Treats and chews
How do I work out how many calories are in a treat?
Last updated 23 September 2026 · How we write and check this
Short answer
Check the packaging first, since most commercial treats list kcal per piece or per 100 g directly on the bag, usually near the ingredients or feeding guidelines. If a product only lists calories per 100 g, weigh a single piece on a kitchen scale and calculate from there. For homemade treats without a label, adding up the calories of each ingredient used and dividing by the number of pieces made gives a reasonable estimate.
Reading commercial packaging correctly
Many bags state something like 5 kcal per treat directly, but others only give a figure per 100 g, such as 350 kcal per 100 g, which then needs converting based on a single treat's actual weight. A 3 g training treat from that bag works out to about 10.5 kcal, so weighing five or ten pieces together on a kitchen scale and dividing gives an accurate per piece figure fast.
Estimating homemade or unlabeled treats
For a homemade batch, adding the calorie content of each raw ingredient, for example 90 kcal for a whole egg or roughly 190 kcal per 100 g of oats, then dividing the total by the number of pieces the batch made, gives a workable per treat estimate. This is not laboratory precise but is close enough for daily budgeting purposes.
What to do when there is no information at all
For chews like antlers or bully sticks that rarely list calories, using a general estimate of roughly 3 to 4 kcal per gram of dried animal product is a reasonable placeholder, then adjusting the frequency of that chew based on how the dog's weight trends over the following month rather than chasing an exact number.
Key takeaways
- Most commercial treats list kcal per piece or per 100 g directly on the packaging.
- Weighing a few pieces on a kitchen scale lets you convert a per 100 g figure into a per piece number.
- For homemade treats, sum the ingredient calories and divide by the number of pieces made.
- Unlabeled dried chews can be roughly estimated at 3 to 4 kcal per gram as a starting point.