A Cat House Takeover: Cat Parenthood is Rising!

Michelle Fern on Pet Life Radio

Did you know that cat parenthood is exploding in growth?!   59% of global pet owners are now cat owners (it's a cat house takeover!), as cats continue to fit pet parenthood needs in urban living environments. Cats, and their dotting owners, were the focus of a recent multi-national survey by Cargill, which found that nearly 50% of cat parents are concerned about their cat developing a health condition, with anxiety cited as a top concern for U.S. owners and dental issues.  This week Michelle Fern chats with Cargill expert Chad Wethal about cats and cat pet needs.


Listen to Episode #245 Now:

BIO:

Experienced Senior Marketing Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in branding and strategic planning, advertising, digital engagement and influencer marketing.

Transcript:


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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Let's talk pets.

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Michelle Fern: Hello, feline friends, welcome to cattitude.

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Michelle Fern: I'm your show host, Michelle Fern.

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Michelle Fern: You know, there's so many studies that have been done over the years, and what do they feature?

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Michelle Fern: Dogs, right?

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Michelle Fern: Dogs, dogs, dogs.

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Michelle Fern: Well, this is cattitude, we're about cats.

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Michelle Fern: And there is a fascinating study that just came out by Cargill.

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Michelle Fern: And we're gonna talk to the representative from Cargill, and just fascinating information.

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Michelle Fern: So stay tuned, we'll be right back.

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Michelle Fern: Hey, Michelle Fern here, and you know, saving cats is near and dear to my heart.

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Michelle Fern: Did you know that there is an estimated 70 to 100 million free roaming cats in the United States?

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Michelle Fern: And without spay neuter, that number will keep growing.

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Michelle Fern: Not only does spay neuter mainly reduce the community cat population, but it also keeps cats healthier.

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Michelle Fern: Scooter, the neutered cat, is on a mission to give cats an extra life by making it hip to be sniffed.

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Michelle Fern: Visit his website, givethemten.org, to help pioneer a better world for cats.

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Michelle Fern: That's GiveThemTen, spelled out, T-E-N, dot org.

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Announcer: Let's talk pets on petliferadio.com.

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Michelle Fern: Welcome back, everyone.

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Michelle Fern: I'd like to welcome Chad Wethal.

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Michelle Fern: He is the Senior Global Marketing Manager of Pet and Lifestyle for Cargill's animal and nutrition business.

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Michelle Fern: And they have just came out with a really interesting cat parent survey.

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Michelle Fern: Welcome, Chad.

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Chad Wethal: Hello, thank you for having me.

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Chad Wethal: Excited to be here.

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Michelle Fern: I'm excited to have you.

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Michelle Fern: And this is so interesting, your findings.

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Michelle Fern: But first, tell us, what is your role at Cargill, and what is Cargill's role in the pet industry?

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Chad Wethal: Yeah, so as you said, I am the Senior Marketing Manager for our global pet and lifestyle business, and specifically within animal, our Cargill animal nutrition business, and even more specifically within what we call our micro nutrition and health solutions group.

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Chad Wethal: And this is really a group that helps brands, pet food brands around the world, support pet health and wellness with our innovative, proactive health and nutrition ingredients, and actually more specifically, postbiotics.

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Chad Wethal: And Cargill is really involved in the global pet industry, truly from farm to bull, anything from sustainable ingredient sourcing through various points along the value chain, and even delivering finished products, pet bulls all around the world.

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Michelle Fern: Well, thanks so much for coming on the show.

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Michelle Fern: This is going to be definitely interesting, I am sure of that.

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Michelle Fern: Let's talk about cat ownership.

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Michelle Fern: So, here at cattitude, we always think it's better to have another cat, and the more households adopting cats and becoming pet parents, the less cats that are roaming around without homes.

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Michelle Fern: But cat ownership is always fought against dog ownership, but it's on the rise.

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Michelle Fern: So why is that?

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Chad Wethal: Yeah, so definitely agree.

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Chad Wethal: And, you know, we found that recent report actually done by Innova, one of our market research partners, they just did a global pet study as well, and actually found that about 60% now of global pet owners are actually cat owners.

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Chad Wethal: And more than a third of those cat owners are multi cat owners.

