An animal snack product and processes for making animal snack products is provided. A process includes baking at least one sweet potato to reach a conversion temperature for a time sufficient to generally uniformly convert starch in the at least one sweet potato to sugar； forming a thickened mash from the at least one sweet potato； forming segments of desired shape and thickness from the thickened mash； and applying heat at a drying temperature that is below the burning point of the sugar for a time sufficient to dry the segments to a threshold moisture level.
