Best Puppy Food UK 2023

Are you about to pick up your new puppy and you’re wondering what’s the best puppy food in the UK?

If you’re a soon-to-be dog owner and you’re getting excited about welcoming your puppy to their forever home, you’ve probably started to consider the different puppy food options.

Your pup’s breeder will probably have some suggestions that you may want to consider or perhaps you intend to continue your pup’s current food before switching to a different pet food format.

Perhaps you want to adopt a fresh diet because you believe in balanced and complete meals created using real ingredients. Alternatively, you may have a strict budget that you want to adhere to. If you’ve got limited space in your freezer, your biggest consideration could be convenience.

Whatever pet food format you’ve got in mind, we’re going to take a look at the Best Puppy Food in the UK to help dog owners understand the different options currently available.

Best Puppy Food UK 2023

With the introduction complete, let’s take a look at our selections for the Best Puppy Food UK. We’ll break this rundown into an overall winner and the different categories of pet food.

1) Best Overall Pick: Butternut Box

Website: butternutbox.com

Alaskan Klee Kai Copper and Skye with their Butternut Box delivery (Photo: @lifewithkleekai / Instagram)

Butternut Box would be our top pick for dog owners searching for the best puppy food for their new arrival. You’ll notice on Butternut Box’s website that their food isn’t categorised as puppy food or adult food like a lot of other brands. Butternut Box explain that their meals are carefully crafted to be suitable for dogs of all life stages. They only use real ingredients in their recipes that are comprised of 60% meat and 40% fruit, vegetables and superfoods. You won’t find any additives or nasties in their food. Butternut Box cook their meals at low temperatures (90 degrees) to protect the nutritional integrity of the food before freezing and sending to your home. If you’ve brought your puppy home and you’ve been feeding them kibble or wet food, Butternut Box offer guidance on how to make a gradual transition. They suggest their chicken, turkey or fish recipes if you suspect your puppy has a sensitivity tummy. Butternut Box offer a tailored service so you’ll need to fill out a questionnaire about your pup. This allows this fresh dog food company to tailor your pup’s meals accordingly. Once you’ve received your eco-friendly delivery of pre-portioned meal pouches, you simply defrost before cutting open and serving to your pup. I’ve experienced the benefits of Butternut Box with my two mini huskies since switching them onto their fresh meals. They’ve got a stellar reputation for helping puppies and dogs in the UK, securing 4.9 stars out of 5 based upon over 15,000 reviews on independent review website Trustpilot.

2) Best Air-Dried Puppy Food: Pure Pet Food

Website: purepetfood.com

Pure Pet Food (Photo: Pure)

If you don’t fancy Butternut Box but you’re not interested in feeding regular kibble to your pup, you may want to consider Pure Pet Food. We consider Pure to be a great alternative that can elevate your puppy’s diet. Pure’s range of air-dried dog food is created using natural ingredients. You won’t find any nasties in their food. The ingredients are chopped up into easily digestible sizes before having the moisture removed under a low, gentle heat. Pure explain that this cooking process helps to protect and preserve the natural goodness of the ingredients. You simply add water to your pup’s air-dried food to create their meal – so there’s a little bit of work required on the part of the owner. Just like Butternut Box, Pure offer a customised meal plan so you’ll need to fill out their sign-up questionnaire to provide information about your pup. Formulated by nutritionists and approved by vets, Pure explain that their food is perfect for puppies because it aids rapid growth, uses nourishing and nutritious ingredients and includes brain-boosting ingredients like Omega-3. As they offer tailored meals, you’re able to adjust your plan as your puppy grows. While I personally prefer fresh dog meals that you store in your fridge or freezer, Pure is a convenient option when it comes to storage. You can seal the bag and pop it in the cupboard.

