How much do your pets cost you per month/year? I'm trying to decide if I can afford one.

I'm worried that I might be like those teenage girls who want a baby. Having a kid isn't what's best for either mother or child. I want to make an informed decision.

I think I spend about $30 a month on my cat. Litter, food, treats, hairball stuff, etc. The dog is less, maybe $15 a month. The insects are pretty much cost free. I feed them whatever fresh veggies are leftover from dinner. The soil has to be changed every month or so, so maybe $10 every three months. My scorpion eats about $5 worth of crickets a month and shares soil with the bugs.

The apartment complex wanted us to pay a $500 deposit per animal and $30 pet rent a month. But we decided not to and just snuck them in.

dogs are more expensive than cats. they need to be registered yearly. they also limit when and where you can go. someone needs to be available to walk the dog at regular intervals, and it's hard to travel even over night if that's the case.

i have two cats, and i buy them a GIANT bag of food every 3 months ish for about $45. i buy one thing of litter a month for about $15. unless they get sick, we visit the vet once a year for about $150. they have a fancy scratching post and some catnip toys.

mostly i spend a lot of money on lint brushes.

@ ginger: I wouldn't think that your cat would cost more than your dog. Wow. I've always heard that it was the other way around.

Dogs are more limiting on what you want to do, but a big bag of dogfood lasts her a long time and isn't that expensive. She chews on greenies, but they last her a while as well, and our dog is registered for life through the shelter.

I kind of spoil the cat though.

The dog also cost less to adopt, $65. The cat was $125.

i spend, on average, less than $30 on my dog a month. the dog shelter has a pet supply sale every other weekend, where they sell all of the stuff that gets donated to them that they can't use. so dogfood is $7 a 40# bag, and as many treats as fit in a grocery bag is $5, and that all lasts for at least six weeks.

oh, and my dove costs about $30 a year.

Millipedes make excellent pets. They cost $13 at the pet store, only have to be demited occasionally, eat anything vegetable or fruitlike you want to give them and can be ignored for days.

I have a male (Bad-One) and a female (Trumpet). They spend most of the year in an aviary at the back of my house. They're good pets, I love them. Though the bible is all wrong about doves. Symbols of peace my ass. Mine seem to love a good fight with each other, then they follow it with make-up sex. Sometimes they'll switch and she'll mount him. Kinky buggers.

@dfg: mine is female (simon). i had a male for a while (maggie) but simon is kind of sickly and maggie kept beating her up so maggie had to go.

Food and litter costs for a cat aren't too bad, it's the vet bills that can be a killer. My cat hates the vet and won't stand for letting the vets examine him, so if he needs actual medical attention there's an additional cost of having him knocked out. Cost of a claw wound that festered into an infected abscess: $450.