What a cat really costs
Food, litter, vaccines, parasite treatment, neutering and the odd surprise. In Spain, a healthy adult indoor cat costs somewhere between €600 and €1,200 a year; prices elsewhere vary, but the items are the same.
The first year is always the most expensive
On top of the running costs come the first course of vaccines and the test for feline leukaemia and feline immunodeficiency virus (€80 to €150 in total in Spain), the microchip and registration (€30 to €50), neutering, which Spanish law requires before six months (€60 to €150 for a male and €120 to €300 for a female, depending on the clinic and the city), and the starter kit: a rigid carrier, a sturdy scratching post, a litter tray, bowls, a water fountain and toys, which rarely comes to less than €150 to €250. If the cat comes from a shelter, the adoption fee of €50 to €150 usually includes the chip, vaccines, tests and neutering, which works out much cheaper.
The monthly bill
A 4 kg (9 lb) cat eats about 50 to 60 g (around 2 oz) of dry food a day. With a mid to high range food, that is €15 to €30 a month in Spain, and €30 to €60 if you add wet food, which is recommended to help it drink more. Clumping litter costs €8 to €20 a month depending on the type and the number of trays. Add internal and external parasite treatment (€40 to €120 a year depending on risk), the yearly check-up with its vaccine (€60 to €120) and replacing toys and the scratching post. All in, for a healthy adult, €50 to €100 a month.
What is not in the budget
A urinary blockage in a male cat, which is an emergency, costs €600 to €2,000 with catheterisation and a hospital stay. A dental clean under anaesthetic with extractions, €200 to €600. A fall from a balcony with fractures can easily pass €1,000. And old age brings long-term treatment: kidney disease or hyperthyroidism means €40 to €150 a month for years, with regular blood tests. None of these is unusual: over fifteen years, most cats will need at least one of them.
Insurance or a savings pot
In Spain, cat health insurance costs €8 to €25 a month depending on age and cover, and third party liability, which Spanish law does not require for cats, adds very little. Before you sign up, read what is excluded: almost all policies leave out pre-existing conditions, many have waiting periods of several months and some raise the premium sharply from eight or ten years old, just when the cover gets used most. The alternative is to put €25 or €30 a month into an account just for the cat: in two years you can cover an average emergency without depending on the small print.
Where you can save and where you cannot
You can save by buying food in large bags of the same range, learning to trim claws and brush at home, making toys from boxes and cardboard and adopting instead of buying. You cannot save with a poor quality supermarket food, by skipping the yearly check-up, by using dog flea treatments (some contain permethrin, which is highly toxic to cats) or by waiting to see if it passes when a cat stops eating or cannot pee: in a cat, that wait is what turns a €50 consultation into a €1,000 hospital stay.
Budget €600 to €1,200 a year for a healthy adult (Spanish prices), quite a bit more in the first year, and keep an emergency fund. Michipedia’s calculator works it out with your own prices.
Educational content from Michipedia. It does not replace the advice of a vet or a feline behaviour specialist. Every cat is an individual.