Adult indoor cat

MSVforever

Hi All,

We are thinking about getting an adult cat but wondering which type of breed is least active and therefore more suitable for indoor living?

We do have a large enough house on two levels where the cat would be able to roam around freely. However we wouldn't feel comfortable to let the cat go outside as there's a lot of traffic and construction work going on.

Furthermore I would like to know what types of costs are involved.

Would it be sufficient to have a budget of €500 for cat beds, litter trays, scratch posts, food bowls, cat carrier, blankets, toys etc?

In terms of monthly cost would it be realistic to budget about €80 for food, litter, pet insurance etc?

Thanks a mill.

Mollyb60

If you intend on going to a rescue for your cat you can tell them you only want an indoor cat. That's what we've said all 3 times we got a rescue and there's never a shortage of kitties looking for an indoor only home. No idea about breeds, I think it mostly just depends on the cat itself and what they're used to if it's an adult you're looking for specifically.

I can only give you what we pay for stuff (and I'm in Belfast so using sterling) so obviously euro prices will be slightly more than this.

• Litter trays- £10 per tray, should have 2 so the cat has an option.
• Beds - £20 - expect the cat to sleep everywhere except the bed though so probably wouldn't break the bank on some fancy thing.
• Scratching posts - can be cheap or expensive, we've a tall post that cost about 30 quid. We also have a tall cat tower that doubles up as a bed, hiding spot and scratching post which was about 90 quid. Well worth the money though, our cats love it. We got it on Zooplus.
• Carrier - £20
• Toys - these are pretty inexpensive. Generally cats will love a wand toy that looks like a bird or little mousies that you can hide for them. The little mice are maybe 70p or something. Quite cheap.

So €500 should be more than enough to get you set up. Ongoing costs depend a lot on the quality of food/litter you want for your cat (or what they'll eat!)

• Food - depends on how much you want to spend. Felix wet food we feed our cats are £27.50 for 88 pouches. They get one each a day so it does us for 42 days. You can get much more expensive food but our cats won't eat it coz they're picky buggers. The felix stuff is basically McDonalds. Not the most nutritious and there's junk in it but they refuse anything else we try. We also give them dry food coz it's good for their teeth. A 3kg bag of Proplan stuff is around £20 and it lasts us ages. 2 months or more. That's about normal price-wise.
• Litter - a 30 litre bag of wood pellets which can be put into the composting bin when it's finished costs £8 in Pets at Home. It would do us for 2 cats (3 trays) about 10 days. Much cheaper than the stupid clay clumping stuff that goes all over the place. And it's better for the environment cos it's all composted.
• Insurance - 50-100 quid a year pet cat (gets more expensive as the cat gets older)
• Vet checkups twice a year (vaccinations, general checkup) - I think our vet is about 35 quid for the checkup and vaccinations (not 100% sure on the vax though), and 40 quid every 3 months for the flea/worm treatments.

So I think €80 is a pretty reasonable amount to budget for cat stuff month to month.

Good luck!

MSVforever

Thanks a mill Mollyb60!

We are definitely looking at shelters in the next few months but want to be sure that we have everything set up beforehand.