Pet dietary supplements are available in multiple delivery formats including soft chews, powders, liquids, and topical patches, with soft chews dominating the market at 48-70% due to their palatability and convenience, while powders are the fastest-growing alternative offering higher active loads and more complex formulations.
- Soft chews lead the market: Chewables and soft chews captured 48-70% of the global pet dietary supplements market in 2025, driven by pet owner preference for treat-like formats over medication.
- Powders are fastest-growing: Powders are projected to grow at 7.1-11.2% compound annual growth rate through 2031-2033, enabling more complex formulations with higher active ingredient loads.
- Compliance drives success: Pet owners favor soft chews because they fit naturally into daily routines and feel like rewards, increasing consistent supplement consumption.
- Performance over format: Future growth will focus on delivery efficacy and bioavailability rather than entirely new formats, with better ingredient matching and absorption optimization.
Pet dietary supplements today come in a range of delivery formats, including tablets and capsules, chewables and soft chews, powders, liquids, and topical sprays and transdermal patches. Each format carries its own trade-offs in palatability, dosing precision and absorption, and manufacturers continue to weigh those factors as they develop new products.
Soft chews remain the runaway leader in pet dietary supplement formats. Chewables and soft chews captured 48% of the global pet dietary supplements market in 2025, according to Mordor Intelligence. Grand View Research put the chewables segment even higher, at 69.8% of global revenue the same year.
While the estimates vary widely, both firms cite the same underlying driver: pets and pet owners prefer a format that mimics a treat rather than medication, and manufacturers have responded by investing in flavor-masking technology and texture optimization to keep pets voluntarily consuming their supplements.
Why chews win: consistent compliance
Nich Wilson, president of KND Labs and a board member of the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC), said the popularity of soft chews comes down to one thing: consistency.
"You can have the best ingredients and formulation in the world, but they don't do much good if the animal won't consistently take them," Wilson said. “Soft chews simply make it easy, which will continue to be a major driver for this format's growth through the years.”
In addition, chews make supplementation "feel like a reward" and fit naturally into the daily routine pet owners share with their animals, he said.
“The humanization of pets continues to be a huge driver,” Wilson noted. “Freshpet recently released research showing that 49% of dog parents surveyed consider their dog their ultimate soulmate, and nearly nine in 10 said they felt they were meant to find each other.
“That tells you how much the relationship has changed,” he explained. “Pets aren't just animals living in our homes anymore. They're family, and consumers increasingly approach their nutrition and wellness with that same mindset.”
Powders create room to formulate
Powders are the format both research firms flag as the fastest-growing alternative to chews. Mordor Intelligence forecasts an 11.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for powders through 2031, while Grand View Research projects a 7.1% CAGR from 2026 to 2033.
Powders' quick absorption, low per-unit manufacturing cost and compatibility with personalized dosing are cited as key growth drivers, even though they require pet owners to mix the product into food.
While chews win on convenience, Wilson said powders open the door to more complex formulations. Functional proteins, probiotics, amino acids, mushrooms and botanicals often require serving sizes too large to fit into a single chew, he said.
"Powders allow for higher active loads, more complex formulations and more flexible dosing," Wilson said.
The trade-off, he added, is palatability: A powder must be added to food, and if the flavor profile changes too much, the animal may reject it. “I don't see powders replacing chews,” he said. “I see them expanding what we're able to deliver.”
Topicals and patches move beyond niche status
Topical sprays and transdermal patches remain smaller segments of the market, according to Mordor Intelligence, but are gaining traction in categories such as skin and coat support and mobility, where oral absorption can be less efficient.
Wilson urged caution around bioavailability claims tied to newer delivery formats.
"A new delivery format doesn't automatically mean better bioavailability," he said. Topicals can make sense for targeted applications — skin and coat, paws and noses, and certain mobility or recovery uses — while patches offer potential for sustained delivery and improved compliance, he said.
“Ultimately, we need to validate that the delivery system actually works for that ingredient and that animal,” he explained. “As the science and technology improve, I think you'll see a lot more innovation here.”
Delivery performance, not format, is the next frontier
Asked what delivery format might emerge next, Wilson said he does not expect an entirely new format to define the category's future. Instead, he pointed to continued refinement of existing formats, chews, powders and liquids, with a focus on performance.
"We're getting better at matching the ingredient, dosage and intended benefit with the right delivery system," Wilson said.
Improvements in bioavailability, palatability, dispersibility and ingredient stability are already producing chews, powders and liquids that outperform versions from just a few years ago, he said.
Wilson predicted that market-leading pet supplement brands will increasingly separate themselves from competitors based on whether their ingredients are delivered effectively and at meaningful levels, not simply whether the right ingredients appear on the label.
Wilson added one of the most compelling aspects of animal supplementation is how visible the results can be. Unlike in humans, where the benefits of a supplement can be subtle, pet owners can often observe direct changes in an animal's mobility, activity, behavior and overall wellness; a feedback loop he said keeps delivery performance at the center of the category's next phase of growth.
"As pet parents continue to expect more from these products, efficacy is going to matter more and more,” he explained. “The next generation of pet supplements won't necessarily look dramatically different. They're just going to work better."
