Lusi’s Baby Eager Brings Holistic Pet Care Into China’s Functional Pet Food Market
Executive Summary: Lusi, a pet food manufacturer listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange, launched its new functional brand Baby Eager on September 21, 2026, at an event held alongside partner Weierfu’s tenth-anniversary celebrations in China. The brand opens with large-kibble staple foods covering canine oral care, canine tear-stain management, feline oral care and gentle hair passage in cats, each backed by 28–30 day third-party feeding trials. General manager Sun Hongxue frames the launch as Lusi’s answer to a Chinese market that is moving from basic feeding toward food-based daily care.
Key Facts
- Company
- Lusi (Beijing Stock Exchange-listed pet food manufacturer)
- Brand
- Baby Eager (new functional pet food brand)
- Country
- China
- Industry
- Pet food / functional nutrition
- Category
- Large-kibble dry staple food for dogs and cats
- Event
- Brand launch with four functional product lines
- Date
- 2026-09-21
- Location
- China (launch event alongside Weierfu tenth-anniversary celebration)
- Source
- Pet industry trade media via Sohu, 2026-09-21
What Happened
On September 21, 2026, Lusi general manager Sun Hongxue announced the debut of Baby Eager, a new functional pet food brand built around what the company calls “daily gentle care that lets health happen naturally.” The launch event was held alongside the tenth-anniversary celebration of Weierfu, a pet-industry platform and channel partner, where Weierfu Pet Classroom founder Jin Feng offered commentary on where functional nutrition is heading in China.
The brand’s entry point is deliberately physical: large kibble that dogs and cats have to chew rather than swallow whole. Sun argues that chewing and the saliva it produces are part of how a meal can do its job — loosening plaque, slowing eating, and carrying functional ingredients that activate in the mouth. The four opening lines are dog food for oral care, dog food for tear-stain management, cat food for oral care, and cat food for gentle hair passage. A freeze-dried micro-particle coating dissolves in saliva so the functional elements are released while the animal eats.
Background
Lusi is not a newcomer testing the water. According to company figures released at the launch, the Beijing Stock Exchange-listed manufacturer has spent years around pet health rather than only pet food: it ran three national pet behavior and health lecture tours between 2015 and 2017, and it now employs 208 research and development staff, holds 104 patents (five of them invention patents), and keeps annual R&D spending at the RMB 10 million-plus level. The company also carries high-tech enterprise status and provincial specialized-and-innovative qualifications.
That base matters because functional staple food makes claims that are easier to check than most. A brand that says its kibble supports gum health or reduces tear staining invites owners — and retailers — to look for evidence. Lusi commissioned 28-to-30-day feeding trials run by third-party institutions, including the Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, covering canine and feline oral care, canine tear-stain management and feline hair passage.
Industry Context
The launch lands in a Chinese market that has visibly changed gear. The 2026 China Pet Industry White Paper, cited by industry media, puts the urban dog and cat consumption market at RMB 312.6 billion in 2025, with single-pet annual spending at RMB 6,280 — up 28.9 percent against 2020. Pet food remains the anchor at roughly 58 percent of spending. Growth now comes less from more owners and more from owners who spend deliberately on health.
That is the shelf where dry pet food brands in China fight hardest, and the functional segment is where they are choosing to fight it. Owners of light-coated dogs who struggle with tear staining, or cat owners who already juggle brushing sessions and cat dental treats that their pets tolerate poorly, are the customers Baby Eager is built for. Sun Hongxue’s own framing at the launch was blunt: by 2026 the industry has moved from “feeding enough” and “feeding well” toward feeding with a specific health purpose, and competition is shifting from raw material and palatability toward digestion, immunity, skin and coat, joints, oral care, urinary health and weight management.
Market & Business Impact
For Chinese retailers and channel partners, the interesting part is the delivery mechanism rather than the ingredient list. Supplements — from probiotic dog food to powder toppers — ask the owner to add a step to the daily routine, and the drop-off rate on extra steps is well known in the category. Baby Eager folds the care step into the meal itself, which is also how the feline line approaches hair: the food handles passage day by day instead of leaving owners to reach for a hairball remedy for cats once the problem is visible.