3) Best Grain-Free Puppy Food: Pooch & Mutt

Website: poochandmutt.co.uk

Pooch & Mutt puppy food (Photo: Pooch & Mutt)

Pooch & Mutt have created grain-free puppy food that aids growth and development. If you’re currently feeding regular kibble to your puppy that you’ve bought at the store, you may want to check out the ingredients label to see the ingredients used. If you’re unsure about the transparency of the label or the quality of the ingredients, but you want to stick with kibble then Pooch & Mutt could be a good alternative. They’ve got Puppy Complete Superfood in a chicken flavour that is grain-free and junk-free. It’s natural dry dog food that’s hypoallergenic and antioxidant rich. Their website explains that the recipe contains lean protein and grain-free ingredients that are gentle on the tummy, while it’s been boosted with natural superfoods such as salmon oil, kale, spinach, and berries. If you’d prefer to go with wet food, Pooch & Mutt offer Complete Puppy Wet Food that is made with locally-sourced UK ingredients. Just like their dry food, it’s hypoallergenic and junk-free so no added artificial flavours, colours, preservatives. They offer five different recipes, including chicken and fish. While I prefer fresh meals to dry food or wet food, Pooch & Mutt’s Puppy Food range has an average of 4.7 stars based upon over 100 reviews on their website.

4) Best Raw Puppy Food: Naturaw

Website: naturaw.co.uk

Naturaw (Photo: Naturaw)

If you’ve been reading about the “rawvolution” ahead of the arrival of your puppy at your home, you may be thinking about feeding your pup raw dog food long term. For British dog owners who want their pup to eat a raw fed diet, we’d recommend Naturaw. There’s no shortage of raw dog food companies in the UK but Naturaw would be our top pick based upon the different options that we’ve tried. While they’ve got a versatile range of options, they’ve got a dedicated puppy option for new parents to buy. Naturaw explain that their puppy meal is comprised of slightly finer mince to aid digestion for puppies (but it’s still suitable for dogs of all ages). Their website explains that the meals is made using various cuts including British beef, organic chicken and offal. Some of the key points to note about their puppy recipe is that it’s made using human-grade ingredients, vet approved, grain free, doesn’t contain artificial ingredients and veg free. Naturaw prepare all their raw food in Yorkshire and it’s packaged in 100% plastic-free packaging. We like Naturaw because they source their ingredients from high welfare farms and adopt an eco-friendly approach to their business. For example, every component of their food trays are recyclable. The cost of the puppy recipe is £2.40 if you want to give it a try. You can save 5% if you sign up to Naturaw’s subscription plan.

5) Best Customised Kibble: Tails

Website: tails.com

Copper and Skye with their Tails dog food (Photo: @lifewithkleekai / Instagram)

We’ve already touched upon a great grain-free dry food option in Pooch & Mutt but they don’t offer personalised meal plans. That’s why we felt compelled to include Tails. They’re a well-established pet food company in the UK and Europe. Tails offer high-quality dry food (and wet food). If you want to feed your puppy dry food but you like the idea of a personal touch, Tails could be a good option. Tails claim on their website that they’ve fed over 27,000 puppies. You’ll start your journey with Tails by telling them about your puppy as well as any benefits you’d like to see. They explain that they’ll make your puppy’s food with a focus on growth and development, immune support and healthy skin and coat. Tails explain that their meals contain high-quality protein, salmon oil, zinc, prebiotics and balanced calcium and phosphorus levels. They’ll continue to adjust your pup’s meals as they hit the eight-week, 12-week, 16-week, 20-week milestones, etc. Having previously fed Tails to my Klee Kai dogs, I was impressed by the level of detail but ultimately I decided to go with a fresher approach.

6) Premium Puppy Food: Different Dog

Website: www.differentdog.com

Skye and Different Dog’s Health+ range (Photo: lifewithkleekai / Instagram)

We’ve got a premium option if budget isn’t a problem for you. Different Dog offer premium-quality meals that are created using the finest ingredients and gently cooked at their kitchens. Typically, Different Dog require dog owners to fill out their sign-up questionnaire to start their experience with the fresh dog food brand. However, Different Dog offer new customers the chance to purchase a Natural Puppy Food Trial. The trial box contains meals that have been hand cooked in their kitchens in Shropshire. They contain human-grade meat as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. They explain the trial box includes a variety of their multi-award winning natural dog food that has been optimised by vets. Different Dog offer chicken, beef, lamb, turkey and fish as the protein source. You can select the size of the trial box – small or large. In my experience, Different Dog meals are top notch but they’re meals can be tricky to store in your freezer. They’re a premium option so you should expect to pay a lot more than traditional dog food that you’ll find in the supermarket or pet store – but your precious pup will get to enjoy hand-cooked meals.

