March 20 (Reuters) - Cheerios maker General Mills ( GIS )

posted a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly sales

on Wednesday, backed by higher prices for its breakfast cereals,

snack bars and pet food products that helped cushion a blow from

slowing demand.

The Cheerios cereal maker's net sales dropped about 1% to

$5.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with analysts'

expectations of sales to drop about 3.1% to $4.97 billion,

according to LSEG data.