How much do cats cost per month?

[Thegoblinchief]

Other members of the family want a cat. I like cats and miss the one we had many years back, but can't remember what we spent on average.

Anyone care to chime in on:

1. Cost of getting cat in first place but more importantly

2. Monthly food/litter/routine vet visit costs

Thanks. No idea whether we'll actually get one but knowing the numbers makes the decision clearer.

[Mntngoat]

get a  dog they are more fun

[FLBiker]

1. Free (my cat showed up one day)
2. We spend ~$15 on litter every couple of months.  And we spend ~$10 per month on wet food, plus ~$5 on dry.  Something like that.

I don't know how much the vet costs (we've taken him for an annual three times).  We go to the humane society, so I don't think it's much.  Flea medicine might be ~$120 per year, though.  Sorry I can't be more precise!

[Ziggurat]

With two years of YNAB tracking, the total average monthly over that time for us is $80 Cdn/month.  That includes food, litter, shots, toys/scratch posts, etc.  It also includes about $200 for leukemia shots as our cat has outside privileges.

But... we budget an extra $30 Cdn/month to save up for the big vet bills which will eventually hit, especially as he ages.

[geekette]

Kinda like with people, when they're young, they don't require much - $20/month?  As they age (or if they get sick or injured) costs can really soar.  Also consider vacation care (neighbors? boarding? paid pet sitters?)

If you're a cat person, dogs are not more fun (and they require much more care, IME).

[innkeeper77]

Getting a cat (adult) is a minimal up front cost. We paid a $200 "adoption fee" for our latest cat, aka we covered spaying her and vaccinations.

If your cat is indoor only, there are only minimal vaccinations and costs. Vet fees are typically minimal, and simply checking the animal is not expensive. Our old cat (12 to 16 years ish, she was a rescue my family got at leat 10 years ago, if not more. Now that I have a house, she lives with me) had siesures badly one day.. The vet visit and blood work was $200 totell us she should be fine, but monitor as much as possible. If it was a worse diagnosis, it wouldn't be feasibly treatable anyway... If you are unlucky you can have very very expensive medical fees, but you can also elect not to pay for those procedures. Prolonging the life of a suffering and dying pet is often cruel in and of itself... Now if a young cat has a correctable problem, there is a chance you could have to pay a few thousand for something or other.

$200 in the past year, maybe the same amount over the past ten as well total for the occasional vaccinations .

Litter for us is about $10 a month, two cats. Buy it in bulk!

Food is variable. Dry food isn't great for them, but it is dirt cheap (think $5 per month for us, science diet) good healthy wet food can be expensive, but not too bad (think $1 a day) (EDIT: Potential bad advice about raw food removed, I'll look into this further, but dont want to lead anyone astray if I can help it)

Toys: near free. We occasionally buy a few dollars worth of catnip, and they love a type of sparkly ball.. But mainly boxes a d string do the trick. Our "budget" for toys is probably under $20 per year.

Overall, they can be highly highly variable costs, as cheap or expensive as the owners want them to be. Just be mustaxhian about them, and they can be great cheap pets! (If you can do petcare for free on vacations that is, or never vacation..)

[Kris]

Keep in mind that some cats are healthier than others.  We have two currently.  One is healthy as anything, she costs us maybe $25/month between litter and food. Plus shots once every couple of years (she's an indoor cat, but I learned with a previous cat that you shouldn't let their shots lapse -- that cat caught and killed a bat in the house and wasn't current on her shots -- that was scary).

The other one has had a history of UTIs.  He can't have dry food, and we have to feed him special medicated canned food to control the UTIs.  But he hates it, so we have to mix it half and half with Fancy Feast or he won't eat it.  About once a year his chemistry gets off balance and we have to take him in to be treated.  So he costs us about $75-80/month plus the yearly vet visit.

[MEJG]

This is HUGELY dependent on where you live.

Food and litter costs can be kept low by price comparing and buying litter in bulk.  Sometimes online ordering has really good prices.  Good food will keep your vet bills down too. 

As to vet costs, it is really important you have a relationship with a local vet and get annual exams done.  Catching things early is key to keeping them healthy and keeping costs down.  Some of the ways you can keep vet costs down are to adopt and already spayed or neutered cat, use a low cost clinic for spay or neuter or if you are getting a kitten that isn't fixed get a boy- neutering costs a lot less than spaying.  As to vaccinations, there are low cost vaccine clinics in a lot of areas where you can get your vaccines at a lower price than your regular vet.  However, the annual exam at a place that knows your pet really is crucial to wellness care. 

