. 2021 Jan 28;17:53. doi: 10.1186/s12917-021-02754-8

Table 5.

Factors influencing pet food purchasing as reported by participants in the “Pet Health and Wellbeing” survey, with comparison between owners of cats fed different diets

Criteria	Total		MB		PB		PB+MB
Criteria	n = 1025	%	n = 667	%	n = 187	%	n = 69	%
Complete and balanced	775	70	462	69^a	151	81^b	51	74^a,b
Convenience	321	29	198	30	51	27	23	33
Human grade	150	14	84	13^a	39	21^b	7	10^a
Natural/organic/holistic	327	30	152	23^a	95	51^b	36	52^b
Palatability	316	29	218	33^a	47	25^b	16	23^b
Price	314	28	204	31^a	42	22^b	22	32^a
Skin/coat/hairball health	272	25	174	26	44	24	11	16
Specific ingredients	156	14	115	17^a	21	11^b	4	5.8^b
Stool quality	133	12	83	12	25	13	8	12
Therapeutic/vet recommended	186	17	144	22^a	4	2^b	7	10^c

MB meat-based, PB plant-based, PB+MB plant-based with animal-derived treats/snacks/supplements

Superscript characters denote significant (P < 0.05) differences between the diet categories

Values may add up to > 100% since respondents could indicate that they selected pet food based on more than one criterion and numbers of cats per category may not add up to total due to non-responders and indeterminable diet type