Best Low Calorie Dog Treats: Bil-Jac Slim-Jacs Wins

The best low calorie dog treats for most weight-managed pups are Bil-Jac Slim-Jacs Low-Fat Soft Dog Treats, a 4 oz soft-chew pouch built around a slow-cooked liver recipe and marketed as significantly lower in fat than the brand's standard treats. If you want the smallest per-bite calorie load for long clicker sessions, Buddy Biscuits Training Soft & Chewy deliver 500 treats per bag at 1.5 calories each, which is where this category really earns its name.

Best low calorie dog treats at a glance

How I narrowed the field to seven

Every treat below sits in Amazon's Cookies, Biscuits & Snacks aisle and either publishes a per-treat calorie count, is explicitly marketed for weight management, or is a veterinary-diet product built around low fat. That is the whole gate.

I compared the published specifications side by side: pouch size, per-treat calorie claims, first ingredient, texture, allergen exclusions and stated purpose. Where a listing skips a spec, I say so rather than guessing. I did not weigh, feed or open anything, so nothing here is a taste test. It is a listing read, done carefully.

Three things pushed a candidate off the shortlist even when the marketing looked right. A vague "healthy" claim with no calorie figure and no low-fat framing is not enough for a low calorie dog treats roundup. A jerky-style chew where the bites are large enough that "low calorie" stops meaning anything at ten rewards a session got cut too. And any listing where the size and count fields disagreed with each other in ways I could not reconcile from the input alone was skipped.

What survived splits cleanly into two shapes. Weight-management chews that dogs eat one at a time as a real reward, and training bites small enough that a single session can burn through thirty or forty without wrecking the daily calorie budget. Both shapes are useful. They are not the same product.

The number that actually decides this category

Most low calorie dog treats guides compare pouch size or price. Neither one decides it. The number that decides it is calories per treat, because that is what governs how many rewards your dog can absorb before the treats crowd out real food.

The rule of thumb vets and behaviorists use is that treats should stay under about 10% of a dog's daily calories. For a 20 lb dog eating roughly 500 calories a day, that is 50 treat-calories. Two of the products here publish a per-treat figure that lets you plan around that number: Buddy Biscuits at 1.5 calories per treat and Cloud Star Tricky Trainers at 2 calories per treat. Bocce's claims 4 calories per bite. Fruitables claims 8 calories per treat.

That gap matters. Thirty-three Buddy Biscuits bites still fits inside the 20 lb dog's treat budget. Six Fruitables biscuits and you are done for the day. Neither treat is wrong, they are built for different jobs. Big soft rewards for a walk finished well, or tiny motivators for a twenty-minute recall drill. Pick the shape before you pick the flavor, and the rest of the choice gets easier.

1. Bil-Jac Slim-Jacs Low-Fat Soft Dog Treats — Best overall

A soft, chewy weight-management reward from a US brand that has been making liver-forward treats since 1947.

Best for: dogs on a vet-directed weight plan who need soft, chewy rewards Skip it if: you want hundreds of tiny bites per pouch for clicker sessions

Slim-Jacs sit at the top because they solve the hardest version of the low calorie dog treats problem: how to reward a dog that is actively losing weight without breaking the diet or the bond. Bil-Jac positions these as significantly lower in fat than their standard treats, and the pouch is a 4 oz soft chew rather than a crunchy training bite. That texture is doing real work. A dog that has had its dinner cut back reads a moist, meaty treat as a proper reward, not a compromise, and the brand's slow-cooking method is claimed to lock in liver flavor without a sprayed coating.

The trade-off is that Bil-Jac does not publish a per-treat calorie figure in the listing, so you cannot plan a session as precisely as you can with Buddy Biscuits or Tricky Trainers. This is a treat you count out in ones and twos after a walk or a nail trim, not one you spray into a training pouch by the handful. Among the seven picks it is the second-cheapest and one of the two 4 oz options, which keeps waste low if your dog turns out to be picky.

