Butternut Box Vs Different Dog: What’s The Difference?

Last Updated on May 30, 2024 by Kieran Beckles

Are you looking to ditch traditional dog food in favour of fresh dog food, but you can’t decide between Butternut Box and Different Dog?

There are a lot of great fresh dog food brands in the UK offering dog owners the chance to feed fresh dog food meals to their dogs, whether you’ve got fussy pups like my Alaskan Klee Kai or an older pet with underlying health issues.

I’ve had the chance to order from two of the UK’s leading pet food companies and feed their fresh dog foods to Copper and Skye, see their freshly cooked meals firsthand, test out their subscription service and see the benefits of their meals to my Klee Kai.

Copper and Skye have eaten both Butternut Box and Different Dog during different spells, and we’re going to start by revealing our pick for the best dog food delivery company, before we provide a more detailed insight into both brands based on our experience ordering from them.

If you’re familiar with Copper and Skye, you’ll know they’re fussy eaters, and we struggled when it came to feeding them store-bought kibble, so we ended up making the switch to fresh pet food, and we haven’t looked back in the past five years.

So, let’s take a look at both Butternut Box and Different Dog to see how each fresh dog food delivery brand works and all the recipes they’ve got on offer.

(Cut to the chase: We recommend Butternut Box and you can save 50% on your first order and 50% off your second order by clicking here).

Butternut Box Vs Different Dog: Our Pick

While I believe you won’t go wrong with either of these fresh dog food companies, my top pick would be Butternut Box. Let me explain why! I believe they provide the best fresh dog food service.

Firstly, Butternut Box won the taste test. Not my taste test – but Skye’s taste test. Copper was equally happy with both dog food delivery companies. But he’s more food-motivated than Skye.

We’ve experienced a lot of issues with Skye and her pickiness in the past with dog food. So, she was the real litmus test. Skye has never refused any of her Butternut Box meals irrespective of the recipe. This wasn’t the case with Different Dog, as she turned her nose up at some meals.

I found it much easier to store Butternut Box than Different Dog. Butternut Box freezes its meals in plastic packaging that can typically be stored in one of your freezer shelves. They slot in nicely.

Different Dog use rectangular cardboard packaging that isn’t as seamless to store. I had to invest in a second freezer in order to slot in all their meals (and that was just two weeks’ worth of food). So my second reason for opting for Butternut Box over Different Dog would be the storage factor.

Lastly, I consider Butternut Box to represent better overall value. Different Dog offers premium dog food, but it’s at a more premium price. They appear to have worked to bring that price down over the years since we first encountered this high-quality dog food company. But Different Dog costs us over £100 more than Butternut Box on a monthly basis.

If you’re feeding multiple dogs or if you’ve got a large breed, you might really feel the pinch in your pocket. Butternut Box still costs more than your average dog food brand at your local supermarket, but it’s a more affordable price.

So my pick and my Alaskan Klee Kai’s favourite was Butternut Box and you can save 50% on your first order via this link or the button below.

If you’d like to learn more about these fresh dog food brands before signing up, you can keep reading this comparison article for more details and where to buy them.

Butternut Box

Butternut Box is a fresh dog food company who’ve been providing high-quality food to dogs since they started in the UK in 2016. Since launching their business, they’ve fed an incredible 100,000 dogs in the UK and have an average rating of 4.8 stars based on nearly 35,000 reviews on Trustpilot.

Butternut Box uses human-quality ingredients in their pre-portioned meals, so you can feel confident that your dog is consuming human-grade meat alongside fresh fruit and vegetables in gently cooked recipes formulated by veterinary nutritionists.

You won’t find any additives, nasties or other preservatives in Butternut Box’s meals. They formulate their human-grade meals with the help of vets and pet nutritionists, so I had peace of mind Copper and Skye were eating healthy dog food.

Since we first tried Butternut Box, they’ve grown their range of recipes from four to 10 (which is something we really love!). With a picky eater like Skye, I believe recipe variety is important to keep my picky dog motivated.

Butternut Box asks dog owners to fill out their sign-up questionnaire so they can get to know your dog before they recommend certain fresh food meals based on your answers. However, you can still decide which recipes you want to feed your pup.

I like that Butternut Box will portion your dog’s meals before they’re shipped directly to your door, and there’s no preparation involved at mealtime. You rip and service direct into your dog’s bowl!

Our Experience

When we initially made the switch from kibble to fresh dog meals, Butternut Box was our first choice. They had a reputation for being one of the best fresh dog food brands in the UK, and we wanted to see whether Butternut Box fresh food meals were worth the hype.

