Pet Ownership Poll

[LD_TAndK]

We adopted cats this year, our first pets. So far it looks like about $600 for the two cats annually. We're fortunate we have a family member who is a vet and does basics for free.

But it got me curious about the state of pet ownership on these forums.

Relevant MMM: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/09/07/great-news-dog-ownership-is-optional/

Also: https://livingstingy.blogspot.com/2009/04/pet-trap.html

[Fresh Bread]

I have one dog and I spend about AU$100/month on premium food & treats, then there's flea & tick treatment, the annual vet visit plus usually some other random visit, and an annual groom. So I'm guessing $1-2k in US dollars. She's still young so I'm expecting it will double in later years with dentals, arthritis treatment etc.

But the ROI is incredible. I regret nothing.

[LD_TAndK]

We went to a locally owned pet shop to try and pick up stuff for a "kitty christmas". The price on toys was INSANE. Little glued together balls of fluff on a plastic wand costing $20 or more.

I made our own by drilling a hole through a wooden dowel rod and threading a length of string through. My wife has plans to sew some cute prey. We did end up buying dried catnip even though we have some growing in our yard.

[Metalcat]

I have high maintenance animals with health issues, and vet care here is extremely expensive, so a $5000+ year is not at all unusual.

I would happily spend more. My animals are fucking fantastic.

My current crew are the funniest set I've ever had. I laugh, heartily,  literally every day thanks to these whackadoos. Well worth the price of admission, best show in town.

[Sailor Sam]

I’ve got a rescue pup with heath issues that took 2021 to pin down and mitigate. He’s also a separation anxiety pup, and his program and daycare are about $2,500 a month.

He cost $18k in 2021, and is on track for $14k in 2022. I think he might be an outlier… ;)

[SweatingInAR]

A "good" year is probably almost $2k for my 2 and 10 year old terrier/schnauzer mutts

I would happily spend more. My animals are fucking fantastic.

My current crew are the funniest set I've ever had. I laugh, heartily,  literally every day thanks to these whackadoos. Well worth the price of admission, best show in town.

Amen!

[Sailor Sam]

Omg, those ears!

[englishteacheralex]

I fantasize about getting a pet, and I know my kids would absolutely love it. But I hate the thought of the added expenses and complications/hassles, so we have always been a pet-free household. I'm very curious to see the responses to this poll.

[LD_TAndK]

I fantasize about getting a pet, and I know my kids would absolutely love it. But I hate the thought of the added expenses and complications/hassles, so we have always been a pet-free household. I'm very curious to see the responses to this poll.

Since getting cats we've found two other neighbors who also have cats and are willing to swap pet sitting services. Community building and free! We also feel comfortable leaving them two nights without any check in.

[Metalcat]

I fantasize about getting a pet, and I know my kids would absolutely love it. But I hate the thought of the added expenses and complications/hassles, so we have always been a pet-free household. I'm very curious to see the responses to this poll.

Yeah, we don't have kids, and we both work from home, and I can't really travel in my current condition, so having a crew of nutty, engaging, entertaining critters is a very worthwhile investment.

They were worth their weight in gold during pandemic isolation.  The sphynx cat was brand new when that all went down, and the hilarity and drama he brought to the mix kept us entertained in our little one bedroom for all of those many months that were were stuck in here.

[dcheesi]

Squeaked in under the wire on $4k this year. When the cats were younger, I/we spent a whole lot less, but senior kitties are more costly. Plus one of ours passed this year, and there were a lot of extra vet visits and tests related to that. Plus the other one is now on a special Rx diet ($$$).

Our new, younger kitty probably won't cost us much for several years yet; just shots and an exam once a year (knock wood). Plus food & litter, of course.

[Sibley]

Well, this was an interesting rabbit hole.

I've had 2 cats pretty much the entire time. There's been some variation in which cats of course, but I had Sibley from 2007 (really earlier, but I wasn't paying her expenses) through 2019 when she died, and Arwen from April 2008 through Oct 2022. Since Sibley died I've had a variety of different cats, most of which had higher medical bills. I now have 2 kittens, so I'm in the high cost early period and it will go down from here (SO MUCH FOOD).

