the chipped walls of dhara jains andheri home speak of the time sixmonthold lola would bite off more than she could chew months into her adoption in march this year the rescued indie dog had made jain spritz chewstopping spray on electronic cables sofas walls and other corners that her baby canine teeth favoured but the nibbling didnt end until jain attended an online course on pet parenting that made her suspect that lolas habit may not have to do with teething so much as a calcium deficiency so jaina busy production designer and nervous pet mum who used to feed her pet boiled carrots and packaged dry food by turnsopted for a freshpetfood delivery service that offered three customised nutritious meals a day at around rs 15000 per month today except for the odd delivery package carton lolas fangs dont destroy much else even her skin and coat have improved without any supplements or products says jain heightened consciousness of pet nutrition coupled with the spurt in lockdown pet adoptions by busy wfh employees has meant good business for fresh pet food delivery services that offer everything from homemade chicken soup to 24hour bone broth customised according to the pets size and breed clients largely tend to be organicproducefavouring healthconscious millennial pet parents driven by scepticism about the nutritional content of packaged dry foods and vegetarians who are aware of their pets animal protein requirements but are unable to provide these at home rehaan qureshi who runs a threeyearold pet tiffin service that also offers baked protein snacks among the options on its daily menu has been getting double the number of enquiries per day than in precovid times while rashee kuchroo owner of a tenyearold delhibased fresh pet food delivery firm that switched from offering freezedried to readytoeat pet meals during the lockdown has seen a 20 per cent rise in demand per month in mumbai delhi bangalore and smaller cities where the availability of meats is low the pandemic has forced people to actually spend more time with their dogs says kuchroo and they have learnt that a good quality diet can prevent a host of health issues adds kuchroo pointing out that the indian market is dominated by products of poor quality lack of government regulation on feedgrade meat adds to the wariness nobody is quite sure about the kind of meat used in packaged foods says nayan shah whose eightmonthold fresh pet food delivery service in mumbai already boasts over 70 clients across the city while the firm has run into the odd vegetarian clients who chafe at the idea of frozen meats and some others who find the rs 5000oddpermonth meals expensive when compared to packaged dry food many clients have noticed an improvement in the digestive health and skin of the pets says shah whose company slowcooks the meat and customises meals as per the weight and breed of the dog to make the move from dry food to wet food easy for