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Chad Wethal: And I'm proud to say that our household is part of that statistic.

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Chad Wethal: We've got a two year old named Sylvester, and we have a 16 year old cat named Toby.

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Chad Wethal: And really what we're really finding is that cat parenthood is on the rise, and it's really a result of this perfect storm playing out within the global pet market.

00:04:23.305 --> 00:04:28.285
Chad Wethal: Three of the key drivers that we see driving this growth are firstly, urbanization.

00:04:28.285 --> 00:04:33.865
Chad Wethal: So compact living spaces are clearly more favorable for cats than dogs.

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Chad Wethal: It just makes them more ideal companions for our urban dwellers out there.

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Chad Wethal: We're also seeing demographic shift.

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Chad Wethal: So cats, as you know, as your audience knows, they tend to be a bit more independent.

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Chad Wethal: Typically, maybe have a tendency of less maintenance than dogs.

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Chad Wethal: So they're fitting more seamlessly, would say, into active pet parents' lives, whether they're busy for work, they've got growing families, they've got active social lives.

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Chad Wethal: They just kind of fit more seamlessly into these demographics.

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Chad Wethal: And then thirdly, we're still really seeing the remnants of a lot of this crazy growth that happened during the pandemic.

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Chad Wethal: So there was a surge in pet adoptions, as you know, and cats were really right in there.

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Chad Wethal: So between this kind of trifecta of things going on in the market, we really see cat household ownership just really skyrocket in recent years.

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Michelle Fern: Yes, and I'm hearing that all over the place.

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Michelle Fern: And there was one of our show hosts that said, cats are like potato chips, can't have just one.

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Michelle Fern: So true.

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Michelle Fern: I think most cat households have two or more.

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Michelle Fern: That's just my guess though.

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Michelle Fern: Cargill recently did a study on cat owners.

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Michelle Fern: What did your team want to learn more about with regarding cat parents?

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Chad Wethal: Yeah.

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Chad Wethal: So within our group, our Cargill group, we are very data driven, very insight driven organization.

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Chad Wethal: And we really observe this sizable gap in the amount of information available on cat parents in comparison to your dog moms and your dog dads out there.

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Chad Wethal: And so we believe one of the best ways to really uncover the needs of really any consumer group is simply to ask them.

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Chad Wethal: So we completed this survey that included about 1,000 cat parents from across the US., UK., Germany and France.

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Chad Wethal: And as a nutrition company, we really wanted to learn more about their perceptions of how nutrition plays a role in supporting cat health.

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Chad Wethal: We wanted to learn what is at the forefront of cat parents' minds when it comes to their cat's health.

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Chad Wethal: And we also wanted to learn whether or not they felt like they have the nutrition options at their disposal to actually support some of these health concerns.

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Michelle Fern: That's really interesting.

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Michelle Fern: I know why you chose the US, but did you choose France, UK and Germany because they are, I don't know, big cat countries or very cat forward?

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Michelle Fern: Or is that related to Cargill's interest in their business?

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Chad Wethal: Yeah, that's right.

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Chad Wethal: So those would be your top four cat-owning markets between the United States or North America and Western Europe.

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Michelle Fern: What did the study reveal about cat-pet parents and were there any surprises?

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Chad Wethal: Yeah, you know, like a lot of Consumer Insights projects work, in many ways, their survey was very validating in many ways of some things that we think we already knew.

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Chad Wethal: And, you know, one, we found that nearly half of cat parents are, in fact, concerned about their cat developing a health condition.

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Chad Wethal: I think you kind of mentioned earlier cats are like potato chips, right?

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Chad Wethal: So I think there is this kind of sentiment in the industry that, you know, cat parents are maybe not as thinking about their cat's health needs or physical needs maybe in the same way as a dog, because they maybe aren't bonding or connecting with the cat in the same way.

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Michelle Fern: Wait, wait, I, that was confusing.

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Michelle Fern: No, I said having more than one cat.

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Michelle Fern: Cats are still at creatures.

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Michelle Fern: So I think cat pet parents are almost a little bit more concerned about their cat's well-being because you can't tell as much as from a dog.

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Michelle Fern: From my readings on your survey, that's what it showed.

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Chad Wethal: Yeah, absolutely.

