About

I'm Pavel Ryzhikh. Pet Wombat is part of the Future Begins network. I work out what a dog or a cat costs to keep in the UK, then show the sums, so you can change the parts that aren't true for your animal.

What I don't do

I don't feed these foods to a panel of dogs or strap these harnesses on anyone. Nothing here is a feeding trial or a lab test, and no sentence on this site says otherwise. When a test result appears, it belongs to whoever ran it, named in the sentence and linked under the article. Scores are my opinion from the evidence.

I'm not a vet. Weight loss, growth, pregnancy, illness and special diets are questions for yours.

Where prices come from

Each price is read on a store's own page, in pounds, and shows the store, the country and the date. I read them from a connection outside the UK, with no faked location, so a UK visitor might see something different. A price I couldn't read that way says Not verified and shows no amount. US prices don't appear, because I can't read them honestly from here.

Calories and price per 1,000 kcal

Price per 1,000 kcal is the fairest way to compare two foods, because a denser food goes further. I print it only where the calories are published. Where they aren't, you get price per kilo alone. Dry cat food is the one exception: it can use 3,500 kcal/kg, and the figure says so right beside it.

The bill

Calories come from the Merck Veterinary Manual's formula. Routine costs come from Battersea and PDSA, with their dates, where they give any. Anything I chose myself is marked as an assumption, and you can overwrite any amount. Open the calculator to see every source in one table.

Insurance

I explain how cover types work and what a quote depends on, with dated benchmarks. I don't rank insurers, link to them or tell you which policy to buy.

Get in touch

Write to hello@petwombat.com if a number here is wrong. I'd rather fix it than defend it.