Bella & Duke vs Butternut Box: raw or gently cooked?

The short verdict

Choose Bella & Duke if you want complete raw meals, you’re happy to treat dog food with the same hygiene as raw chicken, and you have room in the freezer. Choose Butternut Box if you want fresh-style food without raw meat in the house, especially if there are young children, older relatives or anyone with a weakened immune system at home. Both are subscriptions delivered to your door, and both cost more than dry food.

We moved our two dogs to Bella & Duke after trying Butternut Box, so we’re not neutral, and we earn account credit if you use our friend code. That’s exactly why this page spends as long on where Butternut Box wins as on where Bella & Duke does.

Bella & Duke vs Butternut Box at a glance

The table uses Bella & Duke’s own pages and Butternut Box’s site, checked 15 November 2026. Anything we couldn’t confirm on the brand’s own page is marked “reported”.

Raw vs gently cooked: the real difference

The difference is cooking. Bella & Duke sells raw complete meals that you defrost and serve; Butternut Box sells fresh, gently cooked meals. Bella & Duke is clear that it has no cooked range: the food contains bone and should not be cooked, so there’s no halfway option within the brand.

Bella & Duke describes its complete meals as at least 80% meat and 20% fruit, veg and healthy fats. Its dog range covers Adult Premium Complete, Puppy, Senior, Working Dog, Working Puppy, Superfood and Pure Meat + Bone, plus chews and treats such as Venison Snack, Beef Trachea, Salmon Bites, Lamb Bites and Turkey Sausages, plus bone broths. Butternut Box’s range is cooked meals; check its site for current recipes and whether each is complete for your dog’s life stage.

Neither format is right for every dog. Raw feeding has keen supporters and cautious vets, and cooked fresh food sits in between: it looks and smells like real food, without the handling questions that come with raw. Our raw vs cooked dog food guide goes through the general trade-offs in more depth. If your dog is a puppy, pregnant, elderly or has a health condition, talk it through with your vet before switching to either.

New-customer offers compared

Both brands discount your first boxes, but in different ways, and the bigger headline percentage isn’t always the bigger saving. Our Bella & Duke friend code gives 40% off your first two boxes, then 20% off the third, with a maximum discount on each box:

Butternut Box advertised 25% off your first 2 boxes plus a free gift; 50% off your first box for mailing-list sign-ups when we checked on 15 November 2026. Offers change often, so confirm the current one on their site.

To compare fairly, get a quote from both for your own dog, then add up what you’d pay for the first two or three boxes, not just the first. Two things to watch:

• Caps. The Bella & Duke friend discount is capped per box, which only matters if your box is large. Check whether Butternut Box’s offer has its own limits.
• Eligibility. The friend code is for households that have never had a Bella & Duke account or delivery, covers frozen food on your first three orders only, and it cannot be combined with any other offer. Most new-customer offers have similar rules.

Our Bella & Duke discount code page explains the friend code in full, and the raw dog food offers page lists other brands’ current deals.

Price signals

We can’t give you a like-for-like price, because both brands price by your dog’s size, age and activity, and Butternut Box didn’t show a per-day figure we could check. What we can say is where each starts.

Bella & Duke advertises prices from £1.18 a day, based on a 5–10 kg, 4-year-old dog on Adult Premium Complete with an 8 kg delivery. A bigger or more active dog costs more. For Butternut Box, the honest answer is to run your dog through their quote and compare the daily figure with Bella & Duke’s quote for the same dog.

Both are premium foods and will cost more than most dry food. Our Bella & Duke price guide explains what drives the cost up and down.

Delivery and storage

Both arrive in boxes that need space at home, but with Bella & Duke it’s all freezer space. It arrives frozen in a double-insulated box with dry ice, designed to stay frozen over a two-day delivery, and the smallest delivery is 4 kg. Delivery is by DPD, free to the UK mainland, with surcharges for Northern Ireland, the Highlands and the islands. You choose the day but not a time slot.

Each day’s food needs planning: Bella & Duke says defrosting takes around 24 hours on the bottom shelf of the fridge, and food keeps for up to four days once defrosted. If a delivery runs late, Bella & Duke’s rule is that if the tubs are still cold to the touch (4°C or below) you can refreeze them.

Butternut Box is reported to arrive as cooked meals delivered for the freezer and fridge; we couldn’t confirm the storage details on its own page. Check how much has to go in the freezer, how long it keeps in the fridge and how big a delivery is before you commit. Our guide to storing and defrosting raw food covers the freezer maths for raw.

Handling and safety

This is where the two differ most, and it’s the reason some households should choose Butternut Box. Raw dog food is raw meat. The Food Standards Agency tested 380 samples (277 dog, 103 cat) of raw pet food bought from March 2023 to February 2024 and found harmful bacteria in 35% of them, including Salmonella in 21%. The survey didn’t name brands.

That doesn’t make raw unsafe to feed, but it does mean raw needs the same care as raw meat for people: defrost it in the fridge, wash bowls, hands and surfaces, and keep it away from food you eat. Our guide is raw dog food safe? sets out what the FSA and vets say and the routine we follow.

Who each suits

Bella & Duke suits owners who want raw specifically and are set up for it. Butternut Box suits owners who want fresh food without the raw. In more detail:

Where Butternut Box wins

Butternut Box wins on handling, and that matters more than any discount. If anyone at home would be at real risk from the bacteria raw meat can carry, cooked food is the sensible choice, and nothing on this page should talk you out of it.

• No raw meat to handle. Fewer hygiene steps for whoever feeds the dog, which helps in busy or shared kitchens.
• A gentler step from kibble. Owners who aren’t sure about raw can try fresh food without committing to raw handling.
• An option if your vet says no to raw. Some vets advise against raw for particular dogs; cooked fresh food may still be on the table.
• A big first-box offer. Butternut Box’s advertised offer is generous; compare the totals for your own dog.

Our experience with both

That was two dogs in one house. Many dogs do well on Butternut Box, and a food that didn’t suit ours may suit yours. 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.