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Chad Wethal: Over half of the people that put the survey, they were actually concerned about their cat potentially developing some kind of health concern.

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Chad Wethal: And when we looked a little bit closer at, okay, well, we provided a very comprehensive list of various health conditions.

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Chad Wethal: And some of the top conditions that we found rose to the top were things like vomiting, immune health, diarrhea.

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Chad Wethal: Hopefully people aren't eating their lunches or listening to this, but that's the life of a pet owner, right?

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Chad Wethal: So those are some of your leading contributors.

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Chad Wethal: Interestingly, as we kind of looked at some of the different regions.

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Chad Wethal: Now, overall, on the whole, there was a lot of, probably not surprisingly, similarities between concerns, regardless of which part of the world they lived in.

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Chad Wethal: But there were actually a couple of outliers by different regions.

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Chad Wethal: So one of those, for instance, was in the United States.

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Chad Wethal: Cat parents tended to be a bit more concerned about cat anxiety.

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Chad Wethal: That was not a health condition that was top of mind for any of the other three markets that were surveyed.

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Chad Wethal: And also, I believe in the UK, for example, cat parents were a little bit more concerned about dental issues and that again was not something that we saw in the other three markets.

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Chad Wethal: So there were some regional differences.

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Chad Wethal: And I think one of the really interesting learnings for us is a really research centric organization that we were very excited to see, is that about 70% I believe this was the US audience of cat parents, they're actually seeking research backed by cat specific research.

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Chad Wethal: And again, you know, back to the kind of validating this insight.

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Chad Wethal: So for Cargill and for, you know, any pet food brand, it is common to kind of leverage general pet research that covers both dogs and cats.

00:10:25.685 --> 00:10:31.365
Chad Wethal: And we were really excited about this insight because it really does support the need for our industry.

00:10:31.805 --> 00:10:43.065
Chad Wethal: To put more resources behind cat specific research, because not only is it just a best practice, but it's, you know, we're finding it's actually something that cat parents are seeking.

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Michelle Fern: Very true.

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Michelle Fern: And as we say, as has those cat people say, cats are not little dogs.

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Chad Wethal: Exactly.

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Michelle Fern: Cats, you know.

00:10:50.345 --> 00:11:06.265
Michelle Fern: And the stat I find fascinating is that, and I've heard little variations between a couple percentages, but approximately 95% of your cat's makeup is very similar to, is 95% true to, I think it's a tiger.

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Chad Wethal: Interesting.

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Michelle Fern: Because they're domesticated, but not nearly so as dogs.

00:11:10.085 --> 00:11:12.985
Michelle Fern: That's why they do some of the things they do.

00:11:12.985 --> 00:11:19.065
Michelle Fern: But getting back to your study, what did the study reveal about cat parents and nutrition?

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Michelle Fern: Was there a lot of similarities or a lot of variances between the four countries?

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Chad Wethal: Yeah.

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Chad Wethal: So again, there was a lot of consistency across all of the regions.

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Chad Wethal: And when it comes to really uncovering one of our key questions, which again was, are cat parents actually satisfied with their nutrition choices out there?

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Chad Wethal: We actually found that nearly three quarters of respondents believe that their cat's food plays a role in preventing health conditions.

00:11:47.065 --> 00:11:56.905
Chad Wethal: But really just 40% say that they're actually satisfied with a variety of foods and treats available in their market to support their cat's health challenges.

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Chad Wethal: Probably amongst all four of the regions that we evaluated, the contrast was actually widest in France, where 57% were concerned about those health conditions, but only 33% of them were actually satisfied with what's available for their nutrition offering.

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Chad Wethal: We also found that when cats do face a health challenge, that nearly three quarters of cat parents say that they just make changes to the cat's diet.

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Chad Wethal: And the two leading changes they make to their diet, the firstly, it's 38% of those cat parents, they just switch brands.

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Chad Wethal: And then about a quarter of them switch to a veterinary and prescribed diet.

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Chad Wethal: So I think there's an opportunity or an insight there for cat food brands to really think about these health challenges are really kind of a key trigger, potentially brand switching moment, and an opportunity to kind of be there when cat parents need them and provide those foods and treats and even supplements within their brands.

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Chad Wethal: So as they're thinking about other options, they can at least have different choices still with the brand that they trust.

