The variety of households with pet cats is rising, and cat house owners are able to be heard. In keeping with a latest report from Packaged Details, Cats: U.S. Pet Market Developments and Alternatives, regardless of price issues, the motion towards various kinds of superpremium pet meals is nicely underway, with recent (refrigerated and/or frozen) and freeze-dried pet meals main the cost.
Relating to recent cat meals, nevertheless, survey outcomes counsel that cat house owners stay sad with their out there choices. Though recent cat meals hasn’t reached the identical stage of uptake as recent pet food, minimally processed frozen and refrigerated merchandise attraction to cat house owners in search of ultra-premium merchandise that resemble what they would feed themselves.
Treats are one other space the place cats have much less choices. Though many entrepreneurs supply cat treats, traditionally the choices have been much less sturdy than for canine, and a few cat meals entrepreneurs have ignored cat treats fully, said the report. Causes for this embrace the upper fee of canine possession and canine being extra profitable when it comes to gross sales since they devour extra.
It is extra than simply cat meals
For pet mother and father, their pet’s desire is the best affect on pet meals purchases. That is very true for cat house owners, famous Packaged Details. Given the financial surroundings of the previous a number of years, pet house owners are looking out for offers, and have in some circumstances been buying and selling right down to decrease price merchandise together with non-public labels. The survey outcomes, nevertheless, confirmed that amongst cat product purchasers, the best share elevated their spending on pet meals in 2024 in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
The report additionally said that cat house owners particularly see pet meals as greater than a crucial staple however as holding a premier position of their pets’ well being. With conventional kibble and canned/moist pure pet meals mass-marketized, the superpremium cat meals phase is seeing an inflow of purposeful and science-based diets.
The report additionally famous utilization charges for conventional dry canine and cat meals have been flat, whereas utilization charges for conventional moist pet meals have edged up.
Moist pet meals is dearer than dry meals because of the moisture content material and want for extra in depth packaging. As such, pet house owners seeking to reduce might resolve to attenuate the quantity of moist meals feeding they are doing. Financial sluggishness apart, moist pet meals seems prone to advance fairly a bit additional.
Packaged Details’ information for this report was sourced from major and secondary analysis, together with a January 2024 survey of 1,600 U.S. pet house owners and MRI-Simmons’ Winter 2023 survey of fifty,000 customers, each representing a cross-section of the U.S. inhabitants. The first analysis additionally concerned interviews with pet market specialists, participation in business occasions, and onsite and on-line evaluations of retail and repair venues.
