Looking to get fresh, homemade, healthy dog food delivered to your door, but not sure where to start? You’re in the right place! In this article, we recommend some of the most popular tailor-made dog food subscription services in the UK.
A dog food delivery service is an excellent solution if you lead a busy life and don’t always have time to pick up your dog’s regular food.
They also offer fresher, healthier alternatives to mass-produced dog foods.
Most importantly, the diets delivered by dog food subscription services are tailored to each individual pup’s needs, taking allergies and dietary requirements into account.
By registering with a dog food subscription service, you can make sure your dog is getting the right diet for their age, weight, and potential health issues.
1. Butternut Box
Key Features
Butternut Box is the UK’s first homemade dog food company, offering freshly prepared wet food customised to suit your dog’s individual needs.
There are six flavour options to choose from for your pup, and each meal is made from human-grade produce.
The choices include pork with carrots and butternut squash, beef with potatoes and peas, chicken with peas, lamb with green beans, turkey with carrots and peas, and fish with carrots.
How it Works
To start with, you’ll need to fill out a quick questionnaire to help the team determine the best diet for your dog.
You’ll be asked about your dog’s age, size, breed, and activity level, as well as about any allergies and health issues he might have.
Based on this information, Butternut will build a custom boxed diet for your dog, created by nutritionists and approved by vets, with free next-day delivery to the UK mainland.
The meals will arrive frozen, in an insulated box. All you need to do is to defrost (or gently heat up) each portion before serving.
Recommended: See which dog subscription boxes are worth getting in our guide.
Subscription Options and Pricing
Prices start from approximately £1.50 per day for small dogs (which works out at around £45 per month.
Exact pricing depends on the size of the dog – and therefore each portion – and the frequency of delivery.
Butternut Box doesn’t have a one-time purchase option – there’s no online shop where you can just order a portion of their dog food. In other words, you have to sign up in order to make a purchase.
Pros and Cons
Butternut Box has several advantages, including:
- You dog’s food arrives frozen in individual portions. It’s simple to serve and enables better portion control
- Highly customisable – when designing your dog’s diet, the team at Butternut Box takes a number of factors into account – including specific health issues as well as basic allergies. This makes it easy to take your dog’s individual needs and preferences into account.
There may be several small cons that come with ordering from Butternut Box, depending on your expectations. These could be:
- A relatively small variety of meals to choose from
- No dry food on offer
- No purchases outside the subscription – you have to register in order to buy fresh dog food from Butternut Box
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Who’s it for?
Butternut Box is a great option if you’re looking to replace your dog’s wet food with a high-quality alternative.
The meals work well as part of a broader diet (that also includes kibble) rather than being a full feeding plan.
Learn more on their website.
2. Tails.com
Key Features
Unlike the other companies on this list, Tails.com specialises primarily in dry food – though wet food is also available.
Tails.com produces a vet-approved kibble that’s fully tailored to your dog’s needs. The nutritional values and ingredients are adjusted to suit your pup’s individual needs – unlike with off-the-shelf kibble.
At the same time, Tails.com offers a relatively wide variety of wet food that can be added to your dog’s plan.
There are fifteen recipes of different flavours, across three texture types depending on your dog’s preferences – including three jelly, five gravy, and seven pâté options.
We have a full review of the tails.com service.
How it Works
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll fill out a survey including your dog’s key info – age, size, breed, allergies, health goals, and so on.
Your pup’s personalised kibble will then be prepared at Tails.com and you’ll receive a fresh dog food delivery every month.
You can optionally add wet food and snacks for an additional fee, which is convenient because it means you can get your dog’s complete diet delivered from the same place.
It’s worth noting that according to the company, your dog’s individual kibble formula will be automatically adapted as your dog gets older to meet their changing needs.
For instance, active puppies tend to need more protein than adult dogs, and Tails.com takes these shifting requirements into account when preparing your dog’s monthly box.
Subscription Options and Pricing
The prices for the subscription dog food delivery service depend on the ingredients that go into your dog’s personalised kibble (some products are more expensive than others), portion size, and additional supplements.
On average, a kibble subscription for a small dog costs £15 per month, and £30 for large dogs. Wet food costs an additional 55p for a 150g portion and 85p for 300g.
Pros and Cons
The best aspects of Tails.com include:
- Large selection of wet food and snacks alongside the customised kibble – Tails.com can take care of your dog’s entire diet
- The diet is automatically adapted as your dog gets older
- Relatively low pricing
The minor downsides to the service as compared with the competition could include:
- The free delivery to mainland UK has a three-day window – so you’ll need to plan ahead rather than ordering last-minute. Specific-day delivery is available for an additional £3.99
- Users report not all combinations of kibble are available for order – for instance, you can’t exclude both grains and chicken
- Wet food is not customisable
Who’s it for?
Having dog food delivered from Tails.com is an excellent solution for those who want a complete diet for their dog arriving from the same place.
The option to order both custom kibble and wet food makes it much easier to plan your dog’s meals – the complete set of food arrives every month in one box.
Tails.com is also a great option for those who are only looking for custom kibble for their dog, not worrying too much about wet food.
You can find out more and even make an order on their official website.
3. Different Dog
Key Features
Different Dog food is essentially a wet food equivalent cooked with fresh ingredients, comprising both meat and vegetables.
The company’s recipes were created with supervision from a pet nutritionist and a vet, and Different Dog places a lot of emphasis on providing a healthy diet that’s nutritious and free from artificial ingredients.
It’s worth noting that Different Dog food is cooked to order rather than mass-produced. The company claims to prepare each set of meals to order and freeze them immediately prior to despatch, to ensure maximum freshness and avoid the use of preservatives.