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Michelle Fern: So Chad, there was a lot of differences in your study about the types of food.

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Michelle Fern: And I was surprised to see that more cat parents give their cats dry food versus wet.

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Chad Wethal: Yes, and that's particularly more common in the US than in Europe.

00:13:24.945 --> 00:13:29.705
Chad Wethal: But actually, you know, we do see a lot of mixed use of.

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Chad Wethal: So what was kind of interesting in the study, and I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but most of the cat parents are not necessarily using one or the other.

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Chad Wethal: They are using both a wet food or a dry food in combination.

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Chad Wethal: And a lot of times, you know, that dry food is very good, even for your dental health and your oral health, because it's useful in keeping those teeth clean, and that can be a potential issue when you're on strictly a wet food diet.

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Chad Wethal: It can kind of be rougher on the cat's teeth.

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Chad Wethal: I'm not a nutritionist, but that's at least what I hear.

00:14:04.265 --> 00:14:05.085
Michelle Fern: No, I agree.

00:14:05.405 --> 00:14:13.465
Michelle Fern: And we do a combination, and the dry food is actually very high protein, but cat's teeth can be challenging to clean.

00:14:13.465 --> 00:14:15.705
Michelle Fern: Cats have a lot of bacteria in their mouth.

00:14:15.705 --> 00:14:21.265
Michelle Fern: So you have that and a lot of wet food, because cats don't always drink enough water.

00:14:21.265 --> 00:14:26.485
Michelle Fern: We have four fountains, but that's another, you know, something interesting that's out there.

00:14:26.485 --> 00:14:29.485
Michelle Fern: We're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back.

00:14:32.065 --> 00:14:33.645
Michelle Fern: Molly, here's your dinner.

00:14:35.565 --> 00:14:38.305
Michelle Fern: Zeus, that's not your food.

00:14:38.305 --> 00:14:40.545
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00:15:14.825 --> 00:15:18.605
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00:15:22.465 --> 00:15:23.625
Chad Wethal: Let's talk pets.

00:15:24.525 --> 00:15:25.585
Announcer: On Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Pet Life Radio.

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Michelle Fern: Welcome back, everyone.

00:15:40.808 --> 00:15:52.388
Michelle Fern: We're talking to Chad Wethal regarding the Cargill survey they just did, Cargill study they just did on cat nutrition and different things about cats.

00:15:52.388 --> 00:15:57.768
Michelle Fern: So Chad, how can cat parents ease their concerns about their cat's health?

00:15:57.768 --> 00:16:01.128
Michelle Fern: Especially since so much of it is through diet.

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Chad Wethal: Right, yeah, so one of the really great things, and this wasn't in the study, it's kind of, again, going back to the Innova New Product Development Market Insight Partner that we work with is, and they track all of the new product developments that happen all around the world.

00:16:16.088 --> 00:16:21.348
Chad Wethal: A new product development could be a brand new product, it could be a reformulation, a new channel.

00:16:21.348 --> 00:16:26.768
Chad Wethal: So all of the different new ways that products are being made available to a consumer.

00:16:26.768 --> 00:16:38.808
Chad Wethal: And the good news for cat parents around the world is that in 2023, more than half of all global new product developments for cat foods and treats contained a proactive health claim.

00:16:38.808 --> 00:16:46.708
Chad Wethal: So think in terms of anything from gut health and digestive health, immunity, eye health, brain health, you know, kind of etc.

00:16:46.708 --> 00:16:53.068
Chad Wethal: So if there is a specific health concern, there is likely, you know, a nutrition solution for it.

00:16:53.068 --> 00:17:07.208
Chad Wethal: But also, you know, we have to say regardless of which choice that you make, you always work very closely with a trained nutritionist or your veterinarian to develop that custom nutrition plan to address your cat's specific health needs.

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Michelle Fern: Okay, and I would just like to mention because I have it actually open, I didn't memorize this.

00:17:12.728 --> 00:17:23.648
Michelle Fern: But as far as concerns for the health claims that matter most to pet parents, it's interesting that gut health was pretty much number one in three countries, number two in Germany.

00:17:23.648 --> 00:17:26.608
Michelle Fern: And I've never heard so much about gut health.

