“been using these guys for approx 2 years now but the prices keep going up and recently the food has gone right downhill and its dangerous to use and my small dog was choking on a piece of bone with last nights meal. In fact the food looks to be mostly bone now with large sharp pieces in - sorry I will have to stop buying from you and find another supplier as my dogs deserve better than this - the dogs poop is now white and crumbly from too much added bone and one of them is severely constipated. this is the amount of sharp bones my small dog could have eaten in just one meal (approx 1/4 of a pack) thank god he didnt die when choking on some of this yesterday - disgraceful - had to bin a whole box of 14 packs of duck too as it smelt really bad and wasnt risking giving that to my dogs- AVOID at all costs if you want to keep your pets safe!!!”
“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”
“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”
“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!”
“I was with Durham Animal Feeds for 2 years and left because they kept running out of my choices. Returned 2 months ago and the delivery driver removed secured chains and opened the gate. Fortunately Casper was inside. He has no car sense and will run outside towards cars. Both Sally and Sophie the South West manager were unapologetic and said I should have a sign on the gate not to remove the chains. Really! They deliver dog food for heavens sake. Also the wild boar is completely full of bones and my dogs poo was full of bones. The driver swore at me. They are awful people with awful food.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“These people make pretty decent frozen minced meats for dogs, however
ONLY CHOOSE BONE FREE.
The size of the broken and splintered bone they add to their minced meat is way beyond anything a small to medium sized dog can digest safely.
Chicken is the worst - splinters of bone up to 2cm long and sharp as broken glass.
ONLY CHOOSE BONE FREE”
“Dangerous !!!! Beware, high nine content, sharp bones and too much that compacts and causes the need for surgery to remove !!! Dog currently having surgery to try to remove it all as he’s bleeding. They won’t be paying your vets bill or caring if your dogs harmed - avoid!!!!”
“Absolutely disgusting. Far too much bone. Stinks dog threw up after eating this niluck. Will never buy again. The customer service is appalling when I spoke to them they don’t care say it’s good and should buy premium.”
“No idea what is happening with their complete minces recently, last night I pulled an inch long sharp bone out the pork & tripe mince.
Last week I purchased 4 boxes & all have big bits of bone in them & definitely not 10% bone like it says it is.
I’m having to fish out all the big bits of bone it’s like the grinder hasn’t been working properly.
Very dangerous & disappointing wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.”
“Received a box of 100% meat mince, cut it open and a load of white spots, see pics,
Contacted them they say it’s Sinew, if it’s Sinew it’s not meat, is it?”
“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.”
“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!”
“I get 7 boxes of various minces every 6 or 7 weeks, I have not had any problems with Durham animal feeds. Delivery service is fantastic, I can't praise them high enough.”
“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.”
“I have been feeding my 5 dogs this food for nearly 3 years and have not had a problem…….until recently. Bone content I am sure is more than stated but also the size of the bones. Pieces have been as long as an inch and half inch wide, some pieces have been also been very sharp. my dogs have squealed a couple of times when toileting and have been very constipated. I now dilute with none bone meat. I emailed them and a very lovely man did call the next day and explained the way the meat was ground and what size blades were used which didn’t really mean much to me. So I saved and thoroughly washed some bone content and sent them to the County Durham office on 5th December 2023. As of yet I have not heard from them. I’m wondering whether to contact DEFRA. I know the DAF food is competitive price wise but it should still be right for our pets.”
