The life of both cats and dogs has been hailed as a "winner in life" on social media. More and more people have changed from envious of other people's pets to living a life with cute pets at home.
People have no natural resistance to soft, cute and cute animals. Especially in a high-pressure living environment, keeping pets has become a way of life for people's spiritual comfort and spiritual sustenance.
In recent years, the number of pet owners in China has been on the rise. Pets are not just pets for pet owners. Statistics show that over 90% of pet owners regard pets as family members, friends, children, and even companions.
The phenomenon of pets becoming family members is going mainstream.
Scientific parenting requires systematic learning of pet knowledge
In order to better raise "fur children", pet owners are never tired of learning the knowledge of raising pets.
The recently released "2022 Pet Healthy Feeding Report" shows that more than 90% of consumers have a positive attitude to learn about pet raising, and 20% of them will learn systematically.
With the diversification of information channels and content platforms, the channels for pet owners to obtain pet knowledge have also become more diverse, and online search and social platforms have become the most important learning channels.
In addition, people also tend to choose to consult professional veterinarians and friends and relatives around them to solve the problems about raising pets.
However, in the face of massive information and multiple channels, pet owners are still confused about how to better raise their pets.
According to the data, 60% of the respondents said that the knowledge they have learned is not applicable to their own pets, and 55% of the audience think that the knowledge is general and it is difficult to apply it to actual pet raising.
Other issues such as the authenticity and reliability of knowledge, the complexity and difficulty of digesting knowledge, etc. are all issues that pet owners care about.
Underlying all these doubts, pet owners have high expectations for their pets, not only hope that they eat well, but also want them to live happily.
Eating healthy is a top priority
What to eat and how to eat healthier are top priorities for pet owners.
Pet food is the main component of pet consumption. Online dog and cat food consumption accounts for nearly 60% of total pet consumption, and the scale of consumption continues to rise.
Pet owners pay attention to the health status of their pets, and more and more people put forward more refined and functional feeding needs for pet food.
According to the survey, the balanced nutritional content and safety of staple food are the most basic demands of consumers. In addition, 60% of consumers value the efficacy of staple food, such as caring for the health of the fur, reducing tear stains, and improving the stomach.
The diversified demand for staple food consumption has driven the upgrading of staple food consumption, and further promoted the subdivision of the dog and cat staple food track into three major trends: nutritional balance, scientific dietary formula, and personalized customization.
Gastrointestinal health, stronger resistance, and healthy coat color are the three major health issues that pet owners are most concerned about.
Pet owners expect that the nutritional ingredients of staple food can comprehensively care for the health of pets, improve or solve pet health problems, and realize meticulous pet health management needs.
In terms of demand for scientific dietary formulas, nearly 60% of consumers expressed concern about the ingredient list of staple food materials, whether to add hormones, flavoring agents, and the content of meat in the ingredients. Science nutrition.
With the improvement of pet quality consumption awareness, in order to meet the individual needs of pets, as many as 98% of consumers expressed their willingness to buy customized food.
Different pets require different health management solutions due to their different health conditions, life stages, breeds, and body shapes. Customized staple foods are becoming more and more popular in the market because of their individuality and pertinence.
Pet Emotions Get Attention
Pets are regarded as family members, and people not only pay attention to their physical health, but also their mental health.
According to the survey, only 3% of pet owners do not pay attention to pet emotional problems.
More than 80% of pet owners said they were concerned about their pets' emotional problems and needed care from their owners to alleviate them.
Cats and dogs have different causes of emotional problems due to their different attributes.
Nearly 90% of cat owners believe that cats’ emotional problems mainly come from living at home for a long time and lack of contact with the external environment; while 40% of dog owners believe that emotional problems are more caused by dogs’ sensitive personalities.
In order to alleviate or solve the emotional problems encountered by pets and get rid of the mental sub-health state, pet owners use various interactive behaviors to satisfy the emotional demands of their pets.
According to the different habits of cats and dogs, more than 90% of cat owners habitually or frequently use toys such as petting, grooming or cat teasing sticks for daily interaction and indoor play with cats and cats.
Nearly 90% of dog owners always or often take their dogs for a walk for outdoor activities, and 80% of pet owners choose interactive training as one of the means of emotional relief for their dogs.
Pet owners care deeply about their pets, from physical health to spiritual happiness, and never let go of every aspect of growth.
