I’m getting mixed messages about the cost of looking after a cat in the USA. I’m not even sure that it is worthwhile trying to work out an average because everybody’s different. Everybody has their own budget and how much they would like to spend on their cat. Obviously, it depends upon disposable income which varies massively wherever you live. And in multi-cat homes you buy in bulk which will save on a per cat costs.
For example, in the online news media today and referring to the New York Post, this newspaper mentions a poll conducted by OnePoll for a cat food manufacturer Solid Gold. They state at the beginning of the article that “the average American spends $25,304 on their furball during its life, according to the poll of 2,000 cat owners”.
They estimate that the average lifespan for domestic cats is 15 years (a bit mean as it is probably longer nowadays). If you divide that large sum of money by 15 you get $1,686 per year, which seems like a lot more than the vast majority of cat owners spend. It seems high but I am unsure.
This is borne out by visiting the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance website which states that “According to the ASPCA, you can plan to spend around $634 annually on your cat which breaks down to around $53 a month. They mention medical expenses of all kinds including vaccines and check-ups, cat food, treats and toys etc..
If you multiply $634 by 15 you get $9510 as the lifetime cost of looking after domestic cat in the US. Perhaps I have found two calculations at the extreme because the ASPCA figure is little more than one third of the Solid Gold poll numbers.
Another website states that a cat owner will spend $1285 per year to keep their cat happy and healthy. This is in between the other two calculations.
Another website strongly indicates that the cost of looking after a domestic cat varies state by state in the US. In fact, according to them it varies tremendously which surprises me a lot. They state that in Delaware cat owners spend $1,838 per year on cat litter and food, they also spend $332 per year on insurance and $67 per year on visiting the veterinarian. This is a total of: $2,237 per year which over a lifetime of 15 years amounts to $33,555!
Apparently in Idaho prices are much lower which seems unbelievable to me. Can somebody please clarify? They say that cat litter in the state of Idaho costs around $331 per year. I can only think that Delaware cat owners buy super high-quality cat food and Idaho cat owners by poor quality cat food! Because the prices at the point of sale can’t be that different between these states. I think these numbers are unreliable and that is one of the problems in answering the question in the title. There is quite a lot of guesswork.
This website pettable.com states that the average Idaho cat owner spends $695 per year supporting their cat.
In both instances there is the cost of insurance which is quite substantial. But the truth of the matter is that a survey found that 4.41 million pets were insured in North America in 2021 but the majority are dogs. One website states that 17.1% of cats are insured. I have seen lower figures. I don’t think people really know how many cats have health insurance in the US. The point being made is that you can’t automatically include pet health insurance in calculating the annual cost of looking after a domestic cat and the higher figures include a charge for pet health insurance.
The UK is normally more expensive than the USA in every respect pretty well. My research found that the PDSA (a respected UK animal hospital chain) estimate that the “minimum monthly cost of owning a cat is £64”. To which you have to add setup costs totalling about £303. At the current exchange rate (1.16) this makes $74 per month to look after a cat which is massively lower than the other numbers.
This must mean that British cat owners are more frugal in their spending on domestic cat caregiving. I’m confused.
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After the article there are some more on responsible cat caretaking.
My conclusion – what is yours? Please share.
There can only be one conclusion as far as I am concerned which is that working out the average cost of looking after domestic cat is pretty fruitless as it depends on the disposable income of the cat’s caregiver combined with their willingness to spend money on their cat. Sorry I can’t provide a neatly packaged answer.
You can look after a domestic cat very cheaply and do a good job or you can throw money at domestic cats by buying toys that aren’t used or replacing furniture which has been scratched. You don’t have to replace furniture which has been scratched by a domestic cat. You can accept it. Or you can buy furniture which is not scratched such as wicker furniture.
And some cats are healthier than others and don’t require so many vet visits. And a lot of people don’t take out cat health insurance. And many people don’t go on holiday and therefore they don’t need to put their cat in a boarding cattery.
There are many ways to trim back cat caregiving overheads without impacting caregiving quality and there are many ways to spend more if you want to. This makes working out an average slightly meaningless as mentioned.
I am sure you’ll find some retired Americans looking after their cat to an excellent standard while keeping costs down because they have more time to do hands on caregiving including perhaps making a raw cat food diet.
Well said. It does depend on many variables. In some countries it will be very cheap and in some homes in America for instance it will be very expensive.
Although not residing in U.S.A but in Mumbai in India and having owned a cat since 1995 should say that maintenance costs differs from owner to owner.At present my maximum expenses and inconvenience is ” Pet- Sitting” my cat when I am away from Mumbai on travel.Hence I also feel that it is very difficult to come to a average conclusion of the average maintenance of a cat in any Country be it U.S.A, U.K or even India .Fact that is undeniable is that maintaining a cat or any pet requires personal attention towards the pet akin to a human and most people cannot afford that and hence relinquish pets.