Pets with Diabetes: Treats Categorized by sugar content

If you started with this page, please take a moment to read the discussion about incorporating treats into your pet's diet. Listed below are some common pet treats. They are categorized with the idea that they would be used as a general purpose treat and therefore should be a complex food with no sugar added. The overall nutritional content of the treat (protein, carbohydrate, fiber) was NOT considered. A treat that is higher in fiber and lower in fat would be a better choice than a low fiber, high fat treat.

A treat was placed in the "GOOD" category if it was a hard treat with meat or complex grains listed as main ingredients.
Treats were placed in the "ACCEPTABLE" category if they did not contain sugars but had only simple grains or were the soft / semi-moist type. Soft treats are usually more rapidly digested and could tend to raise the blood glucose more than a hard treat.
A treat was placed in the "POOR" category if an obvious source of sugar was listed in the ingredients. These sugars included corn syrup, malt syrup, molasses or cane molasses, dextrose, or fructose.

A "POOR" treat is not a bad treat that you should never bring into your home. It is actually useful to have some sugar-containing or easily digestible semi-moist treats on hand in case you need a treat to help raise your pet's blood glucose during period of mild hypoglycemia. In that case, a treat from the "ACCEPTABLE" or "POOR" categories might be appropriate. And if your pet just loves a treat that is in the "POOR" category, don't throw them away or deprive your pet, just realize that they contain a significant amount of sugar and should be given sparingly.

When choosing a treat, you need to read the labels carefully. Some of the hard biscuits for dogs, which are usually good choices, contain sugars. It's hard to decide if some products are good or not because they might contain whole wheat as a main ingredient, but they also contain sugar. For example, PetGold Master's diet peanut butter flavor biscuit contains whole wheat and molasses. The soft or semi-moist treats often contain sugar, as do the jerky-type treats.

GOOD		ACCEPTABLE	POOR
	hard treat with meat products, complex grains, no obvious sugars	tender or hard with mixed grains, no obvious sugars	contain obvious sources of sugar
Cats
	Nature's Recipe Tartar Control Old West Treat Company dehydrated meat bits (Moo bits, Baa bits, Salmon, Shrimp) Meoz freeze dried cat treats	9-Lives Cat Nippers tenders Whiskas Crunch (shaker can) Pounce Baste'mms Pounce Tartar Control (pouch) Pounce treats (shaker can) Purina Whisker Licken's Tartar Control (all flavors) Purina Whisker Lickin's Tenders (all flavors)	Bil Jac treats (in a little milk-type carton) Bonkers semi-moist Cosmic Catnip semi-moist Friskies Kitty Teasers Meoz semi-moist Pounce Hairball treatment (main ingredient is malt syrup) Sunshine Pet Puffs n' Purrs
Dogs
	Heinz Tartar Control Biscuits (whole wheat) Old West Treat Company liver cuts, beef, or lamb treats (a dehydrated meat and grain product) ProTreat beef liver treats (feeze dried)	Alpo Variety Snaps Alpo Liva Snaps Authority Biscuits Avo Derm (Breeder's Choice) dog biscuit Avo (Breeder's Choice) Active Care biscuit Heinz Meaty Bone flavor treats (biscuits) Iams dog biscuits Milk Bone biscuits Nature's Recipe biscuits Nutro Crunchers biscuits Nutro Max biscuits Pedigree biscuits Pedigree Milti biscuit PetGold Master's diet biscuit (lamb flavor) Pro Plan biscuits Science Diet treats	Alpo Beefy Burgers Alpo Liver Bits Alpo Chew-eez Alpo Master's Choice Sizzle Sticks (jerky) Authority Treat bar Bil-Jac treats (in a milk-type container) Grreat Choice Healthy treats (jerky) Heinz Canine Carry Outs Heinz Jerky Treats Heinz Pup-peroni Heinz Snaussages Ken-L Ration biscuits Nature's Recipe Ear Resistibles Nutro Training bits (jerky) Pedigree Marrobone PetGold Master's diet (peanut butter or veggie) Purina Beggin' strips Purina Chewy TBonz Three Dog Bakery Itty Bitty Bones Woof-a-roni

Diet Education page

	Diet - Treats for Diabetics