Pros:

• Soft chewy texture suited to older dogs
• Low-fat framing aimed squarely at weight management
• Slow-cooked liver flavor without a sprayed coating
• Second-cheapest of the seven picks
• Made in the USA by a long-running family brand

Cons:

• Per-treat calorie count not published in the listing
• 4 oz pouch is small for a household with several dogs
• Wrong shape for high-rep clicker sessions

2. Fruitables Baked Dog Treats — Best budget pick

A 12 oz pumpkin-based biscuit with an 8-calorie-per-treat claim and a wheat, corn and soy exclusion.

Best for: everyday treating with an 8-calorie ceiling and pumpkin as a base Skip it if: your dog reacts to poultry-fat flavors or needs a soft chew

Fruitables is the cheapest pick in the set and also the biggest pouch, at 12 oz against 4 oz for two of the rivals. That combination is why it earns budget honors. The brand claims 8 calories per treat, which sits comfortably inside a small dog's daily treat budget for two or three biscuits, and pumpkin is the base ingredient the marketing leans on. The listing calls out no wheat, no corn and no soy, which matters if you have already ruled out grain-heavy biscuits at the vet's suggestion.

Where Fruitables lands is the everyday jar on the counter: the biscuit your dog gets for coming inside politely, or for waiting at the door. It is not a training treat. At 8 calories per bite you burn through the daily allowance fast if you try to run a fifty-rep session on these. Buddy Biscuits or Tricky Trainers do that job at roughly one-fifth the per-treat load. In the set, Fruitables is also the fastest seller in Amazon's category listing, which is a rough proxy for how confident buyers are picking it blind, though it tells you nothing about how it will taste to your specific dog.

Pros:

• Cheapest pick in the set
• Largest pouch here at 12 oz
• 8 calories per treat claim (manufacturer)
• No wheat, corn or soy per the listing
• Pumpkin-forward recipe suits everyday treating

Cons:

• Too high per-treat for high-rep training
• Bacon-and-apple flavor will not suit every dog
• Baked biscuit texture is wrong for seniors with dental wear

3. Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets Gentle Snackers — Most versatile

A veterinary-diet crunchy treat built around a single hydrolyzed protein and low fat.

Best for: sensitive-stomach dogs whose vet has suggested hydrolyzed protein Skip it if: you have not spoken to a vet about food sensitivities

Gentle Snackers is the outlier in this set and the reason it earns "most versatile" is not that it does everything, but that it is the only pick here designed to pair with a veterinary elimination diet. Purina describes them as hydrolyzed dog treats with a single hydrolyzed protein source, formulated for dogs with food sensitivities and low in fat for weight management. If your vet has put your dog on a hydrolyzed kibble, most ordinary treats break the diet the moment you use one. This one is built to slot in.

It is the most expensive pouch in the set and the smallest by category rank, meaning it moves more slowly than the training treats but faster than several of the everyday biscuits. The listing does not publish a per-treat calorie figure, which is a real gap for a weight-management product; you will need to ask your vet how many fit in a day. The crunchy texture is also a fixed choice, so a senior dog with soft-food-only requirements needs to look at Slim-Jacs or Bocce's instead. Use this one on your vet's advice, not as a general upgrade.

Pros:

• Only vet-diet product in the set
• Single hydrolyzed protein source per the listing
• Low-fat framing for weight management
• Crunchy texture suits training rewards

Cons:

• Most expensive pouch here
• Per-treat calorie count not published
• Only makes sense on a vet's recommendation
• Small 8 oz pouch for the price position

4. Buddy Biscuits Training Soft & Chewy — Best upgrade

Five hundred soft training bites at a claimed 1.5 calories each, pork liver as the first ingredient.

Best for: long training sessions where you need 500 tiny 1.5-calorie rewards Skip it if: you dislike pork liver as the first ingredient

If Slim-Jacs win for weight management and Fruitables win for the counter jar, Buddy Biscuits win for training. The math is the point. At a claimed 1.5 calories per treat and 500 treats per bag, this is the pouch to reach for when you want to run a real session and still stay well under the 10% daily treat cap. Pork liver leads the ingredient list and the format is soft-chew, which is what trainers usually want because the dog can swallow and re-engage inside a second.

