Pet industry inflation eased in May, with total petflation dropping to 3.2% year over year, down from 3.8% in April, even as the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) accelerated to 4.2%, according to John Gibbons, president of Pet Business Professor, who tracks monthly U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI data for the pet industry, in his latest petflation report.
The divergence marks a notable shift noted Gibbons. "The petflation rate is now 24% below the national CPI," he said. "In March, it was 30% more than the CPI. It is a complex situation."
Pet food leads the cooling
Pet food prices fell 0.4% from April and are now up 1.8% year over year, down from 2.2% the prior month. That puts the pet food inflation rate 33% below the food-at-home inflation rate of 2.7%.
Gibbons noted the pet food category has seen considerable volatility. "The YOY pet food CPI has deflated in 16 of the last 27 months," he said. Current pet food prices remain within 0.6% of the March record high.
Pet supplies inflation slowed dramatically, from 3.5% in April to just 0.1% in May. Pet food and supplies prices both declined from April.
Services remain the inflation outlier
While product segments cooled, non-veterinary pet services continued to heat up. Services inflation came down to 7.0% year over year from 7.8%, still the highest rate among all pet segments, and services prices rose 1.4% from April alone.
Veterinary inflation also eased slightly, from 5.6% to 4.9% year over year, but remains well above overall petflation.
Gibbons pointed out that services segments have consistently driven higher cumulative inflation. "Services will be the least impacted as it is the most driven by high income [consumer units]," he said. "Veterinary will continue to see a reduction in visit frequency. Pet parents will just pay more."
Cumulative inflation remains the bigger story
Despite the monthly cooling, Gibbons said the long-term picture is worth noting for pet food manufacturers and processors. Pet prices are 27.8% above 2021 levels and 32.4% higher than 2019. All pet segments set price records in March and/or April and May 2026. Pet food's cumulative inflation since 2019 stands at 24.7%, with 98.8% of that increase occurring during the 2021–2026 surge.
Gibbons said the May monthly decline was statistically unusual. "Since 1997, there have been only five April-to-May price drops," he said, adding that a key factor in the year-over-year rate improvement was that prices had risen 0.5% in April–May 2025, creating a tougher comparison.
Broader economic context
The national CPI rose 0.6% from April and is now 4.2% above May 2025, up from 3.8% last month. Grocery prices edged up 0.1% from April, with year-over-year inflation slowing to 2.7% from 2.9%. Gasoline prices, meanwhile, are up 50.7% from February, which Gibbons attributed to the conflict with Iran.
Commodities are increasingly driving national inflation. "Services expenditures account for 63.4% of the national CPI so they are very influential," Gibbons said. "Their current CPI is 3.5%, while the CPI for commodities jumped up from 4.6% to 5.5%. Services are the usual inflation driver, but commodities are behind the current increase."
Outlook for pet food manufacturers
Gibbons said cumulative price pressures are reshaping consumer behavior in ways manufacturers should monitor. In product segments, he expects continued movement toward online purchasing and private label.
"We saw proof of this at both Global Pet Expo 2025 and SuperZoo 2025 as a huge number of exhibitors offer OEM services," he said. "At Global Pet Expo 2026, this trend continued."
In pet food specifically, the most needs-driven of the pet product categories, Gibbons said some consumers may opt to trade down. "The biggest impact in both product segments will be a strong movement to online purchasing and private label," he said.
"Even minor price changes can affect consumer pet spending, especially in the discretionary pet segments," he concluded.
Data sourced from the latest Petflation report by John Gibbons at PetBusinessProfessor.com, tracking Consumer Price Index data for pet industry segments compared to national inflation trends.
