Pet Nutrition: Knowledge Gap and Business Opportunity
I’m a fan of the My First Million podcast. I’ve listened to almost every episode.
One of the episodes they made a joke that the best type of supplement company to start/own is a pet one. Because a dog can’t tell you if it’s working or not.
While that’s funny, and true, recent personal experience made me more interested in what opportunities there are in pet nutrition. Especially when you can show pet parents tangible results in a few days/weeks.
Short story for context
I’m the proud owner of a three-year-old Great Dane named Luna, affectionately known as Pretty Girl.
I adopted Luna when she was 11 months old. It was evident she might have been the runt of the litter because she was the smallest Great Dane I had ever seen. (Insert joke: "Is there such a thing as a small Great Dane?")
My family has always had a Great Dane, and Luna is by far the smallest one I've encountered. For a while, she weighed between 100 and 110 pounds.
Between the ages of two and three, she seemed to be getting bigger. She wasn’t heavy—you could still see the outlines of her ribs—but it was clear she put on some weight.
This year, I took Luna for a check-up and discovered she weighed 131 pounds! She had gained over 20 pounds in one year. I was shocked and pretty upset because nothing in her diet had changed, and we were walking just as much as always.
The vet, who wasn’t very helpful, suggested it was probably her food and recommended cutting back on her portions and looking for a diet/light version. We were already feeding her the recommended amount, and some days Luna didn’t even finish it, so the vet’s advice didn’t seem right.
I have some reservations about vets since it's known they often promote and sell pet food despite harmful ingredients.
Fortunately, some family friends own a boutique pet store focused on all-natural and organic products. One of the owners is a Certified Pet Food Nutrition Specialist.
I took Luna there to weigh her again and to get a second (scale) opinion. The scale confirmed her weight.
I expressed my frustration with the vet and my confusion about Luna's weight gain to the shop owner.
She informed me that they offer free nutrition consulting, which includes evaluating everything your dog is currently eating, health issues (if any), exercise level, and creating a detailed plan based on your budget and goals.
She immediately suspected the food I was feeding Luna, explaining that most kibble is extremely bad for dogs. I scheduled a 60-minute consultation with them, and it turned out she was right.
The ingredients in Luna’s food were terrible. The calorie count was off the charts. And there were rumors that the brand (Purina) was linked to a few dog deaths.
I was eager to switch foods.
During the consultation, they showed me several food options at different price points and walked me through their calculations to arrive at the ideal daily calorie count for Luna. They also demonstrated how I could easily keep track of her intake.
I left with new food and a two-week plan to improve Luna’s nutrition. After two weeks, I took Luna to get weighed again and was thrilled to see she had dropped three pounds.
At that point, I was fully committed to the plan.
Barb and Lisa, who created Luna’s nutrition plan and have been coaching me, are incredibly supportive. Godfrey’s is the name of the store, and Barb is one of the owners. They’ve been super helpful, spending a lot of time with me in the store and even taking phone calls during the day.
Back to Business
As I mentioned above, this experience got me thinking about business opportunities in the pet space.
If I was taking over their shop, here’s a couple things I’d think about:
1) Content & Education
Focusing on helping people understand dog nutrition, and addressing what most people don’t know.
After experiencing this firsthand, I've realized there's so much about dog nutrition that people just don’t know. A few examples:
The Problem with Kibble
One important topic is how bad most kibble/dry food is for dogs. It's crucial to read and break down the labels on these products to understand what you're really feeding your pet.
The Raw Food Concept
Another topic is the concept of a “raw food” diet. Both Barb and Lisa are big proponents of feeding dogs an all-raw diet.
When I first heard them mention this, I thought they meant giving Luna a piece of raw meat—not something I was about to consider. However, they explained that a raw diet means feeding your dog real food: fruits, vegetables, and protein, similar to what you (should) eat.
Common Misconceptions About Raw Diets
When most people hear about a raw diet, they:
Don’t know what is meant by a raw diet: Just like I didn’t initially.
Think it’s very expensive.
Believe it requires a lot of extra work.
Addressing Misconceptions on Social Media
You could create a lot of content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, which have a big pet community, to address these misconceptions. This would create an excellent lead funnel.
2) Paid Office Hours
I think offering the free nutrition consultation and plan makes a lot of sense as a loss leader. I would love to know their conversion rate and customer lifetime value (LTV) numbers from people who go through a consultation versus those who do not.
Regardless, I’m sure this is a smart strategy. I went from never really needing to go there to now visiting a few times a month.
However, at a certain point, you can justify including a "Fee for Service" model. This could include:
Office hour sessions
Additional consulting on an as-needed basis
There’s an opportunity here. A quick Google search shows many people trying to make a living on pet nutrition consulting.
It's a fine line to walk, though, because offering the free service as a loss leader is likely what gets people in the door. You don’t want it to start feeling spammy.
3) Paid Course
There’s some opportunity to create an online course. Maybe for pet owners?
It could walk pet parents through step by step, at their own pace, how to create a nutrition plan for their dog based on their specific goals, objects, and dog.
4) Strategic Partnerships (Referrals)
In one of my conversations with Barb I mentioned that our vet heard positive things from other clients about Godfrey’s and their pet nutrition consulting.
Barb mentioned that there are some vets who do refer/suggest their clients come see them. But it’s all informal.
I would try to form more of a formal relationship with vets, animal rescue leagues, and similar organizations.
You likely wouldn’t get all of them to work with you. But you could get a few, if not most.
The devil would be in the details. Would they suggest/recommend people come to you because you’re good at what you do, and it would benefit the dog (or cat). Or does there need to be some type of financial component to it.
Wrap it Up
In the end, there’s a lot of opportunities in this space. I also think if you have a specialty/boutique store in this space with a good reputation you have a competitive advantage.
I don’t see people spending less in this market. Even if times get worse. People are always going to look for ways to care for their pet.
If pet parents do start to spend less, this is another content opportunity. Show people affordable ways to still make sure your dog is healthy.
There’s also a trend where young professionals are opting to get a pet vs have a child. Specifically between the ages of 18-26.
My assumptions:
This trend won’t reverse. I think it will continue to go in this direction.
Those people are likely the ones who are going to do more research on proper health and nutrition for their pet, because it’s being treated like their first child
Any future pet they have will be treated the same
Only time will tell.
By the way, if you’re local to the Reading, PA area and have a dog or cat. Definitely go check out Godfrey’s!