The Soft Chew Economy: What’s Really Inside the Pet Aisle’s Favorite Format

People turned their vitamins into gummies. Dogs got soft chews. Weigh one and read its inactive ingredients, and a different picture emerges of what you are buying.

By La Petite Labs Editorial 11 min read

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Contents

The Soft Chew Economy: What’s Really Inside the Pet Aisle’s Favorite Format

People turned their vitamins into gummies. Dogs got soft chews. Weigh one and read its inactive ingredients, and a different picture emerges of what you are buying.

Somewhere in the last decade, taking vitamins stopped feeling like medicine. Gummies did it. Bright, chewable and faintly like candy, they became the top-selling supplement format in the US, with 24.6% of sales, according to Nutrition Business Journal.24 Adults who never finished a bottle of tablets found they could remember a gummy.

The pet aisle has its own gummy, and it is even more dominant: the soft chew. It won because it feels like a treat. The question is what a chew has to contain to be a chew.

Soft chews are 29% of pet supplements and 42% of those made only for dogs. In chews that print both weights, active ingredients make up a median of 14% of the chew; the rest is the base that makes it soft, tasty and stable.

Price per day barely differs by format. What differs is how much of each serving is the supplement, how many other ingredients come with it, and whether a cat will eat it at all.

Soft Chews Are 29% of Pet Supplements

Nearly a third of pet supplements are soft chews: 29% of the census, ahead of powders (22.5%) and liquids or drops (13%). For dogs, the lead is larger still: 42% of dog-only supplements are soft chews.1

It is easy to see why. A chew looks like a treat, a dog takes it from a hand, and nothing needs measuring. For owners, a supplement becomes a moment of affection rather than a chore. For brands, a chew photographs beautifully and fits the language of rewards.

Woman cuddling a golden retriever and a fluffy white dog while holding a Pet Gala box beside a food bowl

In the Median Chew, 14% Is Active Ingredient

Some chews print two weights: the chew itself, and the active ingredients inside it. Among the 39 that print both, the active ingredients make up a median of 14% of the chew, with the middle half ranging from 6% to 22%.1

Woman holding a Pet Gala box beside a curly-coated brown dog outdoors

The Median Chew Weighs 3 Grams

The median soft chew weighs about 3 grams.1 That is the space every active ingredient has to share with the base, which is why the size of a chew, or the number in a jar, says little about how much supplement a pet gets.

Woman cuddling a Dalmatian while holding a Pet Gala box

93% of Soft Chews Contain Glycerin

Of the 318 soft chews that list their inactive ingredients, 93% include glycerin, which keeps a chew soft. 78% list an ingredient added for taste, such as liver powder, chicken broth or brewer’s yeast, and 64% also list a flavoring, such as “natural bacon flavor”.1

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13 Inactive Ingredients, Against 2 in a Powder

The median soft chew lists 13 inactive ingredients. The median powder lists 2.1 Starches, flours and oils give a chew its shape and texture. None of that is a hidden trick; it is how a powder becomes something a dog will eat from a hand.

In the median soft chew, about one-seventh of the weight is the active ingredients. The rest is what makes it a chew.

Less Room for Each Active

A small chew can only hold so much, and the more ingredients a formula lists, the smaller each one’s share tends to be. Across the census, the median printed amount per ingredient falls from 200 mg in formulas with up to five active ingredients to 36 mg in formulas with 11 or more, where a third of ingredients are printed at under 10 mg.1

A long ingredient list on a small chew is worth reading twice: it can mean breadth, or it can mean a little of a lot.

Hand lifting a sachet from an open Pet Gala box beside a dog's long golden coat

Big Dogs Often Need Several Chews a Day

Larger dogs often need two or more chews a day to reach the label amount. Check the weight chart before comparing prices: two chews a day halves how long a jar lasts.

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The Inactive List Is Part of the Diet

For a dog with a food sensitivity, chicken broth, liver, yeast or wheat flour in a daily chew can matter as much as the active ingredients. A supplement given every day is part of a pet’s diet, and its base counts toward the foods a dog eats.

Man cuddling two dogs while holding a Pet Gala box

Chewable Formats Make Amounts Harder to Control

Human gummies carry a known catch. Independent testing by ConsumerLab has found gummies to be the supplement form most likely to contain more of an ingredient than the label lists, because heat, moisture and the gummy base make amounts harder to control.3 The convenience is real. So is the engineering it takes to turn a nutrient into a treat.

Same Price Per Day, Different Supplement Per Serving

Format barely changes what a supplement costs to give. At the label’s daily amount for a 50-lb dog, the median price per day runs from $0.94 for soft chews to $1.02 for capsules and tablets, $1.07 for powders and $1.24 for functional treats and toppers.1

What differs is what each daily serving contains. In a chew, much of what you pay to give is the chew. In a powder, more of the serving is the supplement. Neither is wrong. They are different products that share a shelf and a price.

Same price per day. Different supplement per serving.

Woman in a white coat sitting with a pug while holding a Pet Gala box

DVM Voice: Clinical Vignette of When Skin Changes Point Deeper Than the Surface

Case contributed by Sarah Calvin, DVM

Rosey, a 10-year-old Shih Tzu, was brought in after two weeks of paw redness and head shaking. Her owner had also noticed lower energy, thinning abdominal hair, and mild generalized itchiness over the previous few months.

