{"topic_id":"companion_costs_cat","category":"companion-costs","context":"---\ntopic_id: companion_costs_cat\ncategory: companion-costs\ntitle: \"Cat — cost & responsibility awareness (ethical/financial duty, multi-year commitment, 20-year lifespan)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"Merck Veterinary Manual — pet owner version (merckvetmanual.com). First-hand consumer text saved to source_file; C1 substring-verified. Pulled/extracted 2026-08-01.\"\nsource_file: /home/cai/notes/knowledge/side-projects/petfood-data-station/pdf-raw/companion-care/cat_owner_combined.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-08-01\ntokens_estimated: 560\nverification:\n  method: substring_match\n  claims: 12\n  passed: 12\n  date: 2026-08-01\nrecovered: false\npath: companion-costs/companion_costs_cat/01_companion_costs_cat.md\nsource_document: \"Merck Veterinary Manual — pet owner version\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"Merck Veterinary Manual (merckvetmanual.com), pet owner version\"\n  title: \"Cat — cost & responsibility awareness (ethical/financial duty, multi-year commitment, 20-year lifespan)\"\n  url: \"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners/selecting-and-providing-a-home-for-a-cat\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-08-01\"\n  ref: \"Providing a Home for a Cat (Merck pet-owner version, Sept 2025)\"\n  doc_type: \"professional veterinary manual (consumer version)\"\n  needs_review: false\n---\n\n# Cat — cost & responsibility awareness (ethical/financial duty, multi-year commitment, 20-year lifespan)\n\nSource: first-hand Merck Veterinary Manual pet-owner text, saved to `source_file`; every claim below is a C1 byte-substring of it.\n\n## Claims\n\n- `Owning a cat comes with ethical and financial responsibilities.`\n- `Be sure you have the time and money to dedicate to caring for a cat over many years, as some cats can live 20 years or more.`\n- `Kittens, like babies, require a lot of attention, including veterinary care, feeding, and socialization.`\n- `What Do I Feed My Kitten? Proper nutrition is important throughout a cat’s life and is especially critical during kittenhood.`\n- `Kittens need multiple daily feedings of food specially formulated to meet their needs.`\n- `The number of daily feedings can be gradually decreased as the kitten ages, but feeding with a nutritionally balanced, name-brand kitten diet should continue until adulthood (about 9 to 12 months of age).`\n- `What Are The Nutritional Standards for Cats? The Feline Nutrition Expert Subcommittee of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) has set basic nutritional requirements for cats.`\n- `If the food doesn’t meet these standards, it must be labeled only as a treat or for occasional feeding.`\n- `What Should I Feed My Cat? Cats are carnivores, meaning they eat mainly meat.`\n- `Here are some important points to remember about what you feed your cat: Don’t give supplements without your vet's approval.`\n- `Never feed your cat dog food as a regular diet.`\n- `If you’re considering feeding your cat a homemade diet, you should not formulate the diet on your own.`\n\n---\n\n**Source:** `pdf-raw/companion-care/cat_providing_home.txt` · https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners/selecting-and-providing-a-home-for-a-cat\n","sources":["companion-costs — Cat — cost & responsibility awareness (ethical/financial duty, multi-year commitment, 20-year lifespan) (retrieved 2026-08-01)"],"source":{"authority":"companion-costs","title":"Cat — cost & responsibility awareness (ethical/financial duty, multi-year commitment, 20-year lifespan)","url":"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners/selecting-and-providing-a-home-for-a-cat","retrieved":"2026-08-01","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual — pet owner version","verification_file":"/home/cai/notes/knowledge/side-projects/petfood-data-station/pdf-raw/companion-care/cat_owner_combined.txt"},"source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual — pet owner version","source_file":"/home/cai/notes/knowledge/side-projects/petfood-data-station/pdf-raw/companion-care/cat_owner_combined.txt","tokens_estimated":505,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}