The U.S. seems to be leading globally in pet food inflation, but prices are also rising in other developed ones where pets are treated as family.

Though the overall U.S. consumer price index and prices for human food have stabilized a bit, pet food and other pet care prices keep increasing.

Despite a decline in pet food spending from 2020 to 2021, most demographic groups of U.S. pet owners did spend more compared to 2019, pre-pandemic.

More and more consumers, especially those in younger groups and with higher incomes, are willing to spend more on environmentally friendly products.

In marketing pet foods, it pays to remember that consumers, as humans, are emotional beings, and they’re particularly emotional about their pets.

The costs of many components for making pet food continue to rise, especially for canned dog and cat food, and are increasingly driving up retail prices.

Pet food has closely followed human food for several years, especially with trends, but unfortunately, now it’s also following closely in terms of inflation.

Pet food and pet products sales are still increasing, but largely due to price inflation, which is also affecting consumer demand for certain products.

Pet intakes at U.S. animal shelters are up in 2022 but still lower than in pre-pandemic 2019, though worrisome indicators, especially for dogs, bear watching.

Pet food brands can use celebrations like National Dog Day to engage their customers, but such events may not really influence consumer behavior.