from an average $1.71 per pound in 2011

to $2.55 per pound in 2017,

and it plays to an increasing trend towards owners

pampering their pets.

Pet owners' total spending per year

in 2007 was $41.2 billion.

Ten years later, it hit $69.5 billion.

So what's causing this shift?

Evidence points to millennials.

Mary Hanbury: Experts say the

millennials are treating their pets

like their firstborn child, and it's kind of filling a void

that maybe previous generations would

have already had a child

and moved into houses.

Narrator: According to a report

by the Pew Research Center, millennials are 50% less likely

than the Silent Generation to be married.

They're also delaying parenthood.

Instead, they're becoming pet owners.

In 2017, millennials became the largest demographic

of US pet owners at 35%.

These pet owners not only act differently

than previously generations, they also spend differently.

Hanbury: So the data shows that

millennials are spending a lot more

on their pets.

Narrator: 76% of millennials

are likely to splurge on their pets

compared to just 50% of baby boomers,

and it's starting to show.

According to Nielsen, annual household spending on pets

increased by 36% between 2007 and 2017.

This shift has led to a flurry

of new brands entering the market.

In 2017, 4,500 new pet food products were introduced,

a 45% increase from the year before,

and many of the new entrants

were labeled as premium products.

Hanbury: It's kind of two pieces moving at once.

Owners are wanting to spend more on their pets,

and then the market is being slowly saturated

with more options of premium pet food brands.

Heinze: Premiumization is the idea that you can enhance

the perception of value of a product by marketing

or by even something very simple

like calling it a premium diet.

In this case, pet food.

Premium diets don't necessarily have anything

that a nonpremium diet don't have.

It's more the perception of what they have.

So it's playing to what pet owners feel in their gut

should be in a high-quality pet food.

Narrator: A 2007 study conducted

by the California Institute of Technology

and Stanford University found that a product's price

can alter our brain activity in how we perceive the product,

finding that our brains equate more expensive with better.

- There really is no scientific nutritional difference

necessarily between a so-called premium pet food

and a just average type of pet food.

Narrator: Many premium pet foods market

the product based on the human-grade ingredients it uses

or by what Cailin calls...

Heinze: The "no list,"

meaning they market themselves on what they don't contain.

No corn, no wheat, no grains, no byproduct, no potato.

The list is actually getting longer and longer.

Artificial preservatives, artificial colors,

all of that kind of stuff.

And the thing is, is for the vast majority of that,

there's not any evidence that it's any better.

Narrator: So who is testing pet food?

Well, the FDA only gets involved in pet food research

when it comes to specific health claims.

There are some universities that conduct research,

but a majority of the research being done in pet nutrition

is done by pet food companies.

Heinze: You can't judge the quality of a pet food solely

based on its price because some of the most-tested pet foods

out there that are the most based on science are actually

at a lower price range than many people would expect,

and some of the diets that are at the highest level,

you're not getting anything more for that other than maybe

that feeling that you're doing more for your pet.

Hanbury: I think this is connected

to a health and wellness craze

at the moment where people are taking what they eat

a lot more seriously, and obviously the next thing

when you're not thinking about yourself

is the thing closest to you, so your pets.

Heinze: Pet owners are often going to be feeding their pets

the same ways that they're feeding themselves.

So if organic is important in their diet,

they're gonna be looking for organic pet foods.

If they see their pet as a furry member of the family

like many of us do, then when they're going to buy pet food,

they're looking for pet food that is as close

to what they're eating as they can get.

They're not necessarily looking for food

that is designed for the dog.

Narrator: And with millennials dining out 30% more often

than other generations, it may just be a matter of time

before Sparky joins them for a night out.