Huskies in 45°C heat, ₹500 designer collars, and a vet visit nobody makes — welcome to Ahmedabad’s pet economy
Vaidehi Somaiya, Ahmedabad
On a busy Saturday afternoon at Ahmedabad One Mall, the Pet Window event draws an unusual crowd. Families with leashed Labradors jostle for space with curious onlookers who have never owned a pet. There are stalls selling air-dried venison treats, ergonomic harnesses, and breed-specific supplements — things that would have seemed absurdly niche in this city five years ago. Yet here they are, and they are selling.
This scene is no anomaly. It is a snapshot of a market mid-transformation. Ahmedabad – a city historically more associated with businesses than bonding over Beagles – is quietly becoming one of India’s most interesting pet care markets. High household incomes, a rapidly growing middle class, and post-pandemic lifestyle shifts have conspired to turn pet ownership from a practical decision into an emotional one.
By the Numbers: A Market in Motion
The scale of what is happening nationally provides the backdrop. India’s pet care industry, valued at ₹34,000 crore ($3.6 billion) in 2024, is projected to surge to approximately ₹2.30 crore ($24.8 billion) by 2032, growing at a remarkable 20% annually. To put that in perspective, spending has already doubled from $1.6 billion in 2019 to $3.6 billion in 2024, according to the India Brand and Equity Foundation report.
Ahmedabad sits at a specific intersection of this story. The city is estimated to have a pet dog population of around 50,000 – a figure the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is attempting to verify through a mandatory registration drive launched on January 1, 2025. Alongside those roughly 50,000 registered pets, the city is also home to over 2 lakh stray dogs, a contrast that speaks volumes about the city’s complicated, evolving relationship with canines.
As per WATT Global Media’s Pet Industry report dogs dominate, as they do nationally. Dogs account for 74% of pet ownership across India in 2024, with urban families increasingly viewing them as companions rather than guards. But cats are the story within the story. India’s cat population grew 88% between 2017 and 2022 and is expected to approach 5 million by 2026. In Ahmedabad, pet store owners confirm that cat food and accessories are their fastest-growing category — driven by apartment living, nuclear families, and the appeal of a lower-maintenance companion.
At the regional level, West India, including Gujarat, holds a significant share of India’s pet care market, with demand focused on high-quality pet food, grooming services, and healthcare products.
The Organized Retail Push
There is a certain irony in the fact that India’s largest pet retail chain was born in Ahmedabad. JUSTDOGS JustDogs, founded in 2011 as a pet food and supplies retailer in Ahmedabad, is now the largest pet retailer nationwide, with over 45 stores and a customer base of more than 2 million pet parents. That origin story matters: Ahmedabad has capital, entrepreneurial ambition, and a consumer base willing to spend. What it still lacks is depth of awareness.
Industry insiders describe the current Ahmedabad market as a tale of two sectors. Unorganised mom-and-pop stores — which make up the bulk of the city’s pet retail — operate almost entirely on food sales, surviving on a 95:5 product-to-service ratio. Organised players like JustDogs, HUFT (Heads Up For Tails), and Zigly are pushing aggressively toward a 50:50 split, betting that services — grooming, boarding, training, daycare — are where the real margins lie.
They are not wrong. A professional grooming session in Ahmedabad now costs between ₹3,000 and ₹4,000. Groomer salaries have jumped from ₹12,000 to ₹30,000 a month in just five years, creating a talent war among premium stores.
Yatri Patel (a 21-year-old working professional and first time pet owner) spends about ₹2,500 on an average grooming session for Piku, her six-year-old black Lassa Apso.
Nationally, demand for training services has grown three times in the last five years, particularly among first-time pet owners. Yet certified trainers and behaviourists remain scarce in the city.
The Abandonment Shadow
Ask any Ahmedabad-based behaviourist or rescue worker what keeps them up at night and the answer is consistent: people are buying dogs the way they buy fashion accessories — impulsively, aspirationally, without research.
