“If I could give any less than 1 star, I would.
We’re now 2 weeks into a very long, very uncomfortable, exceptionally worrying and expensive ordeal for my poor pup.
Having been fed DAF and only DAF since being weaned to the age of just over 3, I’d noticed the quality slipping. Shot found in venison, the duck so mushy and watery that even the supplier I buy it from has returned boxes to DAF following numerous customer complaints and removing substantial bone while prepping her food.
2 weeks ago today on a morning walk, she was struggling going to the toilet. She’s a very stoic girl and for the third time in her whole life, I actually heard her yelp - this time while passing a hard, chalky single bit of stool.
On return home she paced the garden endlessly for 40 minutes, straining and looking very uncomfortable, she then vomited, yellow vomit with notable hard bits of something in it. She is never out of my sight and does not get into anything she shouldn’t.
I took her for an emergency vet appointment. The initial diagnosis was constipation and she was sent home with anti nausea and pain meds. 48 hours later and she was showing no improvement. She hadn’t passed a stool in the previous 24 hours and was visibly unsettled.
I returned to the vet for another emergency appointment and asked for a scan to be performed as I just knew something wasn’t right. I received a call a few hours later telling me that her entire colon (the whole length of it) was blocked with bone!
Multiple enemas, 5 days being kept in the vets, repeated scans/x-rays to check for progress, liquid laxatives, various pain meds and having to be taken out every hour along with a feeding line in place due to her refusing food, she was discharged home to continue her recovery here, allowing her to have more rest and her familiar surroundings to try and encourage her appetite.
She is still passing shards of bone, I am home cooking for her and using appetite stimulants when she’s reluctant to eat at all for me.
Sleep is non existent and has been for over a week due to her needing to go out so often and then making sure she’s cleaned up and bone fragments removed from her rear end as she continues to pass them.
Thankfully she’s insured as the vet bill is in the region of £3500, but this is more than money, this is a dog who is usually full of beans, has a healthy appetite and predictable bowel movements. She’s lost 4kg in weight and looks so sad, all because of food that has massively slipped in quality (that doesn’t need testing, I can actually see the difference in the food).
I’ve kept one pack of each of the 4 proteins she was having, to potentially have these independently tested for bone quantity.
No pup should ever have to experience all that my little girl has been through (and continues to go through) these last 2 weeks.
Needless to say the remainder of our supply has been binned (along with my daughter’s dog also having been fed Durhams, but that was switched the day we received the news that my girl had a complete bone blockage). I will never again feed this food to any dog and am sharing our experience on any and all groups, along with just word of mouth to family/friends to try and prevent anyone going through a similar situation.
I am just glad I trusted my gut, I didn’t accept constipation as an answer and pushed for the scans that may well have made all the difference to her still being with me.”
“This raw dog food company is superb. I have nothing but praise for them.
Firstly, food constituents are in keeping with the raw ratios of meat & bone & fruit that is recommended for dogs. The choice of offal and oily fish is there too!
Secondly, my dogs love love love it & I have 3 babies who can be fussy. Devoured !
Thirdly, the cost is so much better than others. Not dirt cheap ( which does equate to high fat and fillers added, I know I’ve been doing this for years). & not ridiculously expensive. Goldilock zone price👍
Fourthly, delivery 🥳🥳🥳🥳
Well packed, no excessive packaging that makes me feel guilty. Recyclable box packing & stuffing👍
Plastic around food is not recycled in my area, but compared to other packaging a fair compromise.
Deliveries reliable and if a delay they update you promptly.
I am a fan of your company
Can u tell?
Bex”
“This should be ZERO STARS. Poor quality product with huge lumps of bone and excessive bone content. Customer service just as poor as the food quality - then the outrageous lie that no one else has complained about the same thing!”
“I’m absolutely devastated by my experience with Durham Animal Feeds (DAF). After feeding their raw dog food to both of my dogs, they became severely constipated and in pain. One of them had to undergo an anaesthetic procedure to remove excessive bone buildup—costing me over £1,200.
The food was labeled as containing 10% bone, but this was completely inaccurate. The actual bone content was vastly higher, and had I known, I would never have fed it to my dogs. This mislabeling put their health at serious risk.
I contacted DAF with a vet report, expecting at least a response, but they have completely ignored me. No apology, no explanation—just silence. It’s shocking that a company supplying pet food would show such a total lack of care for their customers and, more importantly, the health of their animals.
I strongly urge other pet owners to think twice before buying from them. The risk simply isn’t worth it.”
“My dog loves their venison chunks but from now on I am finding another brand. We have occassionally found it boney when it is not meant to contain bone but last week my dog suddenly dropped something metal from his food and it was a BULLET! It wasn't even complete it looks like it went through the cutting machines as it is very sharp. Complained to my local pet shop who were disgusted, they pulled the food from from the shop and put a complaint in. I also complained to Durham but they will not reply to my emails so i have now reported it to the FSA. He is eating through what we have but we check everything but the quality is appauling the last bag had a chunk of hair in it. AVOID at all costs because their food could cause you pet damage.”
“If I could score 0 I would.
Look at the pictures and you can see for yourself.
This is a £70 fish order containing 16x 1kg bags of sardines, which i have ordered before. What i received was visably not sardines nor was they fit for consumption. all bags were in the was condition.
Company fobbed me off and said the fish was fine and actually human grade.
Please see the pictures of the quality products they sell along with the first class customer service email response.
