How we test
Everything here lived in a real house with real cats. We buy what we test, and we tell you when not to buy.
- We buy what we test. Nothing here was sent to us in exchange for coverage.
- Every product spends real time in a real house with real cats before it is written about.
- We say when something is not worth buying, and we say why.
- Commissions never decide what gets covered or what we conclude about it.
Most reviews of cat products are written by people who have never opened the box. They are assembled from specification sheets, retailer copy and other reviews, and you can usually tell, because they never mention the thing that goes wrong in week three.
This site works the other way round. Nothing is written about until it has been bought, used, and lived with. That is slower and it is more expensive, and it is the only reason anything here is worth reading.
How a product gets chosen
Products are chosen because they are things cats actually need: litter boxes, litter, toys, scratchers, furniture, storage. Daily-needs items, not novelties.
Nothing is chosen because a brand asked, because a commission rate is attractive, or because a product is trending. No brand has any say in what is covered here, and none has been given advance sight of anything written about them.
What “tested” means here
It means the object was in the house, in use, by cats who were not consulted about it.
Every review states how long. It is printed in the byline of the review itself, not buried in a methodology page you would have to go looking for. If a review says nine weeks, the thing was in use for nine weeks. If it says two, it says two, and you can weigh the verdict accordingly.
Reviews are written after the novelty has worn off, because that is when the useful information appears. A litter box is easy to like on day one. What matters is whether it is still easy to clean on day forty, whether the latch has loosened, and whether the cat still uses it once it stops being new.
When something is not good
It gets said. A review that finds a product mediocre is published as a review that finds it mediocre.
This is the part most affiliate sites quietly skip, because a negative review earns nothing. That is exactly why it is here: a site that only ever recommends is not reviewing anything, it is advertising, and you have no way to tell the difference from the outside.
How this site makes money
Some links to products earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. Every one of those links is marked on the page it appears on. Links that earn nothing are not marked, because labelling everything would make the label meaningless.
Products are bought at full price, with the site’s own money. Nothing here has been supplied free by a manufacturer, and if that ever changes it will be stated on the review itself rather than in a footnote here.
Commissions do not decide what gets covered, what rank something is given in a roundup, or what conclusion a review reaches.
What you will not find here
- Star ratings. A number out of five implies a precision that does not exist, and a rating without a defensible methodology behind it is decoration. The verdict is written in words instead.
- Sponsored posts. None, at any price.
- Prices quoted as fact. Where a price is mentioned it is what was paid at the time of testing, and it will go out of date. Check the retailer.
- Reviews of things nobody used. If it is written about here, it was owned.
Getting it wrong
Products change. A manufacturer revises a design, a good product gets worse, and a review written honestly in one year becomes wrong in the next.
If something here is out of date or simply wrong, say so: hello@everything4cats.ca. Corrections are made to the review itself rather than appended somewhere nobody reads.
We review objects, not medicine. Anything touching illness, medication or a change of diet is a question for your vet, who has met your cat. We will tell you when a question is one of those.