Baked Cat Food +150.9%: Xianlang, MAG, and Pet Supplements

Executive Summary

Cat full-nutrition baked food (猫全价烘焙粮) surged +150.9% YoY to CN¥ 360 million in Q1 2024, approaching 10% of total cat staple food sales, with Xianlang (鲜朗) holding a commanding 31.3% market share built on a "zero meat powder" transparency claim. Simultaneously, China's pet health supplement market reached CN¥ 800 million (+9.0% YoY), with joint care leading by volume, bad breath control emerging as the fastest-growing functional concept, and Weishi's (卫仕) newly launched "Celestial Magic Cube" (仙气魔方) generating CN¥ 6.00 million in its debut quarter. Together, these two high-growth segments illustrate how scientific pet care and anthropomorphization are reshaping China's pet market competitive landscape.

Why Baked Cat Food Is Rewriting the Rules of Pet Nutrition

Cat full-nutrition baked food is China's most important emerging pet category. In Q1 2024, total baked cat food sales exceeded CN¥ 360 million, representing +150.9% YoY growth — against a backdrop of broadly flat value growth in the overall pet market (+0.4% YoY). Product count grew more than 50% YoY, confirming that this is not a transient spike: brands are investing aggressively behind the trend.

The structural appeal of baked food lies in its manufacturing differentiation. Conventional pet food is produced through high-temperature extrusion (膨化), which degrades proteins and typically requires meat powder (肉粉) — a protein concentrate — to achieve acceptable nutritional profiles. Baked food, prepared at low temperatures (typically 65-90°C), preserves higher-quality proteins without meat powder. For scientifically-literate Chinese pet owners, this translates directly into a purchasing rationale: visible, verifiable nutritional superiority.

Consumer purchase decision analysis for cat baked food reveals a clear hierarchy of drivers:

• Feeding effect (28.0%): Coat care and cheek plumping (面颊发育) — aesthetically-visible benefits that provide both genuine health value and social sharing currency on platforms like Xiaohongshu (小红书)
• Palatability (15.1%): "Good palatability," "crispy non-greasy texture," and smooth food transition top the review vocabulary
• Ingredient health and high meat content (12.9%): Consumers actively seek high-meat, low-additive formulations
• Natural aroma (8.6%): Scent authenticity as a proxy for ingredient quality

Consumer reviews confirm these priorities: "Has been eating this coat-care food since 4 months old — the fur is noticeably softer, and the texture is very crispy." Another: "Piggy started chewing on the bag before it was even opened. Finished an entire portion in one go. Very good palatability — no excessive food transition and no soft stools." For baked cat food, visible outcomes and sensory pleasure drive repeat purchase and social amplification equally.

Cat complete food leads at CN¥ 4.22bn; baked food growing fastest at +150.9%

Brand Case: Xianlang and the "Zero Meat Powder" Claim

Xianlang (鲜朗) holds the #1 position in China's cat baked food market with 31.3% market share. Its success is built on a single, clearly-differentiated manufacturing claim that resonates with the scientific pet care trend: "zero meat powder."

The Xianlang Low-Temperature Baked Grain-Free Complete Cat Food (鲜朗低温烘焙无谷全价猫粮) achieves its high meat content without protein concentrates, delivering superior nutritional quality relative to conventional expanded cat food. Key product attributes:

• 90°C low-temperature baking process
• 95%+ animal protein content
• Low-allergen formula
• Farm-direct premium protein sourcing
• Product positioning: "Born for fresh pet food"

In Q1 2024, both Xianlang's sales and unit volume grew more than +100% YoY, confirming the brand's ability to capitalise on the surging baked food segment. Xianlang's primary marketing channel is Xiaohongshu (小红书), where it invests in multi-product comparison content that highlights nutritional transparency, high protein absorption, and a mild formula. This Xiaohongshu-first strategy aligns with the platform's younger, health-conscious user demographic.

Despite Xianlang's commanding position, explosive growth among other top brands meant its market share still declined slightly in Q1 2024 — category leadership will need to be actively defended as new entrants accelerate.

Pet Health Supplements: CN¥ 800 Million and Growing

China's online pet health supplement market grew steadily in Q1 2024, reaching CN¥ 800 million with YoY growth of +9.0%. The category is moderately concentrated: the top 5 brands — Weishi (卫仕), Reddog (红狗), Medis (麦德氏), MAG, and Paidino (派迪诺) — collectively hold 35.7% CR5.

Cat/dog universal nutrition paste (猫狗通用营养膏) remains the largest product sub-category by sales, though it is showing signs of maturity. The market's growth story is increasingly one of premiumisation and functional differentiation rather than volume expansion at the base tier.