The biggest thing you can do to keep health care costs down is keep your cat INSIDE and only adopt a cat that is FELV/FIV negative.

Petplan has pretty good insurance.  We priced it our for our team but then instead of buying it through them, since insurance is a game that the insurance company wins, we just created a separate category in YNAB we use for insurance purposes.   In our area insurance for a mix breed adult but not geriatric cat ran about $25/month.

IMO most cat toys are useless, other than a good scratching post if your cats like scratching posts.

In our area and annual exam is 55-70 (depending on the clinic).  The recombined vaccines for indoor only cats are Rabies ($20-30) and FVRCP ($25-40) (feline distemper combo) those can be given every 3 years after the initial kitten shots in our state.  An outdoor cat should also have FELV, feline leukaemia ($25-40) and that is yearly.  Outdoor cats should also have flea and tick prevention, and ideally heartworm protection, my favourite is Revolution which runs about $80/3 months.  Low cost neuter can be as low as $50, low cost spay $75.  At a full service clinic neuter is $100-150 and spay $200-350.

IMO wet food is generally healthier for cats than dry.  You don't need to go to the HIGHEST end and highest price to get a good wet food though.  If you consider feeding raw please do your research and do it well.  It can be done successfully and cheaply but there are pitfalls, like anything, and it is not recommend to combine commercial food and raw feeding in general.

[Blueskies123]

As with dogs the cost is exponentially related to their age.

[zinethstache]

Consider carefully what you are in for! DH regrets caving in to me to get another one. And ours is really very good. He camps with us which saves on needing any caretaking while we vacation, but it limits what we do.

We have a 2 year old finicky eater (as in doesn't eat alot). He does go outside during the day which minimizes the litter box usage. He is a lazy guy, doesn't go out of the back yard much. We did raise him up to be a backyard only cat (that only goes so far) He likes to sit on the fence under the trees and dream about tasty bird snacks, but actual hunting takes too much effort.

basic monthly expenses-
$18 1 case wet food/mo. $17-$19 through amazon prime (we've been all over the map on this, and settled on a mid price food
$ 18 1 bag food/month (better quality from petco)
$   9  1/3 bag of World's Best Cat litter 9/mo
-------
$  44 basics
$  10 treats
$  10 one vet trip/year for immunizations

$  64 / mo

We free feed dry food and try as hard as we can to get through one tiny can of wet food per day. We also feed treats for the fat, and our cat is still thin as a rail. He is a large breed cat (Maine Coone) but I hear that most large cats don't eat more than smaller cats.

Cat accessories to buy/make:
Favorite toys - anything ball shaped. So, balled up candy foil is the bomb in his world. We did buy a few mice when he was a kitten (waste of money for the most part), ours has a fave, it is a Yoda mouse. Strange that Chewbacca mouse has not received the same attention. Literally, Yoda mouse moves around the house but Chewbacca mouse just, never moves... perhaps our cat is strong in the force!

Cat Tree - we built one custom, maine coon sized:) used 2 x 4s, plywood and left over carpet, stained to match. It is way better than anything you would buy.

Scratching post - we got a few small ones, you put them wherever they are scratching to encourage proper use of furniture and carpet:) Now he's grown up and we are down to one, it looks awful all the time, we really should keep it trimmed up. They will destroy it, just keep remnant carpet for repairs and be ready to hide it in the closet when company comes.

Harness (yes he's a fully leash trained guy) kitten and adult sized.
Leash - just the one
Collar (s) with bell and name/phone - I stamp my own tags, saves a bundle. bought an array of collars off ebay for 2-4 each.
Soft Cat Carrier - you will appreciate this for emergency trips. Our cat never uses it except for the vet, just to make the walk into the vet less a trial if there are dogs present. We fed our kitten in it and he still doesn't hate it today.

Litter genie - love this! cheap to use
Litter box - got the biggest we could find

We have to religiously vacuum weekly, one extra day and poof, cat hair everywhere. MCs are a medium length hair cat, but even our siamese would shed.

The best of luck to you on this major decision!

