Disclaimer

Not veterinary, medical or nutritional advice

Puppy Scale provides calculators that do arithmetic on the numbers you enter, and guides that explain in general terms how growth, energy needs, body condition, pregnancy dates, age and costs work for dogs and cats. This is general information for education. It is not veterinary, medical or nutritional advice, it is not a diagnosis or a treatment plan, and it is not a substitute for examination by a veterinarian, who can see your pet, its history and its health.

Puppy Scale is an independent site run by an individual based in the United States. It is not a veterinary practice, a telehealth service, a pharmacy or a poison-control service. It is not run by a veterinarian, and the calculators and guides have not been reviewed by one. Before you change your pet’s food, start a weight-loss plan, rely on a due date or decide anything about its health, talk to your vet.

Estimates, with honest ranges

Every answer on this site is an estimate. Growth predictions come from the spread of thousands of other animals, energy needs vary by about 30% either way in dogs and more in cats, and due dates are windows, not days. The calculators show those ranges with every answer; your own pet may still fall outside them. A result is never a statement that your pet is healthy, normal, sick, safe or at risk.

No dosing, and toxicity is triage only

This site never gives a dose of any medicine or supplement. The chocolate calculator compares an amount with published thresholds to help you judge how urgent the call is — it does not tell you what to do, and below the first published threshold is still a reason to call. Never make your pet vomit or give anything at home unless a vet or a poison-control service tells you to.

Sources change

Guidelines, published thresholds, poison-line fees and surveys change. Each calculator shows the date its sources were last checked, and each guide lists its sources with the date they were read. A source can still change between our check and the day you use it. If a source and this site disagree, the source wins — please tell us so we can correct the site.

No guaranteed results

We work to keep the calculators and guides accurate and test their arithmetic. We can’t guarantee that everything on the site is complete, current or free of errors, or that any outcome will follow from using it. Example values in the calculators are examples, not recommendations.

Data licences

The growth and breed figures are derived from openly licensed research data (CC BY 4.0 and CC BY 3.0). The licensors provide that data as it is and are not responsible for our use of it, and nothing here suggests that they endorse Puppy Scale. The attributions, and the changes we made, are listed on every page that uses the data and on Data and sources.

Not affiliated

Puppy Scale is an independent website, not a veterinary practice. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any veterinary association, kennel club, poison-control service, university, pet-food or pet-insurance company named on this site. Names are used only to identify sources.

External links, affiliate links and ads

Links to other websites are provided for reference, and ads are served by Google. There are no affiliate links today; any added later will be marked where they appear. As an Amazon Associate, Puppy Scale earns from qualifying purchases. None of them is an endorsement of an advertiser, and we aren’t responsible for other sites’ content. We never link to pharmacies, medication, puppy sales or vet-chat sign-up funnels.

See also the Terms of Use and the Editorial Policy.