Examination showed inflammation in the ears, skin folds, and paws. Testing confirmed mixed yeast and bacterial infections, while parasites and fungal disease were ruled out. Because Rosey’s skin changes appeared alongside reduced energy and coat thinning, her veterinarian performed a broader workup, which revealed hypothyroidism as a likely underlying contributor.

Her care required a staged approach: treating the infections, addressing the thyroid imbalance, and then restoring the skin barrier through diet, bathing support, paw care, and omega-3 supplementation.

Six months later, Rosey’s owner reported a thicker coat, fewer tangles, less breakage, no itch, and restored energy.

Clinical takeaway: Rosey’s case shows why skin and coat changes should not be treated as cosmetic alone. Healthy skin depends on immune balance, endocrine health, nutrition, barrier integrity, and daily support for resilient coat growth.

Single-case vignette. Not generalizable. Veterinary diagnosis and oversight are essential for itching, redness, ear irritation, hair thinning, recurrent infections, or suspected endocrine disease.

Explore Pet Gala Research →
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Only 22% of Cat-Only Supplements Are Chews

Cats are the format’s toughest critics. Only 22% of cat-only supplements are soft chews, while 29% are powders.1

Hand petting a brown dog beside a Pet Gala box and a bowl of food

Cats Refuse Supplements Far More Often Than Dogs

In customer reviews that say whether a pet ate the supplement, 14% of cat owners report a refusal, against 2% of dog owners.1 For cat owners, format isn’t about convenience. It decides whether the supplement gets eaten at all.

German shepherd raising a paw beside a Pet Gala box on a small table

A Powder Disappears Into a Meal

A powder can be stirred into a food a pet already trusts, in an amount that can be split by body weight. A chew has to win on its own, and many cats, and some dogs, decline it.

What to Look For in Any Format

  • The amount of each active, not the number of actives. Twelve ingredients at a few milligrams each is not more than four at a meaningful amount.
  • How many servings make a day for your pet’s weight.
  • The inactive ingredients, especially for a pet with food sensitivities.
  • For cats, a food-mixed format. A powder or liquid in a familiar meal is the likeliest to be eaten.

Format Is a Trade-Off, Not a Verdict

A soft chew that a dog loves, given every day, can be a better choice than a powder that ends up in the cupboard. The point of weighing the chew isn’t to rule the format out. It is to know what you are paying for, and to compare the supplement inside rather than the treat around it.

Man leaning toward a golden retriever while holding a Pet Gala box beside a food bowl

Why La Petite Labs Chose Powder

La Petite Labs sells powders, not soft chews, so we have an interest in this comparison, and our products are excluded from the census. Without a chew base to hold together, more of each serving can be formula: in a 2.5 g Hollywood Elixir® sachet, the 17 actives weigh about a quarter of the serving, and in Pet Gala™ more than half, against a median of 14% for soft chews that print both weights.

Brown-and-white dog raising a paw beside a Pet Gala box held in a person's hand

Our Palatants, Disclosed

A supplement only works if it’s eaten, so we still use a small flavor system: chicken flavor, chicken liver powder and yeast extract, with glycine and a cyclodextrin, five inactive ingredients in all, printed on every label. If your pet has a chicken or yeast sensitivity, the advice above applies to us too.

Read the Weight, Not the Shape

Gummies taught people that a supplement could feel like a treat. Soft chews taught dogs the same thing. The next step for both is a label that tells owners, plainly, how much of each serving is the supplement. Until then, the weight chart, the actives panel and the inactive list are the three places to look.

Compare the supplement inside, not the treat around it.

Educational content only. This material is not a substitute for veterinary advice. Always consult your veterinarian about your dog’s specific needs. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Glossary

Soft chew: A chewable, treat-like supplement held together by a base such as glycerin, starches and flavorings.

Active ingredient: An ingredient included for its intended nutritional role, as opposed to texture, taste or shelf life.

Inactive ingredient: An ingredient that forms the base, flavor or preservation system of a supplement.

Palatant: An ingredient added to make a supplement taste appealing to a pet.

Glycerin: A sweet-tasting liquid that keeps soft chews moist and pliable.

Related Reading

Common Canine Integumentary Issues
• Hot Spots on Dogs
• Dog Licking Paws
• Dog Itch Relief
• Dog Skin Allergies
• Dog Dandruff

Comfort & Recovery
• Skin & Coat Supplements for Dogs
• Coat Growth Supplement for Dogs
• Dog Nail Supplement

Ingredient-Level Articles
• Biotin for Dogs
• Silica for Dogs
• Hyaluronic Acid for Dogs
• Ceramides for Dogs

References

Numbered references identify the sources used for specific claims. Read the study design, species and evidence boundaries alongside each finding.

  1. La Petite Labs Research. Pet Supplement Statistics (2026 edition). La Petite Labs · 2026Study design/context: Census of 2,865 supplements; 318 soft chews and 122 powders with inactive lists; 39 chews with both weightsSpecies/context: dog, catEvidence boundary: Public product information; not product safety or efficacy.
  2. Nutraceuticals World. Nutrition Business Journal data on supplement delivery formats. Nutraceuticals World · 2026
  3. ConsumerLab. Multivitamin and multimineral supplements review: gummies most likely to exceed label amounts. ConsumerLab · 2020
  4. New Hope Network. Analyst’s take: gummies are the most popular supplement format. New Hope Network · 2025

FAQ

Black-and-white dog between a bowl of food and a Pet Gala box held in a person's hands

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