[Thegoblinchief]

Okay, so far the responses are in line with what I was expecting. Probably more than I feel comfortable spending until we make more progress.

[MEJG]

If you are looking for a less expensive but still furry and cuddly pet consider a pair of rats :)

[Brilliantine]

Here's your outlier data point.  I briefly considered creating a burner account for posting this info... :)

We have two cats. She is 10 and he is 8. She has been having severe itchiness for a long time and we have been feeding them hypoallergenic food that costs $65 for a 9lb bag. Recently her symptoms worsened to the point of self inflicted open wounds due to obsessive and hardcore grooming. We finally took her in to see an animal dermatologist. Allergy testing, desensitization shots, etc. added up to

wait for it...

Spoiler: show

One thousand three hundred dollars, US.

So yeah. What everybody else said. It depends on the cat and the age of said cat.

[smalllife]

The biggest thing you can do to keep health care costs down is keep your cat INSIDE and only adopt a cat that is FELV/FIV negative.

I have two cats, one FELV/FIV positive and one FIV negative.  The FIV negative cat has cost dramatically more in vet costs (undetermined occasional bouts of not eating/pain for days).  AND the FIV negative one has UTI history that is the source of the prescription dry food they both eat.  FIV positive cat = nothing beyond yearly checkups for the six years of her life.  Now, I recognize this may change as they age, but don't rule out a cat just because they are FIV positive.

Our monthly costs are ~$60/month for two cats assuming no out of the ordinary vet bills (includes annual check up and indoor shots).  The record keeping is a bit muddled these days with the dog, but that's about average.  Dry prescription food, discount litter, no toys, and treats.

[Mr. Green]

The biggest costs are the ones you have no clue will happen. When you get a kitten it will be healthy but, like people, cats can age poorly. We have two cats currently that were fine until 9 years old. Since then we have had a litany of issues that have led to several tear filled discussions about maybe it was time. The tough part is some times the issues aren't huge. It's easy to say no to a multi-thousand dollar vet bill, but can be very hard to say that's it when the bills are a couple hundred every couple months over something like a UTI. That all depends on the person. I know folks who have no problem drawing that line. I myself have a much more difficult time because these cats encompass my entire adult life, and we have no children yet, so they feel like kids a little bit.

Also worth considering is that if you have a healthy cat it may live for 20 years. There are times now where I wish we didn't have cats because it's a hassle/cost to arrange care for them while we're away, particularly given the issues we've had. Perhaps you wouldn't have a problem giving them away when they're 10 years old but I know our cats get mopey when we leave for a week so they might not take to new owners after 11 years very well. These weren't things I was thinking about when we took them in.

Currently things are settled and our two cats cost about $125 a month for litter, special UTI cat food, and a $20/month Rx for one cat. Each of the last two years though the vet bills have been a thousand or two as we've been back and forth trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

[YK-Phil]

Our cat was a free spirit who did not cost anything to acquire. My kids had found him outside a restaurant while we were on holidays 8 years ago, and asked the restaurant owner if they could keep it, and she was more than happy say yes.

He's been an indoor cat since we've had him, except for a couple of two-week escapes, and aside from one set of vaccinations and a visit to the vet that was required when we had to board him for a week while waiting to move to a new house, we have not paid for vet or medicine since we had him. As he gets older, I suspect we will need to budget for one or more vet visits per year, and possibly medicine.

He gets organic food that costs about $18 per month, treats and catnip about $5. Litter is another $6 a month, at most. Entertainment comes from crumpled aluminum foil or paper balls and various cardboard boxes we get from the recycling depot.   

[ash7962]

I see you said its more than you're comfortable with at this point.  For future reference, if you do adopt a cat then don't get a real little kitten.  Kittens under 6 months old can present medical problems suddenly/unexpectedly which can cause high expenses or potential heart break.  I was impulsive and stupid when I adopted my first 2 cats.  They were 2 months old and one died within 2 months due to mystery liver illness that my vet could not determine the cause of (despite expensive tests).  The other I still have, but she has always had digestive issues and recently she basically developed allergies to food so she pukes and has diarrhea frequently.  We're on fancy vet food now which costs about 60$ every 1.5-2 months and helps with her digestive issues.  It also costed quite a bit in vet bills to figure out what her problem was.  I did adopt a 2nd cat about a year ago because the first does not do well as a single cat, and his costs are in line with what others have said.

