Editorial Policy

Puppy Scale turns published veterinary sources and open research data into calculators and guides for dog and cat owners — with the source and the date next to every number, a range with every answer, and “talk to your vet” wherever it matters.

What we cover, and what we don’t

Puppy Scale is an independent site run by an individual based in the United States. It is not a veterinary practice and is not run by a veterinarian, so the site stays within a clear lane:

Covered: how big puppies and kittens get; daily calories and food amounts; body condition and weight-loss arithmetic; drinking; pregnancy and heat dates; life stages and age; how serious an amount of chocolate is against published thresholds; the cost of a pet — all from primary sources.
Never covered: a diagnosis; a dose of any medicine or supplement; home treatment of a poisoning; which food, product or insurance policy to choose for an individual animal.
No page farms: one page per real question. We don’t generate pages for every breed or keyword.

Vet-first rules

No dosing, ever. No page gives a dose of any drug, supplement or human medicine, in any unit. The build checks every page for doses and fails if it finds one.
Toxicity is triage only. Poison pages put the two animal poison-control lines first, with their fees as each service states them. The chocolate calculator compares an amount with published thresholds; it never tells you an amount is nothing to call about, and never tells you to make your pet vomit. For grapes and raisins, no amount is known to be safe. The poison-line numbers and fees are re-checked at least every 35 days.
Every answer is an estimate and carries the note “Estimate, not veterinary advice — talk to your vet” within one phone screen of the number.
No diagnosis language. We never say a pet is healthy, normal, sick, obese or safe. We say, for example, that a body condition of 7 out of 9 is above the ideal range, and that your vet decides.
Honest uncertainty. Every answer is a range with the reason for its width. Folk rules (“double the weight at 16 weeks”, “dog years times 7”) are measured against data, not repeated. Where no source exists, the page says “Not modeled” with the reason and the date we checked.

Sources and dates

Primary sources first: peer-reviewed papers and their published data, veterinary reference texts and professional guidelines, the poison-control services’ own pages, U.S. government agencies and published surveys. Never a competitor’s calculator, a forum, a brand blog or an AI summary.
Every number a calculator uses is stored once, with its source, the date the source was read and the date we last checked it. Under every result you see “Sources checked” with that date. Every dataset is listed on Data and sources.
The site refuses to publish when a dataset has not been re-checked in time: poison-line numbers after 62 days, guideline figures after 180 days, surveys after 120 days. A changed source means a changed page, never a silent difference.
Where two sources disagree, the page shows a range and names both. Pending changes are described as pending, never computed.

Licences and attribution

The growth and breed figures come from openly licensed research data (Creative Commons Attribution). Every page that uses them shows the attribution and says what we changed. Text, tables and charts from veterinary publishers, associations, kennel clubs and pet-food companies are never copied: we cite the fact with a link and write in our own words, with at most one short quotation (25 words or fewer) in a guide. No published growth chart, body-condition chart or age chart is reproduced or traced; our drawings are our own, built from the data.

How guides are written and checked

Each guide answers one question, starts with a short answer and lists its sources with the date each was read.
Guides are researched and drafted with the help of AI writing tools, working to this policy. Every number is recomputed with the same tested rules the calculators use, and a separate review pass — never the one that drafted the guide — checks each statement against its source before publication.
No guide claims veterinary credentials, testing or experience that do not exist. The author of every page is Puppy Scale. If a veterinarian ever reviews pages for the site, that will be a real, named, disclosed arrangement — never an invented one.
Any statement we could not confirm is either removed or marked and fixed before the site is opened to search engines.

Corrections

When we get something wrong, we fix it and say so on the page itself, with the date and what changed. Changes to a published number are also listed under Updates and corrections on Data and sources. Write to hello@puppyscale.com with the page and, if you can, a source.

Ads and affiliate links

Once AdSense approves the site, ads will be served by Google AdSense, labeled “Advertisements”: at most one on the home page and on each calculator page, at most three in a guide. Never inside a calculator or a result, never between a result and its advice note, never near a poison-control panel and never on the chocolate triage page.
In AdSense’s blocking controls we block online pharmacies and prescription drugs, supplements and CBD with health claims, puppy-sale marketplaces and vet-chat lead-generation advertisers as they appear, so the site never appears to endorse them.
There are no affiliate links today. Any added later will be marked next to the link. As an Amazon Associate, Puppy Scale earns from qualifying purchases. Amazon links are only for expensive, quality gear that fits a calculator (scales, feeders, crates, whelping boxes, GPS collars) — never food, treats, supplements or medicines.
Affiliate links never appear inside a calculator result, on the chocolate triage page or in a poison guide. Food brands never appear inside results. Pet insurance is never recommended; any insurance link would be a disclosed per-quote referral only.
Nobody can pay for a place in a list, a review or a result. There is no sponsored content.

Names and logos

Organizations, publications and products are named in plain text, spelled as their owners do, only to say whose figure or rule a number comes from. The site uses no organization’s logo, seal or artwork, and never suggests an endorsement. 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.