dried cranberries

Fruit & vegetable

Dried cranberries are cranberries with the water gone and, in the human aisle, sugar added. On pet labels they share one bonus with their fresh kin.

Also appears on labels as: cranberries (dried)

What it is

Cranberries, dehydrated. Pet-food-grade dried cranberries are typically unsweetened; the grocery-aisle kind ("craisins") is candied — routinely a third sugar by weight — which matters when the sharing happens at home.

Why it's in pet food

The same urinary-halo marketing as fresh cranberries, in a shelf-stable form. The evidence bar hasn't moved: mixed in humans, thinner in pets, and urinary symptoms belong to a vet visit, not a berry (the cranberries page carries the full version).

How Bowlmark scores it

Scores are deterministic math over the printed label — the rules below apply to every product identically, and nothing estimates or fills in a blank.

Matches the same "cranberr" whole-foods bonus term as fresh cranberries: +2 inside the top 12, and a label listing BOTH forms still banks the bonus once — the counting is per term, not per entry. If a sweetened version brings added sugar, that sugar appears as its own ingredient and is counted by the sugars rule on its own merits.

For dogs

Unsweetened dried cranberries are a tart, take-it-or-leave-it treat; sweetened ones are candy and should be budgeted as candy.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list dried cranberries

Ranked by score where scores exist. Placement here is never sold.

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Sources

Cite this page

Bowlmark. "Dried cranberries in pet food — what it is and how it scores." https://www.bowlmark.com/ingredient/dried-cranberries

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Verified: Last verified August 12, 2026

No stored score to stamp yet — the engine and config above are the ones a scan runs today.

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