India’s Cat Shift Is a Masterclass in Consumer Behaviour

The gap is belief, not distribution

India’s pet nutrition category is valued at roughly $800 million and projected to reach $1.2 billion by 2030, according to Euromonitor. The pet care market overall is expected to grow at 8% CAGR between 2026 and 2031, making it one of India’s fastest-growing consumer sectors. Yet packaged pet food is still rare: only an estimated 9% of dogs and 27% of cats were fed commercially prepared food in 2026.

That gap is not about availability. It is about a deeply held mental model: home-cooked food feels like care. Ayesha Huda, chief marketing officer at Mars Pet Nutrition India, describes the real task as “calorie conversion” — moving pet parents from home-cooked diets to complete manufactured nutrition. The barrier is psychological, not logistical.

A 40% cat shift changes the emotional centre

Five or six years ago, cats made up less than 10% of India’s pet population, Huda told ETBrandEquity. Today they account for around 40%, with the overall pet population estimated at 40–50 million. The driver is partly urban: cats need less space and less daily management, making them a rational fit for constrained city homes.

But that shift also changes buying psychology. Dogs tend to accept food more easily, so premium dog nutrition is pitched around function: immunity, high protein and DHA for puppies. Cats are more particular. A cat’s approval of a meal becomes an emotional reward, which pushes cat parents toward experience-led premium products—think Sheba’s skipjack salmon, sea bream, soups and pâté.

First-time pet parents search for proof

Around 70% of Indian pet parents are first-timers. They do not yet have a stable route from vet to store, so they gather more proof. Huda notes an Indian pet parent has 11.8 online touchpoints, compared with eight for a US pet parent. The top three influences are social, vets and search, in that order.

Veterinary authority carries particular weight because the belief in home-cooked food is so strong. Mars’ campaign-backed survey of about 500 vets found 88% endorsed manufactured pet food as better for pets. That matters because pet parents cannot see the nutritional gap: a home-cooked meal may cover only 5–10% of a dog’s calcium requirement, while a dog needs about two and a half times the calcium a human does.

Influencers, Huda says, play a middle-of-the-funnel role. Mars does not look for “pet influencers” as much as pet parents with an active lifestyle conversation, such as actor Sanya Malhotra, a cat parent, or cricketer KL Rahul, a dog parent. The goal is advocacy, not closing.

What the psychology tells marketers

• Category creation before brand share: With penetration below 10%, the competitor is home-cooked food, not another brand.
• Concrete reframes beat abstract claims: Mars translated Pedigree’s calcium content into the equivalent of nine cups of milk, which is easier to process.
• Familiar cues reduce switching anxiety: Whiskas launched rohu and katla, while Pedigree added chicken biryani—bridging home-cooked habits to packaged food.
• Segment by trust sequence: Millennials lean social then vets; Gen Z leans social then search. The message can stay consistent, but the channel priority should shift.

The broader lesson is familiar in behaviour science: when functional evidence is invisible, people lean on social proof, authority and cultural familiarity. India’s pet food boom, then, is less a story of more spending and more a story of reframing what good care looks like.

Source: ETBrandEquity.com