💸 The True Lifetime Cost of a Pet: 50 Pets Compared

Everyone asks what a pet costs per month — but the number that really matters is what it costs over its whole life. We took the ongoing monthly cost (food, bedding, and supplies) of 50 pets and multiplied it across each animal's average lifespan. The results flip the usual "cheap vs. expensive pet" story on its head.

Key findings

• The cheapest pet to keep is the ant farm at about $5/month; the priciest is the pony at about $275/month. Across all 50 pets the average is $36/month (median $28).
• Long life is the hidden cost. The most expensive pets over a lifetime aren't always the priciest per month — they're the ones that live for decades. A tortoise costs only about $45/month, but over its ~75-year life that's roughly $40,500 — more than triple a dog's $12,750 lifetime cost.
• Large parrots can run about $51,000 over ~50 years, and the pony tops the chart at roughly $99,000.
• The lowest lifetime cost belongs to short-lived small pets like the praying mantis (about $90).
• 21 of these 50 pets can't be kept on their own. Rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, ducks and ponies are all social animals that need at least one companion. For 16 of them that multiplies the monthly bill; the rest share one tank or bin, so a second animal costs almost nothing to run. Counted properly, the pair a pony needs comes to about $198,000, and the duck jumps from #23 to #7 on the list.
• Setup is the smaller half of the story. Adding one-time gear (cage, tank, habitat) to a whole life of care puts the pony at roughly $202,750 all-in — but for most pets the ongoing years, not the shopping trip, are what cost the money.

Estimated lifetime cost, ranked

Monthly cost is food, bedding and everyday supplies. One-time setup is the cage, tank or habitat you buy once. Lifetime cost is one animal's ongoing cost over its whole life — that's what the ranking uses. All-in total adds the setup and, for the 21 pets that can't live alone, the rest of the group. Vet bills are extra for every pet here. Tap any column heading to re-sort.

#	Pet	Cost / month	Avg lifespan	One-time setup	Lifetime cost	All-in total
1	Pony per animal · 2+	$150–$400	25–35 years	$1,500–$8,000	$99,000	$202,750
2	Parrots & Larger Birds	$50–$120	30–70+ years	$600–$3,000	$51,000	$52,800
3	Tortoise	$30–$60	50–100+ years	$250–$1,100	$40,500	$41,175
4	Mini Pig per animal · 2+	$50–$120	12–20 years	$800–$3,000	$16,320	$34,540
5	Aquatic Turtle	$25–$55	20–40 years	$250–$1,100	$14,400	$15,075
6	Iguana	$40–$90	15–20 years	$300–$2,000	$13,650	$14,800
7	Dog	$50–$120	10–15 years	$350–$1,300	$12,750	$13,575
8	Goat per animal · 2+	$40–$90	12–15 years	$500–$2,500	$10,530	$22,560
9	Cat	$30–$80	12–18 years	$150–$600	$9,900	$10,275
10	Uromastyx	$25–$50	15–25+ years	$400–$900	$9,000	$9,650
11	Blue-Tongued Skink	$25–$50	15–20 years	$300–$900	$7,875	$8,475
12	Snake	$15–$40	15–30 years	$150–$900	$7,425	$7,950
13	Chinchilla per animal · 2+	$25–$50	10–20 years	$400–$1,100	$6,750	$14,250
14	Bearded Dragon	$30–$60	10–15 years	$250–$1,000	$6,750	$7,375
15	Sugar Glider per animal · 2+	$30–$60	10–15 years	$300–$800	$6,750	$14,050
16	Hermit Crab all 3 · one habitat	$10–$25	20+ years (up to 40 with great care)	$80–$200	$6,300	$6,440
17	Axolotl	$25–$55	10–15 years	$200–$450	$6,000	$6,325
18	Ferret per animal · 2+	$40–$80	6–10 years	$300–$800	$5,760	$12,070
19	Rabbit per animal · 2+	$30–$60	8–12 years	$250–$1,000	$5,400	$11,425
20	Gecko	$20–$40	10–20 years	$150–$400	$5,400	$5,675
21	Parakeet & Small Birds per animal · 2+	$15–$35	5–30 years (budgies 5–10, bigger species longer)	$80–$250	$5,250	$10,665
22	Goldfish both · one habitat	$15–$40	10–20 years	$150–$600	$4,950	$5,325
23	Duck per animal · 3+	$25–$55	8–12 years	$300–$1,200	$4,800	$15,150
24	Chameleon	$30–$60	5–8 years	$250–$800	$3,510	$4,035
25	Chicken per animal · 3+	$20–$45	5–10 years	$300–$1,500	$2,925	$9,675
26	Newt & Salamander	$10–$25	10–15 years	$100–$300	$2,625	$2,825
27	Guinea Pig per animal · 2+	$25–$45	5–7 years	$150–$400	$2,520	$5,315
28	Hedgehog	$25–$50	4–6 years	$200–$500	$2,250	$2,600
29	Tarantula	$8–$20	5–20+ years (females live longest)	$50–$200	$2,100	$2,225
30	Aquatic Frog	$10–$25	5–15 years (varies)	$80–$250	$2,100	$2,265
31	Degu per animal · 2+	$15–$35	6–8 years	$250–$500	$2,100	$4,575
32	Anole	$15–$30	4–6 years	$120–$300	$1,350	$1,560
33	Millipede	$8–$18	5–10 years	$40–$120	$1,170	$1,250
34	Scorpion	$8–$20	5–8 years	$50–$150	$1,092	$1,192
35	Fish	$10–$35	2–5 years (varies)	$80–$350	$945	$1,160
36	Quail per animal · 3+	$15–$35	2–4 years	$150–$600	$900	$3,075
37	Crayfish	$10–$25	2–5 years	$60–$180	$735	$855
38	Rat per animal · 2+	$15–$30	2–3 years	$100–$300	$675	$1,550
39	Gerbil per animal · 2+	$10–$20	3–4 years	$70–$200	$630	$1,395
40	Ant Farm all 10 · one habitat	$2–$8	5–15 years (a queen-led colony)	$20–$80	$600	$650
41	Hamster	$10–$25	2–3 years	$80–$250	$525	$690
42	Land Snail	$5–$12	3–7 years	$25–$80	$510	$563
43	Betta Fish	$8–$20	2–4 years	$60–$180	$504	$624
44	Hissing Cockroach	$5–$15	2–5 years	$30–$100	$420	$485
45	Shrimp & Snails all 10 · one habitat	$8–$20	1–3 years	$60–$200	$336	$466
46	Mouse per animal · 2+	$8–$18	1–2 years	$50–$150	$234	$568
47	Stick Insect	$5–$15	1–2 years	$30–$100	$180	$245
48	Jumping Spider	$5–$15	1–2 years (females live longest)	$30–$80	$180	$235
49	Isopods all 10 · one habitat	$3–$10	1–3 years (the colony renews itself)	$10–$40	$156	$181
50	Praying Mantis	$5–$15	under 1 year	$30–$100	$90	$155