When we first signed up, they had four different recipes on offer. At the time, that number felt like a lot compared to other fresh dog food brands in the UK. Copper and Skye enjoyed all four human-grade recipes, and it was great to be able to rotate the recipes to keep my dogs stimulated at mealtime.

Now that they’ve got 10 recipes, including some grain-free Butternut Box dog food, so Copper and Skye are spoilt for choice. Their favourites are Pork This Way, Wham Bam Lamb and You’ve Got Game.

Seeing as my Klee Kai are picky eaters, I found in the past that they would grow bored of other dog foods. This didn’t happen with Butternut Box.

Copper and Skye would lick their bowls clean (a great sight to see if you’ve got fussy eaters). While your Butternut Box meals will take up a shelf in your freezer, you can alter your deliveries to come every 2 or 4 weeks, depending on your personal preference.

Of all the dog food delivery companies that we’ve tried, I believe Butternut Box represents the best fresh dog food in terms of overall value, considering the quality of the food and the price. We believe paying £70-80 a month for Butternut Box fresh dog food is a great investment.

Different Dog

Different Dog is another example of a fresh dog food company that offers freshly cooked meals that are made in their kitchen and delivered to your door.

Different Dog uses freshly cooked 100% British meat in their recipes that have been designed by veterinary nutritionists and lovingly cooked to create premium fresh food meals. They don’t use grains, legumes or fillers in their dog food, which sets them apart from most fresh dog foods.

Different Dog use human-grade ingredients such as high-quality meat, fresh fruit and vegetables and superfoods in their human-grade recipes that are taste-tested by their team.

Just like Butternut Box, you’ve to fill out a questionnaire so Different Dog can learn more about your dog, but they’ve got 12 different recipes on offer, including some options from their Health+ range.

Different Dog offers a carbon-neutral delivery service to ensure your dog’s meals will get to your doorstep in an eco-friendly way, and they use compostable packaging so you can do your bit for the planet.

Different Dog are keen to emphasise their high nutritional rating on their website when pitted against other brands in the country, including Butternut Box.

Our Experience

We took a break from feeding Butternut Box for around eight months at the end of 2021 and 2022. Butternut Box had a temporary issue that delayed one of our boxes, so we contacted Different Dog to give them a try.

There was little doubt that the Different Dog meals looked and tasted like the real thing (yes, I did have a taste, seeing as their website says they taste-test their meals). Copper was equally as passionate about Different Dog as he was about Butternut Box (aka lots of tail wagging).

Skye is the pickier of the two, and surprisingly, her mealtime excitement did diminish ever-so-slightly with her Different Dog meals. She preferred Butternut Box.

While we could tell Different Dog’s meals were clearly made with human-grade ingredients, we found Different Dog was more difficult to store in their freezer. They use containers that were in an awkward shape, so we had to invest in a small freezer to store our dog food.

We also found that the Different Dog meal containers didn’t hold up great when defrosted and would become stained and messy in the fridge. However, they were more planet-friendly than plastic packaging.

Different Dog has an unrivaled range of recipes that is peerless amongst dog food companies in the UK but they’re more expensive and we paid around £180 per month to feed Different Dog to our Alaskan Klee Kai.

Where To Buy Butternut Box?

You can only buy Butternut Box direct from their website, so you won’t find this fresh dog food brand at your local pet store or supermarket.

We reached out to Butternut Box to see if we could get a discount to offer our Life With Klee Kai community, and I’m excited to share that new Butternut Box customers can save 50% on their first order and 50% on their second order via this link or the button below.

Where To Buy Different Dog?

Different Dog offer premium dog food that is only available through their website, you won’t find their meal packs at your local pet store or supermarket. To get started with Different Dog and their delivery service, you can click this link or the button below.

You can save 40% on your first Different Dog box and 40% on your second Different Dog box when you use the coupon code “LWKKCC40” at the checkout.

If you want to Different Dog to be your dog’s new food and you want to make the saving, you’ll need to make sure you use “LWKKCC40” to get that discount.

Conclusion

We’ve reached the end of our Butternut Box Vs Different Dog comparison dog food review. If I was picking between the two dog food delivery companies, I’d go for Butternut Box.

In fact, at the time of writing this article, we were paying for Butternut Box meals (full disclosure: we have worked with both dog food delivery brands on a gifted arrangement in the past, but these agreements have since expired).

While Different Dog is another top dog food delivery service, we rate Butternut Box slightly better and consider them to be the best dog food delivery company in the UK.

We can offer our followers and readers the chance to get 50% of your first box and 50% off your second box when you click here or the link below.