This includes: food, cat adoption fees, toys, litter, supplies, vet costs, meds, and pet sitting. Basically, if I bought it for the cats, it's in this total. From 2007 through 2013 I worked a job that I traveled a lot and thus I paid a pet sitter to take care of the cats while I was gone, this was a lot.

Total 8/1/2007 through 12/16/22 (the entire length of tracking I have): $44,782.24. Forgive typos if the annual doesn't actually add up.

2007: 384.11 <-- started in August
2008: 1,413.72
2009: 4,228.29 <---lot of vet bills, there was a neighbor cat beating up my cats repeatedly until I figured out where the cat lived and talked to the owner, who thankfully did something, then I moved
2010: 2,947.71 <-- pretty sure that was the year Sibley got about a dozen bites from a raccoon/possum
2011: 2,335.24
2012: 1,873.60
2013: 3,275.35 <-- extra costs cause I moved cross country, so extra vet bills, supplies, etc
2014: 2,160.14
2015: 1,667.47
2016: 1,935.55
2017: 2,159.17
2018: 3,888.74 <-- vet costs for Sibley, she was nearing end of life
2019: 3,123.33 <-- lots of vet costs for Sibley, then she died, then extra food for a sick foster cat (no vet bills, but I provided food/litter), then adopted Jill
2020: 4,872.48 <-- Jill died unexpectedly so extra vet bills, Arwen was sick but recovered, got Rosie and she had some health issues
2021: 1,717.11 <-- had to return Rosie, then only had one cat for a good chunk of the year, plus parents probably bought some stuff since they were living with me.
2022: 6,799.59 <-- adopted Elrond (hyperthyroidism so daily meds and periodic blood tests), Arwen got put on anxiety meds, Elrond got really sick and died, Arwen got sick, then got better, then stopped eating and died, adopted 2 kittens Beren and Luthien, so their adoption fees and baby shots. $4100 of this is just vet bills and meds. And I bought probably $200 in toys since a lot of my stock was old or unsuitable for kittens.

I'm not done for the year either, Beren goes in next week for a recheck as she's currently sick (kitty cold, she's doing fine) and will need a microchip, plus no guarantees I won't need more kitten food as they are both eating a ton of food. 2023 the kittens will need more shots, and are still growing so the food bill is sky high. But after that, the total costs should be much lower for a long time.

Edit: I said 2-4k on the poll, but clearly it varies significantly. 2022 just happens to have been an insanely expensive cat year.

[roomtempmayo]

With two big dogs, fixed costs were about $1000/yr each for food, vet, and flee/tick/heartworm meds.

In the past year, as they were/are both 12-13, it's been more like $3-5000/yr, each.

The thing about dogs is their expenditures are lumpy.  You cruise along for years without major issues, and then it's cancer, or some rare liver disease, or just chasing diagnoses the vet can't figure out.

The normal stuff isn't a big deal.  It's all the unexpected stuff that adds up.

[MandyT]

Hmmm... I haven't added it all up yet, but a quick calculation in my head puts us at over $4000 this year, I think. [ETA I just checked Mint--duh--and it looks like we have spent $5100 this year on veterinary bills alone. So that doesn't include pet food, etc. I think it does include boarding and training because we got those through our vet.]

We tend to rescue older cats because we're suckers, and also because we used to be very active volunteering for various cat shelters and so on. So those are always more expensive.

We have three cats. The oldest one is 13...we rescued him when he was eight. The shelter told us that he had an immune condition that would require us to have his teeth removed at some point…and that "point" ended up being two weeks later. He had already been declawed by a previous owner, and was rescued from a hoarding situation along with 40 other cats. So now he has no teeth, no claws, and a weird ear condition that occasionally requires us to have benign tumors lasered out of his ears. He's now falling over a lot due to some hind leg issues, and we can't believe he's lasted this long considering all this. We joke that he will outlive all of us.

We also got a Chihuahua puppy last year. He is our first dog so I dropped money getting him (and us) trained. So that plus all of the puppy vaccinations, etc. made it more expensive than usual this year. Not to mention I discovered how very expensive boarding is.

Like others here, I wouldn't have it any other way! DH is saying that maybe as our pets pass, we should not get other ones. And I agree in principle, but then every time I see an older pet in need, I just want to bring it home!

[NotJen]

Currently pet free so that I have the freedom to move around.

