Scrumbles vs Butternut Box

Apr 13, 2023

Choosing the right food for our dogs is one of the most important decisions we ever make for them. A healthy diet not only equals a happy and healthy pooch, but it can even lengthen the amount of time you get to spend together – and who doesn’t want that! With such a huge array of different pet foods to choose from now, knowing where to start might be daunting. That’s why we’re comparing two popular options, Scrumbles and Butternut Box, so you can determine which is best to fuel your floof.

Signs that your pet might need a new diet

Changing your pet’s food isn’t something you want to be doing regularly, and never suddenly. As when you make a change to their diet it can cause upset tums and extra flatulence. The main reasons to change your floof’s food will be because they don’t like it, you’re looking for better quality, digestive issues, or due to medical reasons. Equally circumstantial reasons like the food becoming unavailable or prices changing may lead you to look for a new option.

If you think your floof’s current food isn’t right for them, the key signs which would indicate this are:

Persistent itchy skin
Digestive issues like loose stools or particularly yucky-smelling or excessive flatulence
Flaky, full coat
Lethargy or change in willingness to go out on walkies or play

Scrumbles Vs Butternut Box

So now we know some of the reasons you might be looking to change your pet’s food, it’s time to review which is best for you. Today we're focusing on two of the most notable; Butternut Box and Scrumbles. Both brands offer dog food, however beyond this there's a big difference in their service, storage, cost, and sustainability. Each of these areas is broken down section by section to help you understand the difference between Butternut Box and Scrumbles, so you can choose the right dog food to help your furry friend thrive.

Scrumbles Overview

Scrumbles is a family-owned, independent pet food company, founded in 2018 by Aneisha and Jack. Their dry food, wet food, and treats recipes focus on gut health, with natural ingredients and added pre or probiotics. Their range, as listed on their website, consists of 72 product variations, which are relatively evenly split across cat and dog, with 55% of products catering to dog and 45% to cats.

Butternut Box Overview

Butternut Box was founded in 2016 by David and Kevin, and has since raised several rounds of funding via venture capitalists. They operate via an online subscription service only, producing frozen wet dog food recipes and treats for dogs only. Their mission is to deliver health and happiness to dogs and their humans all over the world. They have 11 main food recipes listed on their website, like Beef It Up and Chicken You Out.

Service

Scrumbles customers are able to order via a one-off and subscription service directly via their website, online via the likes of Ocado and Amazon, or in-store via Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Co-Op, and Wilko. Customers don't need to enter any data to create a subscription, and can build it with any products, quantities, and frequencies they choose, as well as being able to add one-off items.

Butternut Box only offers a subscription service directly via their website, serving the UK, Ireland and Netherlands. To build a subscription, customers must first create an account and answer a series of questions, which is then used to suggest a plan. They recommend ordering 28 days worth at a time, which arrive in pre-portioned frozen pouches.

Whilst both brands offer a subscription service, Scrumbles subscription offers theirs with an on-going discount of 15% off every box.

Storage and Feeding

Scrumbles wet and dry food can be stored at ambient room temperature, and served immediately. Once opened, their wet dog food should be stored in the fridge, and is also suitable for freezing. Customers can use their feeding guideline to work out how much to feed, and alter according to their specific dog's needs.

Butternut Box's recipes arrive frozen and owners must move these into their own freezer on arrival. Each pouch contains a pre-portioned amount equivalent to one day's worth of food, that customer must split to serve in the morning and evening. Pouches must be moved to the fridge to defrost overnight, ready to serve the next day.

Ingredients

Scrumbles make a big deal about gut health, natural ingredients, and responsibly sourcing. Their recipes have a higher level of meat or fish, with their dry dog food containing up to 66% fresh and dried meat, and wet dog food 70% fresh meat. They also stick to a pollo-pescatarian diet to reduce their environmental impact. They bias to meat proteins and claim none of their recipes contain added pea protein, commonly used in other pet foods, and they also avoid added sugars or salt. They offer probiotic dog food recipes through their. dry food range, and their wet food and treats contain. prebiotics for gut health. They also avoid dairy, soy, gluten, and egg from all their recipes for sensitive dogs.

