For some Chinese, pets becoming big business

Wu Jiexiao opened a bag of pet food and emptied some into a bowl to feed a small brown cat before tidying up its litter.

Once the cathouse was clean, she stroked the kitten and played with it for a while after it had eaten.

In all, everything took about 30 minutes, with most of the time spent cleaning the cathouse and feeding the cat. Wu filmed the whole process on her mobile phone.

"I will send the video to the cat's owner if needed," she said.

The young office worker feeds cats part-time on weekends for residents near her housing estate in Tianhe district of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.

"Why wouldn't I, when I can play with other peoples' cats and make some money?" the cat lover said.

Wu usually charges 35 yuan ($5.50) for her door-to-door cat feeding service, with an extra 10 yuan for each additional cat.

The young woman said she has been providing her services to more than 40 households since October.

During the three days from Chinese New Year's Eve (at the beginning of February) to the second day of the Lunar New Year alone, Wu helped feed cats at 20 households while their owners were away on holiday.

She said most of her customers are young, white-collar workers who are willing to pay other people to help look after their pets when they go on holiday.

"I can almost earn the monthly income of a local worker during weeklong holidays through my door-to-door cat feeding service," she said.

Wu is not alone.

Another office worker surnamed Huang said that she has been providing similar services since 2019. In addition to her job in advertising, she has taken care of pets in more than 1,000 households in Guangzhou.

For her part, Peng Luofu said that she works part-time going door-to-door to make extra money because she has lost her job. Previously in property development, Peng said that she is good at raising and feeding dogs.

"I love dogs. I once raised five at home at the same time," she said, adding that she is raising three at the moment.

According to the owner of a local door-to-door pet service, surnamed He, her company employs 20 feeders and usually charges 65 yuan for its cat feeding service and 99 yuan to feed and walk a dog. Established in 2017, it has provided its services over 30,000 times to more than 7,000 households.

In addition to basic door-to-door pet feeding services, He said that the company has a variety of customized offerings, including pet beauty treatments and day care.

Wang Xiaochen, a pet owner in Tianhe said she usually chooses to pay to have her pets fed when she's away on business trips or holidays.

"If my cat is sent to a pet store to be looked after, it might not like the new environment," she said.

Wang said she has installed a surveillance camera at home and can watch goings-on at any time.

She said she has been using the service for three years.

Deng Baichuan, a professor at the South China Agricultural University, said that the industry should introduce rules to standardize the work of employees to avoid any unpleasantness between the pet feeders and pet owners.

"Meanwhile, people offering door-to-door services should be trained to care for pets and be taught their habits, as well as how to feed them properly and give first aid before they start work, to be able to solve any problems immediately," he said.

Deng urged both parties to communicate properly before a service agreement is signed and said owners should install home surveillance cameras.

Given the continued rise in pets and the vigorous development of the pet economy, door-to-door cat feeding and dog walking services have become a new business in Guangzhou.

The number of pet owners in China will exceed 100 million in the coming years, according to a recent report published in the Southern Metropolis Daily.

Observers said that China's 118 million empty nesters and 240 million singles present a huge space for potential growth in the pet market, as both are increasingly turning to animals for emotional support.