How We Picked The Best Puppy Food UK

Labrador puppy eats sprawled on the floor (Photo: Adobe Stock)

We started our research into the best puppy food in the UK by checking out some of the leading brands who have earned a good reputation for creating puppy food that’s balanced and complete.

Once we made a shortlist of potential contenders, we started to test all of the brands mentioned in the article. My dogs have tried each pet food company highlight in this article so I’m speaking from personal experience.

However, I’m acutely aware that every dog is different so I didn’t want to make my selection solely based upon my experience. We read through customer reviews on independent websites such as Trustpilot and Reviews.io to see what other dog owners are saying.

We also scoured the internet for other reviews on trusted pet websites to be thorough in our research.

Things To Consider When Researching Best Puppy Food UK

Owner feeds Jack Russell puppy (Photo: Adobe Stock)

I’ve already highlighted six brands that I believe can do a great job of keeping your puppy happy, healthy, fuelled and full. However, you may still be weighing up your options.

If that’s the case, I wanted to discuss some of the things that I considered when I was researching and ultimately picked what I consider to the best puppy food in the UK.

• Fresh ingredients – If you’re going to pay a more than your traditional store-bought pet food, you want your puppy to be eating the freshest ingredients possible sourced from British farms. You want high-quality meat and organic fruit and vegetables where possible.

• Personalised recipes – You’ll notice that I prefer dog food companies that offer customized plans and add a personal touch to their subscription plan. Obesity is a big problem in the UK. So dog owners and their pets can benefit from tailored dog food.

• Cooking methods – Most of the dog food companies in this article cook their meals at low temperatures to ensure the nutritional integrity of the recipes and lock in as much flavour as possible. In the case of Different Dog, their meals are hand cooked which is incredible.

Recipe variety – As someone who has experienced life with two fussy eaters, I know how stressful it can be when your puppy is refusing to eat their food. I’m confident your dog will enjoy any of the six companies listed, especially fresh brands like Butternut Box, Pure, Naturaw and Different Dog.

Reasonably Priced – The dog food companies featured in this article have a different price range. For example, you can expect to pay less for Pooch & Mutt and Tails than Different Dog and Naturaw. However, the premium options shouldn’t break the bank despite offering a fresh and healthy approach to pet nutrition.

Sustainable approach – We want to elevate our puppy’s diet by feeding balanced, complete, fresh and real meals to our canine companions. Having said that, I want to feel good about feeding dog food that isn’t bad for the diet. I want to protect my dog’s health and the planet’s health.

Anything Else To Consider

Labrador puppy gets help with dinner (Photo: Adobe Stock)

It’s a good idea to speak to your vet before you decide on a particular pet food format.

When you collect your pup from the breeder, you may find that your breeder has been feeding them dry food or wet food.

Often, your breeder will encourage you to stick with the current food to avoid risking an upset stomach or other issues.

This is an understandable approach and we suggest consulting with your vet on how to make a gradual transition to your puppy food of choice.

Wrapping Up – Our Final Thoughts

Butternut Box (Photo: hellobark.com)

We’ve reached the end of our article on the best puppy food available in the UK.

There are a lot of options available to new dog owners so it can be quite overwhelming trying to decide the right puppy food for your new arrival.

You can choose between fresh dog meals, air-dried dog food, grain-free kibble or wet food, raw dog food, customized kibble and other premium options.

I’ve been predominantly feeding Butternut Box to my dogs since they turned 1 – and I’ve never had any issues with the dog food company.

Butternut Box offer an unrivalled range of 12 recipes that cater to dogs of all ages, including puppies. They’re transparent about their cooking methods, the ingredients in their recipes and they’ve built a real community spirit.

If I was to get another puppy tomorrow, my first choice would be Butternut Box but you won’t go wrong with any of the brands listed in this article.