About Carl
Made by Carl and Mochi
Hi, I'm Carl. Goodboy Atlas started because every time I tried to answer a simple numerical question about Mochi — a mixed-breed rescue — I'd land on either a food-brand calculator quietly pushing kibble, a generic listicle with no sources, or a 2019 Reddit thread written by someone with no veterinary background.
So I built the site I wished existed: every calculator shows its method, cites a real source, and the recommendations aren't biased by sponsor money. The site is supported by display advertising alone — no affiliate links, no sponsored placements, no food-brand money. That's what keeps it free for everyone. If you'd rather support Goodboy Atlas directly, the Buy Me a Coffee link in the footer goes to me, not a company. Just the math, the sources, and a real human (and Mochi) behind it.
Who I am
I'm Carl. I built Goodboy Atlas because the existing pet calculators online were either tied to a food brand (and quietly tilted toward selling kibble), generic listicles with no sources, or 2019 Reddit threads written by someone with no veterinary background. I wanted one place that took the question seriously, cited real sources, and didn't try to sell me anything.
What I am — and what I'm not
I am a long-time pet owner. I have built and maintained Goodboy Atlas since 2026. I read the underlying veterinary literature carefully and base every calculator on sources I can defend.
I am not a veterinarian. I have no DVM degree, no clinical license, no qualifications to diagnose or treat your pet. Goodboy Atlas provides educational decision-support based on published veterinary research; it is not a substitute for a vet visit. If your pet is unwell, in pain, or behaving abnormally — call a vet, not a website.
Why no veterinary reviewer (yet)
I'm working on it. Veterinary review for the methodology pages is in progress; when a third-party DVM signs off on a specific page, that page will display a "Reviewed by [Name, DVM]" credit. As of this writing, every page is self-authored and self-sourced — which is honest, if not yet maximally authoritative.
If you're a practicing veterinarian interested in becoming a methodology reviewer: this is a paid engagement and I'd love to talk. Get in touch via the partnership page.
Editorial independence
Goodboy Atlas is supported by display advertising alone — no affiliate links, no product commissions. I don't take food-brand sponsorships, content placements, or product-mention payments. The math is not, and will not be, tilted by sponsor money. See the editorial policy for the full disclosure.
How a calculator gets built here
Every tool on this site starts the same way: find the published formula, find the study or guideline it came from, and read that source rather than someone's summary of it. Calorie tools trace back to the NRC resting-energy-requirement equation and the AAFP/AAHA life-stage multipliers. Dog aging uses the AKC size-based curve, with the Wang epigenetic-clock model shown alongside it because the two disagree — sometimes by years — and hiding that disagreement would be dishonest. Toxicity thresholds come from ASPCA Animal Poison Control and Pet Poison Helpline published dose data, cross-checked against the Merck Veterinary Manual.
Where a number is an estimate rather than a measurement, the page says so. Retail prices are regional averages sampled from major retailers, not a live feed. Breed weight bands are population ranges, and individual dogs vary about 20% either side of them. I would rather show you a range with its uncertainty attached than a single confident-looking figure that quietly hides it.
What gets fixed, and how fast
Errors get corrected as soon as I can verify them, and the correction is made on the page itself rather than quietly overwritten. If a formula changes because a guideline was updated, the page notes what changed. If you find something wrong — a decimal in the wrong place, a source that doesn't say what I claimed, a breed range that doesn't match your vet's — tell me and I will check it against the source rather than defend it.
The emergency and toxicity pages get the most scrutiny, because those are the ones where being wrong costs something real. They carry hotline numbers for four regions at the top, above the calculator, deliberately: if your dog has eaten something and you are reading this at 2am, the phone number matters more than my math does.
Why this site exists
Most pet calculators online are either a thin wrapper around a formula with no explanation of where it came from, or a lead magnet for a food brand. Neither tells you how confident to be in the answer. I wanted a set of tools that showed their work — the formula, the source, the assumptions, and the point where the honest answer is "ask your vet, this depends on things a calculator cannot see."
Contact
Spotted an error, want to suggest a calculator, want to be a reviewer, or just want to ask a question: contact page. I read every email.