[pdxvandal]

We got a 5-year-old cat off Craigslist for free a few years ago. It had some weight issues, so we have spent some bucks on a few steroid shots per year as well as Frontline flea treatments, which are overpriced. Other than that, he poops outside, so no litter to buy. Overall, not that expensive and WAY easier to care for than a dog, which we've had in the past. You can leave them for a few days at a time and not worry about them tearing up your house (especially if they have self-guided access to the outdoors).

[MicroRN]

Acquisition and daily maintenance isn't bad, it's the unexpected vet visits that add up.  For 5 cats (1 barn, 4 indoor), we spend about $40 in litter and $60 in food/month.  I think the most expensive was $75, adopted from a rescue.  The barn cat came with our house, two were strays, and one was free through a rescue that desperately needed to clear space.  One who died several years back was from a rescue and he was $100, I think.  The strays still cost an initial vet visit, though fortunately both were fixed already.  The annual vet checkup with fecal exam and shots runs about $100.  Dental cleanings under anesthesia run ~$250-$350, but they don't necessarily need that every year.  We have one who has naturally perfect teeth that stay clean, and one who's had to have a ton of teeth removed.  We budget a lot of sinking fund money for vet bills, between all the cats and the dog.  Unless you really feel strongly about getting a cat, I wouldn't.  I love mine and wouldn't give them up unless we were at risk of starvation, but I wouldn't recommend acquiring this many. 

These are the big vet bills I remember from the last 6 years:
1) Sudden blindness and circling, ICU stay, diagnostics, check ups, cancer diagnosis, hospice meds, euthanasia = $1800
2) Broken leg, Xrays, cast, numerous rechecks, have to board cat at vet when gone for the weekend, more xrays = $2500
3) Swallowed half a spool of thread while we were gone all day, emergency surgery = $2200
4) Major dental with half the teeth removed = $1500   
5) Nasty chronic cystitis, lab tests, meds, put on antidepressants! = $780
6) Mysterious hair loss and dermatitis , visits, tests, rechecks, meds = $550

Did you know you can foster animals for rescues and shelters?  You take care of them short or long-term, the rescue pays the bills.  The only hazard of that is that is can be very hard to give them up.   

[Cressida]

We have two cats. I've been tracking for about a year and a half. These are our monthly averages:

Food: $50
Vet: $35
Cat sitting during vacations: $20
Litter: $10
Everything else: $12

We feed only canned food, although it's definitely not the gourmet variety. I believe that dry food killed two of our cats, and I am not a person given to overdramatization.

If you have anyone close by who will do you the favor of feeding and scooping while you're gone, that's definitely a savings. We do not, and it hurts.

FWIW, I plan to go on a cat hiatus once our little ones leave us. It's directly related to adopting MMM principles. They are cute, though.

[bobechs]

If you are looking for a less expensive but still furry and cuddly pet consider a pair of rats :)

It starts with a pair,  but then....

[travelbug]

Our cat costs about:

$15pm in dry food
$20pm meat
$15pm litter

maybe $100 per year in worm/flea and vet bills.

That is AUD.

And he is totally worth every cent, we just love him to bits!

[Cpa Cat]

Two cats - indoor only.

To date this year, the cats have cost $802.23. Includes about $400 in vet bills and $70 in pet sitting. We don't have a vet bill that high every year, though. We actually don't take our cats to the vet unless something is up. When we do happen to be there, we get them some basic shots. One of our cats went in due to a tooth issue this year. We also bought flea treatment for three cats earlier in the year because we were catsitting and our guest came from an iffy situation.

Cat acquisition costs: $0 + Increased vet bills for first year.

We got ours from our vet, but for comparison purposes, our local pound frequently runs specials on cats (adults are free, kittens $10). They go out fixed and with some basic shots.

[aspiringnomad]

I love animals generally, especially pets and especially dogs, and I realize that it's an irrational love. But in embracing that irrational love, I've tried to apply some amount of rationality to it and have come the conclusion that you simply cannot beat cats in terms of the love-to-cost ratio (accounting for both financial and time costs) . YMMV, but if your family members want a cat, I think it'd be a very good investment in a totally unfinancial sense.