But I did have 2 cats for a span of 20 years.

Years 1-8 were very cheap, probably <$500/yr.  Timing worked out so that they were spayed/neutered during discounted spay/neuter month.  No health issues.  Got free pet sitting.
Years 9-12 were more expensive, probably around $700/yr.  Still no notable health issues, but I did start boarding them or hiring a pet sitter when I traveled.
Years 13-20 I have actual data, and spent $1,700/yr.  But this amount is still pretty lumpy, with a few cheaper years and 2 years over $3k due to treating hyperthyroidism.

I miss having pets, and I'm sure I'll have cats in the future when I decide to settle down again.

[Mr. Green]

We had two cats from 2006 to 2017. A couple years in the whole commercial pet food poisoning scandal went down and we realized just how bad cheap commercial pet food is for animals. We started making our own cat food and that raised the annual cost of owning two cats to around 2k per year. Eventually Blue Buffalo came out with quality cat food and we had grown weary of making huge batches of meat slurry every three weeks so we switched to that. The cost was similar. As our cats hit 8-9 years old health issues started to crop up. The addition of vet bills took the annual cost to 3-4k per year until they were no longer with us. I'd love to have cats again but we travel too much now that we're FIREd. Plus I can't see adding several thousand dollars to our annual budget for pets. One day we'll probably have animals again. Until then I just remember how much happiness we had with our two kitties.

[wenchsenior]

We had two cats from 2006 to 2017. A couple years in the whole commercial pet food poisoning scandal went down and we realized just how bad cheap commercial pet food is for animals. We started making our own cat food and that raised the annual cost of owning two cats to around 2k per year. Eventually Blue Buffalo came out with quality cat food and we had grown weary of making huge batches of meat slurry every three weeks so we switched to that. The cost was similar. As our cats hit 8-9 years old health issues started to crop up. The addition of vet bills took the annual cost to 3-4k per year until they were no longer with us. I'd love to have cats again but we travel too much now that we're FIREd. Plus I can't see adding several thousand dollars to our annual budget for pets. One day we'll probably have animals again. Until then I just remember how much happiness we had with our two kitties.

Same. We buy mostly the high end food, and with 4 cats, it really adds up. (We never intended to have 4 cats, were content for years with one, but our neighborhood was hit with about 6 years of continuous feral cat overrun with 2-3 new batches of kittens per year, so here we are).

[jac941]

We have 2 dogs, and one is a senior dog. We’ve spent about $5,000 on veterinary care, medications and special dog food this year - the vast majority of that on the old dog. And that’s been the lowest year of vet & related medical expenses in the past 3. The most expensive year in all my pet owning years was 2020 when our senior dog had a bunch of issues and then we put him down and our then younger dog had surgery and was diagnosed with a heart problem. The total was very close to $10,000 for the year.

I’d have to go back several years of expenses to see what our dogs cost when they were young. It was a lot less. When our old guy dies (which sadly will almost certainly be within the next six months), we’re going to enjoy just having 1 young dog for a while.

[GilesMM]

Normal pet is just vaccines which are affordable. We sometimes go to a mobile vet in a parking lot that charges almost nothing for vaccines.

If you get a chronically sick pet and choose to treat it the sky is the limit.

What are you looking for in the response? How much to budget? How to save on care?

[BlueMR2]

Have had a dog before and a bird another time.  I did enjoy having them, but it was a lot of money over time.  I can enjoy life just as much without that kind of expense.

[Captain Pierogi]

It hurt to choose the last option, but she's worth every penny.  Our dog is now 12(ish).  We adopted her when she was 7, and she came to us having issues around other dogs.  We have found that sending her to doggy daycare 1-2 times per week helps tremendously with aggression issues.  Plus while I normally work from home most of the time, when I do travel, we have an easy way to just bump up the number of days she gets out of the house.  So general care, even with some bigger health issues, has been about $2K annually.  But the daycare adds another roughly $2K.  It would be way worse if I were still working full time at the office.  Her bladder just isn't big enough for that schedule!

[Michael in ABQ]

Our daughter recently saved up to buy a mouse. All in for the cage and initial supplies (and mouse) it was about $85. One of our sons did have a lizard but he frankly didn't take very good care of it, and it finally died. In both cases, they used their own money to buy any food so our cost was zero.