The listing calls out no corn, no soy, no artificial flavors and no preservatives, and the treats are made in the USA. Among the seven picks it is the third-cheapest and the only entry-tier training treat with a published calorie figure this low. It sits in the middle of the pack on category sales rank, comfortably outselling the crunchy Cloud Star option here but well behind the two fastest sellers in this set. If your dog is one of the many that turns its nose up at pork liver, Bocce's duck bites are the natural swap; if you want crunchy instead of soft, look at Tricky Trainers next.

Pros:

• 500 treats per bag, the highest count here
• 1.5 calories per treat (manufacturer claim)
• Soft chew suits fast repeat rewards
• No corn or soy per the listing
• Third-cheapest pick of the seven

Cons:

• Pork liver flavor is polarizing
• 10 oz pouch feels small once you count treats
• Soft chews dry out if the bag is left open

5. Cloud Star Tricky Trainers Crunchy — Best minimal setup

A dry, crunchy training bite at a claimed 2 calories each, built around real salmon.

Best for: pocket training with a dry, low-mess crunchy bite Skip it if: your dog will not chew crunchy treats or has dental issues

Tricky Trainers earn the minimal-setup label because they are the driest treat in this shortlist. No oil, no crumb slick, no residue on your fingers, which is what you want when a handful lives in a coat pocket for a week. The brand claims 2 calories per treat and highlights salmon as the flavor lead, which is a useful third option when a dog is bored of poultry and pork liver. The listing rules out wheat, corn and dairy and calls out no artificial flavors or preservatives.

Two calories per bite is not quite as low as Buddy Biscuits at 1.5, and the crunchy format is slightly slower to consume in a fast training rep than a soft chew. Against that, crunchy treats keep their texture in the pouch and they will not go tacky in warm weather the way a soft chew can. It is one of the two premium-tier picks here, which means you pay for the finish rather than for a larger pouch. For a dog that already loves fish and is bored of the usual training treats, this is the odd one out that finally works.

Pros:

• Dry, low-mess texture ideal for pocket training
• 2 calories per treat (manufacturer claim)
• Real salmon leads the flavor
• No wheat, corn or dairy per the listing

Cons:

• Priced in the premium tier for an 8 oz pouch
• Crunchy format is slower rep-to-rep than a soft chew
• Fish flavor is not universally loved

6. Pupford Freeze Dried Training Treats — Best premium

Three-ingredient freeze-dried beef liver, marketed as low-calorie and high-nutrition.

Best for: single-protein purists who want three ingredients and freeze-dried liver Skip it if: you want the largest pouch for the money in this set

Pupford is the pick for the shopper who reads the back of the pouch first. The brand describes the treats as three simple all-natural ingredients with beef liver as the base, freeze-dried rather than baked, and small enough to feed as quick rewards. That short ingredient list is the whole appeal: if you have been chasing down a treat with fewer fillers and a single named protein, this is the shortest label of the seven.

It is the highest-priced pouch in the shortlist and shares 4 oz with Slim-Jacs, so you are paying for the freeze-drying process and the ingredient discipline rather than for volume. The listing does not publish a per-treat calorie figure, which is a real omission at this price point and forces you to break the treats into halves or quarters if you want to run a long session. Freeze-dried liver is also famously moreish, so the pouch tends to disappear faster than 4 oz suggests. Buy this one because you care about the ingredient list; buy Buddy Biscuits or Bocce's if the calorie count on the pouch matters more than the label.

Pros:

• Three-ingredient list with beef liver as the base
• Freeze-dried rather than baked
• Small pieces suit fast rewards
• Dry, non-greasy texture per the listing

Cons:

• Most expensive per ounce in this set
• No per-treat calorie figure published
• Small 4 oz pouch disappears fast

7. Bocce's Bakery Quack Quack Quack — Best for pros

A soft, 4-calorie duck-and-blueberry training bite baked in the USA with a short ingredient list.

Best for: trainers who want a soft 4-calorie duck bite with no wheat, corn or soy Skip it if: your dog has a poultry allergy that includes duck

Bocce's is the pick for the person who already owns three other training pouches and wants a novel protein in the mix. Duck and blueberry is unusual in this category, and the brand claims 4 calories per training bite in a soft-chew format. The listing rules out wheat, corn, soy, artificial ingredients and preservatives, and the treats are baked in the USA in small batches. It is a mid-tier price, cheaper than the two premium picks here but more expensive than Fruitables, Slim-Jacs and Buddy Biscuits.

