Best raw dog food UK: the brands compared honestly

The short answer

For most UK households who want complete raw meals delivered to the door, we’d start with Bella & Duke. It’s what our dogs eat, it has a broad range of complete recipes for different life stages, All About Dog Food rates the brand at 95% on average, and there’s no minimum order or period. That last point matters more than it sounds: you can try raw without being locked in.

It isn’t the only good option, and it isn’t the cheapest. In short:

• Bella & Duke: our pick for complete raw meals on a flexible subscription.
• Paleo Ridge: experienced raw feeders who want a wide range of proteins and DIY options.
• Nature's Menu: owners who want raw they can also pick up in a pet shop.
• ProDog Raw: raw feeders who want one-off orders as well as a subscription.
• Not sure about raw? Butternut Box and Different Dog cook their food, Pure Pet Food is air-dried, and Tails.com is a tailored kibble.

How we judged

We compared brands on the things that decide whether a raw food works in a real household, using each brand’s own website and, for Bella & Duke, three years of living with it. We haven’t lab-tested anything, and we haven’t scored brands out of ten: a single number would hide the trade-offs that matter.

Complete or complementary

A complete food is formulated to be your dog’s whole diet. A complementary food, such as plain meat and bone, needs other foods alongside it to make a balanced diet. Both have a place, but if you’re new to raw a complete meal is the simpler, safer starting point. Some brands sell both, so check the label on each recipe rather than the brand as a whole. Bella & Duke’s Pure Meat + Bone, for example, is complementary; its other ranges are complete meals.

An independent rating, where we have one

All About Dog Food scores foods on their ingredients and labelling. It’s a useful second opinion, not a verdict on how a food will suit your dog. We’ve recorded the scores for Bella & Duke (95% for Adult Complete Premium, updated 5 November 2026). We haven’t checked the other brands’ scores yet, so we don’t quote them.

Format and storage

Most raw food arrives frozen, which means freezer space and defrosting a day ahead. Air-dried, cooked and dry foods trade some of that hassle for a different kind of diet. We say what format each brand uses, and mark anything we couldn’t confirm.

Subscription flexibility

A good subscription lets you pause, skip or cancel without a fight. We looked for minimum terms and cut-off times. Some brands also sell one-off orders or stock pet shops, which helps if you don’t want a regular delivery.

New-customer offers

First-box discounts are generous across the market, but they differ in how many boxes they cover and how they’re capped. We list them, but we’d never pick a food for its offer: the price after the discounts end is what you’ll actually pay.

Delivery

Frozen food has to arrive frozen. We note courier, packaging and charges where the brand publishes them, and say “check their site” where we couldn’t confirm the details.

One more thing you should know: we earn Bella & Duke account credit when someone signs up with our friend code. It’s our only income, and it’s why we’re careful to say where other brands win.

The raw shortlist at a glance

Here are the four raw brands side by side. Bella & Duke is the only one our dogs eat now; the rest is what each brand says on its own site, checked on 15 November 2026. Anything marked “reported” we couldn’t confirm on the brand’s own page.

1. Bella & Duke: our pick for complete raw meals

Bella & Duke is our pick because it makes raw feeding straightforward: complete meals for most life stages, frozen and delivered, with no minimum term. It’s also the food our two dogs have done best on, which is the part no comparison table can show.

Why we rate it

• Complete meals for different dogs. The range covers Adult Premium Complete, Puppy, Senior, Working Dog, Working Puppy, Superfood and Pure Meat + Bone. That breadth matters in a house like ours, with a senior and a young, very active collie. Bella & Duke says its recipes are at least 80% meat and 20% fruit, veg and healthy fats.
• A strong independent rating. All About Dog Food gives the brand a 95% average, with Adult Complete Premium on 95% and the Puppy Complete recipes on 94%. Pure Meat + Bone scores lower at 90%, but it’s a complementary food, so that’s not a like-for-like comparison.
• Flexible. There’s no minimum order or period. You can change, pause or cancel as long as you do it more than 48 hours before a delivery.
• Delivery that works. Boxes come by DPD in a double-insulated box with dry ice, designed to stay frozen over a two-day delivery. Delivery is free to the UK mainland, with surcharges for Northern Ireland, the Highlands and the islands.

What we’d warn you about

• Price. 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 puts the average across Bella & Duke’s products at £2.52 a day for its reference dog. Bigger and more active dogs cost more.
• Freezer space. The smallest box is 4 kg of frozen food. This is our one real complaint.
• Raw handling. Like any raw food, it needs careful kitchen hygiene.
• No cooked option. There’s no cooked range: the food contains bone and should not be cooked. If you want cooked food, look elsewhere.
• No time slots. You choose the day but not a time slot, so someone may need to be in, or you’ll want a safe place for the box.

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.

Our full Bella & Duke review covers three years of feeding it, including the price and freezer space in detail.

Who Bella & Duke isn’t for

If your freezer is already full, a 4 kg minimum box of frozen food will be a squeeze, and that’s before you add treats. If you’d rather never handle raw meat, it isn’t the right food however good the rating. And if your budget is tight, especially with a large or very active dog, a cooked or dry food may be the more sustainable choice. A food you can afford every month beats a better one you have to give up after three boxes.

It also isn’t the pick for experienced raw feeders who want to build their own diet from individual cuts. Bella & Duke is built around complete meals, which is exactly why it suits beginners and busy households, and exactly why some seasoned raw feeders look elsewhere.

2. Paleo Ridge: for experienced raw feeders

Paleo Ridge is the one we’d point an experienced raw feeder towards. It’s a frozen raw brand that sells by subscription or one-off order, and its range is wide, with plenty of proteins and DIY options, which suits people who like to build their own dog’s diet.