We've thought about a dog or cat but too many allergies in the family. Also, we've had a baby or toddler in the family for the last 10+ years. A dog seems like a toddler that never grows up and learns to take care of themselves. Also, since we rent we'd have to get permission from our landlord - and likely pay additional rent or pet deposit.

[mistymoney]

I'm an over 4k.....I have lots of pet cats, one dental surgery was about 1400 this year, plus feeding several ferals.

[wenchsenior]

I'm an over 4k.....I have lots of pet cats, one dental surgery was about 1400 this year, plus feeding several ferals.

As I always remind myself, at least it's not horses. I love horses, but they are the ultimate money pit on four legs.

[kenner]

With two relatively young, healthy cats it was in the $500-$1000 range and closer to the former than the latter.  Now with only one older cat with medical issues it's in the $3000 range pretty consistently.  He's worth it :)

[Heckler]

We've loved one or two cats at all times in the past 30 years.  Not a single one has made it onto the spreadsheet - better off not knowing.  It gets real expensive near the end - making the call is hard, but sometimes it's the best for all involved.

[use2betrix]

We have a 5.5 year old German shepherd. Prior to him we had a chocolate lab for 13 years. He was my 16th birthday present and we had been through a lot together.

Aside from a couple items later in life, the chocolate lab was incredibly low maintenance. Great cause I was pretty poor a lot of those years.

Alternatively, if seems each year having our GSD had been more expensive that the most expensive years of lab ownership. Allergies, toe amputated, rashes, recent complications from neuter a few weeks ago, yadda yadda.

Alternatively, comparing the two mentally and physically is like a Toyota Camry vs a Porsche 911. The GSD is high maintenance by my gawd is he a specimen of an animal in all aspects of the term.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

This year is over $4K, but we bought a puppy and have had a lot of new puppy expenses, plus we already had two dogs.  I think next year may be just as high, and then it should calm down.  We'll switch his food after 18 months (right now he's on a high quality large breed puppy food with lower calcium content), and hopefully won't need as much daycare at that point either, but he won't be 18 months until next September.  That's when he'll be neutered (if we choose to neuter him, which will depend, but it can't be before that per the vet). And he'll do at least one board and train in 2023, maybe two.  We don't usually board our dogs unless there's no way for them to travel with us, but we do find value in board and train to augment the training classes we've done (and will do more of) and the daily training maintenance.

The sad thing is that our oldest dog is nearing the end, so some of our expenses will go down eventually.  Right now I'm evaluating using a hospice vet to help us know when the time is come, and we will use home euthanasia. So that is an expected expense, hopefully not until 2023.  As another posted said, the pet expenses come in clumps, and this is one of those times.

(We did not get a puppy thinking the oldest dog was near the end.  He's only 9.  He was diagnosed with Canine Degenerative Myelopathy in June, with moderate symptoms at that time.)

[Villanelle]

We adopted our 2 medium large (50-60 lbs.) senior girls earlier this year.  Almost immediately, it was $2000 for dental alone.  I don't carefully track expenses (I know, I know; blasphemy!) but we needed absolutely everything.  They are also on a daily joint supplement, and one of them takes a liver supplement that is about $1/day.   I'd guess we are at about $5k for the year (9 months of ownership), not including their adoption fee.

That also include doggy day care, which we bought as a large package for the discount.  We only use it sporadically, like when I traveled and Dh's workdays are too long to leave them alone, so we still have a fair amount of days left.  And we spent $40/day on a dog sitter for a 9 day trip.  (The going rate in my area seems to be $40-50; I hired the adult daughters (2 of the ended up coming, but I didn't pay them more) of some friends, and i think they were happy to get out of the house, so I paid on the low end.) 

I'm desperately hoping their annual exam doesn't show that they need more dental as $1000 per dog is steep!

[Kris]

I chose $500-1000 for our cat plus the one who lives with my MIL and whose vet expenses we pay.

I would pay so, so much more if need be. Our cat is the sweetest, goodest little girl and I would do anything for her. My MIL’s cat brings her so much joy.

Pets are not strictly mustachian, but not everything is about money.

[Fomerly known as something]

I voted high.  At one point I had 3 cats.  One was diabetic for 4 years.  Now I have one, but I travel a ton for work.  He gets a pet sitter.  That adds up quickly.

