Pet Cost HQ is a collection of free calculators for pet and animal owners. Estimate the cost of a dog, plan horse feed, size an aquarium, or plan a backyard chicken flock — no signup, no fees.
Every tool on this site produces planning estimates, not professional advice. Prices vary by region and change over time; ratings and capacities come from manufacturers and public sources. Always verify critical numbers — vehicle ratings, electrical loads, structural spans, tax incentives — against the official source or a licensed professional before acting on them.
Every calculator here starts from facts about your animal — weight, workload, species, flock or tank size — and prices you can replace with your own local numbers. The feeding math follows published university extension guidelines: the 1.5–2% of body weight forage rule for horses, standard energy-requirement formulas for dogs and cats, and widely used aquarium volume and stocking references. Cost defaults come from published pet-care cost surveys and typical U.S. retail and veterinary pricing, and each tool labels which figures are rules of thumb and which are prices that swing by region. Hay is the clearest example: the calculator asks for your bale weight and price because a national average bale is a fiction in both directions. All calculations run in your browser — the numbers you enter are not stored or sent anywhere.
Guideline-based figures (feeding rates, cycling timelines, flock space allowances) are reviewed against current extension and veterinary references, and cost defaults are refreshed against published surveys and retailer pricing. Where sources disagree — and stocking rules and feeding charts often do — the tools default to the conservative figure and say why on the page. Animal care guidance changes more slowly than prices, so pages distinguish the two: rules are stated as ranges with their source named, and prices are dated.
No calculator knows your animal. Breed, age, health conditions, and individual metabolism move real needs well off any average, and a cost estimate is never a care recommendation. Feeding, health, and housing decisions with real consequences belong to your veterinarian or a qualified nutritionist — these tools exist to help you budget honestly and ask better questions, not to replace professional judgment. If a default on this site conflicts with your vet's guidance, your vet is right.