“Been ordering from DAF for 6 months or so. Thought we'd try a different raw food as our former one was getting very expensive with two large dogs. The first couple of deliveries seemed ok, but on the third delivery the dogs refused to eat all of the lamb mince, and the beef and chicken, this was strange as they are such healthy eaters. We had to dispose of several boxes of food.
Our last delivery consisted of several boxes of duck mince. This is a completely different colour to the duck mince we've received before, and on defrosting, is a watery slurry. The dogs loved it before but not now, there's no consistency in the products.
Decided its not worth risking our dogs health to save a few pence.”
“Only just started ordering from this company, but won’t be again. The food is full of large bones. I have French Bulldogs and when they were emailed by my supplier regarding this there was a very curt reply about their food not being suitable for flat faced dogs or fast feeders, however there is no warning on the packs regarding this. I found this amount of bones in one 454g pack. Please be careful if you feed this as this amount of bone could cause serious damage to a dog!!”
“I also had an appalling experience with DAF. They delivered the wrong product. When I called I was told that they’d collect it and destroy it, and I’d have to wait five days to get the correct item delivered. I asked if I could just use what they’d sent me incorrectly as they’d have to destroy it (they initially didn’t say they’d destroy it which worried me they might not - and as it is frozen that is very concerning). After a lot of wrangling they finally said I could hold onto enough for five days, but then this amount would be deducted from the correct order. When I finally got the correct order, they had actually reduced the number by even more than they should and many boxes were broken. I ended up writing to the managing director as I was so flabbergasted by their customer service approach. DAF made the delivery mistake but seemed to feel they were doing me a favour in correcting it. A company with good customer service would have told you to keep the incorrectly delivered item and then honoured the correct delivery. Many would also have given you a small discount on your next order because of the inconvenience.”
“Raw food dog owner for many years & owned working dogs for 40yr.
Used DAF for a few year. In-store & delivery.
Recommended them to quite a few people.
Had a wee problem with my last chicken & lamb batch with the dogs vomitting all over. Stinking the house somewhat terrible & ruining a newly laid carpet in living room due to the smell & stains.
Even though it did not smell right after opening the packet I never blamed DAF & put it down to something they may have picked up. Next day I fed them chicken & they were their normal selves.
Day after the lamb & chicken mince,which brought the exact problems again as 2 day prior. House stinking........carpets ruined & dogs not good. Very close to taking them to the vets,which has to be a very serious & clear problem to me.
Chicken next day & all good.
So.........twice they were fed chicken & lamb mince & both times their was a problem. The only time there has been a problem !!
Rang & mentioned it.
I was told they would pick the remaining up the monday after & examine the food to see if there was a problem. Stopped in & nothing.
Rang day after & was told they would be here the new monday after & would take the remaining away & replace. I asked for them to replace it with chicken & no lamb content. Lady said she was placing the order while we were on the phone. Great,I thought I am getting somewhere.
Stayed in all day Monday & nothing !!!!
Tuesday they turn up around 6-30pm & I give him the remainder. I ask him for the children chicken to replace & he tells me he has nothing for me hehehehehe.
I am not going to waste my time ringing again & nor will I buy from them again. My £60-80+ a month spent can go in someone else's pocket. Someone who appreciates good custom & looking after their buyers. But most importantly,someone who does not put your dogs at risk.
Unfortunately I don't live close & I don't drive,or else I would have personally visited.
Don't be fooled like me into thinking you are a value'd customer & don't be fooled by their advertising & lovely pictures of dogs, customer service etc etc. One day,you too could have a similar problem & it may well lead to a fatality. I sure hope not..........
Name left at bottom so DAF know who is writing this :-)”
“I’ve been feeding my cat Durham foods for a number of years and I have noticed a decline in quality to the point that my cat will no longer eat their products any more (he still eats other brands of raw food). The meat appears grey most of the time and goes bad very quickly.”
“I have been using this brand for 6 months now and I will never ever buy durham animal feed mince again.
I have found all sort of things inside their minces... I can understand that sometimes can happen to miss a little piece of something but it happened way too often and today I found a big piece of black stone inside... they don't care about your animals. AVOID!!! Very disappointed.”
“i have fed my cats on this for around 6 months first they were slighty ill but put this down to change of diet and continued to use. They were on and off it some liked it others didnt eventually i settled with the chicken, however recently they all became violently ill and i even lost a couple of kittens (i'm a breeder) Coccidia was the suspect cause from my vets and treatment for this was given which worked! will not ever use again.”
“Will not buy again. The huge bits of bone I have to pull out of every protein is worrying. Sharp bits that most certainly shouldn’t be consumed in their entirety and cause constipation. Very poor.”
“Avoid this company like the plague. Their ordering system probably consists of someone reading the order confirmation from the screen, writing it down and losing it on the way to the warehouse.
We have had numerous issues with ordering not going through their website but the last one was the egregious. We placed and order and paid for it (the money was debited from my account). As per the website, we were expecting delivery on January 6th. Nothing. Sent an email to Karla on the 7th inquiring its whereabouts. Nothing. Phoned on 8th January, were told that the order had not been put through and we would not receive delivery until next week.
