Bella & Duke review: three years, two dogs, honest verdict

Our verdict

Bella & Duke is a good raw food for a household that has the freezer space, is comfortable handling raw meat and can afford more than it would spend on kibble. It’s a frozen, complete raw food delivered by subscription, with ranges for adult, puppy, senior and working dogs, and a high independent rating for its ingredients.

We’ve fed it to our two dogs for about three years, after trying Tails.com, Butternut Box and other raw brands. We’re not neutral: we like it enough to share our friend code, and we get account credit when someone uses it. So we’ve tried to be stricter with it than we would be with a food we didn’t use, and to be clear about who should pick something else.

Who it suits, and who it doesn’t

Bella & Duke suits owners who want to feed raw without making it themselves, and who have somewhere to keep a box of frozen food. It suits people less if money is tight, the freezer is already full, or someone at home shouldn’t be around raw meat.

It’s likely to suit you if:

• You want a complete raw food with the portions worked out for you, rather than balancing a DIY raw diet.
• You have freezer space, or are willing to make some.
• You’re happy to defrost the next day’s food in the fridge and keep to a simple hygiene routine.
• Your dog has been fussy or unsettled on other foods and your vet is happy for you to try raw. That was our situation.

Look at something else if:

• Budget comes first. Dry food is usually much cheaper per day.
• Anyone in your home is pregnant, very young, elderly or has a weakened immune system. Talk to your GP and vet before bringing raw pet food into the kitchen.
• You have no freezer space and no way to make some.
• You want fresh food but would rather not handle raw meat. A gently cooked food such as Butternut Box may suit you better.

Puppies, older dogs and working dogs each have their own Bella & Duke range, which is useful if you have a mixed household like ours. A puppy needs a complete food made for puppies, and an older dog or one with a health condition may need a change of diet handled slowly. In all three cases, ask your vet before you switch, and follow the portions Bella & Duke suggests for your dog rather than a general rule.

The honest downsides

There are five things to weigh before you sign up: the price compared with kibble and cooked food, freezer space, handling raw meat, deliveries without a time slot, and the higher cost of feeding a big or busy dog. Only one of them, freezer space, has really bothered us, but all five are real.

1. It costs more than kibble

Bella & Duke advertises prices from £1.18 a day, but that’s for a 5–10 kg, 4-year-old dog on Adult Premium Complete with an 8 kg delivery. All About Dog Food, which prices foods for its own reference dog, lists £2.02 a day for Adult Complete Premium and an average of £2.52 a day across Bella & Duke’s products. For comparison, Tails.com is from 62p a day (reported; check their site), and Pure Pet Food advertises from 89p a day for a small dog. These figures use different dogs and assumptions, so treat them as a rough guide, not a like-for-like price. We don’t have a verified per-day figure for gently cooked brands such as Butternut Box, so if you’re weighing raw against cooked, get a quote for your own dog from both.

Whichever way you cut it, raw is a premium way to feed a dog. Our Bella & Duke price guide explains what changes your quote, and our raw vs kibble comparison sets out the trade-off honestly.

2. Freezer space: our one real downside

Every delivery is frozen and has to go straight into a freezer. The smallest delivery is 4 kg, and with two dogs, making room for each box is our only real complaint. It’s finding freezer space, which is the same with any frozen raw food. If you’re short of space, smaller and more frequent deliveries help, though they may change your price, so check your quote both ways.

3. You’re handling raw meat in your kitchen

Raw pet food can carry the same kinds of bacteria as raw meat bought for people. In a Food Standards Agency survey of 380 samples (277 dog, 103 cat) bought between March 2023 to February 2024, harmful bacteria were found in 35% of samples, including Salmonella in 21%. The survey didn’t name brands, so it says nothing about Bella & Duke specifically, but it’s the honest backdrop to any raw food.

In practice that means defrosting in the fridge, keeping raw food away from your own food, washing bowls and hands, and picking up after your dog promptly. Our guide to whether raw dog food is safe covers what the FSA and vets say.

4. No delivery time slots

Bella & Duke delivers with DPD, and you choose the day but not a time slot. The box is packed to stay frozen over a two-day delivery, which takes some of the pressure off, but you still want someone home or a safe place sorted. Our Bella & Duke delivery guide has the details.

5. Bigger and more active dogs cost more

Raw food is portioned by body weight. The Royal Kennel Club’s guide is 2%–3% of body weight a day, and notes that active dogs need to eat more. A large or very active dog can eat several times what a small, quiet dog eats, and the price rises with it.

A starting point, not veterinary advice. Ask your vet before changing your dog's diet, especially for puppies, pregnant or nursing dogs, or dogs with a health condition.

What’s in it

Bella & Duke sells frozen raw meals in these ranges: Adult Premium Complete, Puppy, Senior, Working Dog, Working Puppy, Superfood and Pure Meat + Bone. Bella & Duke says its complete meals are at least 80% meat and 20% fruit, veg and healthy fats. There’s no cooked range: the food contains bone and should not be cooked.

