[Closed] £ of a cat

About a fiver a week for food, a fiver a month for insurance, 100 quid a year at the vet for vaccinations, fleas treatments and so on.

We once worked out that ours cost us 40p/day each, but what algorithm we used is lost in the mists of time.
Relatively cheap to feed, can be expensive if they need servicing (small animal vets love finding things wrong - 'her teeth are dirty...' - that can be fixed for about £60).

Ours costs about £6 a month for insurance, £50 a year for vets fees/injections/worming etc. and probably about £2.50 a week for food. She pretty much looks after herself, and spends most of her time either curled up on my knee, curled up on a bed, or running around the garden at full pelt like a complete loon.

Whatever it costs, it's worth it.
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are those two related?

Thanks for the info.

If it does get taken on.. the gardens big enough for it to do a bit of rat catching.

Only thing that does worry me is the possible decimation of the bird life 🙁

JD - first two are my current cats, brother n sis. Third pic is Mephisto; 1992-2004 RIP.

You are right about the birds.
When our cat was run over and killed, the bird population in our garden quadrupled within weeks.

I like cats very much but love wildlife more.
Maybe just let it out for an hour or 2 each day (never at night) and see how things go.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-080828-1.html
http://springerlink.com/content/30h281g68648h431/

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Bobby

hire a mouse costume for a day, that'll deter it.

More cost effective!

Hi, Bobby! 😀
Yeah, cats kill birds, it's a dilemma for a lot of people. I work in a wildlife hospital, and loads of the injured birds we see are cat victims. It's the way they are though and you can minimise the risks by using bells on the cats' collars. Restrict their outdoor time, site your birdfeeders in a safe place. Our cats get maybe two birds a year each - it ain't that bad.

he's clever, he can work the computer.

he's a rescue cat, previous owner died, so we took him off the RSPCA's hands.
He's not allowed out on his own after we lost the previous two to traffic within a fortnight of each other.

So the birds don't suffer either 🙂

Yeah, cats kill birds, it's a dilemma for a lot of people. I work in a wildlife hospital, and loads of the injured birds we see are cat victims.

i reckon we should cull all the birds, so many insects get maimed by birds with limited skillz.

tis the ciiiiircle of liiiife. i wouldnt worry.
i dont mind if my Del catches birds, as long as she eats them 🙂 (shes had bats before too, which is quite impressive imo)

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fluffy pussy.

dooo it 🙂 cats are ace

redthunder, being adopted by a cat is a wonderful thing.

Jasmine - who turned up on our doorstep many years ago. There's something wonderful about being gently but insistently being head-butted by an animal that could get by just fine without you.

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( and she is far cuter than the photo suggests )

Olly, our Cosmo's had a bat before too, we were impressed. It got away too, so good result all round.

Skiffy (RIP)

Quite the killer in her day

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A very persistent "random cat" at my old house.

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Our cats aren't very good at catching birds at all. bring in plenty of dopey rodents though.
no need to post but I like seeing other people's cats, awwwww
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Keep it fed and keep it in at night and the birds will be fine. We've two cats and dozens of (live) birds! The last bird that died in our garden was a male Sparrowhawk that flew into a tree, and the one before that was a victim of the female Sparrowhawk that hunts around here.

Maybe just let it out for an hour or 2 each day (never at night) and see how things go.

Cruelty to cats - admittedly ours spend less time than that outside between them, but then their combined age is 30!

We have always had cats and always fed the birds and the cats catch far, far fewer birds than feeding them keeps alive.

IsaacClarke - where was your old house? That cat looks strangely familiar

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We've just bought two cats - ma and son. Junior is getting his knackers cut off today and that'll cost about £65. Cat flue jabs are costing £140 I think, for both. I don't know how long they last but I hope it's not an annual renewal! Whiskas in gravy is their choice of food at the moment - think that costs £6.50 for 12 and they have four pouches between them, daily. Plus dry food at a couple of pounds for a box. Cat litter - £1.14 for economy litter from Tescos and they seem to love that more than the expensive stuff. Worming is another cost. Contemplating buying a new monitor cos they love playing chase the mouse cursor with claws unleashed.

My garden (which needs mowing) is a meeting place for cats as they can get to places easily.

So far I have counted 6, 1 looks like a show cat it's that nice!

A black and white cat has adopted us, but he is turning into Eric Cartman...fat, miows a lot and sleeps.

We took in a stray about eight years ago. Very friendly to people but an absolute nightmare to anything rodent-shaped (including HUGE rats that molest the chickens a few doors down). She's quite old now (vet reckons about 12, maybe older), but she still manages to supplement her diet with rats, rabbits and the odd squirrel (?!), despite having a bell.

don't have any photos sadly, all at home somewhere and none digital.

The only wildlife in danger of even remotely being affected by our moggy seems to be moths. And even then she possibly decimates about three, a year. She seems to enjoy licking car bumpers more than hunting... 😳

Nermal thinks you should adopt the kitteh;
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Lily isn't so sure:
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Actually, that one's off her food at the moment, having killed & half-eaten a rabbit at the weekend, which was left throughout our hallway. 🙁
Seriously, she's got a belly shaped like a zepplin at the moment!

Similar comments to those above. You need to budget for food, insurance (if you choose to take that out) and vets fees for anual check ups and boosters. If you're adopting it and don't know all it's history, you might want to get it checked over by the vet and make sure all it's injections are up to date as you'll need a record of that if you ever want to put it in a cattery when you go on holiday. Might also want to get it neutered or spayed if it's not already done (neutering will stop a male cat spraying and reduce it's likelihood of getting into fights and wandering off for weeks on end. Spaying will obviously stop a female cat having loads of litters of kittens). Microchipping is also nice to have as it means that the cat can be traced back to you if it's found by anyone and handed to a vet/RSPCA - also you can get (and we have) an RFID cat flap keyed to their ID implant chips that's programmed to only let our 2 boys in!

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Heh Padowan, it took me a minute or two to figure out what was going on with your kitties, I thought they were conjoined at the spine at first glance!

Yeah - looks like another take on the term Siamese cats!

This pic shows how their perfect symmetry appeals to the engineer in me!

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