Functional Trends: Established Leaders and Emerging Challengers

Analysis of pet health supplement functional concepts reveals a clear bifurcation between established high-volume functions and rapidly emerging niche categories.

Joint care remains the largest functional segment by sales volume, driven by a large installed base of dog owners (dogs are more prone to joint problems than cats) and the active outdoor lifestyle associated with dog walking. The core ingredient — chondroitin — shows stable, steady growth consistent with a mature category. Fish oil and lecithin are similarly established with large, loyal consumer bases.

At the other end of the spectrum, bad breath and fecal odour control is the fastest-growing functional concept in the supplement market — a direct manifestation of the anthropomorphization trend. As pets are treated as family members sharing living spaces, odour management becomes a quality-of-life priority for owners. Emerging ingredients krill oil and CoQ10 are growing rapidly in both sales and social media buzz, though from a small base, representing early-stage opportunities for brands willing to invest in consumer education.

From a marketing perspective, the data shows that influencers who adopt an anthropomorphized, scenario-based, and lifestyle-oriented seeding approach generate substantially better engagement outcomes on Xiaohongshu (小红书) compared to straightforward product reviews. Platform-specific strategies matter:

• Xiaohongshu (小红书): Rewards lifestyle and scenario content with organic seeding
• Weibo (微博): Responds to vertical blogger lifestyle seeding
• Douyin (抖音): Converts best from product review formats

Brand Case: MAG and the K-9 Credibility Strategy

MAG's star product in the pet joint care segment is the "MAG Shark Chondroitin Calcium Tablets" (鲨鱼软骨素钙片), which uses highly concentrated chondroitin — marketed as "10× high concentration" — and has obtained professional certification from a K-9 police dog base, lending institutional credibility to its efficacy claims. The product's reference price is CN¥ 228 per bottle.

Q1 2024 performance for MAG's shark chondroitin calcium tablets was strong: sales grew +37.6% YoY, unit volume grew +58.8% YoY, and market share in joint care increased by +0.4 percentage points. The brand's marketing strategy is Xiaohongshu-primary, framing joint health as enabling longer, more active companionship between owner and pet — using humorous lifestyle scenarios to drive organic seeding rather than straightforward product reviews.

Consumer reviews demonstrate strong functional satisfaction: "Overweight dogs are very prone to joint problems, so I bought this chondroitin for joint care — very good palatability, and the results are also great."

Brand Case: Weishi's Celestial Magic Cube — Innovation at Launch

Weishi (卫仕), the leading brand in China's pet health supplement market, launched its new product "Celestial Magic Cube" (仙气魔方), targeting gut health and oral hygiene simultaneously. In its debut quarter, the product achieved CN¥ 6.00 million in Q1 2024 sales. It improves the digestive tract microenvironment and supplies lysozyme to promote oral self-cleaning — two functions anthropomorphization has elevated to owner priorities. A consumer review captures the appeal: "This one doesn't get rejected — Godzilla really loves eating it. My fur baby's mouth is finally no longer smelly! Fecal odour has also reduced. Good stuff!"

The Celestial Magic Cube launch demonstrates that bad breath and fecal odour control — though still small in absolute sales — has genuine demand behind it, and that Weishi is moving proactively to own this positioning before the segment matures.

Key Takeaways

• Cat baked food surged +150.9% YoY to CN¥ 360 million in Q1 2024, approaching 10% of total cat staple food sales, driven by "zero meat powder" transparency and visible health outcomes.
• Xianlang (鲜朗) holds 31.3% market share in baked cat food, with Q1 2024 sales and volume both growing +100% YoY, built on Xiaohongshu-primary marketing and nutritional transparency claims.
• China's pet health supplement market reached CN¥ 800 million (+9.0% YoY) with CR5 at 35.7%, indicating moderate concentration and meaningful challenger opportunities.
• Joint care leads functional supplement sales by volume; bad breath and fecal odour control is the fastest-growing functional concept, reflecting the anthropomorphization of pet care.
• MAG grew shark chondroitin sales +37.6% YoY through K-9 certification credibility and Xiaohongshu lifestyle content; Weishi's new Celestial Magic Cube generated CN¥ 6.00 million in its debut quarter.

About the Data

This analysis draws on Moojing Market Intelligence (魔镜洞察) proprietary e-commerce data covering Tmall (天猫), JD.com (京东), and Douyin (抖音) for the period January–March 2024 (Q1 2024), with year-on-year comparisons against Q1 2023. Social media data covers Douyin (抖音), Xiaohongshu (小红书), and Weibo (微博).

Moojing Market Intelligence tracks 400,000+ brands across 30+ e-commerce platforms in 20+ countries. For the full dataset and methodology, download the complete report. Contact: [email protected] | moojing-global.com.