Most of the ranges are complete meals, meant to be fed on their own. Pure Meat + Bone is different: All About Dog Food lists it as a complementary food rather than a complete meal, so it’s for people who know what they’re adding to it. Alongside the meals there are chews and treats such as Venison Snack, Beef Trachea, Salmon Bites, Lamb Bites and Turkey Sausages, plus bone broths.

When you sign up, you tell Bella & Duke your dog’s age, weight, activity and any allergies, and it suggests a range and daily portions. Puppies and senior dogs have their own ranges, and there are working-dog recipes for very active dogs.

What feeding it is like day to day

Feeding a frozen raw food is simple once it’s a habit, but it does need a little planning. The main job is remembering to move tomorrow’s food from the freezer to the fridge.

Bella & Duke’s advice is to defrost food on the bottom shelf of the fridge, which takes around 24 hours, and to use it within up to four days once defrosted. The bottom shelf matters: it keeps any drips away from food for people. After that, it’s a case of spooning out the portion, serving it, and washing the bowl, spoon and your hands in hot, soapy water.

If you forget to defrost, don’t cook the food to speed things up: Bella & Duke has no cooked range: the food contains bone and should not be cooked. It’s worth having a plan for those days. When you switch from another food, many owners move across gradually; your vet can tell you what suits your dog.

Independent ratings

All About Dog Food, the independent UK site that scores dog foods mainly on their ingredients and labelling, gives Bella & Duke an average rating of 95%. Its brand page was updated on 5 November 2026.

By product, it scores Adult Complete Premium at 95%, Puppy Complete Premium at 94%, Puppy Complete Working Dog at 94% and Pure Meat & Bone at 90% (that last one is a complementary food, not a complete meal). A high score tells you the food is made from recognisable, clearly labelled ingredients. It doesn’t tell you whether your dog will get on with it. Our page on the Bella & Duke All About Dog Food rating explains what the number does and doesn’t measure.

Three years with Roxy and Bracken

Our experience has been good: both dogs eat it keenly, and it’s the food that stuck after others that didn’t. Here’s the honest version, with the caveat that two dogs are not a study.

That covers an old dog and a young, busy one, which is part of why we trust it. But it’s one household’s experience. A food that suits our two might not suit yours, and if your dog has a health condition, your vet should be part of the decision.

What could be better

Three things would make Bella & Duke easier to recommend without caveats: clearer prices up front, delivery time slots, and help with the freezer problem.

• Prices up front. The advertised per-day price is for a small dog. To see what you’d really pay, you have to enter your dog’s details. That’s fair, since portions depend on the dog, but it makes comparing brands slower than it should be.
• Delivery time slots. You can pick a day, not a time. The insulated packaging does a lot of the work, but a slot would still help people who are out all day.
• Freezer space. This is true of any frozen raw food, not just Bella & Duke, and there’s no easy fix. Smaller deliveries mean less to store but more boxes to receive, and the price may change, so check both.

Price and delivery in brief

Expect to pay from £1.18 a day for a small adult dog, and more for a bigger or more active one; the only way to know your price is to get a quote with your dog’s details. New households can get 40% off your first two boxes, then 20% off the third with a friend code, each box up to a cap.

Boxes come by DPD, free to the UK mainland, with surcharges for Northern Ireland, the Highlands and the islands. They’re packed in a double-insulated box with dry ice, designed to stay frozen over a two-day delivery. If a box is delayed, Bella & Duke says if the tubs are still cold to the touch (4°C or below) you can refreeze them. The earliest first delivery is generally 48 hours after you set up a subscription.

Pausing and cancelling

You aren’t locked in: Bella & Duke’s terms say there is no minimum order or period, and changes need to be made more than 48 hours before a delivery. You manage deliveries from the Subscription page of your account. Our guide on how to pause or cancel Bella & Duke walks through it.

Alternatives worth considering

If price, freezer space or handling raw meat rules Bella & Duke out, there are good alternatives, and we’d rather you picked the right one:

• Butternut Box is fresh, gently cooked meals. It suits owners who want fresh food but would rather not handle raw meat. We fed it before Bella & Duke; see Bella & Duke vs Butternut Box.
• Tails.com is tailored dry food (kibble), plus wet food. It’s usually far cheaper per day, and easier to store. See Bella & Duke vs Tails.com.
• Other raw brands such as Paleo Ridge, Nature’s Menu and ProDog offer different ranges, one-off orders and, in some cases, pet-shop availability. Our best raw dog food UK round-up compares them.

Trying it with our friend code

If you’d like to try Bella & Duke, our friend code gives 40% off your first two boxes, then 20% off the third, on frozen food on your first three orders only. It’s for households that have never had a Bella & Duke account or delivery, and it cannot be combined with any other offer. Our Bella & Duke discount code page has the caps and the other offers to compare against. We checked the offer on 15 November 2026.