“We used to make pet food from chicken, fish or beef, but now we have expanded our offerings to include lamb, venison and other unique ingredients such as ostrich, Chinese water frog and even Chinese francolin,” he said.
He said their best-selling product was crocodile soup with chuan atwhich was believed to alleviate tracheal problems common in dogs and cats in Hong Kong.
A 2019 government survey found that 241,900 residents, or 9.4 percent of the population, owned either dogs or cats or both. There were 103,000 cat owners.
Jennifer Cheung Lay-fan, 34, and her husband keep 28 cats and spend about HK$15,000 (US$1,925) a month on their food.
Cheung, a professional breeder, said she cooked fresh chicken from the market and prepared chicken essence for her cats, as well as feeding them fish stomachs and bird nests.
Her cat Ho Choi has been the highest scoring domestic cat in the Cat Fanciers’ Association competition in Hong Kong for the past two years and achieved the highest score in Asia in 2024.
“I haven’t really calculated the total amount if I have to include other expenses. We mainly buy large toys and medical disinfection equipment,” she said.
Cheung said her family pressured her to have children, but she said welcoming the cats home was all they needed to be happy.
Couple Miyaki Ng, 27, and Fox Cheng, 30, have adopted 11 cats and said they spend HK$3,000 to HK$4,000 a month on them.
“The raw meat (we buy) is pre-processed and sold in packs. You can eat the meat once it is thawed,” Ng said.
Emma Hung, 30, an insurance agent, said she spends just over HK$1,000 a month on her two cats.
“One of my cats has problems with his nose, so I have to buy some supplements and medicines like vitamin C for her,” she said.
“I don’t really want children, so I think it’s a good idea to spend my money on cats. The responsibility of having a child is greater because you have to take care of them 24 hours a day.”
A three-day Hong Kong Cat Expo was held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai earlier this month.
The exhibition’s organizer, Exhibition Group, surveyed around 1,000 cat owners and found that more than 60 percent of them owned two or more of the animals. About 12.4 percent had four or more cats.
Nearly 88 percent of respondents said they spend more on their cats, with average monthly spending exceeding HK$1,889.
The proportion of those spending between HK$3,500 and HK$4,000 per month rose to 10 percent from just 4 percent last year.
The group’s managing director, Shirley Chu Sut-ling, estimated that the economic value of the cat industry could reach HK$190 million per month and HK$2.2 billion per year.
Cheese n Dash, a company that participated in the expo, sells pet treats such as jerky made from kangaroo, crocodile or ostrich meat, as well as nutritional supplements such as beef liver powder and venison liver.
Owner Vincent Kan said the brand was founded seven years ago and he has increasingly shifted his focus to the cat market over the past two years.
“The cat market is less saturated than the dog market,” he said. “For many years it has been common for owners to go out with their dogs and buy lots of products for them. But this trend has only started for cats in recent years.”
Ivy Lau, director of Joywood Asia, said the company operates four brands that sell cleaning products, bath accessories, skin care products and pet supplements.
She said the company originally specialised in baby products and expanded into the pet market this year after noticing huge demand in the city.
“Unlike in the past, owners today treat their pets like precious babies and know how to choose the best products for their pets,” she said.
