Best Peanut Butter for Dogs without Additional Sugar or Xylitol
Dog peanut butter is a common choice for dog owners looking to train their pets or reward them. The best peanut butter for dogs in 2024 are suitable for everything from dog training to hiding pills.
Not all dog peanut butter are manufactured equal. Some are healthier than others, and a few can be downright toxic. Additional sugars like corn syrup and xylitol are the go-to ingredients for animal food companies looking to cut corners and can be dangerous for your dog. In this post, we’ll be covering a few of the healthiest dog peanut butter available and showing you how to identify and avoid unhealthy and dangerous peanut butter spreads.
Best Peanut Butter for Dogs Buying Guide
Choosing the best peanut butter for your dog goes beyond simply choosing which product has the catchiest sounding names or the biggest social clout. As with most things, it comes down to the ingredients–the real judge of the quality of the peanut butter.
In this section, we dig into that at length and touch on other various factors and considerations that should influence your buying decisions when you’re shopping.
How Is Dog Peanut Butter Different From Regular Peanut Butter?
Most dog owners have probably heard once or twice that peanut butter is dangerous and you should not feed your dog any? So, why is dog peanut butter any different?
It’s all about the ingredients. Regular peanut butter contains all sorts of ingredients products manufacturers add to improve the taste, consistency, and spread ratio, and these can be poisonous to dogs. Xylitol, for escape, can cause a rapid drop in blood sugar and result in seizures. It’s even more dangerous than chocolate, which is also sometimes added to ordinary peanut butter recipes.
What Ingredients Are Safe in Dog Peanut Butter?
Great dog peanut butter only needs two main ingredients:
Peanut and salt. The rest are natural additives that can improve the flavor and nutritious benefits of the spread.
Flaxseed, honey, turmeric, ginger, parsley, wheat and oat flour, and rice bran are all safe and beneficial ingredients that you’ll sometimes find in really good dog peanut butter. You should look out for them and other organic, non-toxic ingredients when you’re shopping.
What Are the Ingredients You Should Avoid?
Xylitol
Xylitol is a common sugar substitute in peanut butter and other fatty spreads and processed foods. It is popular among manufacturers because it’s a great sugar substitute for diabetics and has certain dental benefits.
You should avoid Xylitol like the plague because it is lethal for dogs. To put it into context, less than 2 grams of it can kill a 30-pound dog. In large doses, it can destroy your dog’s liver cells and cause hypoglycemia.
Accidental Xylitol ingestion causes thousands of dog deaths each year, and the substance is 22 times more dangerous than dark chocolate.
Fats
Peanut butter is rich in fats, whether it’s for humans or dogs. Roasted peanuts, the base ingredients for peanut butter, are rich in fats. However, some peanut butter includes processed fats, in addition to the ample supply already present in the dog treat.
Fat-heavy peanut butter makes it easier to overfeed your dog and causes them to put on considerable weight short-term. An overweight dog is a lethargic and unhappy dog.
Peanut butter, regardless of fat quantity, should not make up a large part of your dog’s diet. ⅓ or at most 1 tbsp should be the daily limit.
You should consider skipping peanut butter as a snack choice if your dog is elderly or overweight. High-fatty foods can accelerate the risk of pancreatitis.
Sugar
Sugar is not directly listed as an ingredient in peanut butter. Instead, you’ll find it masked behind ingredients like molasses, sucrose, corn syrup, or caramel. Sugar is not dangerous, in so much as it is unnecessary in dog peanut butter. It leads to an increased risk of diabetes and obesity.
Hydrogenated vegetable oils
Hydrogenated oils are sometimes included in peanut butter to make it easier to spread, but they’re not always healthy for your dog. They add more fat to an already fatty snack and can cause obesity.
Palm oil
It shares the same problem with hydrogenated oils, even though it’s technically healthier and organic. It is not necessary for dog peanut butter.
Jelly
Peanut butter products that include jelly and chocolate combos also contain a lot of sugar and can increase the risk of your dog getting obese and diabetic. They might also contain toxic ingredients like Xylitol and grapes.
What Texture Is Better for Your Dog: Crunchy or Creamy?
Either crunchy or creamy peanut butter is just fine. It depends on what texture your dog prefers and your reasons for purchasing the peanut butter. Crunchy peanut butter, for example, is great for hiding pills and tablets, while smoother ones are easier to spread and feed your dog with.
If you’re worried that crunchy peanut butter is a potential choking hazard, don’t be. The nutty bits in them are too small to be any real threat and only add more flavor to the spread.
Allergies
If you have a nut allergy or know someone who does, it’s perfectly logical for you to wonder if your canine might be allergic to nuts and other kinds of ingredients in everyday condiments like dog peanut butter.
So far, there have been no recorded cases of dogs having allergic or anaphylactic reactions to peanuts. This means you’re more or less in the clear. However, if you want to be really sure, we recommend feeding your dog smaller portions of dog peanut butter and monitoring their reaction for a few days. That way, you won’t be putting them at too much risk.
