The Real Cost of Pets

My purpose today, is to re-calculate the costs of owning my dog for 2010.

Initially I calculated that my cost for all our family pets ran about $1,017.00, but this was a bit too conservative!

First, let me list the pets that we have:

1. one dog (a chocolate lab)
2. one all black cat
3. two hamsters
4. 1 1/2 fish. Why 1 1/2 you might ask… because they die easily throughout the year…

Here is a break down of the our expenses:

Our dog eats about 1 bag of dog food a month (at $45 per bag). Unluckily, our dog has a food allergy (to beef) that requires us to spend $45 per bag. The cat eats about one bag of cat food every 3 months (at $10 per bag). Cat litter runs about $12 a month. The cost of the hamsters and fish are listed below. But the hamsters do require frequent bedding changes (once a week, but we stretch it to 2 weeks). So the bedding cost for a hamster usually runs about $5 per month and the fish cost about $3 a year.

Okay, now that the cost background is out of the way, I have to revise the cost number for my dog this year!

First, she has dreams where she believes she is digging, and since she lies on the carpet…well, you get the idea.  So one morning, we went down stairs to discover that we have a ugly hole in the carpet.  BAM, to replace the carpet and the labor to install it will run us a cool $1,000 (ouch)!  Then last week, my dog had a swollen ear from an infection and we had to take her to the emergency hospital for animals (not my idea!!!) and that cost $250. Did I mention the heart worm medicine? that’s another $160. And we plan on taking another vacation this year, so that another $180 for boarding!!!

So, if we add it up, our dog (and only our dog) will cost us $2,320 for the year! Rut Roh!!!

If you are on a tight budget, you might want to skip pets for a while or get a cheap one such as a hamster or fish!