Butternut Box

Butternut Box Information

Butternut Box is a UK-based provider of fresh-home-delivered dog food that has seen significant growth and expansion over the last few years.

What makes Butternut Box stand apart from traditional dog food brands is that it can provide personalized meal plans to suit the exact needs and tastes of your dog. This personalization includes pre portioning of meals and meeting specific nutritional requirements.

You can see a step from Butternut Box’s sign-up and personalization process below where you select your dog’s activity level, which is an important factor for determining their calorific requirements.

These pre-portioned meals are then delivered straight to consumers’ doors at regular intervals, in a subscription-style arrangement.

This can be extremely appealing to some dog owners who find the convenience and time savings well worth the extra cost.

Butternut Box is extremely similar to some of the large fresh dog food providers in the United States, such as The Farmer’s Dog, Ollie, and Nom Nom.

These brands have seen explosive growth in the last few years and now provide food to thousands of dogs across the United States.

For those of you concerned with where their food is made, all of Butternut Box’s dog food recipes are produced locally in the United Kingdom at dedicated facilities.

Given that Butternut Box is not a typical dog food brand, you can not purchase their recipes from typical retail pet food stores or from some of the large UK-based pet food websites. Instead, you can exclusively purchase their products on their website.

How much does Butternut Box cost?

We priced up the plan of a high-activity adult male Golden Retriever to give you a visual example.

As you can see below, a complete diet plan from Butternut Box for a Golden Retriever would cost £2.94 per day with their initial 25% discount or £3.92 per day once that discount expires.

This works out to be roughly £20 per week initially and then around £28 per week going forward.

For smaller breed dogs, you can expect Butternut Box to cost somewhere between £1.50 to £2.50 per day, and for very large or giant breed dogs, plans could cost as much as £5 per day.

US-based brands that are similar to Butternut Box typically cost more, with many being in the £5 per day range for the same weight and activity level Golden Retriever.

While it is difficult to compare these, given they are sold on different continents, it is noteworthy.

Lastly, if you can’t quite afford a full meal plan, you can opt for a partial meal plan, which you can see above.

This lets you enjoy many of the benefits of Butternut Box at a lower cost by combining it with traditional dog food, which is lower cost.

Butternut Box Product Range

Butternut Box has recently expanded its product range to include eight unique fresh dog food recipes, which is quite a large number in comparison to other players in this niche.

Most of the US-based fresh dog food brands only have 3-5 unique recipes despite having a much larger and more established customer base.

This smaller product range is largely due to the added difficulty in creating and distributing fresh dog food in comparison to kibble, which can be stored in less stringent conditions.

Given that Butternut Box is designed for dogs of most ages, including older puppies and senior dogs, they do not produce any age-specific food, which is often seen in traditional recipes.

In addition, they do not produce any specialized dog food for certain dog breeds or dogs with select health issues.

Butternut Box also sells a variety of dog treats, including three air-dried treats and three biscuit-style treats. These treats can be added to their fresh dog food plans to enhance them further.

You can find these treats and learn more about them here.

Butternut Box Nutrition

The nutrition profile offered by Butternut Box dog food recipes is above-average when compared to other similar dog food brands.

This above-average nutritional profile includes sizeable proportions of protein and fat, most of which is from animal-based sources, which is ideal.

While the nutritional profile offered by most recipes is not quite as impressive as some other premium or luxury brands, it is suitable for the majority of dogs, including those that are more active and requires substantial protein and fat proportions.

You can see an example of a nutritional profile of a Butternut Box fresh dog food recipe below (Chow Down Chicken).

As you can see, the protein and fat proportion sum to over two-thirds of the recipe’s nutritional content, with just 31% of the recipe’s nutrition coming from carbohydrates.

If you’d like to see the nutrition offered by Butternut Box’s other recipes, you can find the Guaranteed Analysis of all of them on their product page.

What is interesting is the variety of nutrition offered by Butternut Box. For example, their fish-based recipe, Swish Fish Dish, offers a very low proportion of fat but a high level of protein, which could make it appealing to dogs who are less active or have weight gain issues.