Four calories per bite is higher than Buddy Biscuits at 1.5 and Tricky Trainers at 2, so this is not the pouch for a fifty-rep session on a small dog. Where it earns its place is in rotation: a dog that has stalled on chicken and pork liver often re-engages fast when the reward switches to duck. Behavior pros often keep two or three flavors in rotation for exactly this reason. As the only duck option in the seven and one of only two soft-chew training treats here, it fills a gap the rest of the shortlist leaves open.

Pros:

• Only duck-based pick in the set
• 4 calories per bite (manufacturer claim)
• Soft-chew format suits fast rewards
• No wheat, corn or soy per the listing

Cons:

• Higher per-treat calorie count than Buddy or Cloud Star
• Mid-tier price for a 6 oz pouch
• Novel protein is wasted if your dog eats duck kibble already

Soft chew or crunchy bite: which suits your dog?

Texture is the second decision after per-treat calories, and the seven best low calorie dog treats here split cleanly by shape. Three are soft chews: Bil-Jac Slim-Jacs, Buddy Biscuits Training and Bocce's Quack Quack Quack. Two are crunchy: Purina Gentle Snackers and Cloud Star Tricky Trainers. One is a baked biscuit, Fruitables. One is freeze-dried, Pupford.

Soft chews suit fast training reps because a dog can swallow and re-engage inside a second. They also suit older dogs with worn teeth or missing molars, and dogs recovering from a dental cleaning. The trade-off is that soft chews dry out if the pouch is left open, and they can get tacky in a hot pocket.

Crunchy treats keep their shape in storage and travel cleaner. They take a beat longer to chew, which is usually fine for a "sit" reward and less ideal for a rapid recall drill. Freeze-dried sits in a category of its own: dry to the touch like a crunchy treat, but it breaks apart on the tongue like a soft chew. A short shopping rule that works for most dogs:

• Under 10 lb, worn teeth, or fast repeat rewards: soft chew.
• Sturdy jaw, pocket training, warm climate: crunchy or freeze-dried.
• Sensitive stomach on a vet plan: whatever the vet's diet is compatible with.

How many treats does one pouch really cover?

Pouch size in ounces is the least useful figure in this category because treats vary from 0.5 g training bites to biscuits several grams each. Per-treat calorie claims are more honest, so use those where the brand publishes them.

Working from the manufacturer figures in the listings:

1. Buddy Biscuits explicitly states 500 treats per 10 oz bag at 1.5 calories each, which is 750 total treat-calories in the pouch.
2. Cloud Star Tricky Trainers claim 2 calories per treat in an 8 oz pouch.
3. Bocce's Quack Quack Quack claims 4 calories per bite in a 6 oz pouch.
4. Fruitables claims 8 calories per treat in a 12 oz box.

For a 20 lb dog with roughly 50 treat-calories a day to spend, the Buddy Biscuits pouch covers about fifteen full training days. The Fruitables box, if you fed nothing else, covers a similar number of days at six biscuits a day. Bocce's sits between them. This is arithmetic on the listings, not a claim about how full your dog feels, and every dog's daily calorie budget is different. Ask your vet for a specific number if weight is an active concern, then divide.

What the listings do not tell you

Four things do not appear in any of the seven listings, and every one of them changes how the treat feels in the pouch after a week.

• Shelf life once opened. None of the seven publishes an after-opening timeline. Soft chews dry out faster than crunchy biscuits, so store them zipped tight and use a clip.
• Piece size. "Small" means different things across brands. Slim-Jacs are marketed as a soft chew you count in ones; Buddy Biscuits are trainer-scale bites in the hundreds.
• Feeding guidance by body weight. None of the listings gives a "no more than X treats per day for a 20 lb dog" figure. Apply the 10% rule using your dog's daily kibble calories.
• Flavor consistency across bags. Small-batch bakery treats vary batch to batch more than mass-market biscuits. That is a feature, not a bug, but it explains the occasional dog that loved bag one and refused bag two.