[ShortInSeattle]

We had three cats and took excellent care of them. Our costs averaged 1k per year.

Food and litter are cheap. Dental cleaning, senior health conditions, pet sitting - they added up.

They were wonderful companions and gave back far more than they took.  No regrets, except that I wish they lived as long as we do. :)

[aspiringnomad]

In terms of finances, we have two cats that cost around $80/month total, plus the very infrequent but sometimes very expensive vet visit. We have not bothered with pet insurance and vets around here are not cheap. There is no question in my mind that they provide exponentially more in happiness and love, but again, how one quantifies that depends on each person.

[FrugalKube]

One Cat Indoor Only. Goes out in the backyard if he is supervised. He is 8
-Gets mostly dry food  (hairball control) and a little wet food at dinner $15 a month or less for both
-We use pellet litter since he (Maine Coone) hairy toes would track the regular clay litter all over the house $15 a month or so. Clay litter was so much cheaper.....
-The occasional toy $1-$2 every 4 months
-Has scratching posts. They get replaced every 2 years or so $30
-Gets regular Vet checkups once a year $30 a year

Overall yearly costs $411 (I need to buy food and little in bulk)

[justajane]

I'm embarrassed to say that we are the pet parents who only send our cats to the vet when they have problems. I know this probably not the best for them. Even taking this into account, we spend around $20-$25 month per cat. Litter and food really add up. Then there's the random flea treatment and other problems. If you want to be better pet parents than us, I would factor $50 a month minimum to account for health care costs. 

[Thegoblinchief]

If you want to be better pet parents than us, I would factor $50 a month minimum to account for health care costs. 

Yeah, the general hive mind consensus here is ~$50/month per cat, possibly as much as $100/month. I told my wife that I'd prefer to make more progress, then revisit in a year or two. If she gets showered with a raise this year, though, maybe.

But both of us are getting itch to travel more. So the complications there are well felt.

Thanks for all of the input.

[ragesinggoddess]

If/when you do decide to get a cat, get a girl. Our boycats have both had trouble with urinary blockage and both the vet visits and preventative special food have been expensive.

[secondcor521]

I have a DLH male cat who I adopted at 9 months old in April 2013.  For the ~30 months his all-in Quicken total is $861.08, or about $28.70 per month.

He's been totally healthy so far and has only been to the vet once for his vaccinations.  Strictly an indoor cat, so I just plan to take him once every three years for his rabies shot.  But he's only 3, so his vet bills could easily go up as he gets older.

Acquisition cost was $10.60 from a nearby animal shelter.  He's the best cat I've ever had.

Basic equipment is probably less than $100: litter box, food dishes, scratching post, toys, cat hair rollers (to remove cat hair from clothing), cat brush (for him).  His favorite toy is actually girls' hairbands - he plays fetch with them.

He eats dry food - Dick Van Patten indoor formula.

He uses the World's Best Cat Litter - it controls the ammonia smell waaaay better than the cheaper stuff.

Food and litter I buy at Petco with coupons - I could probably get it a little cheaper if I worked at it.

I'll leave him alone for up to a few days, but on the few longer trips I've either had him stay at the vet (pricy and stressful on the kitty, but I know he's taken care of) or have one of my kids look after him (cheaper, not the best quality of care).  There's a high end cat babysitting place that is like $25-$30 per day that I've thought of using.

[MBot]

This may be unpopular, but I do want to point out your convictions on pet medical bills will drastically influence how expensive their health costs are. I am used to having rural "farm cats" which are only fed and nothing else growing up.

As a pet owner, I think I should spay/neuter and feed my animals and give basic vaccines, and let them live indoors (which dramatically cuts risk down)

But - If they get quite sick, I figure they've lived a good life and I can give another pet a home. The same if you adopt a pet that has chronic issues. There is a massive pet overpopulation. Anytime you adopt you can save the life of a healthy cat.

My 2 cats cost approx $15/month in litter and $20/month in midrange food, plus booster rabies shots for travel.  . I don't feel obligated to spend beyond that.

Edited to add - other costs are negligible - DIY a scratching post, leave a ton of food and water out when you go on vacation and pay a neighbour kid to change the litter once a week while away.

[Lski'stash]

We have an indoor cat and spend $15 every two months or so on food (for Hills Science Diet brand food). That's it. She doesn't even like toys or treats.