Butternut Box core statement is to deliver health and happiness to dogs using the "best quality ingredients", which are cooked at 90C and frozen. Their recipes contain 60% fresh meat, fish or offal, which means the meat % decreases after being cooked as roughly 70% of meat is water, so can evaporate during cooking. This makes the actual crude protein content around 11% to 13%. Other ingredients they commonly use include Brewer's Yeast, Flaxseed and herbs. All their recipes are grain free, and therefore gluten free too, however they do utilise egg and cheese in some recipes. The majority of dogs are intolerant to lactose, so dairy should be avoided, especially for sensitive dogs.

Pricing

To help you understand the difference in cost between Butternut Box and Scrumbles you can look at the price per day on All About Dog Food.

Scrumbles wet dog food is £2.81 per day for the average pooch and £0.92 for their dry dog food, with further savings available via subscription. Treats start from £2.75 for 90/100g.

Butternut Box wet dog food is £3.43 per day for the average pooch.* The price for treats isn't openly available.

*Prices taken from All About Dog Food. May be subject to change. The average pooch is based on 6 years old, 14kg.

Product Comparisons

Adult Wet Dog Food

Scrumbles Salmon Wet Dog Food vs Butternut Box Beef It Up.

	Scrumbles	Butternut Box
All About Dog Food Rating	89%	93%
Cost	£2.81 per day	£3.43 per day
% of Meat In Recipe	70%	60%
Made In	UK	UK

*Prices taken from All About Dog Food website. May be subject to change. The average pooch is based on 6 years old, 14kg.

Sustainability

With all the information and real-time events, it’s now impossible to ignore the impact all our buying decisions have on the planet. That’s why more pet parents than ever are looking out for more sustainable food options. It’s also not just us that care about our brands eco-credentials, as I’m sure you can agree our pets wouldn’t want to live in a world without plush green spaces.

Scrumbles and Butternut Box are both certified B Corporation s, the former certifying in 2019 and latter in 2022. This helps verify their commitment across all aspects of sustainability, from environmental to social. Delving into their B Corp scores, Scrumbles 90.8 and Butternut Box rated at 82.6.

One of the main reasons for the difference lies in the Environment section, with Butternut Box receiving a score of 13.7 and Scrumbles 19.6. Whilst it is not specified why, a likely reason is due to Butternut Box's use of red meat in recipes and their cold storage requirements.

Both companies also support charities by providing food and financial donations to charities such as All Dogs Matter. Scrumbles additionally is a member of 1% for the Planet, giving back 1% of their sales each year to social and environmental causes.

What do customers say about Scrumbles?

Scrumbles has a product rating of 4.8/5 over the past year on Feefo. Reviews frequently reference customers seeing improvements in their pet's poops, skin, and coat.

For example Sandra was very happy with Scrumbles recipes, and the improvements to her pooch’s #2’s.

Whilst this customer couldn't believe the difference they saw to their sensitive cat, especially considering the value.

How to switch to Scrumbles

Now that you’re equipped with all the info you need to make a wise decision about what’s best for your floof, you may be considering making a change.

We always recommend transitioning onto a our gut-friendly recipes slowly to reduce the risk of upset tums. For puppies with extra sensitive bellies, this should be done over a minimum of two weeks, and for adult floofs at least 8 days. To transition, gradually increase the portion of Scrumbles to your old food. Starting off with 25% of Scrumbles and 75% of the old food, working your way up to 100% Scrumbles by the end of the period.

By following this process you should be able to introduce the new recipe seamlessly. However, even so, it is quite normal to see some changes in their stools or flatulence during this time. By the end of the transition they should be back to normal, or ideally even better!