Recipe box for dogs launches to stop man’s best friend from farting
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There’s nothing worse than having a romantic evening in with a bottle of wine ruined by your dog surreptitiously letting one off.
But rather than sending Fido to the dog house, a new service hopes to help fraught owners who have to endure their pet’s chronic flatulence on a regular basis.
Hot on the heels of recipe box success stories like Hello Fresh, Mindful Chef and Gousto, a new food delivery service for dogs has launched to bring organic, healthy meals to British pups.
True to the recipe box format, Butternut Box packages healthy food that takes the fuss out of having to stock up on dog food at the supermarket yourself - delivering it direct to your door.
The idea was co-founded by Goldman Sachs alumni Kevin Glynn and David Nolan, who were inspired to start the company after Nolan’s dog struggled with a number of health issues, including chronic flatulence.
Believing his problems stemmed from a poor diet, Nolan began the painstaking task of cooking for his pet Staffie at home.
“Poor quality ingredients, cheap fillers and additives are causing dogs to experience real health and behavioural issues,” Nolan told The Memo.
“We didn’t have time to cook for ourselves really, so we were looking for a service that dropped off freshly cooked food for dogs. It didn’t exist, so Butternut Box was born.”
The company has just announced a £1 million Seed round of investment from early stage investor, Passion Capital, having sent out 250,000 boxes already.
Unlike other pet food service brands like Lily’s Kitchen and Tails.com, the brand say its algorithm can help to curb pet obesity.
Recipe boxes - in pictures
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The service works out how many Kcals each individual dog needs on a daily basis, based on their size and weight, and then portions this into daily servings.
Currently, Brits are spending more than £200 million in vet fees, so treating your dog up to the artisan meal service may eventually work out cheaper than keeping them fed on supermarket brands.
Costs per Butternut Box vary from dog to dog, with small dogs costing around £1.20 a day to feed and large dogs around £4.85.
But, as any pet owner will attest - a happy, healthy (and odour-free) dog is priceless.