But even so, the survey shows that more than 70% of pet owners have varying degrees of anxiety about raising pets: the physical and mental health of their pets, whether the way of raising pets is scientific, how to deal with the constantly emerging problems of raising pets, and many other aspects make pet owners constantly anxious.
Specifically, pet owners are mainly anxious about feeding, sleeping and bathing their pets, and the anxiety content of cat and dog owners is different.
According to the survey, nearly 60% of dog owners are more worried that their dogs cannot take care of themselves well, so they increase the frequency of bathing their dogs, while cat owners are more worried about their cats sleeping alone, so they let them sleep with them.
In terms of feeding, worrying about the unbalanced nutrition of pets, supplementing nutrition with health products and snacks has become the primary anxiety of cat and dog owners.
Pet owners give their pets careful care with their own understanding and in the name of love.
Health maintenance can enjoy long-term companionship
In terms of health, the most common pet obesity problem cannot be ignored.
Obesity is a nutritional and metabolic disease, and it is also the main cause of other diseases. It has the risk of shortened life span and increased mortality in dogs and cats.
Pet owners should achieve the goal of losing weight or preventing obesity through reasonable feeding, high-quality carbohydrates (for example, legumes are more conducive to weight loss than grains), and regular physical examinations.
Regular physical examination is also helpful to discover hidden diseases. Experts suggest that it is best to maintain an annual physical examination before the age of 7 for dogs and 10 for cats.
According to the survey, nearly 90% of pet owners have arranged pet medical examinations, and their awareness of pet medical examinations is relatively active.
Pets, like humans, can develop emotional problems.
22% of the respondents believe that the reason for pets' emotional problems is that pets usually lack the interaction and companionship of their owners.
Experts suggest that the companionship of the owner is crucial to loving pets, but it must be made clear that pets have different emotional needs from humans, and pets need to be accompanied and interacted in a way that adapts to them.
For example, cats don't like to be disturbed excessively, so you can create a place suitable for cats to live in, so that they can freely express their nature.
Cat climbing frames, places where they can hide, etc. are in line with their living habits.
Dogs look forward to being protected by their owners. In addition to daily dog walking, they can also play some interactive games with dogs such as throwing objects and finding them.
Appropriate, high-quality interactions are an effective way to promote your pet's emotional and mental health.
A good living environment is the key to a pet's physical and mental health and a comfortable life.
Maintaining indoor air circulation, ensuring clean drinking water, and giving a certain space for activities are the living environment factors that pet owners pay most attention to.
Experts suggest that pets enjoy more than three hours of light every day, keep the indoor humidity at about 40%, and try to let pets adapt to the local tap water.
For the "workers" who are working hard outside, they have many concerns about sharing rent and raising pets.
For example, pets may damage furniture, floors, and worry that pets will disturb roommates.
Shared tenants should pay attention to garbage disposal to prevent dogs from stealing food, and also need to tell roommates to avoid repeated feeding.
When pet owners clean and clean their home environment, more than half of the respondents have the habit of using pet sanitizer.
Experts warmly reminded that the disinfectant should be used up on the same day after being prepared every day. Strictly follow the recommended ratio of disinfectant. Do not mix multiple disinfectants. For disinfectants with volatile odors, pets should be avoided before the smell dissipates.
Hygienic disinfection is very important, but the disinfectant should be handled carefully, otherwise it will backfire and endanger the health of humans and pets.
In addition, surveys show that 60% of pet owners own multiple pets.
While happiness doubled, troubles also increased a lot.
The four major problems of grabbing food, fighting with each other, urinating indiscriminately, and disease transmission are the most prominent.
How to solve the troubles of multi-pet families?
You can try to create your own small territory for each pet.
When bringing a new pet into the house, it is necessary to prepare a relatively independent space, and let the pets contact each other after the pets gradually adapt to the complete release.
For daily feeding, independent food basins, water basins, and multiple cat toilets are required to ensure that each small animal has its own living space and promote the harmonious coexistence of pets.
When pets enter a new environment, they will not adapt. More than 90% of pet owners are worried about this.
Experts suggest that pet owners should reduce the amount of food they feed before moving, and still use the pet's original nest and food bowl after moving, so as to help pets adapt to the new home quickly.
Text/Reporter Chen Si
(Beijing Youth Daily)