00:17:26.608 --> 00:17:28.048
Michelle Fern: What is your thought on that?

00:17:28.048 --> 00:17:34.348
Michelle Fern: I mean, all of a sudden we're interested in probiotics for our cats and gut health, and it's huge right now.

00:17:34.348 --> 00:17:35.328
Chad Wethal: Absolutely.

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Chad Wethal: And it's all really part of, I don't even like to call it a trend anymore, but just the whole concept of humanization, that's really been driving premiumization of the global pet food industry for a number of years now.

00:17:49.848 --> 00:18:09.068
Chad Wethal: And so I think that's where you're really starting to see a lot of very similar claims, a lot of very similar ingredients, a lot of very similar even food attributes, that your aromas, things like that, that are actually making their way from human nutrition into pet nutrition.

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Chad Wethal: Probably five years ago, you would say, oh, there's about a 10-year gap between, you know, a trend that happens in the human industry, food and beverage industry into the pet industry.

00:18:20.708 --> 00:18:23.788
Chad Wethal: Today, that gap is almost non-existent.

00:18:23.908 --> 00:18:33.088
Chad Wethal: I mean, we work with pet food, pet treat and pet supplement brands, and you're seeing, you're seeing this really, these trends really play out in real time.

00:18:33.088 --> 00:18:42.968
Chad Wethal: A lot of times, you'll see a trend happening in the human food and beverage industry, and really within the next year, you're seeing it pop up in pet as well.

00:18:42.968 --> 00:19:04.948
Chad Wethal: And so I think that's where you're starting to see things like gut health and digestive health really grow, and not just grow and be the leading claim, but they are by far the leading claim, and they have been the leading claim for a number of years, even though that's something that we are pretty accustomed to seeing in some of our health choices in our own foods and beverages.

00:19:04.948 --> 00:19:17.508
Chad Wethal: And I think there's a lot of growing research happening in the area of gut health and digestive health, where we're starting to learn so much more about the gut's role in supporting overall pet health.

00:19:17.508 --> 00:19:21.388
Chad Wethal: So if we can keep the gut healthy, chances are we can keep the pet healthy.

00:19:21.928 --> 00:19:23.768
Michelle Fern: Yep, that certainly makes sense.

00:19:23.768 --> 00:19:30.628
Michelle Fern: You mentioned a little bit of this, but just so our audience knows, how is Cargill involved in the cat food industry?

00:19:30.628 --> 00:19:31.908
Chad Wethal: Yes, absolutely.

00:19:31.908 --> 00:19:43.948
Chad Wethal: So like I said, we help businesses of all sizes and brands of all sizes innovate their products with ingredients such as like our postbiotic ingredients that are added to their products.

00:19:43.948 --> 00:20:01.768
Chad Wethal: And in the case of these postbiotics, it's a relatively new ingredient in the pet and wellness and nutrition space, but we're finding it to be a really efficient way to really, back to what we were just talking about, really support gut health and support then therefore the overall wellness of our pets.

00:20:01.768 --> 00:20:19.028
Chad Wethal: We're especially proud of our postbiotics because we have some new cat research, and that's backed by over a dozen dog research studies as well that show that if we can really help support that gut and that healthy gut flora, we can actually then have more balanced immunity, more energy for your pet.

00:20:19.488 --> 00:20:24.228
Chad Wethal: And even in the case of dogs, actually, we've even linked that gut health to breath freshness.

00:20:24.228 --> 00:20:36.288
Chad Wethal: So we really try to really help our customers innovate and keep pushing the boundaries and kind of what's possible in supporting that premium pet health and wellness sector.

00:20:36.288 --> 00:20:42.288
Michelle Fern: So, Chad, you're a cat parent and you just analyzed this fascinating study.

00:20:42.288 --> 00:20:52.728
Michelle Fern: Was there anything that you expected to be important or maybe not at all important from just your point of view as a cat parent?

00:20:52.728 --> 00:21:03.868
Chad Wethal: Yeah, you know, one of the areas that we would have expected to see higher on the list of health claims that were more important was we would have expected...

00:21:03.868 --> 00:21:12.688
Chad Wethal: We've seen a lot work in the area of hairball and kidney or urinary health, even a lot of really cool things happening in allergy recently.