In contrast, some of their other recipes, such as Wham Bam Lamb and Pork This Way, offer high proportions of fat, which could make them more suitable for dogs who are highly active or younger.

This flexibility makes their offering very appealing, as dog owners can choose a recipe to suit their dog’s needs and requirements.

If you’d like to learn more about canine nutrition, we’d highly recommend checking out our Dog Food Guide.

In this guide, we go in-depth to discuss topics such as different dog food types, dog food ingredients, and what nutrition means for dogs.

Butternut Box Ingredients

High-Quality Meat & Fish Ingredients

• Beef
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Duck
• Lamb
• Pork
• Whitefish
• Venison
• Wild Boar
• Guinea Fowl

Butternut Box uses a large range of high-quality meat and fish ingredients in its recipes, most of which can be seen above.

All of the above ingredients can act as reliable sources of animal-based protein and fat, which should be at the core of every dog’s diet, regardless of age or activity level.

Several of these ingredients, including Beef, Chicken, Turkey, and Whitefish, are extremely common additions to dog food recipes. They are so popular among dog food manufacturers as they are relatively low-cost, easy to source, and nutritionally dense.

However, some of Butternut Box’s more recent recipes include less common meat ingredients such as Venison or Guinea Fowl.

These ingredients are typically used in recipes for dogs with dietary issues or sensitivities. This is as many dogs are less likely to react to these ingredients compared to more common ones such as Chicken or Beef.

You can learn more about the use of these “novel” ingredients as well as specifics on the use of Venison, in the below articles.

Best Hypoallergenic Dog Foods Guide

Best Dog Foods With Venison

Lastly, many of Butternut Box’s dog food recipes include small portions of some organ meat ingredients such as liver and heart.

These organ meat ingredients are excellent additions to dog food recipes and can greatly enhance the flavor of the recipe as well as boost levels of vitamins and minerals that are not abundant in traditional meat cuts.

Other Notable Ingredients

Several of Butternut Box’s recipes make use of starch ingredients like Sweet Potatoes and Potatoes. These starches are commonly used in the industry, but many are fearful of them as they are dense sources of carbohydrates.

For this reason, it is important that their portion size is tightly controlled to avoid the overall proportion of carbohydrates becoming excessive.

Thankfully, in most of Butternut Box’s recipes, the portion size of these starch ingredients is not too large and therefore does not overwhelm the recipe with plant-based carbohydrates.

In addition to starches, Butternut Box utilizes legume ingredients such as Lentils, Peas, and Chickpeas. Legumes such as these are some of the most popular plant-based ingredients in pet food, especially grain-free pet food.

Legumes are so popular among pet food manufacturers as they are relatively low-cost, easy to source, and can offer favorable nutrition, high in carbohydrates, plant-based protein, and fiber.

However, in recent years, there have been some links between the high usage of legumes in pet food and an increased rate of Canine Heart Disease.

You can learn more about this concerning link in our article Best Dog Foods Without Peas.

Thankfully the portion size of legumes used in Butternut Box recipes is not huge and should be less of a concern when compared to other brands.

What is more unusual is Butternut Box’s use of less common vegetable ingredients in its recipes, such as Carrots, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Butternut Squash, and Green Beans.

Most of these ingredients are rarely seen in pet food as most brands prefer to stick to a concise list such as legumes, starches, or grains.

Despite this, all of these vegetable ingredients can offer nutrition in the form of carbohydrates, fiber, and select vitamins and minerals. In addition, they can add a unique flavor that a dog may not be used to from traditional kibble.

Butternut Box’s fresh dog food recipes include a tiny portion of Brewers Yeast as a minor ingredient. While not as popular as some other minor ingredients, Brewers Yeast regularly features in dog food recipes.

Many believe that Brewers Yeast can provide several health benefits to dogs as well as provide some beneficial vitamins and minerals.

You can check out our article, Brewers Yeast In Dog Food, to learn the fine details of these benefits.

