How much do you spend on your cat every month? (Food/Litter/Treats, etc)

momto3cats

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 I also bought a $3 toy but it has vanished already.  Our kitties are indoors so I have no clue where they dragged it.  Or maybe the kids lost it.  I don't know.  It's a fishing rod toy so it's not like it's tiny.
You need to be careful with fishing rod toys, not letting the cats play with them unsupervised. If they manage to remove the string they can swallow it and possibly cause major problems for themselves. My Niko did exactly that when she was a kitten, and ended up needing very expensive surgery to remove the string.
 

picklespepper

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Fortunately, our fishing rod toy doesn't actually have string.  It's more of a wand with feathers and thick chords (too thick and wiry to swallow) sticking directly out of the end.  I still haven't found it though.  Really flummoxed as to where it could have gotten!
 
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sophie1

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Two big (~15 lb) 2 year old cats.  Indoors plus leash walks outside.

I thought I was pretty extravagant with mine since they are fed 100% raw, but my costs are not too far off from everyone else's - except that they have been getting way too many treats :-)

Routine expenses including food, litter, routine care items like toothbrushes & paste, and toys all come to about $90/month.  This includes:

- Hare Today raw grinds plus supplements put together from Whole Foods, Amazon etc

- Nature Variety raw frozen 5 lb chubs with extra taurine & fish oil added

- Litter (Blue Buffalo walnut - changed from Dr. Elsey's due to concerns about me and the cats constantly inhaling silica dust)

- Toys, mostly replacing ones that get chewed up

- Routine care items like toothpaste & brushes

Add an extra $50/month budgeted for vet expenses.  I don't expect routine vet visits to cost this much, but I figure that "extras" they will eventually need like teeth cleaning should be covered from this budget.

This doesn't count unusual expenses like their cat tree, durable grooming equipment, vet emergencies, and their neuter surgeries.  The price tag from those are mind-blowing, but it feels good to have some semblance of control over the monthly budget at least!
 

crazy4strays

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These figures are just guesses.

For two cats:

Food: Probably $60 per month average. My kitties eat canned grain free wet food and I'm also experimenting with making homemade wet food.

Treats: $0

Other needs: Maybe $10-20 per month? (toothbrush, toothpaste, scratching pads, toys, bed, replacement tags and collars when they lose theirs, etc.)

Litter: $20-30

Flea Control: $35 (one kitty is on Vectra and one is on Revolution)

Anxiety Meds: $5

Vaccinations as needed. I get my indoor/outdoor kitty rabies, distemper, & FL/FIV. My indoor kitty gets only rabies shots.

Costs that don't necessarily recurr:

Microchipping (one time cost): $15 per cat, so $30 total

Feline Leukemia Testing: $35

Exam Fees for litterbox issues and follow up

The love from my kitties: Priceless 
 
 
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kittyluv387

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Not vet costs, but the basic costs.  Food, litter, etc.  Once I get my 2nd kitten I'm gonna be trying to keep it at $100.  $30 goes on litter since I will need 2 refillable trays every month for my automatic scooper.  Wet food is costly though so maybe I'll go a little over $100.
 
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miagi's_mommy

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Hmm... I have never really thought about it. We don't buy canned food in bulk.... it's cheaper here to buy 4 big cans at once. With Tiger (had to put him down in January) it was about the same. He ate more kibble than wet food as it upset his tummy. So it was like maybe $20 - $30 on dry food a month (I bought 2 bags at a time) and around $30 for wet food I'm guessing? We get wet food every week so it adds up. Litter.... I clean the litter boxes regularly and I swear I spend more on that than their food.

I think you could easily spend $100/month or less excluding vet costs. It just depends how much the food, litter and toys are. And how much your growing kitten and other cat eat. I still feed dry as Angel likes it. Miagi prefers wet food but he will snack on dry. Oh and on treats I probably spend around $10 on those a month. I get a few bags to last.
 
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Winchester

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I think somebody else asked this question in another forum not too long ago.

We were just shy of $200 a month, I think, for the six cats. That's canned food, two kinds of dry food, two kinds of litter, CatSip, snackies and treats, toys here and there, and bottled spring water.
 

Kat0121

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3 cats on a canned only diet

Food- about $150.00

Litter- About $30.00

Treats- 1 large bag of chicken Pure Bites from Amazon subscribe & save - about $20.00

about $200 total

Vet bills aren't every month so I didn't count those and they have a lot of toys already so I don't buy new ones monthly. If I see something I think they will really like, I'll pick it up. The girls are picky about toys and Henry seems to like the little catnip stuffed animal toys best. He'll bat them around, toss them and pounce on them. He has no interest in wand toys though. The girls love them. 
 

terestrife

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I am just curious as to how much it would cost every month.  
Litter from amazon 40 lbs $15-17. I have two cats, and they go through a bag a month. The bag would last two months when it was one cat.

I feed home made food and spend from $110+ for two cats, when i fed regular canned food it was also $120-150. If you are not going to feed healthy, ive seen cat food super cheap at bjs(a wholesale store), that you can get with coupons. do you live in the us?
 

happybird

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For four cats, we spend approximately $200 a month. This is for dry and wet food, litter, and treats. Occasionally, we have to get a new tube of hairball rememdy or a new toy or bed we Must Have, so $20 for random stuff is included in that number. Some months, we go through a lot of canned food, so the number can be a little higher. We get the biggest bag of our dry food that they make and store it in tight containers to keep it fresh. It lasts a little more than month.