00:21:12.688 --> 00:21:26.328
Chad Wethal: So we were kind of expecting more in those claims areas to be a little bit higher on the priority list versus some of the kind of what we'll call the tried and true claims like your gut health, your immune health.

00:21:26.328 --> 00:21:35.548
Chad Wethal: And so that was an area and I think perhaps that is something that is just still newer in the area of innovation in the pet food space.

00:21:35.548 --> 00:21:51.028
Chad Wethal: Maybe not newer in terms of new health issues for cats, but newer in terms of how nutrition can actually influence and make a positive influence on those health concerns that may be several years ago or many years ago.

00:21:51.028 --> 00:21:58.488
Chad Wethal: You wouldn't be able to really address those issues, target those issues specifically with a commercial bag of feed.

00:21:58.488 --> 00:21:59.488
Michelle Fern: Exactly.

00:21:59.488 --> 00:22:05.048
Michelle Fern: What changes do you see in the cat food industry regarding product development?

00:22:05.048 --> 00:22:09.688
Chad Wethal: So, you know, this industry is really growing very fast.

00:22:10.148 --> 00:22:28.248
Chad Wethal: Actually, in 2023 alone, there was over 10,000 new products introduced to the global cat food and treat marketplace, which was really double from what it was in 2022 and three times more than what it was in 2020.

00:22:28.248 --> 00:22:47.308
Chad Wethal: So I think the good news for our industry is that while there is still this disparity or perceived disparity between what might be available and to our cat parents, the good news is that the industry does seem to be catching up and providing more of these new products.

00:22:47.308 --> 00:22:57.208
Chad Wethal: You know, you go in any grocery store or pet store, and everyone knows the cat area is always significantly smaller than the dog.

00:22:57.208 --> 00:23:04.928
Chad Wethal: It seems like the dog parents have just a lot more fun when they can go to the store, and they have just so many more options to choose from.

00:23:04.928 --> 00:23:20.988
Chad Wethal: So I think as the growth of the market changes, and we see these new products continually coming to the market, it's really going to be exciting to start to see not just more of these products hit the shelves, but more functional products hit the shelves as well.

00:23:20.988 --> 00:23:27.628
Chad Wethal: So it's not just about more options, it's about having more meaningful nutrition choices for our cats.

00:23:27.628 --> 00:23:30.408
Michelle Fern: And as cat parents, we are glad to hear that.

00:23:30.748 --> 00:23:35.508
Michelle Fern: How do you see the cat food industry changing, say, in the next five years?

00:23:35.508 --> 00:23:44.868
Chad Wethal: Yeah, I think it's more of that, not just more, but I think you're going to start to see a lot more diversification in the premium segment, right?

00:23:44.868 --> 00:23:54.548
Chad Wethal: So it's not going to be just about claims, you're going to start to, I think, start seeing a lot more unique and novel product forms.

00:23:54.548 --> 00:24:05.348
Chad Wethal: I think fresh food is a really exciting area that we're seeing really explode more in the dog space, but I think we'll start to see more of that in the feline space as well.

00:24:05.348 --> 00:24:10.488
Chad Wethal: More of these, as these D2C, direct to consumer models really start coming into their own.

00:24:10.488 --> 00:24:14.988
Chad Wethal: I think we're going to start seeing a lot of these really cool options for cat parents.

00:24:14.988 --> 00:24:20.228
Chad Wethal: I think you're going to start to see a lot more functional treats come into play.

00:24:20.228 --> 00:24:23.908
Chad Wethal: We know that one of the pieces I actually don't think was in the report.

00:24:23.908 --> 00:24:32.808
Chad Wethal: So we actually did ask about cat supplementation and almost none of the cat parents actually are giving their cat a supplement.

00:24:32.808 --> 00:24:38.068
Chad Wethal: I think giving a cat a supplement is a very different experience from giving a dog a supplement.

00:24:38.068 --> 00:24:40.668
Chad Wethal: It's not as user friendly of an experience.

00:24:40.668 --> 00:24:51.308
Chad Wethal: So I think functional treats are an area that will really maybe play a much stronger role in keeping our pets healthy while still having a nice bonding experience of giving that to our cat.