There are eight custom dog food recipe options at Different Dog – including three chicken dishes, two turkey options, two beef meals and one lamb-based food.
How it Works
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll select your dog’s favourite dishes from Different Dog’s selection.
When the order has been placed, the team at Different Dog will prepare your tailor-made dog food, which will then be frozen and dispatched to your address.
The dishes can be personalised to take allergies, intolerances, and other basic dietary needs into account, although the recipes are mostly pre-defined.
Because the food is prepared to order, rather than being pre-produced, it takes up to a week for an order to be fully processed.
Subscription Options and Pricing
If you opt for a subscription model and have your dog’s food delivered regularly, expect to pay from £1.80 per day depending on the size of your dog and their requirements.
Alternatively, you can get all of the dog food varieties that Different Dog has on offer as a one-off purchase – priced at £3.30 for a 250g portion (or £6.60 for 600g and £8.80 for 1000g).
Just like the subscription-based custom dog food, an order like this can be personalised to take allergies into account.
Interestingly, Different Dog also offers taster hampers – perfect for checking which recipe your pup will enjoy the most before you order a large quantity of just one flavour.
A small hamper contains six-packs of food (250g each) and one serving of lamb bone broth, costing £25. A large hamper is also available, for £40 for six 600g servings and one broth.
Pros and Cons
Some of the best features of the Different Dog pet food delivery service include:
- Freshly cooked food made from high-quality ingredients, with a transparent policy on what goes into your pup’s dinners
- No obligation to subscribe – although it’s slightly more expensive, you can make a one-off order
- Taster hampers can help you decide whether Different Dog food is right for your dog and which recipe they prefer
No service is completely free of downsides. For Different Dog, these could include:
- Lack of bespoke kibble on offer
- Quite a limited selection of recipes compared to some of the other services
- Limited customisation options – allergies are taken into account, but specific dietary requirements (such as breed- or age-specific diets) aren’t mentioned
- According to the website, it can take around five days between ordering the food and receiving it
Who’s it for?
Different Dog is a great option for those looking to add variety to their dog’s diet, all while providing healthy, natural options.
It’s best as an additional meal rather than a full diet, since dry food is not included. If you want your dog to eat home-cooked meals but don’t have the time to prepare them yourself, consider ordering from Different Dog!
Find out more here.
4. Pure Pet
Key Features
Based in Yorkshire and launched in 2013, Pure Pet offers both a dog food subscription service and an online shop.
Pure Pet bespoke dog food is different than the others. Rather than arriving as ready-to-serve wet pouches or dry kibble, it takes the form of a powder. In order to prepare your dog’s meal, you need to mix a measure of the powder with water in order to achieve pâté-like consistency.
The powder is made at Pure Pet by air-drying human-grade food. It’s, therefore, an environmentally friendly alternative to frozen meals, created from high-quality produce.
The powder is made from natural ingredients enriched with vitamins and minerals, with no grains, meat derivatives, colour enhancers, or other artificial additives.
There are nine recipes to choose from, including four chicken-based meals and one each with beef, duck, turkey, fish, and veggies.
How it Works
As with other providers of tailor-made dog food, Pure Pet will ask you several questions about your pet. You’ll need to provide their age, weight, breed, activity level, eating preferences, and any special needs or allergies.
Based on this information, the website will automatically recommend the best recipe for your pooch. You can then subscribe for a monthly delivery (every 32 days, specifically) or head to the Pure Pet shop online to make a one-time purchase – though bear in mind that by skipping subscription, you won’t be able to let the company know about any allergies or intolerances.
Subscription Options and Pricing
Dog food subscription prices depend on the recipe and the size and breed of your dog, as well as on whether they have any special dietary requirements.
On average, the daily cost of dog food delivery from Pure Pet starts from approximately £1.20 for a small pooch. It’s worth noting that first-time customers get 50% off their first order.
However, it’s also possible to simply order Pure Pet’s powdered dog food through the shop on the website. 2 kg of their Chicken Dinner recipe, for instance, costs £32.99.
Alongside main meals, the company also offers treats and meal toppings available for separate purchase.
Pros and Cons
The main pros of Pure Pet personalised dog food include:
- The company also offers cat food, so if you have a cat as well as a dog, you can buy your pets’ food in bulk from the same source
- No need to subscribe if you don’t want to make a commitment straight away
- Natural ingredients with no artificial preservatives
Like most things, Pure Pet subscriptions also have minor downsides – such as:
- Pure Pet’s custom dog food doesn’t constitute a complete diet – you’ll still need to provide kibble for your dog and/or some wet food
- The texture may not be suitable for every dog – if your pooch is a fussy eater that’s picky about the texture of their wet food (such as strongly preferring gravy to jelly), they may need some time to adjust to the pâté-like consistency of Pure Pet products
Who’s it for?
Pure Pet will be the best choice of dog food subscription box for those who also have a cat – since it’s one of the few services that also provides meals for cats.
The powder form of the food will also suit people who don’t have much freezer space or the time to defrost the dog’s meals ahead of time.
Which one should I choose?
Hopefully, the reviews above have given you an indication as to which dog food subscription service would work best for you.
Tails.com is an excellent option if you want an all-in-one service, providing a complete diet – kibble, wet food, and snacks – in the long term.
The other three services will work great if you’re just looking to replace (or supplement) your dog’s wet-food diet with healthier alternatives, or introduce more variety into their meals.
If your dog has complex dietary needs (going beyond basic food allergies), make sure to pick a service that takes these into account when preparing the meals – such as Butternut or Pure Pet.