[Fru-Gal]

I haven’t calculated out what we spent on them this year but we have 8 pets: 2 furred, 2 finned and 4 feathered. In general I don’t think they cost too much although I would probably happily not have fish since that was just a stage that my kid went through and now he’s not so interested. I have never in my life lived without pets. I consider them necessary.

[ATtiny85]

Boarding tosses us up into a mid tier level. Two cats at about $40 a day adds up during our normal three vacations a year. Special food due to urinary issues in one.

[Cassie]

I have 2 very spoiled Maltese that are worth their weight in gold:)). I voted in the top tier. I feed high quality food and they get groomed every 3 months with me trimming in between. Being small dogs they each get a dental every 18-24 months and the cost is at least 1k and many times more. When I go on vacation I hire a friend to live here. I have pet insurance for major illnesses. I have had rescue dogs for the past 18 years and until 4 years ago always had 4 dogs.

[dandarc]

This past year, we spent over $4K on vet bills alone. One of the cats (young) had a very persistent and difficult to figure out respiratory infection. Was very costly but did figure it out and ultimately get him well - seems like money well spent on the whole, though I question whether it was really necessary to go to specialist vet to figure this out.

Going forward, even though we do buy fairly expensive food it really boils down to whether hiring a pet sitter is a "pet" expense or a "travel" expense. If we count that as "pet", probably $4,000 is the best we can possibly hope for. The $2k-$4K range is the most likely and $1k-$2k annually possible if not for the pet sitter. Been hoping to try out trusted house sitters to get that cost down, but we're not exactly a destination city here, plus gonna take a fair amount of leaning to get my wife on board with that approach.

[HPstache]

I am so done with furry pets after our current cat passes on.  Similar to a few other stories, our cat costed well under $500/yr for about the 1st 8 years of her life.  Now she is on an expensive diet and gets injections all the time... both things that (from my opinion) don't help her situation.  It's about $250/month now and it almost makes me feel sick thinking about the money hole.

[BDWW]

2 large dogs, that shed like mad.
~50 bucks a month on dry kibble
Shots ~150x2 once a year.
$900 bucks a year.

[SotI]

Squeaked in under the wire on $4k this year. When the cats were younger, I/we spent a whole lot less, but senior kitties are more costly. Plus one of ours passed this year, and there were a lot of extra vet visits and tests related to that. Plus the other one is now on a special Rx diet ($$$).

Our new, younger kitty probably won't cost us much for several years yet; just shots and an exam once a year (knock wood). Plus food & litter, of course.

Pretty much this - it*s the "senior years" and the end-of-life care that are the biggest expenses. But they deserve a proper care in their twilight years. They are part of the family, after all.

[zygote]

We have one cat and spent about $2300 last year. This included her mid-tier food, standard vet appointments (no major health issues for now, knock on wood), and petsitting when we travel. I can't imagine spending only $300/year on one cat. Her food alone is around $100/month with the inflated cost of cans recently. Feeding mostly dry food to cut down the cost just increases medical spending in later years, since it makes them much more prone to kidney disease and diabetes, so it doesn't seem like a good trade-off to me.

[Raenia]

One cat, last year was our first full year of ownership and we spent about $2600. That's for a prescription hypoallergenic diet, plus a dental surgery that hopefully won't be repeated. I expect most years to be 1500-2k, but we'll pay what it takes to keep her healthy and happy. We haven't needed to pay for pet sitting, we have lots of family in the area who are happy to stop in when we're out of town, in exchange for us doing the same for them.

[Erma]

Our two cats cost 3850 CHF last year but this includes a car accident of one of the cats which was 2100 CHF. I assume it gets cheaper again but also they are getting older.

[RainyDay]

I'm an over 4k.....I have lots of pet cats, one dental surgery was about 1400 this year, plus feeding several ferals.

As I always remind myself, at least it's not horses. I love horses, but they are the ultimate money pit on four legs.

lol so true!  I used to have horses, and there's nothing that compares to the on-going high cost of boarding.  Similar to a very high car payment that never ends.
Now we have 4 cats (2 are ours and 2 are fosters) and the FOOD costs are killing me, but I love having them around.  Plus the two elderly ones each have special needs and special = $$. 