My husband and I decided to open a special savings account for the vet. We started it with $100 and add whatever we can every month. Sometimes, it's only $10 or $20, but money is slowly accumulating in the account.

There have been several times in the past 20 years when we have had to visit the emergency vet and it is pricey beyond belief. Nothing is quite as embarrassing and stressful as calling your mother at 3AM, begging to use her credit (especially when you are in your 30's). I've been in that position more than once and vowed to never let it happen again.

With our new account, paying for check-ups will add no stress to our monthly budget and we will have something in case of an emergency. Plus, our bank has a neat $500 overdraft protection program that allows you to borrow that money in an emergency. There is a fee to use the money and if you don't replace it quickly, they charge high interest on it. It's kind of like a payday loan place, but the interest rate is not as high. It makes me feel good to know it is an option if worse comes to worst.
 
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crazy4strays

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I noticed that many of you don't include flea treatment in that number and I'm curious why. Is flea treatment considered optional if your animal's feet never touch the outside ground?

Recently when I signed up for fostering, the foster coordinator was initially not even going to flea treat the foster cat at all.

Even my indoor cat goes outside on a leash and harness. Plus, I have an indoor/outdoor cat due to circumstances.

A long time ago, I had an exclusively indoor cat get a nasty flea infestation.

I pay $35 per month for Vectra and Revolution for my two cats.
 

mollyblue

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I noticed that many of you don't include flea treatment in that number and I'm curious why. Is flea treatment considered optional if your animal's feet never touch the outside ground?

Recently when I signed up for fostering, the foster coordinator was initially not even going to flea treat the foster cat at all.

Even my indoor cat goes outside on a leash and harness. Plus, I have an indoor/outdoor cat due to circumstances.

A long time ago, I had an exclusively indoor cat get a nasty flea infestation.

I pay $35 per month for Vectra and Revolution for my two cats.
I have same issues as you.  We have indoor cats, but we have a lot of plants on the balcony for them to play in and they do walk on harness and leashes and fleas are very bad at my complex.  We also have to treat our indoor kitties.  Sometimes makes me wonder if it is worth it to let them have a taste of outdoors, but they enjoy it soo much!  And we do too.
 

crazy4strays

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It makes me wonder why my totally indoor cat got fleas years ago. I lived in the city and kept her indoors all the time.
 

mollyblue

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We have lived in the apartment for 10 years.  Before we moved here we had 3 indoor outdoor cats and treated them once in the spring with an over the counter flea med you spread between their shoulder blades and tail and we never had fleas.  When we first moved up here, we only brought one fur baby, and she was strictly indoor and we did not have flea problems until she went into chronic renal failure.  As her health deteriorated, her flea problem increased.  We bathed her weekly, vacuumed daily, treated her as often as allowed, and with several diferent types of medications.  We were at Petco discussing the situation with an employee there trying to figure out what to try next and she asked where I lived.  When I told her, she told me... oh, we have tons of people from that place coming in here... they have fleas really bad there.  Alex has since died.  The vet treated us as though we just didn't clean our apartment or wash her bedding... but he had been our vet and we had complained to him about fleas for several years prior to Alex getting them so badly.  After Alex died we got Snowy and Tati. Snowy has a lot of health issues, and she happens to be allergic to fleas, so if she even gets bit, she breaks out in a big rash, and she is all white.  From what I have read, fleas like white stuff... Tati is the one who is most active outdoors climbing trees and chasing bugs in the grass, but she doesn't get fleas nearly as bad as Snowy... Snowy likes to go outside, but she tries to stay out of the grass.. she don't like bugs.
 

terestrife

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I noticed that many of you don't include flea treatment in that number and I'm curious why. Is flea treatment considered optional if your animal's feet never touch the outside ground?
 
i used to put revolution on my cats religiously. but my cats are indoor only, and something inside me felt guilty putting so much poison on them. i know it helps avoid heart worm and things like that. but i dunno, putting it on every month, for me, felt unnecessary.
It makes me wonder why my totally indoor cat got fleas years ago. I lived in the city and kept her indoors all the time.
do you have any dogs? or live in an apartment building where a dog could have brought them to the building?
 
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momto3cats

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When I had a cat who was allergic to fleas, I used flea meds during the warm months of the year. We haven't really had a flea problem since she passed, so I'm not using the meds as they aren't needed. We have a dog who gets Sentinel for heartworm prevention, which has an ingredient that prevents fleas from reproducing, so maybe that helps? Or maybe my current cats just aren't that attractive to fleas for some reason. 
 

LTS3

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I noticed that many of you don't include flea treatment in that number and I'm curious why. Is flea treatment considered optional if your animal's feet never touch the outside ground?
 
Parasite preventative is not a monthly cost for me. I buy Revolution and Heatgard in bulk twice a year.
 

happybird

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I noticed that many of you don't include flea treatment in that number and I'm curious why. Is flea treatment considered optional if your animal's feet never touch the outside ground?

.
I only treat for fleas when we have fleas, and that is very infrequently. Even though it is a necessary evil, I hate the idea of putting chemicals on my pets and only do it when necessary. We'll occasionally get an outbreak, usually when we take in a new stray. But, I learned my lesson and treat the new cat before it comes into the house or starts hanging around outside the open windows.
We use the extra-large sized dog Advantage 2 and measure it out for the cats. One tube treats them all, with a little left over in the tube. One package of 3 or 6 tubes can last us for years. I don't think of it as a monthly expense because $70 spread out over 24 or more months isn't much at all. :D
 
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