The importance of food supplements for pets

The Italian market research company Permanent Pet Watch has been looking at the subject of food supplements for pets. It has conducted a survey of dog owners (58 per cent) and cat owners (64 per cent). Although the number of respondents was not disclosed, the company stated that 80 per cent of those surveyed were women. Dog owners are the biggest consumers of pet food supplements (34 per cent), while cat owners use them in 26 per cent of cases.

It is evident from the results that cat owners are most concerned about urinary tract and kidney problems (59 per cent). Dog owners had issues mostly with joint problems (41 per cent), dental and oral health (42 per cent) and digestive problems (38 per cent).

For both cat and dog owners (48 per cent), concerns regarding gut problems were a common thread. Stress (19 per cent) and hairballs (16 per cent) featured well down the list.

Half of the respondents who said they bought no food supplements were confident that it was enough to use a complete pet food with functional ingredients that could help to avert health complications with their pets.