Lusi’s domestic sales director Guo Hao told the launch event that the brand deliberately chose scenarios owners see every day — teeth, tear stains, hairballs — because these are the problems that accumulate slowly and that owners find hardest to treat consistently. That positioning also sets a testable bar: the brand published third-party trial results rather than relying on the softer “premium” language that dominates the aisle. For competitors, evidence-backed functional claims just became a stronger expectation in the Chinese mid-to-high market.
Companies & Brands Involved
Lusi is the listed manufacturer behind Baby Eager. Weierfu, the pet-industry platform celebrating its tenth anniversary, hosted the launch conversation, with Pet Classroom founder Jin Feng providing the industry read. The Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine led third-party validation work alongside other institutions. Guo Hao, Lusi’s domestic sales director, presented the evidence-first product logic; Sun Hongxue, general manager, set the brand strategy. Buyers tracking the companies behind China’s functional push can browse the GPI company directory.
Data & Evidence
The numbers disclosed at the launch: 208 R&D staff, 104 patents including five invention patents, and annual R&D expenditure sustained above RMB 10 million. The third-party feeding trials ran 28 to 30 days per scenario and reported visible improvement in gum condition, tartar and breath for the oral-care lines; shorter tear-stain length and width for the tear-stain line; and high digestibility with a reduced share of hair in feces for the feline hair-passage line. Trial details were presented by the company at the event and reported by trade media; GlobalPetIndex has not independently reviewed the underlying test reports.
Market context numbers come from the 2026 China Pet Industry White Paper as cited by Chinese industry media: RMB 312.6 billion urban dog-and-cat consumption in 2025, RMB 6,280 average annual spend per pet (up 28.9 percent versus 2020), and pet food at roughly 58 percent of category spend. Broader sourcing context for global buyers is available in the GPI rankings center.
What This Means for the Pet Industry
The significant signal is not one more brand launch — China produces plenty of those. It is that a listed manufacturer with its own labs is choosing to compete on “care you can verify inside the daily meal,” and paying for third-party trials to make the claim stick. If that becomes the norm, functional pet food in China will look less like marketing and more like a documented product category, which is precisely what makes it exportable. Overseas buyers evaluating Chinese functional lines should ask for the same thing Lusi showed at its launch: who ran the trials, for how long, and what was measured. The comparison mindset that drives the GPI comparison tools applies here — mechanism and evidence first, story second.
Key Takeaways
- Lusi launched Baby Eager, a functional pet food brand, on September 21, 2026, at an event held alongside partner Weierfu’s tenth-anniversary celebrations in China.
- The brand opens with four large-kibble staple lines: canine oral care, canine tear-stain management, feline oral care and gentle feline hair passage.
- A freeze-dried micro-particle coating releases functional ingredients through saliva during chewing, folding daily care into the meal itself.
- Third-party 28–30 day feeding trials, including work with the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ veterinary institute, support the product claims.
- The launch signals that evidence-backed functional staple food is becoming the next battleground among China’s listed pet food manufacturers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Baby Eager?
Baby Eager is a new functional pet food brand launched by Beijing Stock Exchange-listed Chinese manufacturer Lusi on September 21, 2026, built around daily care delivered through staple food rather than supplements.
Which products does Baby Eager include at launch?
Four large-kibble dry staple lines: dog food for oral care, dog food for tear-stain management, cat food for oral care, and cat food for gentle hair passage.
How is the functional care delivered?
Through large kibble that pets must chew, combined with a freeze-dried micro-particle coating that dissolves in saliva and releases functional ingredients during the meal.
Is there any evidence behind the claims?
The company commissioned 28-to-30-day feeding trials run by third-party institutions, including the Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, covering oral care, tear staining and hair passage.
Why does this launch matter for the wider pet industry?
It shows China’s functional pet food segment moving toward testable, evidence-backed claims — a shift that raises the bar for dry pet food brands competing in the country’s RMB 312.6 billion urban pet market.
Sources
- Primary — Pet industry trade media (Chongyejia) via Sohu, “Lusi launches new brand Baby Eager, entering functional pet food,” September 21, 2026, https://www.sohu.com/a/1079161212_99982343
- Context — 2026 China Pet Industry White Paper (consumer report) figures as cited in Chinese industry media, September 2026