Another minor ingredient present in Butternut Box recipes is Flaxseed which is extremely common throughout the industry. Flaxseed is best known as one of the best plant-based sources of the Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

These fatty acids are thought to provide dogs with several health benefits, including an improvement in the condition of their skin and coat.

However, Flaxseed has some other benefits outside of these fatty acids that most are unaware of. If you’d like to learn more about these benefits, check out our article Flaxseed In Dog Food.

Butternut Box Animal Testing

At this time, we have no information on whether Butternut Box participates in invasive or laboratory testing of animals.

Many smaller pet food brands avoid disclosing detailed information about their testing or feeding trials as they fear backlash from their customer base.

However, others in the industry are fearful of smaller brands that do not perform sufficient testing of their products and fear they may not be suitable for long-term consumption.

We strongly believe that laboratory or invasive testing of animals is a cruel and outdated practice. We hope that in the future, it will be eliminated.

Butternut Box Expertise

With growing concerns around the formulation and research behind dog food production, many dog owners are interested in the expertise and professionals behind each brand.

In Butternut Box’s Help Centre, you can find some more detailed information on this topic. Here they mention that their ingredients, recipes, and processes are signed by Ph.D. nutritionists, which is a positive trait.

While some brands have chosen to name their nutritionists, especially those permanently employed by the brand, Butternut Box has not quite gone this far.

In addition to working with nutritionists, Butternut Box mentions that they are reviewing research data with the Scientific Advisory Board of FEDIAF, working with industry peers, and conducting analyses and studies of their own.

To read the full explanation, check out their Help Centre.

Butternut Box Recalls

Based on our research (FDA, AVMA, DogFoodAdvisor), we do not believe that Butternut Box has ever issued a recall which makes Butternut Box a recall-free brand.

Safety and quality standards need to be much higher in the production of fresh dog food in comparison to kibble, which means that Butternut Box must have so far excelled.

However, Butternut Box is a smaller dog food brand and is relatively young compared to some of the giants of the industry, which means its recall-free record is not hugely surprising.

Despite this, we always suggest that pet owners remain vigilant of any future recalls of Butternut Box or any other pet food brand.

Best of Butternut Box

Wham Bam Lamb Review

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As we mentioned earlier, Butternut Box has quite a varied range of recipes, including formulas that provide a range of nutritional profiles.

The above Wham Bam Lamb is one of their high-fat recipes, which could be perfect for dogs with high-activity lifestyles.

Also, the combination of Lamb has a rich flavor, and the fact that it is a less common meat ingredient to be found in dog food recipes makes this an appealing recipe.

The recipe includes a portion of 60% Lamb and Mutton ingredients which includes some organ meat ingredients like Heart and Liver.

If the inclusion of Lamb wasn’t enough, organ meat ingredients such as liver can make dog food far more palatable and boost the levels of select beneficial vitamins and minerals.

Outside of these Lamb ingredients, Butternut Box uses a mix of Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Lentils, Green Beans, and more to provide a modest proportion of carbohydrates and fiber.

Naturally Tasty Duck Treats Review

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Butternut Box offers dog treats that can be added to their dog food subscription service, and they are well worth considering.

The above Duck treats are a new addition and are our favorite of their freeze-dried range.

These are extremely simple and are made up of 70% Duck which ensures that they are both nutritious (high in protein and fat) and appealing to dogs. This could allow you to use these treats as an irresistible reward for good behavior.

Outside of this Duck, the treats include a portion of Sweet Potatoes, which provide some carbohydrates and help give the treats a consistent appearance and texture.

Butternut Box Featured Articles

At this time, Butternut Box has not been featured in any of our articles

Full Butternut Box Product Range

Fresh Dog Food

Beef It Up

Chow Down Chicken

Gobble Gobble Turkey

Wham Bam Lamb

Swish Fish Dish

Pork This Way

Duo of Duck & Chicken

You’ve Got Game

Dog Treats

Naturally Tasty Fish Treats

Naturally Tasty Lamb Treats

Naturally Tasty Duck Treats

Nimble Nibbles

Gut Vibrations

Happy Hearts