Head to head: Bil-Jac Slim-Jacs vs Fruitables

These two are the ones most shoppers actually compare, so it is worth naming the difference plainly. Slim-Jacs are a soft chew in a 4 oz pouch, marketed as a low-fat weight-management reward, and cheaper than most of the shortlist. Fruitables are a baked biscuit in a 12 oz box with a claimed 8 calories per treat, cheaper still, and built around pumpkin with a bacon-and-apple flavor.

Choose Slim-Jacs when the point is weight management and the treat has to feel like a real reward. The soft chew reads as generous to a dog on a cut ration, and the low-fat framing is the whole product.

Choose Fruitables when the point is a big everyday pouch to keep on the counter for good behavior around the house. The 8-calorie-per-treat ceiling is fine for two or three biscuits a day, and the 12 oz box is the largest here.

They do different jobs, and a household with a weight-managed dog often keeps both.

The verdict

For most dogs, the best low calorie dog treats to buy first are Bil-Jac Slim-Jacs Low-Fat Soft Dog Treats. The soft chew, the low-fat weight-management framing, the second-cheapest position in this shortlist and the 4 oz pouch that keeps waste low if your dog is picky all point the same way. It is the treat that solves the specific problem this category exists to solve: rewarding a dog whose calories are being watched, without making the reward feel like a downgrade.

Two conditions flip the recommendation. If you are running real training sessions of thirty or more repetitions, buy Buddy Biscuits Training Soft & Chewy instead. Five hundred treats per bag at a claimed 1.5 calories each is not a marketing number, it is a session plan. And if your vet has put your dog on a hydrolyzed diet, buy Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets Gentle Snackers, because it is the only pick here built to slot into that plan without breaking it.

The cutoff between the top two is simple: fewer than ten rewards per day, Slim-Jacs; more than thirty, Buddy Biscuits. In the middle, either works.

FAQ

What counts as low calorie dog treats?

What counts as low calorie dog treats is any reward small and light enough that a normal treating pattern stays under about 10% of your dog's daily calories. In this shortlist, that means published per-treat figures from 1.5 to 8 calories, or, for the vet-diet and weight-management picks, a low-fat formulation designed for dogs on a calorie-controlled plan.

Is Buddy Biscuits Training worth it over Fruitables?

Buddy Biscuits Training is worth it over Fruitables when you are actually training rather than casually treating. At a claimed 1.5 calories per bite and 500 treats per 10 oz bag, Buddy Biscuits fits long clicker sessions in a way Fruitables at 8 calories per biscuit does not. For the counter jar and occasional rewards, Fruitables is the bigger, cheaper pouch and does the job.

How many low calorie treats can my dog have per day?

How many low calorie treats depends on your dog's daily calorie budget. The common vet guideline is no more than 10% of daily calories from treats. A 20 lb dog eating around 500 calories a day has roughly 50 treat-calories to spend, which is about 33 Buddy Biscuits bites, 25 Tricky Trainers, 12 Bocce's bites or six Fruitables biscuits. Ask your vet for a dog-specific number.

Are freeze dried treats better than baked biscuits?

Freeze dried treats are not automatically better than baked biscuits; they are different. Freeze-dried treats like Pupford use short ingredient lists and single proteins, which suits allergy-conscious shoppers. Baked biscuits like Fruitables use a broader recipe and come in larger pouches for the money. Pick freeze-dried for the ingredient discipline. Pick baked for pouch size and everyday value.

Can dogs on a weight loss plan still get treats?

Dogs on a weight loss plan can absolutely still get treats, provided the treats are counted inside the daily calorie target rather than added on top. Slim-Jacs and Gentle Snackers are both framed for weight management, and the training treats here at 1.5 to 4 calories each fit inside a reduced daily allowance without much pain. Talk to your vet about the total daily number.

Pick one pouch based on the biggest single job your dog needs it to do this month, then add a second later. If your dog is on a weight plan, start with Slim-Jacs and keep them by the leash. If you are actively teaching a new behavior, start with Buddy Biscuits and count out a session before you begin, not while you are training. The reason Slim-Jacs sit at the top of this list is not that they are the lowest-calorie option here, it is that they solve the hardest version of the low calorie dog treats problem: keeping the reward meaningful when the diet is tight.

Last updated: September 28, 2026. Product availability re-checked.

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