What this hub optimizes for
We help US dog households estimate recurring day cost under explicit calorie, portion, shipping, tax, and promo assumptions, and understand delivery and pause/skip/cancel wording before they subscribe. We do not publish “healthiest” star rankings, disease-cure claims, or fake veterinary endorsements.
Four evidence pillars
| Pillar | What we use it for | What we refuse to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Community / forum signals | Surface purchase frictions (bills, shipping delays, cancel confusion) | Collage forums into a whole page or treat upvotes as causation |
| 2. Manufacturer / official docs | Labels, kcal, shipping & subscription policies, recalls | Treat marketing as peer review or medical endorsement |
| 3. Authority / standards | FDA complete-and-balanced concepts; AAFCO label-reading frameworks; WSAVA selection questions as a checklist | Imply FDA/AAFCO/WSAVA “certified this brand” |
| 4. Scientific literature | Narrow claims with design, species, and funding disclosed | Extrapolate one study into longevity or cure claims for all fresh food |
Public tags we aim to use: verified label/terms, cross-supported, single-source user report, conflict, pending.
Required cross-checks
- Forum “$X/day” ↔ same SKU, calories, first vs recurring, shipping, date.
- Marketing “complete and balanced” ↔ nutritional adequacy statement + life stage on label.
- Forum efficacy anecdotes ↔ literature/FDA boundary; never rewrite as proven therapy.
- Brand study claims ↔ primary paper when available.
- Cold-chain complaints ↔ brand handling text + FDA safe-handling principles — not photo “still safe” advice.
Day-cost formulas (visible)
Let K = user daily kcal target, E = kcal/g from the same SKU, W = net box grams, P food net USD, S shipping/cold-chain, T tax, D first-order food discount, optional waste fraction w.
E = kcal/kg ÷ 1000orkcal/pack ÷ g/packg/day = K ÷ EN = W × (1 − w) × E ÷ K(coverage days)- Recurring day cost
(P + S + T) ÷ N; first-order(P − D + S + T) ÷ N
D does not silently discount shipping or tax. Missing calories or unknown fees block a precise-looking answer in the calculator. We never invent kcal or fill unknown shipping with another brand’s average.
Plan arithmetic demo (not a brand quote): W=4000 g, E=1.6 kcal/g, P=$80, S=$10, T=$0, D=$16. At K=800: ~500 g/day, 8 days, ~$11.25 recurring / ~$9.25 first-order day cost.
Lived vs research-shaped
Steps we have not personally done (buy, receive, open, feed, cancel in-account) are labeled 资料型 / research-based guide / not lived. Official process pages can still be summarized with access dates. Author credentials and any future professional review will be listed honestly on About—we do not invent a vet reviewer.
Lived-shaped gaps such as ZIP checkout quotes and cancel/refund outcomes may be filled later by the author’s own orders or by structured volunteer reports collected via Contribute. Until an author-lived step exists, volunteer material is labeled as such (Single-source user report / Cross-supported)—never rewritten as “we tested this.”
How we evaluate gaps (A + B → C)
For missing per-SKU kcal / net weight / live price, ZIP shipping or tax at checkout, and pause / skip / cancel / refund outcomes, we use a hybrid stack (ziming ops decision 2026-11-05 PT):
| Layer | EN / CN tags | Role |
|---|---|---|
| A. Official baseline | Verified label / terms · 已核对标签/条款 | Manufacturer labels, checkout/policy pages, authority definitions (FDA/AAFCO frameworks—not brand certification) |
| B. Structured user reports | Single-source user report · 单源用户报告 | Volunteer intake fields (ZIP3/state only; redacted evidence). Schema: site evidence template |
| C. Our evaluation | Cross-supported · Conflict · Pending · 交叉支持 / 存在冲突 / 待核实 | Editorial synthesis only when the bar is met; otherwise Our take withheld |
Default bar before “Our take”: roughly n ≥ 3 recent, same SKU (or clearly equivalent pack) and same order type; price/cancel/refund prefer last 90 days; conflicts are labeled, not averaged away. We never invent numbers, never treat one Reddit post as a rate, never collage forums into a whole page, and never present user reports as the author’s lived test.
Page pattern for gaps: Official baseline → User reports (count + invite) → Our take. Volunteer form: /contribute/. Related review example: JustFoodForDogs evaluation pending blocks.
Revision triggers
- Price, promo cap, free-shipping threshold, or cancel cutoff changes on an official page.
- Label reformulation (new kcal or net weight → new ledger row, never overwrite history).
- Recall or material FDA handling guidance updates.
Related: Contribute (opening soon) · Affiliate disclosure · Cost-per-day guide · JustFoodForDogs review.