How we check every verdict
Every verdict and number on Meowledge is quoted from a named veterinary source, shown at the bottom of its page. This page sets out which sources count, the rules we follow, and where we still fall short.
Policy last updated .
What each verdict means
- Safe:
- Fine in the small amount shown, as an occasional treat.
- Caution:
- Not poisonous, but can cause problems in larger amounts, raw, or for some cats.
- Toxic:
- Harmful to cats. If your cat eats it, call your vet or a poison hotline.
- Deadly:
- Can kill a cat, sometimes in small amounts. There is no safe amount: treat it as an emergency.
See them in use on What can cats eat? and Plants toxic to cats.
Which sources count
| Tier | Sources | What it can support |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Merck Veterinary Manual, ASPCA Animal Poison Control, Pet Poison Helpline, Cornell Feline Health Center, International Cat Care, WSAVA, AAHA and AAFP guidelines, the FDA, peer-reviewed papers | Any verdict, dose or onset time |
| Tier 2 | Vet-written education pages such as PetMD and VCA Animal Hospitals | Context; and the verdict and treat portion of the safe/caution rows named in the shortfall list below — never a toxic dose |
| Not used for numbers | Other calculators, forums, brand and shop pages, our own older articles | Nothing |
Our rules
- On toxic and deadly entries, doses and onset times need a quoted Tier-1 line.
- Numbers in our page text are checked against the quoted source lines automatically every time the site is built.
- Where no reliable number exists, we say “no safe dose established” rather than invent one.
- When cat-specific sources disagree on severity, we take the more cautious verdict.
- Guidance written for dogs or for “all pets” is not carried over to cats unless a cat-specific source supports it.
- Photos of foods and plants are real photographs from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each page that shows one.
Where we fall short
7 entries cite only Tier-2 pages today: salmon, shrimp, eggs, rice, watermelon, pineapple, and cheese. Re-sourcing them is on the review queue.
A few entries also carry a link outside the tiers, for context only: milk (hillspet.com), yogurt (chewy.com), yogurt (catster.com), and ice cream (catster.com).
How the calculators work
- Cat age calculator: International Cat Care’s age table, with the AAHA/AAFP 2021 life stages.
- Cat calorie calculator: AAHA’s 2021 formula (70 × ideal weight in kg to the power 0.75) times AAHA’s feline life-stage factor.
- Body condition score: WSAVA’s 9-point chart, with AAHA 2021 on when to ask a vet.
- Cat weight calculator: AAHA 2021’s table of body condition score against percent overweight, worked back from today’s weight to an ideal weight.
- Kitten growth calculator: the mean ± standard deviation weights by age from a 2019 Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery study, birth to 20 weeks.
All five are on the cat calculators page.
Corrections and review dates
Every entry carries a last-reviewed date. When a source updates its guidance or a reader reports an error, we correct the entry and update that date — we do not quietly edit a claim. Report an error to hello@meowledge.app. Corrections so far, newest first:
- : Chicken: the treat limit now shows three figures, each attributed — AAHA’s 10%, Cornell Feline Health Center’s 10 to 15% of daily calories, and the ASPCA’s 5% (its Cat Nutrition Tips). Cornell is the page’s first source; its figure had been left out.
- : Chicken: the Cornell Feline Health Center source line now quotes its treat sentence in full (“A good rule of thumb is not to let treats exceed 10 to 15 percent of a cat’s daily caloric intake.”); it had been clipped to start mid-sentence.
- : Treat cap on chicken and the cat calorie calculator: both AAHA’s 10% and the ASPCA’s 5% (its Cat Nutrition Tips) are now shown, each attributed, where the site stated AAHA’s figure alone.
- : Bananas: the portion now follows ASPCA’s food magnet (share sparingly, in small portions, cut into small pieces, peel removed) and Cornell’s advice to give treats only occasionally, instead of a PetMD figure.
- : Dog food and bananas: claims no cited source makes for cats were cut — that an occasional bite of dog food is harmless, dog food’s coat and muscle signs (Merck gives those for dogs), and a blood-sugar warning on bananas.
- : The US-only ASPCA poison hotline number was removed from every page: Meowledge is read worldwide, so each page now says to call your vet or the nearest emergency animal hospital.
- : The ASPCA poison hotline is now labelled as a US number.
- : Lily of the valley, foxglove, kalanchoe, dieffenbachia, tulip and hyacinth re-sourced; signs and onset times no source supports were removed.
- : Cat calorie calculator: the weight box now asks for ideal weight, which the formula needs, not current weight.
- : Lilies, grapes and raisins, onions, tuna and chicken: every claim checked against the stored source lines; claims no source supports were cut, and chicken’s verdict now traces to ASPCA.
- : Grapes and raisins: tartaric acid is described as one proposed cause, not the leading suspect, and “currants” narrowed to Zante currants.
- : Onions and garlic: the toxin is now named as the cited pages name it — the earlier wording was on none of them.
- : Tuna rewritten around the vitamin E deficiency its sources describe; an unsourced mercury line was removed.
- : Yogurt, ice cream and bread no longer call xylitol toxic to cats; the unsourced advice to offer milk was removed from the plant entries that carried it.
- : Aloe vera and snake plant raised from caution to toxic, to match their cited sources.
More about the site: About Meowledge.
Download the data
Both tables are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with every row’s sources and review date: foods as JSON or CSV, plants as JSON or CSV.