Where it may beat Bella & Duke: choice, and the option to buy one-off without a subscription. Its new-customer offer is 40% off your first subscription order, 20% off your second, on its own site when we checked.

What to check: with a DIY range, some products may be complementary rather than complete. If you’re new to raw, stick to recipes labelled complete. We haven’t fed Paleo Ridge ourselves, so we can’t tell you how dogs take to it. Our Bella & Duke vs Paleo Ridge comparison goes through the differences.

3. Nature’s Menu: raw you can buy in a pet shop

Nature’s Menu suits owners who want raw food without depending on a delivery. As well as frozen raw, it makes dry food and treats, and it’s reported to sell through pet shops and by subscription or one-off order online.

Where it may beat Bella & Duke: availability. If you run short, or don’t want to commit to regular deliveries, being able to pick some up locally is genuinely useful. Its subscription offer: Subscription discounts are advertised (reported; check their site).

What to check: our check couldn’t confirm its current offer or how its subscription works, so look at its site before you decide. As with any brand, check whether each product is complete or complementary. We haven’t fed it ourselves. See our Bella & Duke vs Nature’s Menu comparison for more.

4. ProDog Raw: one-off orders as well as a subscription

ProDog Raw is a frozen raw brand that reportedly offers both subscribe-and-save and one-off orders. That makes it worth a look if you want to try raw without setting up a plan.

What to check: we couldn’t confirm its subscription terms, and we didn’t find a new-customer offer or a per-day price in our check. We haven’t fed it, so all we can fairly say is: read its site carefully, check each recipe is labelled complete if that’s what you need, and ask about delivery and packaging for frozen food.

If raw isn’t for you

If the handling, freezer space or price of raw doesn’t suit your household, a good cooked, air-dried or dry food is a perfectly sensible choice. Plenty of dogs do well on all of them. These are the alternatives we’d look at first:

• Butternut Box makes fresh, gently cooked meals. It’s the closest thing to raw without handling raw meat. We fed it before Bella & Duke. Read Bella & Duke vs Butternut Box.
• Different Dog also makes fresh, cooked meals, and is worth comparing on price and recipes if you’re going cooked.
• Pure Pet Food makes air-dried (dehydrated) food you add water to (reported; check their site). It suits people who want a fresher-style food without needing freezer space.
• Tails.com is tailored dry food (kibble), plus wet food. It’s cheap, easy to store and easy to travel with. We fed it before Bella & Duke. Read Bella & Duke vs Tails.com.

If you’re weighing up the type of food rather than the brand, start with our raw vs cooked dog food and raw vs kibble guides. They’re honest about where raw loses.

Raw safety, honestly

Raw feeding carries real risks for the people handling the food, and it’s better to go in knowing them. The Food Standards Agency tested 380 samples (277 dog, 103 cat) of raw pet food bought in the UK between March 2023 to February 2024 and found harmful bacteria in 35%, including Salmonella in 21%. The survey didn’t name brands, so it doesn’t tell you which raw food is safest.

What it does tell you is that kitchen hygiene matters whichever brand you pick: defrost in the fridge, keep raw food away from your own food, wash bowls, boards and hands, and take extra care if you have young children or anyone more vulnerable to food poisoning at home. Our guide to raw dog food safety has the full picture.

New-customer offers worth knowing about

Most raw and fresh brands discount your first box or two. Bella & Duke’s friend code gives 40% off your first two boxes, then 20% off the third, each capped, on frozen food only, for households that have never had a Bella & Duke account. Paleo Ridge advertises 40% off your first subscription order, 20% off your second. Butternut Box advertises 25% off your first 2 boxes plus a free gift; 50% off your first box for mailing-list sign-ups.

Whichever you choose, a code cannot be combined with any other offer: you get one offer per sign-up. Our raw dog food offers page lists every new-customer deal we’ve checked, with the conditions in plain English.

Questions to ask any raw brand before you order

Whichever brand you’re leaning towards, a few minutes on its website or with its customer team will save you a disappointing first box. These are the questions we’d ask:

• Is this recipe complete or complementary? The answer should be on the label or product page. If you’re feeding one food on its own, it needs to be complete.
• How is it packed and delivered? Frozen food needs insulated packaging and a courier that won’t leave it sitting for days. Ask what happens if a box arrives partly defrosted.
• What’s the smallest order, and how much freezer space will it take? Measure your freezer before your first box arrives, not after.
• How do I pause, skip or cancel, and by when? Look for the cut-off before each delivery and any minimum term.
• What does the offer cover, and what happens after it ends? Many offers apply to frozen food only, or to the first one or two boxes. Get a quote for the full price too.
• How much will my dog need? Portions depend on weight, age and activity, so the advertised starting price is rarely what you’ll pay for a bigger or busier dog.

A brand that answers these clearly and publishes its terms is usually a brand that’s easy to deal with when something goes wrong.

How to choose

Start with your household, not the brand. A few questions sort most people out:

• Can you handle raw meat every day, safely? If not, cooked or dry food is the better choice, and that’s fine.
• Do you have the freezer space? A frozen raw delivery needs room. If you don’t have it, look at air-dried food or a brand you can buy in smaller amounts.
• Do you want complete meals or to build your own? Complete meals suit most people. Experienced raw feeders may prefer a wider DIY range.
• Do you want a subscription? If you’d rather buy as you go, look for one-off orders or pet-shop stock.
• What will it cost after the offer? Get a quote for your own dog’s size and activity, and compare the full price, not the first box.

Whatever you choose, change your dog’s food gradually and speak to your vet first, especially for puppies, older dogs and dogs with a health condition.