世論 What Japan Thinks

Ah yes, another wonderful trolling headline after my dog food survey from a few years back! Note that it means that 8% of cat owners make food for themselves that they sometimes either share or pass the left-overs to Tibbles, not that eight out of ten cat owners prefer Kit-e-Kat! Any, back at the survey, it was from DIMSDRIVE Research, looking at pet food, and dog and cat food in particular.

Demographics

Between the 24th of December 2009 and the 20th of January 2010 (another slow report!) 14,716 members of the DIMSDRIVE online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 8.8% in their twenties, 28.4% in their thirties, 33.5% in their forties, 18.7% in their fifties, and 9.8% aged sixty or older.

If I was buying a kitten now (as opposed to getting a free moggy) I’d probably go for a Scottish Fold. There’s a really lovely Scottish Fold that regularly visits a nearby pet shop – he’s very relaxed and doesn’t mind being the centre of attention when he’s out for walkies.

Research results

Q1: What kinds of pet do you currently have? (Sample size=14,719, multiple answer)

Dog	20.0%
Cat	13.3%
Hamster, marmot, etc	1.9%
Rabbit	1.8%
Ferret	0.3%
Squirrel	0.2%
Other	10.5%
Don’t have any pet	59.2%

Q2: What sizes of dog do you currently have? (Sample size=2,946, multiple answer)

Very small (miniature dachshund, chihuahua, toy poodle, etc)	41.1%
Small (shih-tsu, papillon, pug, etc)	20.2%
Medium (beagle, Shibu-inu, bulldog, etc)	35.3%
Large (labrador, shepherd, dalmation, etc)	9.5%
Very large (Akita-inu, Saint Bernard, borsoi, etc)	1.2%
Don’t know	0.4%

Q3: What breeds of dog do you currently have? (Sample size=2,946, multiple answer, top 10)

Rank	Size	Breed	Percentage
1	Medium	Mix	16.3%
2	Very small	Miniature dachshund	16.2%
3	Medium	Shiba-inu	8.6%
4	Very small	Chihuahua	8.4%
5	Very small	Toy poodle	6.0%
6	Small	Shih-tsu	4.1%
7	Large	Labrador	3.8%
8	Very small	Yorkshire terrier	3.6%
9	Small	Papillon	3.6%
10	Very small	Pomerian	3.5%

Q4: What breeds of cat do you currently have? (Sample size=1,953, multiple answer)

Mix	68.8%
Japanese	12.5%
American short hair	7.9%
Scottish fold	2.2%
Russian blue	2.2%
Chinchilla	1.9%
Abyssinian	1.7%
Maine Coon	1.2%
Himalayan	1.1%
Persian	1.1%
Siamese	1.0%
American curl	0.8%
Norwegian forest cat	0.8%
Rag doll	0.6%
Somalia	0.4%
Bengal	0.4%
Ocecat	0.3%
Japanese bobtail	0.3%
Singapura	0.2%
Turkish angora	0.1%
Other	2.5%
Don’t know	2.6%

Q5: How old are your pet dogs, cats? (Sample size=2,946 + 1,953, multiple answer)

	Dogs N=2,946	Cats N=1,953
Under one year old	5.4%	9.1%
One to three years old	27.2%	31.8%
Four to six years old	28.1%	24.1%
Seven to nine years old	22.6%	19.3%
Ten to twelve years old	15.4%	16.8%
Thirteen or more years old	14.6%	21.7%
Don’t know	1.2%	3.0%

Q6: What pet health issues do you worry about regarding your current pets? (Sample size=2,946 + 1,953, multiple answer)

	Dogs N=2,946	Cats N=1,953
Obesity	25.7%	30.3%
Skin disease	15.3%	7.1%
Middle, old age	15.3%	16.1%
Lack of exercise	15.3%	13.7%
Bone, joint disease	10.4%	2.1%
Allergies	8.6%	4.1%
Heart disease	4.6%	1.3%
Digestive tract disease	3.4%	3.8%
Respiratory disease	2.6%	2.5%
Struvite kidney stones	2.5%	11.4%
Kidney disease	1.6%	8.0%
Epilepsy	1.6%	1.1%
Hairballs	1.3%	10.0%
Liver disease	1.1%	1.4%
Other	8.5%	8.7%
Nothing in particular, don’t want to answer	37.4%	35.7%

For dogs up to nine years old, obesity was the biggest worry, then after that middle and old age care. For cats, obesity was the top worry until twelve years old. Note that lack of exercise for cats is probably due to a lot of people in flats in the city being unable to let their cat out to run around.

Q7: What kinds of food do you usually feed your pet dogs, cats? (Sample size=2,946 + 1,953, multiple answer)

	Dogs N=2,946	Cats N=1,953
Retail dried food	90.3%	90.8%
Retail wet food in pouches	14.9%	26.7%
Retail canned food	20.2%	45.5%
Retail pet milk	2.4%	2.4%
Retail pet snacks	37.6%	13.8%
Retail pet supplements	4.6%	2.0%
Same food as humans	10.9%	7.8%
Home-made food for pet	14.1%	4.8%
Other	5.7%	7.8%
Don’t know	0.7%	0.4%

Q8: What points are important when buying pet food? (Sample size=2,946 + 1,953, multiple answer)

	Dogs N=2,946	Cats N=1,953
Price	56.3%	59.1%
Basic ingredients	38.6%	50.3%
Flavour, pet’s favourite	33.2%	31.5%
Nutritional content	32.0%	29.5%
Weight of contents	30.0%	28.0%
Country of origin	22.7%	20.3%
Maker, brand	19.1%	17.4%
Calories	18.4%	16.4%
No additives	17.7%	13.4%
Functionality	15.3%	12.9%
Promoted by veterinarian	11.1%	12.1%
Other	2.9%	2.5%
Don’t know, don’t buy myself	3.4%	3.3%

Q9: Where do you most often buy pet food? (Sample size=4,102)

Home centre	48.3%
Supermarket	16.4%
Internet mail order	14.7%
Pet shop	11.3%
Veterinarian	3.0%
Pet salon, pet accessories shop	2.1%
Other mail order	0.8%
Convenience store	0.4%
Electrical superstore	0.2%
Other	2.8%

Q10: What maker’s dog food do you buy? (Sample size=2,677, multiple answer)

Unicharm (Aiken Genki, Gin no Zara, Gains Pakkun, etc)	26.4%
Japan Pet Food (Pita-wan, Beauty Pro, etc)	19.1%
Hills (Science Diet, Prescription Diet, etc)	16.7%
Iams (Health Natural, etc)	14.4%
Mars Japan (Cesar, Pedigree, etc)	13.6%
Nisshin Pet Food (Je-pi- Style, Inu no Shiawase, etc)	11.2%
Eukanuba (Special support, etc)	8.0%
Royal Canin	7.0%
Purina (Pro Plus, Purina One, etc)	6.5%
Sunrise (Gin no Kotsubu, Styles, Bistro Gonta, etc)	5.3%
Nutro (Natural Choice, Supremo, etc)	4.0%
Perfect Fit	3.1%
Inuba Pet Food (Gran, Regaro, etc)	2.9%
Nikke Pet Care (First Choice, Exe-choice, etc)	2.5%
Petline (Medicoat, Pure Made, Dog Pit, etc)	1.9%
Aishia (Kenken series, etc)	1.4%
Posh (Lifestage, Posh Bio, etc)	0.9%
Other	10.9%
Don’t know	10.5%

The final question was about what kind of cat food people buy, but the identical results as for dog food was printed by mistake.