Taking on a pet is a multi-year financial decision, and the adoption fee is almost always the smallest part of it. We work in annual cost and lifetime cost instead.
What a dog costs has little to do with the purchase price and everything to do with the ten or fifteen years that follow: size, breed and management style move the annual bill by more than a thousand euros.
Verified on Jul 2026 · 3 sources
A cat costs about half what a dog costs, but the difference is not where people expect: food weighs less, and two fixed items nobody budgets for weigh more — litter and neutering.
Verified on Jul 2026 · 2 sources
Because they measure different things. Sample surveys such as the EMG Different study for Facile.it in January 2026 ask households what they spent and get about EUR 1,263 a year. Basket studies such as the Federconsumatori one build the figure by adding retail prices for an animal cared for to every recommendation, and reach EUR 1,589 for a small dog and EUR 2,347 for a medium-to-large one. The difference between the two is what owners on average do not buy: preventive treatment, grooming, better food.
Keeping a dog in ItalyYes, by roughly half. The same two studies we used for both animals give EUR 767 a year of declared spending for a cat against EUR 1,263 for a dog, and EUR 892 against EUR 1,589 to 2,347 in the theoretical basket. The saving comes from the quantity of food, the near-total absence of professional grooming, and above all from the fact that a cat can stay at home during short absences while a dog needs boarding or a sitter. In exchange, a cat carries a fixed item a dog does not: litter.
Keeping a cat in Italy