⬇️ Download all 50 rows as a spreadsheet (CSV) — free to use with credit.

Why cheap pets aren't always cheap

Plot every pet's monthly cost against how long it lives and the study's main finding draws itself. Pets sitting on the same diagonal line cost about the same over a whole life, however different they look month to month: a tortoise at $45 a month and a much pricier animal can land on the same line, because the tortoise keeps going for decades after the other has gone.

Method & caveats

Lifetime cost = the midpoint of each pet's typical monthly cost (food, bedding, litter, and everyday supplies) × 12 × the midpoint of its average lifespan, using the same care data behind our pet cost calculator. All-in total adds the one-time setup range from our pet setup costs guide, and multiplies the ongoing cost by the minimum humane group size for the 21 pets that can't be kept alone. Setup is not multiplied by group size — a pair of rats shares one larger cage rather than needing two of everything.

All of these figures still exclude vet bills, and adoption or purchase price, both of which can add hundreds or thousands more. Real costs vary by where you live and the choices you make, so treat these as ballpark comparisons, not quotes. For an all-in picture that includes vet care, the ASPCA publishes first-year ownership estimates for dogs and cats that run higher than the ongoing figures here.

Two pets state a maximum lifespan rather than a range — the hermit crab's "up to 10+ years (with great care)" and the praying mantis's "under 1 year". Reading that maximum as if it were the average overstates what those animals really cost, so for them we model the number as the top of a range starting at half of it. That's a judgement call, not a measurement, and it's the only place in this study where one is made.

Sources

• ASPCA — Cutting pet care costs (ownership cost estimates)
• Anti-Cruelty Society — Estimated annual cost of owning a pet
• Monthly cost, lifespan and group-size data: our own pet cost guide and the 50 care guides behind it.

📊 Use these charts (free, with credit)

Both charts and the full data table are free to republish — on a site, in a newsletter, in a classroom handout — as long as you credit WhatPetShouldIGet.com with a link back to this page. No permission needed and no sign-up. If you're writing something and need a number checked or a cut of the data we haven't published, just ask us.