They are disgusting and in my opinion harmful to my boys health and that of the rest of the canine community.
I Will never use nor recomend them to anyone EVER.”
“Would leave a zero star review if I could. Absolutely atrocious food, I have spent 20 minutes picking huge shards of sharp bone out of my dogs food and 6 molar teeth, I thought it was a faulty batch so tried another flavour to find 4 teeth still attached to the gum and more sharp shards of bone, Absolutely disgusting and appauling quality. My Dog was pooping blood. We have since changed to another brand which is a similar price and has been Absolutely fantastic. Don't buy this food unless you want to end up in the vets!!”
“Stay away from this company twelve months ago my dog ended up with a blockage in his bowel and ended up in the vet hospital .The vet found during xray and ultrasound scan he had boney material all along his intestines he was quite poorly . I thought it was because he was a fairly small dog that he was not chewing the small bones . I changed him to tin dog food anyway wasn’t taking that chance again .
Today I am writing this as my other dog who is a large breed ended up very poorly in the vets with intestine obstruction and had been yet again in the vet hospital and had scans and the exact same boney material all in his intestines that has caused the blockage .So it was not my small dog not eating the bones but they actually have loads of bones in this food which they shouldnt and it should be bonemeal . My dog was really poorly and had to have an anaesthetic to clear the blockage this firm could have killed my dog .
I am going to report this firm to the foods standards agency they are cutting corners and adding bone instead of bonemeal and some of the food smells awful .
Do not use this company because your best friend could potentially die I have all the evidence and going to take them to court as they need to stop producing raw food and have their licence revoked and fined”
“A company you CAN'T TRUST.
Bone content is so high in some batches it feels like wet sand and cement. If my dog had eaten that he would have no doubt been in need of urgent vets assistance. Like others, I too have found 1" (knife sharp) bone shards, split tubular bone, thin long bones in high quantity in every single pack to date which is just not acceptable, its simply not safe!. You dont expect to have to dig through every single pack of raw meat checking for dangers. If it states its 80/10/10, then thats what it should be, Durham does NOT sell what it says they are selling on the label. Minces are NOT consistant from week to week. Sometimes you'll get meat so sloppy and wet its just slime, other times it is SO full of ground bone its inedible for the dog.
They also sent me a FULL 24 box of duck that was completely rotten on defrosting. The meat was grey and stank so badly I had to throw the entire box out.
Dogs are not human, no... but we love and cherish them just as much as our own children and we want to give them the best food we can afford to look after them so they are healthy and happy. They look to us to feed them and keep them safe. If this so called pet friendly company thinks this is what is safe and suitable to feed our animals then they need shutting down as thier standards are NOT what they should be.
This companys products are dangerous and could cause some very serious problems, especially to smaller breeds.
Not one of my reviews has been shown on thier website either, funny how there are so few reviews on thier own website when the company has been around for so long too.
Just avoid this company at all costs if you care about your animals.”
“I've tried many different suppliers over the years & always found DAF to be the poorest quality but cheapest price. It's the only brand I've ever found pieces of plastic in. Recently the quality has deteriorated further - some so called mince is like sludge. It smells like very old meat to the point my dogs often turn their noses up. My guess is they scrape up the slop from the slaughterhouse floor.”
“I was pleased that our pet food shop had changed to a company that has a good variety until I started to notice the very high bone content and the bones were not crushed down to an acceptable size. One was the size of a 2p piece. I am disappointed with Durham foods, their standards have gone down which will not help them as a business.”
“Our bully loves every flavour of this food, staff are very friendly and helpful.
Delivery driver Andy was friendly and helpful.
Overall great company”
“Thier raw food minces are NOT the stated ratio, nor are thier batches consistant.
I've had batches where its like putting your hand into a bag of crushed glass theres so much bone crushed up in there! A more honest ratio on this food is 605bone 405 meat... and thats in a good batch.
I've also had batches of duck mince that once thawed are ROTTEN and STINK to high heaven. I've taken comparison pictures of the food and batch numbers as am planning on reporting this company. More people need to do the same or this kind of thing is going to contine. Send your reports to "the Food Standards Agency (FSA)"
Be VERY careful if feeding your dog Durham minces as the sheer size and ammount of bone in it is dangerous.
There should be more regulations in this country regarding dog food.
So many bad reviews on this company all over the internet (DURHAM ANIMALFEEDS) where pets that are being fed thier raw food have ended up at the vets with gastro problems or blockages etc. I was sceptical about the bad reviews until I started actually putting my hands in the mince. Its shocking they are even allowed to sell raw food like this.”
“Started using DAF pet foods stupidly from a recommendation from the raw food store I used. Found large pieces of blue plastic that was sharp and curved in the product. Also this is NOT 10% bone. The bone content is very high and has made my dog ill. I’ve raised this to the store and DAF. The store said the plastic issue happens from time to time as it’s from what the slaughtered animals have eaten….why? They should be cared for too not eating plastic. Seems like a totally rubbish excuse to me. They also said DAF is boney….but it shouldn’t be it’s quoted as being 80/10/10! In regards to my dog being ill this was dismissed. DAF themselves have not responded to me. Since looking DAF foods up I’m horrified to see how many people’s poor pets have suffered as a result of DAF’s raw food with many animals requiring emergency surgery. Please avoid and buy a reputable food for your beloved pets that won’t harm them as this product clearly does….not that DAF or their endorsed sellers seem to care.”
