India’s pet-care shopping habits are changing rapidly, and new data from Swiggy Instamart shows that the shift is no longer limited to food basics or major metro cities.
Pet-care orders on the quick-commerce platform increased 41% year-on-year between June 2025 and June 2026, according to an analysis covering more than 130 Indian cities.
The numbers point to a broader change in pet parenting: shoppers are increasingly buying specialised nutrition, grooming products, wellness supplements, treats and products for animals beyond dogs and cats.
Importantly, the data reflects purchasing behavior on Instamart rather than the size or growth rate of India’s entire pet-care market. But the scale and geographic spread offer a useful window into how quickly pet products are becoming part of regular quick-commerce baskets.
Tier-II cities are growing almost twice as fast
Metro cities continue to account for a large share of pet-care demand, but smaller cities are producing the most dramatic growth.
Instamart reported that pet-care orders across Tier-II and smaller cities surged 96% year-on-year.
Guwahati led the growth table with an extraordinary 1,473% increase, followed by Dibrugarh at 796%, Meerut at 677%, Madurai at 591% and Kottayam at 577%.
Rajkot, Patna, Siliguri and Tirupati were also identified among the next wave of fast-growing markets.
All of the top 25 fastest-growing pet-care cities recorded growth of more than 50%.
For pet brands, that could be one of the most important signals in the report.
India’s organised pet market has traditionally concentrated marketing, distribution and premium products in large urban centres. Quick commerce is making those products accessible in cities where specialist pet stores may be fewer and delivery options historically more limited.
Bengaluru is India’s pet-pampering capital
Among the metros, Bengaluru stands out for discretionary spending.
Nearly 66% of pet-care spending in the city went toward treats, toys and premium products, making Bengaluru the most indulgent pet market in Instamart’s analysis.
Gurgaon, Noida and Hyderabad followed closely.
Bengaluru also ranked as the platform’s leading dog-loving city, followed by Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi.
Gurgaon produced another notable spending pattern: the city recorded 37 pet-treat orders for every 100 pet-food orders, giving it the strongest treat index in the report.
At the individual level, one Delhi customer stood out by spending ₹60,957 on pet-care products in a single year.
These figures suggest that pet spending is moving well beyond maintenance purchases such as staple food.
Treats, enrichment products and premium nutrition are increasingly becoming recurring categories.
India is having a major cat-food moment
Perhaps the biggest category surprise is the growing importance of cats.
Cat food accounted for nearly 60% of all pet-food demand on Instamart during the analysed period and became the most searched pet-related term on the platform.
Mumbai was named India’s “cat capital”, followed by Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata.
But Kolkata produced the strongest feline preference.
More than eight out of every 10 combined cat-and-dog food orders in Kolkata were for cats, giving the city the report’s “cat-crazy” distinction.
The numbers do not mean India suddenly has more pet cats than dogs.
What they do show is that cat parents may be particularly dependent on packaged pet nutrition, while quick commerce is making specialised cat food easier to access.
That creates an increasingly important opportunity for brands operating in wet food, breed- or age-specific diets and specialised feline nutrition.
Premium nutrition is gaining ground
Food trends in the report also suggest that pet parents are becoming more selective about what they buy.
Orders for grain-free pet food grew 152% year-on-year, making it one of the platform’s fastest-growing nutrition trends.
Wet food now represents nearly 45% of all pet-food orders.
At the same time, pet supplements and wellness products grew 42%, indicating stronger interest in preventive care and specialised nutrition.
These numbers fit a larger pet-humanisation trend in which owners increasingly evaluate pet products using language once associated mainly with human wellness — ingredients, protein quality, digestion, supplementation and functional nutrition.
That does not automatically mean every premium or grain-free diet is medically necessary for every animal. Pet nutrition still needs to be appropriate for the individual dog or cat and, where health conditions are involved, guided by veterinary advice.
But commercially, the direction is clear: pet parents are willing to explore products beyond conventional basic feeding.
Dog shampoo searches explode nearly 600%
Grooming is another rapidly expanding category.
Searches for “dog shampoo” increased by nearly 600%, making it one of the fastest-rising pet-related search terms on Instamart.
Treats are becoming more experimental too.
Searches for dog ice cream increased 245%, while demand linked to leading protein-rich treat products rose sharply during the analysed period.
For quick-commerce platforms, grooming and treats are particularly attractive categories because pet parents may need them unexpectedly and value rapid delivery.
A forgotten shampoo before grooming day or a last-minute bag of treats can now be delivered alongside groceries, potentially increasing how frequently pet products enter household shopping baskets.
Birds and rabbits are emerging too
The report also suggests that India’s companion-animal economy is becoming more diverse.
Bird-food orders rose 178% year-on-year, making bird food the fastest-growing pet-food segment in the data.
Rabbit-food demand increased 130%.
Dogs and cats will continue to dominate India’s organised pet-care market, but growth in these smaller categories indicates that quick commerce may be revealing demand that traditional pet retail has not always served consistently.
For manufacturers and retailers, that could open opportunities in species-specific nutrition, accessories and care products beyond the dominant dog-and-cat categories.
Quick commerce is changing how pet products reach India
Swiggy Instamart’s broader expansion provides important context.
The platform announced in April 2025 that it had reached 100 cities, driven partly by demand from Tier-II and Tier-III markets. The latest pet-care analysis covers more than 130 cities, showing how quickly the addressable quick-commerce footprint has continued to widen.
Swiggy has also been investing heavily in Instamart overall. For the financial year ended March 2026, Instamart’s gross order value grew 68.8% year-on-year to ₹7,881 crore.
Pet care is only one part of that larger quick-commerce business, but its 41% order growth shows why brands increasingly view instant-delivery platforms as more than emergency grocery channels.
They are becoming discovery and repeat-purchase platforms for specialised consumer categories.
What the numbers mean for India’s pet industry
The biggest takeaway is not simply that Indians are buying more pet products online.
It is what they are buying and where the growth is coming from.
Cat food is commanding a major share of pet-food demand.
Wet and specialised nutrition are expanding.
Grooming searches are accelerating.
Supplements are entering routine baskets.
Bird and rabbit categories are growing rapidly.
And some of the highest growth rates are coming from cities outside India’s largest metros.
For pet brands, the opportunity is increasingly national rather than metro-only.
For quick-commerce companies, pet care offers a category with repeat consumption, high emotional engagement and growing premiumisation.
And for the wider industry, Instamart’s data offers another sign that Indian pet ownership is moving toward a more mature pet-parenting economy, where convenience, health, indulgence and specialised care increasingly sit in the same shopping basket.
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