What Are Your Reasons for Buying Dog Peanut Butter?
There are a variety of reasons why pet owners should buy the best peanut butter for their dogs. They have several uses, ranging from medicine feeders to spreads on dog cookies and even rewards in puzzle toys. You could add them to dog cakes and treats too.
How Much Does Dog Peanut Butter Cost?
That depends solely on the brand you’re purchasing from. Depending on the brands you’re buying from, expect to pay anywhere between a few dollars to a few tens. The quality of the ingredients used and the size of the jar also factors into the price of peanut butter for dogs.
The Best Peanut Butter for Dog Models of 2024 in Detail
PET MD Wrap-A-Pill Peanut Butter PIll Paste
– Best Peanut Butter for Dog Overall
The PET MD Peanut Butter Pill paste is an innovative any-size-fit-all pill paste that lets you hide your pet’s medication in a treat. You can use as much or little as you please and get your pet to eat their medication with no fuss.
PET MD’s Wrap-A-Pill peanut butter pill paste is tasty and only contains only a fraction of the calories regular peanut butter does. This way you can be more liberal or generous with your treat-pill combination.
- Pet MD has been around for nearly two-decades
- They are great for dogs and cats
- Each bottle has 59 servings
- It is easy to overfeed your dog PET MD Wrap-A-Pill peanut butter pill paste
Bark Bistro Buddy Budder
– Runner-Up
Bark Bistro Buddy Budder adds a delightful and tasty spin on the bread and butter peanut butter recipe by adding Bacon and Honey. These two ingredients elevate this spread to the status of one of the best peanut butter for dogs, and you can use it in a manner of interesting ways.
You can use it to hide pills, add it to lick mats, baked treats, frozen treats, and give it to your dog with a spoon. You can switch up its consistency by refrigerating it.
- You can feed it to your pet in all manners of ways
- It contains no preservatives, salt, syrup, and artificial sweeteners
- It has bacon and honey for more flavor
- The mix of Bacon, honey, and roasted nuts might not agree with all dogs
Green Coast Pet Pawnut Butter
– Honorable Mention
Green Coast Pet Pawnut Butter is the perfect all-natural flexible treat for your dog. It contains just Flaxseed and peanut butter, with no sugar, salt, flour, or oils of any kind. It is also free from Xylitol and tastes amazing.
You can feed your dog some Green coast Pet Pawnut butter in any way you choose. You can hide pills in them, fill your dog’s toys up with some Pawnut butter or use it to bake.
- It is 100% natural
- It contains flax seeds, which are a great source of protein and Omega 3
- It is a bit runny, so you’ll have to refrigerate it to get it thicker
Hyper Pet IQ Treat Spread Dog Peanut Butter
– Also Consider
Hyper Pet IQ treat spread dog peanut butter is an all-natural, great-tasting dog treat for training dogs and medicating your pet. It contains no fructose, corn syrup, stabilizers, slats, and xylitol, and is safe for your dog.
Hyper Pet IQ treat spread is a bit runny, so you’ll need to refrigerate it before using it as a cookie spread, training treat, baking ingredient, or tasty snack. Hyper Pet IQ spread natural peanut butter is made from honey and roasted peanuts and is delicious in its own right. However, if you’re looking for more variety, you can try Dily’s bacon, pumpkin, and Banana flavors.
- It is available in tons of delicious flavors
- You can use it for training your dog, baking, or feeding them treats
- It comes a bit runny, so you’ll have to refrigerate it
Dily’s Dog Peanut butter is one of the best peanut butter for dogs you’ll ever find available on the market. It contains healthy natural ingredients like Flaxseed, Turmeric, Parsley, and Ginger, in addition to dry roasted peanuts, which is the base of every great peanut butter.
It is rich in protein, stocked full of other beneficial nutrients, and is great for training your dog and overcoming separation anxiety. Dily, the brand behind this amazing peanut butter spread, donates 10% of the profits made from this spread to animal shelters and agencies locally.
- It contains five nutritious supporting ingredients
- It can be used to bake, reward your dog, and help them overcome separation anxiety
- It is all-natural, containing no artificial preservatives, stabilizers, etc
- The additional ingredients can overpower the peanut butter, changing its taste and smell
People Also Asked
A: Yes, it can. Even the best peanut butter for dogs contains high quantities of fats and will result in a gastrointestinal upset if you feed your pet too much.
A: Most product manufacturers attach a guide to help you gauge how much peanut butter is okay. However, if you're unsure, we recommend feeding dogs under 30 pounds ½ tbsp and larger dogs 1 tbsp.
A: Read the label of the dog peanut butter. You will find it somewhere on the ingredient list. Some companies try to convince you their peanut butter is safe by only including trace amounts. Do not purchase them.