How expensive are kittens?

I don't know that I'd get a kitten with such a young babies. Sorry - kittens IMO should go to homes that really really want them, rather than those who would be taking them for a favour etc. That's not a dig at you at all, just my opinion.

As far as expense goes, you NEED insurance, which is about £6 a month. It's so easy to forget to organise it and yet our kitten got a serious tummy bug the week before Christmas, which cost us £850, so thank goodness for insurance. The first £50 of any claim isn't usually paid. I'm trying to remember how much the jabs were, and neutering of course, and I think £150 covered it, plus about another £40 a year to keep them up to date.

Food costs around £20 a month depending on which brand you use.

Hope this helps you make the right decision for you all! x

It's a "how long is a piece of string" question I'm afraid. Our 13 year old cat has cost us practically nothing since the day we got her. Got her spade which I suppose back then cost around £30 and her yearly jabs of around £20. Food. Wormers. Flea drops. Cat flap. Collars. And that's pretty much been it. She hasn't even damaged one item of furniture around the house.

Whereas we were given a kitten 3 years ago who turned out to be a very, very expensive "freebie". We got her at 6 weeks old. At 12 weeks old she fell somewhere/somehow and broke her jaw. Had to have an operation to wire it all into place. Got her spade at the same time as she was going under a general anesthetic so made sense. Cost around £300. She recovered and it was then just the usually yearly jabs for 2 years, until last year when they spotted a growth in her mouth. She had an operation to try to remove it, which failed and from that moment, had to have the growth drained every 2-3 months plus loads of medicines. We finally gave up in February and had her put to sleep as the growth was becoming unmanagable. They did offer us another operation at a vet hospital to attempt to remove it again, but at £3k we decided against it. So, in the poor cats very short 3 years with us, she's cost us a small fortune. Not to mention has scratched at furniture, ripped curtains and generally trashed the house. But we did love the poor little thing!

As for children - both our cats have been fab with our children. They very quickly seem to accept that the cat is not a toy and after the initial interest of chasing them around the house and pulling their tails etc., pretty much seem to ignore them.

That's really interesting about the insurance HB. I cancelled ours about a year ago as both ours are house cats and I figured it wasn't worth it. Now I'm wondering if I should take it out again.

Flipping heck, ours has paid for itself so many times over! We had 3 cats, we only have two now and they're quite elderly, and yet in the past 12 months, one has had something stuck in her paw and it swelled up to twice its normal size. £150 plus antibiotics. The other is going to the vets this week because she's limping and we have no idea why. She had a urine infection last year - £70. But the tummy bug was a shocker. We would have just found the money from somewhere if she hadn't been insured as we couldn't have had her put down, but we were very pleased to only have to pay £50 towards it. Tesco and Direct Line are very competitive.

Thankyou thats given me alot to think about, the reason we havent had a cat before is my H wouldnt buy one, bless him he can be a little tight at times, the rabbit we had was free and came with the hutch. The vet bills however were a fortune and he hated it when we had to pay £150 for him to have an operation, I had no idea how expensive vets could be.

I was sat here thinking about it and thought we would have a real problem if Imogen turned out to be allergic, and I would hate my house getting shredded to pieces. Got my thinking cap on now. Thanks again.

Ah yes, cat-damage! We bought some lovely cream leather dining chairs which have been scratched to bits at the side. The carpet on the bottom of the stairs is knackered. The front of the sofa has a rip in it, and our kitten went through a phase of getting in bed with MrHB and weeing on him! We've always had cats, and this is before we had T so we were prepared but it was still maddening!

Oh yeah, and dealing with their little 'presents'! We have a mouse a week, moths, spiders and one hideous day, a huge stinking fish head. Niiice!

Ah see i forgot about the lovely little presents they bring in, couldnt deal with that. We have decided against it, there were more cons than pros and its not fair to get a kitten just because I want one, its all the little extras that we cant do. Thanks for all your help ladies.

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They cost way too much lol. As an example, two of my cats last year cost me £120 in litter for their trays, £120 in cat biscuits, £800 in cattery fees and approx £350 in vet fees (Neutering, flee/worm treatment and ear infections).

They cost a hell of a lot more than you think.

My cats have ruined my lovely NEXT curtains, scratched our sofa to bits, bring all sorts of animals in (Dead and alive!), forever jumping up onto things they shouldn't be and smashing things.. Then there's the emotional stress they cause, especially when you can't find one of them and they refuse to come home at night.

I love my cats to bits but my god, children are less stressful!

OM goodness that is alot of money BB. Having a 6yr old and 6mth old is stressful enough at times add a kitten into the equasion and its ridiculous. Thankyou everyone I really appreciate it