Canada — pet population and pet-food market (AAFC 2024)
Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada "Sector Trend Analysis – Pet food trends in Canada" (agriculture.canada.ca), a first-hand Government of Canada report, pulled 2026-08-18. All figures below are verbatim from the source (Canadian-dollar figures as "Can$").
Pet ownership and population (2024)
- "Out of 12.2 million households that own a dog(s) and/or a cat(s) and a cat/dog population of 17.2 million in Canada"
- "50.9% owned a cat(s) compared to 49.1% whom owned a dog(s) in 2024"
- "the total pet population consisted of 8.9 million cats, 8.3 million dogs (majority large dog - 43.5%), 2.5 million birds, 8.6 million fish, 1.2 million small mammals, and 274.3 thousand of reptiles"
Pet-food market size and growth (2024)
- "In 2024, pet food retail sales in the Canadian market totalled Can$6.7 billion"
- "growing at a CAGR of 10.0% for sales of dog & cat food (Can$6.6 billion) and at a CAGR of 8.1% for sales of other pet food (Can$122.0 million) between 2019 and 2024"
- "Dog food sales accounted for 66.4% of the total market share within the sector, followed by cat food (31.8%), fish food (0.8%), bird food (0.7%), and small mammal/reptile food (0.4%) in 2024"
Leading companies (2023, overall pet-food sector)
- "leading companies in the overall pet food sector in Canada included Mars Inc. … at total sales of Can$1.5 billion or 24.7% value share"
- "Nestlé SA for dog & cat food brands (Dog Chow/Friskies) at Can$1.0 million (16.7%)" — note: the source expresses this figure as "Can$1.0 million"; at a 16.7% value share this is internally inconsistent with the Can$6.7B market and is reproduced verbatim as printed (appears to be a unit typo in the government report).
- "The JM Smucker Company (Milk-Bone/Meow Mix) at Can$321.7 million (5.2%)"
Honest gaps
- Channel / distribution structure (grocery vs pet-specialty vs online share) is not broken out in this Government of Canada report; left as an honest gap rather than filled from a second-hand source.
- The report notes it "includes forecasting data that is based on baseline historical data"; only the stated 2024 actuals and 2019–2024 CAGRs are quoted here.
Source: pdf-raw/market-stats/ca_aafc_pet_food_trends_2024_2026-08-18.txt — AAFC "Pet food trends in Canada", pulled 2026-08-18.