How CatCost calculates cat ownership costs.

Ownership cost

The calculator estimates recurring monthly cost by combining food, litter, treats, insurance, vet care, parasite prevention or medication, grooming, toys, cleaning, emergency reserve, and daily supplies. Multi-cat litter, supplies, toys, and cleaning use an efficiency multiplier because shared household costs do not always scale perfectly linearly.

monthly_total = food + litter + treats + insurance + vet_care + medication + supplies + toys + cleaning + grooming + emergency_reserve

Cat food cost

Food pages should prefer calories when available. Price per pound is useful for dry food, but price per 100 kcal is usually better for comparing wet and dry formats.

price_per_100_kcal = price / total_package_kcal * 100

Breed and weight

Breed profiles provide default body-size and grooming assumptions. Food estimates are still driven by body weight and calorie math, so users should adjust the default weight when they know the cat's actual weight.

RER = 70 * body_weight_kg ^ 0.75

Cat litter value

Litter comparisons start with price per pound and estimated monthly usage. Later versions can add complaint signals such as dust, tracking, odor, and replacement cadence when compliant data is available.

monthly_litter_cost = price_per_lb * lbs_used_per_month

Data quality flags

Product records should identify missing, stale, suspicious, or incomplete data before a page makes claims.

• Missing price, weight, calories, or affiliate link
• Suspicious package size or price changes
• Unavailable products or stale last-checked dates
• Manual review required before scaling new page templates