the house, and leave 'em to it....never had any problems in over ten years.

Cost?....£00.00

B.J.W

5,816 posts

221 months

Tuesday 26th October 2010
quotequote all
hornetrider said:
Stablelad said:
B.J.W said:
Insurance a must!

Our male was insured the day we got him. A month later he was diagnosed with a gum condition that means he has to have two injections per month. Cost of injections is circa £60. Insurance covers this.

He is now 7 years old. So, current total is running at around the £4500 mark.
I'm astounded at this! No cure?????
Me too. Sounds like the vet is on a nice little earner rolleyes
Nope. Lady B.J.W was a 'no expenses' spared kinda girl when it came to her 'little man'

We paid for a private assessement. His condition is genetic (some pedigree in him somewhere down the line). His gums become inflamed and his throat swells. He is unable to keep food down and ultimately, stops eating altogether. The injections keep things under control. We tried the holistic approach - i.e leaving it to see what happened - he became very withdrawn/unhappy and the swelling actually got to the point that he lost a tooth. So, no cure... unfortunately. The side effect is that the injections include steroids - so one upside is that he is a big lad and as such, Top Cat in the area.