7 Pet Markets the Industry Is Sleeping On

For dogs, and, more recently, cats, the innovation playbook has, for the most part, looked something like this:

Take something humans already spend money on - fresh food, supplements, DNA testing, wearables, telehealth, insurance, longevity drugs - and build a version for pets.

It makes sense. Dogs and cats are enormous markets. APPA reports that 95 million U.S. households owned at least one pet in 2025, and Americans spent $158 billion on their pets last year. APPA expects that number to reach $165 billion in 2026.

But Americans own a lot more than dogs and cats.

They own horses. Parrots. Rabbits. Bearded dragons. Fish. Chickens. Guinea pigs. Pigs and goats.

Many of these categories already have millions of U.S. owners, yet they haven't attracted nearly the same level of investment, technology, or new business creation. That doesn't mean the products and services we're about to discuss don't exist at all. In some cases, they do. But compared with dogs and cats, the ecosystems around these animals remain far less developed, leaving plenty of problems that could still be solved better or at greater scale.

So we looked at seven categories with millions of owners, each facing challenges unique to their animals and, in many cases, still lacking great solutions.