Huskies are a particularly stark example. A breed built for sub-zero Arctic temperatures has become fashionable in a city that routinely touches 45°C in summer. The result, predictably, is suffering animals and overwhelmed owners. “Adoption is not yet the most-sought after option in Ahmedabad,” says Salomi Gupte, founder of Pawsome Amigos, a city-based pet behaviour practitioner . “For instance, of the 10 people planning to adopt, nine will adopt a breed because it’s in ‘trend’. This leads to dogs being abandoned because owners didn’t research the breed’s suitability for the local climate or their own resources.”
The post-COVID hangover has made this worse nationally. An estimated 50% of all pet owners in India admit to relinquishing a pet since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ahmedabad, rescue organisations describe a steady stream of surrendered pets from owners who found the reality of dog ownership incompatible with returning to office life.
Spending Without Understanding
What makes Ahmedabad’s pet market particularly telling is the disconnect between spending power and knowledge. Owners will happily spend ₹500 on a designer collar but balk at ₹2,000 for a basic obedience training class. They will buy premium imported kibble but feed it in the wrong quantities. They will Instagram their pet’s birthday cake but skip the annual vet visit.
“Brands heavily market fancy, imported, and expensive packaged dog food as a must-have. But vets point out that a hefty price tag does not guarantee good health. What actually matters is a balanced diet with the right nutrients—whether it is good store-bought food or simple, nutritious home-cooked meals”, says Dr Deepika Rishi of AVS Veterinary Hospital, Ahmedabad.
Gupte, who runs behaviour consultations and training programmes, observes that most clients come to her only after a crisis — a bite incident, severe separation anxiety, or aggression that has become unmanageable. Preventive training is still a concept most Ahmedabad pet parents associate with dog shows, not daily life.
The knowledge gap runs even deeper in the professional ecosystem. Veterinary colleges in India do not include animal nutrition as a dedicated subject in their syllabus — a striking omission in a market where pet food is growing at nearly 20% annually. The result is a profession that is playing catch-up with the premium food trends, its clients are already adopting.
“Gujarat needs a community-led approach,” says Dr Rishi. “Addressing pet parenting and behavioural challenges is moving beyond clinics toward lifestyle-driven solutions. More dedicated pet cafes, pet-friendly travel groups, breed/pet clubs, and community social networks across Gujarat are the solutions to fill the knowledge gap and help pet parents make more informed decisions,” asserts he.
What Next
The shape of what Ahmedabad’s pet industry could become is already visible in the aspirations of its operators. What the city conspicuously lacks is a single integrated destination — a space combining boarding, grooming, training, socialisation, veterinary care, and retail under one roof. The closest models exist in Bengaluru and Mumbai. In Ahmedabad, the pieces are scattered.
Luxury boarding facilities nationally are increasingly offering air-conditioned suites, webcams, swimming pools, and custom diets, with over 60% of urban pet owners seeking professional boarding when travelling. Ahmedabad’s boarding options remain sparse, informal, and unevenly staffed. “Finding the right staff is a challenge; if they are paid well, they stay,” says Gupte.
“Public transport needs provisions for pets,” says Patel. She takes a long bus ride to a pet-friendly office every day but must bear the steep emotional and financial cost of daycare simply because pets aren’t allowed on board.
Meanwhile, Ahmedabad has quietly become home to emerging sustainable pet brands. IndieGood, an Ahmedabad-based brand, announced in November 2024 plans to offer sustainable pet accessories including plastic-free collars and orthopedic beds made by Indian artisans. It is an early signal that the city’s entrepreneurial instinct is beginning to find its footing in the pet sector.
The lesson from Pedigree’s success is instructive. Mohamed Arif, a pet category business consultant with over 17 years of experience across pet care and retail points out, Pedigree didn’t win India’s pet food market by having the best product — it won by going door-to-door, explaining why nutrition mattered. “Pedigree khilaate hai” became synonymous with dog food not through advertising alone but through education. That playbook — awareness first, sales second — remains the uncracked code for Ahmedabad’s pet market.
With 70% of Indian pet parents being first-time owners in 2024, the opportunity to shape habits, build trust, and create a genuinely informed pet-owning culture in a city like Ahmedabad is enormous. The money is already here. The love for pets is genuine. What the industry now needs to build, urgently, is the knowledge to match both.
