3 reasons dog and cat owners choose dry pet food

Two assumptions and one preference help give dry pet food a strong customer preference advantage, in keeping with its share of pet food sales.

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(auremar | BigStock.com)
(auremar | BigStock.com)

Survey results revealed three key factors in pet owners’ decisions to buy dry cat and dog food, instead of wet varieties, reported David Sprinkle, publisher and research director at Packaged Facts, in his Petfood Industry column "Kibble vs. can: Why pet owners favor dry pet food (Part 1)."

Two assumptions and one preference help give dry pet food a strong customer preference advantage, in keeping with its share of pet food sales, he wrote. Sprinkle found evidence for these three reasons in Packaged Facts survey data collected in February and March 2017.

1. Health

Historically, marketing has promoted wet pet food as an indulgence, especially to cat owners, he said. However that association with luxury may also imply nutritional decadence. Nearly half of dog or cat owners (47–48 percent) at least somewhat agree that dry pet foods tend to be healthier. Nearly twice as many strongly agree as disagree that dry cat and dog food is healthier. Dog owners slightly surpassed cat owners in this conviction.

2. Dental

Similarly, Sprinkle wrote, pet owners tended to believe kibble provides oral hygiene benefits to pets as they crunch on the hard pieces, reasoning that the abrasion may help clean pets’ teeth. Dog and cat owners tended to strongly agree (at 49 percent vs. 44 percent, respectively) or somewhat agree (43 percent vs. 45 percent) that kibble is better for pet oral care. Only about a tenth disagreed, despite limited evidence that hard kibble alone provides significant dental benefits.

3. Odor

People tend to prefer pet foods that don’t have overpowering odors, which may reinforce customer preference for dry cat and dog foods, Sprinkle said. Less than a third of dog owners (28 percent) or cat owners (31 percent) are not put off by pet foods that have a pungent odor. Among dog or cat owners, 39–40 percent at least somewhat agree that they avoid buying strong-selling pet foods, and another 30–32 percent strongly agree.

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