00:24:51.308 --> 00:24:57.168
Chad Wethal: So I really do envision it playing catch up to what is available currently in the dog space.

00:24:57.708 --> 00:25:09.368
Chad Wethal: Honestly, and then from there, I think we'll start to see a little bit more shoulder to shoulder innovation as our dog counterparts are innovating alongside cat innovations.

00:25:09.368 --> 00:25:10.708
Michelle Fern: I absolutely agree.

00:25:10.708 --> 00:25:15.688
Michelle Fern: I just recently had a show and where they came out, it's a treat supplement.

00:25:15.688 --> 00:25:25.608
Michelle Fern: It's almost impossible to get a cat to swallow a pill and even shooting the medicine, not, it's not easy if you've ever had to do that, Chad.

00:25:26.348 --> 00:25:34.948
Michelle Fern: But I do definitely see the trend toward more supplement or nutrition, not even nutritional, but even probiotic type treats.

00:25:34.948 --> 00:25:36.848
Michelle Fern: And it's fascinating what's happening.

00:25:37.408 --> 00:25:39.128
Michelle Fern: It's coming out for dogs.

00:25:39.128 --> 00:25:49.128
Michelle Fern: And then it seems like a lot of these cheats are their dosage and the flavors, and they have to work a little harder because cats have different palates, but we're getting there.

00:25:49.128 --> 00:25:50.868
Michelle Fern: So interesting that you said that.

00:25:50.868 --> 00:25:56.868
Michelle Fern: Chad, thank you so much for coming on cattitude and sharing the findings of this study.

00:25:56.868 --> 00:25:58.428
Michelle Fern: I find it fascinating.

00:25:58.428 --> 00:26:03.668
Michelle Fern: And I'm so glad to hear that in the last few years, cats are getting their share of the market.

00:26:03.668 --> 00:26:06.508
Michelle Fern: And as a cat parent, you must be thrilled about that.

00:26:06.508 --> 00:26:07.368
Chad Wethal: Yes, absolutely.

00:26:07.368 --> 00:26:09.368
Chad Wethal: Like I said, we've got both spectrums.

00:26:09.368 --> 00:26:13.748
Chad Wethal: We've got a young cat, we've got an older cat, and they're both on different diets.

00:26:13.748 --> 00:26:22.748
Chad Wethal: And it's just nice to know that, you know, as an industry, we're continuing to evolve so that, you know, really all cats can live more healthy and active days.

00:26:23.128 --> 00:26:26.188
Michelle Fern: Well, I want to thank you so much for coming on cattitude.

00:26:26.188 --> 00:26:29.528
Michelle Fern: And say hi to, it's Vester and Toby?

00:26:29.528 --> 00:26:29.908
Chad Wethal: Yep.

00:26:29.908 --> 00:26:31.168
Michelle Fern: Okay, say hi to them.

00:26:31.168 --> 00:26:32.368
Michelle Fern: Thanks so much.

00:26:32.368 --> 00:26:33.008
Chad Wethal: Thank you.

00:26:33.008 --> 00:26:34.628
Michelle Fern: I hope you guys enjoyed this show.

00:26:34.628 --> 00:26:36.748
Michelle Fern: I found it so interesting.

00:26:36.748 --> 00:26:40.208
Michelle Fern: So, I want to thank Chad from Cargill for coming on the show.

00:26:40.208 --> 00:26:44.108
Michelle Fern: Thank you so much to my cat crew for, hey, just being cats.

00:26:44.108 --> 00:26:46.468
Michelle Fern: Thanks, Charlotte, Dennis and Molly.

00:26:46.468 --> 00:26:48.988
Michelle Fern: Thanks, of course, to everybody listening to cattitude.

00:26:48.988 --> 00:26:50.328
Michelle Fern: I appreciate it so much.

00:26:50.948 --> 00:26:52.368
Michelle Fern: And thank you.

00:26:52.368 --> 00:26:59.128
Michelle Fern: The show wouldn't be what it is without the magic of Mark Winter, my producer, for making me and my guest sound amazing.

00:26:59.128 --> 00:27:04.328
Michelle Fern: So, hey, remember, lose the attitude... have cattitude.

00:27:04.328 --> 00:27:07.688
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00:27:07.688 --> 00:27:10.348
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