What is treat allowance?
Updated By PetymFacts checked against official sources on
Quick answer
A treat allowance is the share of a pet's daily calories that can come from treats, chews, toppers and table food without unbalancing its diet or causing weight gain. Vets' nutrition guidance puts it at no more than about 10% of the day's calories, with the other 90% from a complete and balanced food.
Also called 10% treat rule, treat budget, how many treats, dog treats per day.
Key facts
- Treats should make up no more than about 10% of a dog's or cat's daily calories. WSAVA
- Fruits and vegetables are good low-calorie treats, as are plain rice cakes and popcorn; jerky and dried sweet potato treats have been linked with kidney disease and are discouraged. WSAVA
- Treats, snacks and supplements are typically not meant to be a pet's sole diet and are often not complete and balanced; too many table scraps can unbalance a diet. US Food and Drug Administration
- The calorie content of a commercial treat may be on the label or the maker's website; if not, the maker should be able to tell you. WSAVA
- Obesity prevalence in pets is increasing in many parts of the world, and accurate calorie information helps prevent unintended overfeeding. WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee
Why limit treats to 10%?
Two reasons: weight and balance. Treats add calories, and they usually add them without the full set of nutrients a complete food carries.
A complete food is designed to supply every nutrient when it makes up the whole diet. Each spoon of curd, biscuit or roti that replaces some of it dilutes that design. Keeping extras to about a tenth of the day's calories protects both the pet's nutrition and its waistline, and it is the same figure WSAVA's guidelines use for complementary foods.
Treats are also where weight gain hides. Several family members each giving a biscuit, a training session with large rewards, or the last bite of a chapati can add up to more than the planned 10%. If a pet is gaining weight, reduce the treats before you cut the main food, and ask your vet for a target weight.
How do you work out a treat allowance?
Petym’s working from the official rules, no government publishes a total.
Petym's own working: find the day's calorie target, take 10%, and count every extra against it.
What makes a good treat, and what never counts as one?
Small, low-calorie and plain. Cut treats small: for training, the pet values the taste more than the size.
Do
- Pieces of fruit and vegetables such as apple, carrot, melon or watermelon, without seeds. WSAVA
- Plain rice cakes or plain popcorn, with no salt, butter or masala. WSAVA
- A few pieces of the pet's own kibble, taken out of the day's ration, for training. WSAVA
- Low-calorie commercial treats for a pet that is always hungry. WSAVA
Don’t
- Onion, garlic, chocolate, grapes or raisins, and macadamia nuts. ASPCA Animal Poison Control
- Anything containing xylitol, including some sugar-free sweets and peanut butters. WSAVA
- Jerky and dried sweet potato treats, linked with kidney disease. WSAVA
- Salty snacks such as namkeen, chips and bhujia: excess salt causes thirst and can cause poisoning. ASPCA Animal Poison Control
- Milk sweets and other dairy treats for pets that get diarrhoea, since many pets digest lactose poorly. ASPCA Animal Poison Control
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Questions owners ask
How many treats can a dog have a day?
- As many as fit in about 10% of its daily calories. For a dog that needs 600 kcal a day that is about 60 kcal of treats. Check the calories per piece on the pack, cut treats small, and count table food, chews and toppers in the same total.
Are fruits good treats for dogs?
- Many are. WSAVA's nutrition committee lists fruits and vegetables as excellent low-calorie treats, for example apple, melon, watermelon and carrot. Remove seeds and stones, cut into small pieces, and never give grapes or raisins, which can cause kidney damage in dogs.
Do treats count if I use them for training?
- Yes. Every treat counts, whatever it is for. On heavy training days, use tiny pieces or take some of the pet's kibble from its daily ration to use as rewards, so the total calories stay the same. Praise and play are rewards too.
Can I give my cat treats?
- Yes, within about 10% of its daily calories. Cats are small, so a few commercial treats can use up the allowance quickly. Check the calories on the pack, give treats by hand or in a puzzle feeder, and avoid onion, garlic and chocolate, which harm cats.
Keep reading
Related terms
More in nutrition
- BARF dietA BARF diet, short for bones and raw food or biologically appropriate raw food, feeds a dog or cat uncooked meat, organs and bones, sometimes with vegetables. Vets warn that the claimed benefits are not backed by science, while the risks are well documented: germs such as Salmonella and Listeria, bone injuries and unbalanced nutrition.
- Complete and balancedComplete and balanced is a pet food label claim that the food contains every nutrient a dog or cat needs, in the right amounts and ratios, so it can be fed as the whole diet for a stated life stage. Foods without it, labelled complementary or for intermittent feeding, are treats or toppers, not meals.
- Grain-free dietA grain-free diet is pet food made without cereals such as rice, wheat or maize, usually using peas, lentils, other pulses or potatoes instead. Grains are not fillers and most pets digest them well. Since 2018 the US FDA has looked into reports of heart disease, called DCM, in dogs on such foods, without proving a cause.
- Home-cooked dog foodHome-cooked dog food is a dog's main diet made in the family kitchen, such as rice, dal, eggs, chicken and vegetables, instead of a commercial food. It can be healthy if it is complete and balanced, but most generic recipes are not: a UC Davis study found 95% of 200 recipes short of at least one essential nutrient.
- KibbleKibble is dry pet food: dough cooked and shaped under pressure, then dried to about 10% water. It is the cheapest and easiest way to feed a dog or cat a complete diet, keeps at room temperature, and can be measured exactly. Choose one labelled complete and balanced for your pet's life stage.
- Resting energy requirement (RER)The resting energy requirement, or RER, is the number of calories a healthy pet needs in a day lying at rest in comfortable surroundings. Vets calculate it from body weight as 70 times the weight in kilograms to the power 0.75, then multiply it by a factor for life stage and neutering to estimate daily food.
- TheobromineTheobromine is a bitter natural chemical in cocoa, from the same family as caffeine. Dogs clear it slowly, so a chocolate snack can build up to a poisonous level, causing vomiting, restlessness, a racing heart, tremors and seizures. Cocoa powder and dark chocolate carry the most. If a dog eats chocolate, call a vet straight away.
- Wet foodWet food is canned, pouch or tray pet food, sealed and then heat-sterilised, and roughly 68 to 78% water. It is tasty, filling and adds water to a pet's day, which can help cats with urinary problems, but it costs more per calorie than kibble and spoils quickly once opened, especially in Indian heat.
- XylitolXylitol is a sugar alcohol used to sweeten sugar-free gum, mints, sweets, some nut butters, toothpaste and medicines. In dogs it triggers a large release of insulin, so blood sugar can fall sharply within 10 to 60 minutes, and some dogs go on to liver damage. Any amount eaten is a reason to call a vet straight away.
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Sources
Each source was opened and read on the date shown. How Petym checks its sources
- WSAVA: Frequently asked questions and myths (Global Nutrition Committee) (opens in a new tab)
- US Food and Drug Administration: Complete and balanced pet food (current as of 28 February 2020) (opens in a new tab)
- WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee: Guidelines on selecting pet foods (updated 10 March 2021) (opens in a new tab)
- ASPCA Animal Poison Control: People foods to avoid feeding your pets (opens in a new tab)