Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia and caused by many factors. Diabetes poses a serious threat to human health. It is of great significance to construct a corresponding animal model of diabetes to study its pathogenesis, prevention, and diagnosis and to screen new drugs. On the basis of summarizing the construction of animal models of spontaneous and induced type II diabetes, this paper focused on the construction of animal models of type II diabetes using genetic engineering technology and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of various construction method to provide appropriate animal models for unraveling the pathogenesis and treatment of diabetes.