Pretty ridiculous knowing that the reason people buy their product is due to the benefits of the raw diet. Now my dog is without food and will no doubt have ill-health effects until I can find an alternative. Luckily there are enough out there and hopefully not as incompetent as these circus folk.”
“Won't use them ever again, made my dog ill and gave them benefit of the doubt thinking it was a bad batch then tried again with my other dog both ended up ill and required vet treatment.”
“Firstly, I was sent a batch of food that had so much bone in the mix it made my dog severely constipated, after speaking to customer service (who might I add are quite rude and blunt) we were told that the mix may be too much for our dog and we may need to try to cut it with another meat mix without bone. Listening to her advice we did so, although this time it was delivered with nowhere near as much bone in the mix. Leads me to think the first batch was faulty.
Secondly, the company have a cut off point to order the food by to get the order for a certain date. I have no problem with this. Although when I received no order confirmation and called them to ask why my order hadn't gone through, I was told that I had no Items in the basket on my account and there was NO WAY they could fit any more food on the van, unless the food was in the basket in my account. Makes no sense!
RUDE customer service and BAD quality food. DO NOT USE!”
“We stated to feed our puppy on Durham raw food and everything was fine. We ordered more food (freezer full) and continued to feed her Durham food unfortunately she became very poorly with a urine infection (we have since been told this can be due to having too much bone in the food) she also started vomiting after every meal. One night she was poorly over her bedding,after washing her bedding my washing machine was full of bone. Large and small pieces and some extremely sharp. This can be so dangerous and cause many problems. I have emailed the company, sending photos of the bone. They have given me no explanation why the food contains so much rubbish but we know it’s a cheap way of doing things, at the expense of our dogs health. All they said was they have sent my email to the office in my area, this was about 2 weeks ago and I have heard nothing. I have since thrown all the food away to make room for the raw good from my local butcher which smells and looks beautiful and is clearly enjoyed by our puppy. Will definitely be telling friends and family to give Durham foods a wide birth”
“If you can afford different food, choose that instead.
I bought 30+ of their raw mince packets, plus other treats e.g. lamb necks and ribs. This (sadly) was a major false economy.
The mince smelled horrendous from the very beginning. It would make me gag to open it, and the dog wanted nothing to do with it so we had to trick him into eating it.
DAF did not offer a refund, but they did offer a replacement. However, given that the food had made the dog ill (diarrhea), we decided just to cut our losses and avoid this company in future. Have gone to a slightly more expensive raw food competitor and everyone is much happier. Total waste of £40-50.”
“I think its the cheapest of the cheap raw dog food out there, if you are not bothered about quality then this is the company to go for in my opinion. The pork and the chicken had a real bad smell to it.”
“spoke to sarah today who is apparently a manager and she was absolutely disgraceful. accused me of saying something and when i tried to correct her she told me to stop talking down to her. i just couldn't carry on the call with her so asked to speak to someone else. we then established that my delivery instructions had not been passed on to the driver resulting in me not being able to locate the food and my dog going hungry. i have been buying from this place for over two years and not only has the quality of the meat deteriorated over this time but the way i was spoken to was unforgivable. i will be looking for another supplier and advising my friends to do the same. if daf need to locate me my last invoice number is inv38446 sales number so0039105”
“Awful food, large amount of very large and extremely sharp pieces of bone, lots of skin too. Meat often smells bad when defrosted and my dogs refuse to eat it. Recently the minced rabbit was nothing but slop, all 6 of my dogs ate it but were then violently ill.
I won’t be using DAF again”
“Lots of their food either smells off or has a strange smell, plus the colour isn’t fresh looking. The meats have a lot of skin in them so are higher fat than many. The rabbit is a strange colour land smells odd - I suspect something else is being added in to pack it out. I would rather pay more for better quality meat. Won’t be using this range again and it’s their best range.
My dog has vomited after eating some of their meats but been fine with the same protein from other suppliers. Avoid!”
“I recently purchased £38.50 worth of raw meat from DAF which came frozen, so I placed into my freezer immediately. I purchased pork mince, beef mince and chicken feet. Upon defrosting the beef, it was very poor quality and had an off smell. My dog wasn’t keen on eating this meat, so I attempted trying other packets which resulted in them mostly being thrown away. My dog LOVES beef so this was very strange. I then defrosted the pork and it had an awful smell to it, so I tried a few and they all got thrown away. Lastly the chicken feet, they had urine burns all over them, so I find it hard to believe they are free range, they smelled awful even when frozen not like chicken feet I have bought from other companies in the past.
I contacted DAF who picked up all the meat a week later (which left me in a pickle as I cannot source raw meat straight away in my location) I then chased them up and they informed me the pork didn’t seem okay, but the rest of the meat was fine and they gave some to their own dogs (poor dogs). All the meat was clearly off so for them to tell me it was okay was not acceptable. I had multiple friends/family confirm this meat was not suitable for consumption. The outcome is I received £22.90 as a voucher which didn’t include delivery, so If I choose to use up my voucher I have an additional £9.99 to pay!
To add the small amount my dog ate, she became quite ill, vomiting and diarrhoea which is very unlike her.
Will never buy from this company again, poor service and awful meat!”
