Pet food prices remained comparatively restrained at the end of 2025, even as overall pet-related inflation accelerated in December, according to industry analyst John Gibbons of PetBusinessProfessor.com. While total pet inflation rose to 3.5% year over year, pet food continued to post one of the lowest inflation rates among pet categories.

In December, pet food prices increased 0.2% from November and were 1.2% higher than a year earlier. Although prices have risen for six consecutive months, pet food inflation remained well below the Food at Home inflation rate of 2.4% and less than half the total pet inflation rate. The report noted that pet food prices have deflated in 15 of the past 22 months, reflecting a prolonged period of price stabilization following sharp increases in 2022 and 2023.

On a year-to-date basis, pet food prices were essentially flat in 2025, down 0.01% compared with 2024. This marks a significant shift from earlier years, when pet food inflation reached 10.6% in 2022–23 and 1.5% on average from 2018 to 2020. Nearly all cumulative pet food inflation since 2019, approximately 96%, occurred during the 2021–25 period, following a deflationary phase in early 2021.

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