Sugar Free Dog Treats: 7 of the BEST Recipes
Dog Treat Recipes
If there is something we are passionate about at Pretty Fluffy, it is the health and wellbeing of our dogs. But we also like to spoil them. These sugar free dog treats do both, and most of them come together in under half an hour.
Sugar free here means no added sugar: no honey, no maple syrup, no molasses and nothing artificial. The sweetness comes from whole ingredients like banana, beetroot and apple. That is a meaningful distinction, and if you are baking for a dog with diabetes it is the distinction that matters most, so there is a section on that below before you pick a recipe.
Every one of these is built on real food. Banana, beetroot, ginger, spinach, mint, black beans. Some need no baking at all.
RELATED: 7 Superfoods for Dogs
What Sugar Free Actually Means Here
There are two different things people mean by sugar free dog treats, and shops and recipe sites use the phrase for both.
No added sugar means nothing sweet was stirred in. No sugar, honey, syrup or sweetener. That is what every recipe on this page is, and for a healthy dog it is exactly what you want: it cuts the empty calories without cutting the flavor.
Low sugar is a different claim. It means the total sugar is low, including the natural sugar in fruit. A banana treat has no added sugar and is still fairly sweet, because bananas are sweet. For most dogs that is completely fine. For a dog whose blood glucose is being managed, it is not the same thing at all.
One rule that applies to every dog treat recipe, sugar free or not: check your peanut butter for xylitol before it goes anywhere near the bowl. It is used as a sugar substitute in more products every year and it is dangerous to dogs.
7 Dog Treat Recipes Without Added Sugar
1. Banana and Beetroot Dog Treats
These might be the prettiest treats you will ever make. Roll them into little balls so they look like fruity cereal, or press them into bite-size squares.
Get the full recipe: Pink Banana and Beetroot Dog Treats
2. Natural Peanut Butter and Ginger Snaps
Spice up your pup's snack drawer. Good for the holidays and good all year, and the peanut butter and ginger combination gets a strong reaction in our house.
Get the recipe: PB and Ginger Snaps for Dogs
3. DIY Doggy Breath Mints
Say goodbye to bad dog breath. These are packed with fresh herbs, they need no baking at all, and they are one of the lowest-sugar options on this list. More like them in our dog treat recipe archive.
Get the recipe: Homemade Fresh Breath Dog Treats
4. Spinach and Green Apple Dog Biscuits
These green biscuits were built for St Patrick's Day and then quietly became a year-round favorite. Healthy, crunchy, and a good way to get spinach into a dog who would rather not.
Get the recipe: St Patrick's Day Dog Friendly Brunch Menu
5. Banana and Almond Chewy Puppy Treats
Soft, chewy and gentle on new teeth, which makes them a good first baking project for a puppy. They taste like miniature banana bread, and we will not judge if you try one.
Get the recipe: Banana and Almond Homemade Puppy Treats
6. DIY Apple Kong with Peanut Butter
An apple turned into a chew toy in two steps. One of the most popular things we have ever published, completely edible, and it buys you a genuinely quiet twenty minutes.
Get the recipe: DIY Kong Dog Toy: Edible Apple Kong
7. Black Bean and Almond Flour Crunch
Looking for a homemade treat with no pumpkin and no peanut butter? Two ingredients, no fruit, and they taste oddly like black bean chips. This is the lowest-sugar recipe on the page and the one to start with if sugar is the whole reason you are here.
Get the recipe: 2 Ingredient Black Bean Dog Treats
Are These Safe for a Diabetic Dog?
Some of them. Not all of them, and this is worth being clear about, because "sugar free" and "suitable for a diabetic dog" are not the same claim.
Recipes built on banana, beetroot or apple contain no added sugar but a fair amount of natural sugar. For a healthy dog that is fine. For a dog on insulin, whose blood glucose is being kept in a narrow range, fruit-heavy treats are not the right choice. That rules out the banana and beetroot, the banana and almond, the spinach and green apple, and the apple kong for most diabetic dogs.
The two on this page that suit a diabetic dog best are the black bean and almond flour crunch, which has no fruit and only two ingredients, and the breath mints, which are herb-based. Even then, portion size matters more than the recipe, and treats of any kind need to be counted inside your dog's daily food allowance rather than added on top.
Please talk to your vet before adding any new treat to a diabetic dog's routine. Diabetes management is specific to the individual dog, insulin timing interacts with what and when they eat, and a change that seems small can matter. Your vet can also tell you what to aim for in a homemade treat, which is generally higher fiber and protein and lower carbohydrate. Anything with real nutritional questions attached is a conversation for them, not for a recipe page.
Low Sugar Swaps for Any Dog Treat Recipe
If you want to bring the sugar down in a recipe you already like, a few swaps do most of the work.
Swap fruit for vegetables. Pumpkin, green beans, carrot and zucchini give you moisture and bulk with far less sugar than banana or apple.
Lean on protein. Egg, plain cooked chicken, tinned salmon or tuna in spring water. Protein-led treats hold together well and dogs are usually more enthusiastic about them than anything fruit-based.
Use unsweetened everything. Unsweetened applesauce, plain yogurt, natural peanut butter with nothing but peanuts on the label.
Make them smaller. The simplest change of all. Halve the cutter size and you halve everything in it. Most dogs measure a treat by whether they got one, not by how big it was.
For more ideas across every season, our roundup of homemade dog treat recipes covers the rest of the collection, and there are seasonal versions for Christmas and Easter too.
Want More Healthy Dog Treat Recipes?
Our ebook 52 Weeks of Treats is now in its second edition and has over 30 healthy DIY dog treat recipes, from summer blueberry pupsicles to hearty winter beef bites. It includes an allergies guide, quick references for grain free and dairy free recipes, and a whole section for special occasions. Birthday cake included.
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