Food tendencies for families with multiple pets

How do families with multiple pets deal with food? Do they use the same food for all the pets? From our previous study (11pets: Facts – statistics for families with multiple pets) it became clear that families tend to have dogs and cats of similar characteristics (age, breed, size and neutering).

More specifically, for families with multiple dogs, 82% have dogs of similar size, for 65% either all dogs are neutered or none is neutered, and for 48% all dogs are of the same breed. As for their age, for 60% of them, the youngest and eldest dog are less than 4 years apart.

Families with cats have very similar characteristics. For 69% of these families, either all cats are neutered or none of them is. 61% of them have cats of the same breed whereas for 55% of them, the youngest and eldest cat do not differ in age more than 4 years.

Families with multiple dogs

The main characteristics that define the food needs of a dog is its size and its age. Most food vendors have split their products according to the size of the dogs (mini, medium, large) and also according to their age (puppy, junior, adult, senior). Given that most families have dogs of similar characteristics, it would make sense to share the food.

The numbers verify that the families tend to use the same food for all the dogs of the home. A 55% of the homes with multiple dogs use the same food for all of them. A 35% uses just 2 foods for all the dogs where just an 8% uses a 3rd food. Finally, the percentage of families that use more than 3 different foods is only 2%.

Families with multiple cats

For cats, the main characteristics that define their food needs is their age and whether or not they are neutered / spayed. As explained already, most of the families are homogeneous in these aspects making it more likely to use the same food for all their cats.

A 59% of families with multiple cats use the same food for all. A 27% of these families use 2 different foods for their cats whereas a 9% needs a 3rd food. It is only a 4% of the families with multiple cats that use more than 3 foods.

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