We did have her spade back in the day (she's six now). I think that was $100? Haven't had any health issues her her at all.

[Shane]

TGC,

Aren't you planning on getting a farm? Why not wait to get a cat until you move to the country? Farm cats pretty much take care of themselves. They can hunt birds and mice to supplement their diets, and they seem healthier than animals that are raised indoors.

Our cat hasn't been to see a vet since he was a kitten and we took him in to get him neutered ~13 years ago. He eats about a 1/2 cup of dry food every evening and seems pretty happy. A bag of dry food costs us $11, and it lasts at least 2 months. So, I guess our cat costs us $5.50/mo. :)

[Shane]

This may be unpopular, but I do want to point out your convictions on pet medical bills will drastically influence how expensive their health costs are. I am used to having rural "farm cats" which are only fed and nothing else growing up.

As a pet owner, I think I should spay/neuter and feed my animals and give basic vaccines, and let them live indoors (which dramatically cuts risk down)

But - If they get quite sick, I figure they've lived a good life and I can give another pet a home. The same if you adopt a pet that has chronic issues. There is a massive pet overpopulation. Anytime you adopt you can save the life of a healthy cat.

My 2 cats cost approx $15/month in litter and $20/month in midrange food, plus booster rabies shots for travel.  . I don't feel obligated to spend beyond that.

Edited to add - other costs are negligible - DIY a scratching post, leave a ton of food and water out when you go on vacation and pay a neighbour kid to change the litter once a week while away.

This +1!

Our animals have a great life on our farm, and we love them dearly, but they are NOT children. They're animals. With few exceptions, the only vet bills I've ever paid for any of our animals have been to get them spayed/neutered when they're young. After that, they're on their own. We've owned 3 cats and 2 dogs in 20 years, and they have all been really healthy. If one of my animals had chronic health problems that required it to be seen by a vet, the only vet bill I would pay would be for euthanization. There are tons of healthy cats and dogs that need a good home and would love to live on our farm. It doesn't make sense to me to pay money for vets to take care of sickly animals. Just my 2 cents.

[Meowmalade]

We have two spoiled babies who eat raw food (about $75/month) plus I'm guessing litter costs are around $10-15/month (World's Best; I save by stocking up on the big bags when I get 15% off my whole purchase from the store mailing list).  The vet bills weren't a lot except for dental once every few years, but this year both cats have had some health issues and we had to get an ultrasound and tests for the boy cat which totalled almost $1k.  He seems okay now and gained all his lost weight back.  The girl started vomiting about 10 times a day a few days ago and we ended up doing a comprehensive blood panel which was almost $200, on top of the $60 vet exam.  Oh right, plus the X-Ray costs last time which indicated a possible liver issue. Luckily, it came back with no signs of anything bad today, so we're trying Pepcid to see if it's just stomach acid causing the vomiting.

We used to live in the suburbs and the vet bills were about 30% less, but we don't have the heart to drive them 30 min each way when they cry all 10 minutes drive to the new vet...

So, our cats have been expensive this year, but they are like our kids and bring us a lot of joy.  They come to greet us when we come home, and it makes me so happy when it's chilly at night and I wake up with both cats snuggled up to me.  But oh my god.  The girl and her bathroom issues.  The daily checks to see if there's vomit (or poop on the floor.  Or in the rare case which makes me so mad, pee).  I almost dread coming home from vacation and seeing what's happened in our absence.  I keep saying I'm not sure if I'd get cats again after our babies are gone, but I melt every time I see the next cute kitten photos!!

[Retire-Canada]

Other members of the family want a cat. I like cats and miss the one we had many years back, but can't remember what we spent on average.

Anyone care to chime in on:

1. Cost of getting cat in first place but more importantly

2. Monthly food/litter/routine vet visit costs

Thanks. No idea whether we'll actually get one but knowing the numbers makes the decision clearer.

You should be able to adopt a cat for free.

Don't let the cat out and other than spay/neutering them there are no routine vet costs.

We spoil our cat and probably spend $30-$40 on food. You can spend less for sure.

Litter box is $20 and $25 litter a month. We like one particular litter so we don't shop on price. I've seen bulk litter sold quite cheaply at the local pet store.

[Salim]

Other members of the family want a cat. I like cats and miss the one we had many years back, but can't remember what we spent on average.