[MacGyverIt]

We have two dogs and from the outset committed to treating them well to provide their optimal health. The ROI has been daily joy and our increased "happy hormones" - there's never a day they don't bring us joy. We buy grocery meats on (extreme) sale and stock up because we don't trust where processed dog food comes from (and eating healthy is totally Mustachian!) In addition, we spend on their annual check ups, monthly heart worm and every three months flea/tick med. One of our rescues has seizures but their med is less than $5 every 80 days so not a big deal.

We have no debt other than our mortgage, so for us this was an acceptable expenditure and worth every penny.

They've made our lives richer and we're the better for it.

[mistymoney]

so....thinking 2023 might be less than 2022 for vet bills......starting off with a 6k emergency surgery....

[PDXTabs]

Last year I spent $1,549.55 on this little lady at the vet. That included one dental cleaning, one tooth extraction combined with an elective surgery, and all of her medications. Without the elective surgery it would have been closer to $1000. I have her on a pet maintenance plan that is $73.57/mo ($882.84/yr) which includes free office visits, a dental cleaning, and discounts on medication. I could probably do it for less but this is my first dog and she is one of my only luxuries and this is simple.

I also probably spend something like $400/yr on grooming and maybe $600/yr on her home made food for her delicate Shih Tzu stomach.

[smisk]

We have three cats ranging from just under a year to 6 years, so not too old. Spend ~$80/month on food and litter, then we just dropped $900 on a vet bill for the three of them, so I think this year was around $2k, maybe a little over. Absolutely worth it though.

[MisterA]

We have a UK border collie dog. She eats inexpensive 'complete' food, which is really inexpensive. Vets bills have been pretty small, just inoculations, so <$100/year. The biggest bill is probably putting her in dog kennels when we travel abroad, this costs something like $14/night and we're normally away for 14 nights (so about $196).

[FLBiker]

We're in the "no pet" group.  I grew up without pets, DW always had some dogs and cats.  We had a cat for a few years, but that didn't go well.  My daughter would like a dog or a cat very much, and I'm very resistant because 1) I don't want to decide when they die 2) I value simplicity (and we already have a kid) and 3) I don't want to have to figure out / pay for taking care of them during vacations.

My DW has raised the additional concern that it isn't up to us who the pet would bond to, and the fact that I work from home makes it likely that it would be me, and I'm the person least interested in having a pet.

It may yet happen -- I could see us getting an older animal (as we'd want to have a sense of it's personality and also not have it outlive my daughter moving out by too much) or fostering.  Either way, it will be driven by DD and DW.

Despite my non-pet nature, I totally agree that it's one of those things that you can't really put a price on.  I really liked having that cat, and even though it was really hard at times, I wouldn't go back and change it.

[Pookie]

Oh my! Last year I woke up to my beagle/basset mix hound not able to walk. IVDD - which is common in dogs with long backs and short legs. They should never jump off of anything. $6500 later for surgery and a week in the hospital. She is thriving now, thank goodness.

I rescue dogs every chance I can as people in the south are quick to dump dogs, breed them without care, etc. As my contribution to fostering and rehoming, I often pay for them to be spayed, get their immunizations, etc. Most rescues work on donations and if I can help with those costs, I do. So that adds to my dog costs.

Right now, I have 4 dogs. All are rescues and my last one just wasn't adopted or able to be taken into a foster/rescue (I think) because he is a pitbull/rottie mix. No one would take him, for which I am (now) very thankful!  I found him running down the middle of a road- possibly right after he was set out. He was crying/whining when he jumped in my car. So sad.

So, my expenses just for my 4 run around $3500/year not counting emergencies or my rescues. Like the others have said, they are family. I LOVE them more than anything. They make me laugh and bring so my joy to my life!

I've posted in the past that I a passion for living overseas and I keep looking at ways to get to Portugal (top of my list) but with the dogs, it is a bit harder. Yet another hurdle but I like a challenge!

[Daisy]

The best pet is a chicken! They clean themselves and require little maintenance and you get eggs! I recently got chickens but haven't calculated the initial costs for the coop and feed setup and feed compared with what I am saving on eggs.

They are super cute as well. Now that they know me, they follow me around in the backyard. Some let me pet them and carry them.

By far chickens are the most mustachian of pets!