Anyone care to chime in on:

1. Cost of getting cat in first place but more importantly

2. Monthly food/litter/routine vet visit costs

Thanks. No idea whether we'll actually get one but knowing the numbers makes the decision clearer.

Our cat was free. We spend about $78 per month on him for everything including food, dewormer, and vet. He eats a lot, but is quite thin. He is a very sweet pet and is also a working cat who earns his keep by catching mice, voles, shrews, and even a gopher.

[Meowmalade]

Ah, I didn't mention our typical vet costs.  It's about $80 a year per cat, but this is in town at the expensive vet.  In the suburbs it was closer to $50.  You could always call around and see what your local vet charges for an annual exam.

[MMMaybe]

I have a very spoiled furball. I buy very high quality, high protein food for him, with no fillers, human grade meat and no grains.

However, my food bills are not excessive. The cat eats less of the high quality food. So we get through a 5 pound bag of dry food every 2-3 months. He eats about 1.75 ounces of wet food a day. The cat food is relatively expensive here (Philippines) so actual numbers here won't help you much.

Since the switch to a better quality diet, his health has improved markedly (he used to have eye issues, which were ultimately linked to a food allergy). Our vet visits take place once a year and are only for his annual shots :)

So I spent more but spend it less often.

[purplish]

The standard stuff you do for pretty cheap if you put your mind to it.  We have 2 cats.  I get the cheapest/largest clumping litter, $11 a month.  Toys- sometimes I'll grab something at the dollar store, and often times will play with twisty ties from bread.  Scratching posts I've bought for sale at cheap places.  Basically I never see a need to go to expensive pet stores like Petco and such. 

Cat #1 is healthy, however had some vet visits due to constipation.  The special vet food which worked great, was pretty expensive though.  I was successfully able to transition her from that to Fancy Feast Classic (it's actually grain-free and decent quality!) for $12 a box, with just over the counter Miralax mixed in.  Cat #2 has kidney disease/failure, and has had several expensive vet visits.  However now we've got her to a much more stable place and she's doing very well.  I give her various over the counter things and vet meds, and she gets prescription food.  I think it's important to do your own research when it comes to cat illnesses, because while the vet will help, sometimes it's OTC that can make a huge difference too.  Now that both cats are stabilized, we really don't spend *that* much per month.  I haven't added up yet how much Cat #2's monthly extra stuff is, but most of the stuff I bought will last months.

[katstache92]

Here's your outlier data point.

Well, here's another one for you.  I have two cats, adopted them for $75 I think when they were 2ish and 4ish.  Up until August of this year my costs were: $10/month for litter, $1/day for both dry food in the am and wet in the pm, maybe $10/year for toys, $20/year for cardboard scratchers, $300ish for a litter robot (I don't care that this isn't mustachian, I love it and it makes me so so happy), $200-250/year for vet visits (annuals, vaccinations, inevitable eye/ear treatment after I go away on vacation), teeth cleaning for $450 for one cat, $75ish/year for pet sitters.  In August, one of them, at age 7ish, stopped peeing and so we got a two day stay in the emergency room at the hospital.

That stay plus the follow up x-rays, bloodwork, and regular vet visit totaled $1610.25.  Oh, and now he's on special prescription food that is $1.91/day.  And I have to feed them in separate rooms but spend time in both rooms so they will actually eat.

So, I used to spoil my cats and spent more on them than I needed to (pre-MMM) and now I'm paying a ton.  Cats are awesome (especially mine!), but I am also feeling a little trapped by the fact that I can't just drop everything and decide to go on a trip.  This is also compounded by the fact that the "free" pet sitter, my neighbor, did some really uncool stuff last time.  There was no gift card for her that time when I got back.

All of this is also coming from a person who is extra tired because her cat decided to show his love this morning by kneading my hair on my pillow at 4am.  So I'm not really that bitter and they really are awesome, but they do come with some strings attached.

[SecretMinimalist]

Just a thought for anyone thinking about getting pets...
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Allergies/Pages/pet-hygiene.aspx (From the UK's National Health Service)

It might be worth fostering a pet first to check that no one in your household is allergic.

Some very lovely relatives decided not to get a cat because of my DH's cat allergy, so we would be able to go into their house.   Alternatively, you could get a pet to prevent unwanted visits by family with allergies!