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Searching for the perfect dog food can be a challenge. Sometimes you think you’ve got it, and a suddenly fussy dog turns his nose up at dinner, and you’re back to square one. I have one such fussy dog, and we had the pleasure of reviewing a range of Scrumbles food.

Scrumbles is available online and in some UK stores, and they sell a variety of cat and dog food. There are wet and dry options, and some treats and dental sticks. You can shop by pet, age, and dietary needs, which we’ll explore later. So, let’s take a closer look at Scrumbles and see if you think they might be right for your dog.

At a Glance: What We Reviewed

Scrumbles Dog Food Reviewed

You might have seen Scrumbles on supermarket shelves already and wondered, “Is it any good?” It can be overwhelming figuring out where to start when it comes to picking a new diet for your dog. We hope this review will give you some idea who Scrumbles are, what their food is like, and whether their recipes sound like something your dog would enjoy.

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Who Makes Scrumbles and Where is it Produced?

Scrumbles was founded by Jack Walker and Aneisha Soobroyen (and their dog and cat Smudge and Boo). You might have actually spotted them already on Dragon’s Den in 2019 but if not: this is their story. In the search for food to help with their cat Boo’s sensitive stomach, they decided to experiment with recipes after being faced with some disappointing options and costly vet visits. So, they spent a year studying feline and canine nutrition, and created some recipes with the help of some expert nutritionists.

Since then they’ve grown, more people have joined their team, and their food is available more widely through UK stores and online. They aim to offer a range of “delicious, gut-friendly, hypoallergenic” dog and cat food. Their food is always free from artificial colors, preservatives, and additives and promotes good gut health, which also means much healthier, less smelly poops. It also passes the Boo and Smudge taste test.

Scrumbles’ food is made in the UK. It supports local businesses by only using local suppliers unless it’s absolutely necessary to source ingredients elsewhere. This helps the local economy, but also cuts down on fuel consumption and air pollution, which is great for the environment.

Which Types of Dog Are Scrumbles Best Suited For?

Many pet food subscriptions offer the ability to tailor recipes to your specific dog. Scrumbles is a bit different. Instead, you search and shop for food depending on your dog’s needs. their life stage, with options of wet or dry food, treats, or dental sticks. The dietary options are varied and mean there’s going to be something to suit most needs:

There are more wet flavors than dry, with wet coming in chicken, salmon, turkey, duck, and white fish flavors. Dry comes in chicken and salmon for adults and seniors and chicken for puppies and toys. All of Scrumbles’ food is hypoallergenic which is explained on their website to mean their food is “less likely to cause an allergic reaction.”

Discussion of the Primary Ingredients (Good and bad)

The fact Scrumbles produces hypoallergenic food means they’ve designed it for easy digestion and, as a result, use a limited number of quality ingredients. In all, there are eight different dog food recipes. If we have one criticism it would be that there isn’t much variety in terms of flavors for dry food. Considering that the most common food allergen in dogs is protein, especially from chicken alongside dairy, chicken eggs, soy, and wheat gluten this does not leave you many options if your dog can’t eat the chicken flavor.

Scrumbles promise that there is no added salt or sugar and nothing artificial. Their recipes are natural, although they do add vitamins and minerals because they aren’t available naturally. This ensures the recipes are nutritionally balanced and are FEDIAF (which is the European Pet Food Industry Federation) compliant. So, let’s take a look at some of the ingredients.

Protein

Protein allows your dog’s body to function correctly. The essential amino acids that your dog gets from protein contribute to the health of their skin, fur, muscle development, and tissue repair, amongst other things. It’s also primarily used as an energy source, so the type, quality, and amount of each meal are crucial, not just for how yummy it makes a meal, but also for your dog’s health.

Scrumbles promises quality, human-grade ingredients, Irish and British meats from sustainable and free-run sources for their protein. For the dry food, they use fresh chicken from muscle meat, and for the wet recipes, they use a mix of frozen and fresh meat including offal and carcass meat.

Chicken

There is 60% chicken in the adult and senior dry food, 65% in the dry puppy and toy food, and 70% in the wet food. Chicken is a lean meat and is an excellent energy source without the big calorie count behind it. It’s full of amino acids and omega fatty acids which maintain healthy skin and coat.

Salmon

There is 50% salmon in the dry dog food and 70% in the wet dog food. Salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids which support your dog’s immune system and may also decrease inflammation and keep your dog’s coat healthy and shiny. If your dog is allergic to more common sources of protein like chicken, salmon is a very good alternative.

Turkey

There is 70% turkey in the wet dog food. Like chicken, turkey is a lean, white meat that is highly digestible. It promotes strong bones and helps your dog build muscle. It’s full of vitamin B1 (thiamine), which is good for the brain and it also offers another option for dogs with food sensitivities or allergies to common ingredients like chicken and beef.

Duck

There is 70% duck in the wet dog food. Duck is considered to be a lean, easy-to-digest protein that is rich in iron and also a brilliant source of amino acids, which promote strong muscles. Duck is another example of an alternative offered to dogs suffering from sensitivities or allergies.

White Fish

There is 70% white fish in the wet dog food. It is a brilliant source of lean protein and contains lots of omega-3 fatty acids which keep your dog’s coat healthy and also improve their immune system.

Grain Free Options

Grain free diets are currently under some scrutiny because the lack of grains may be more harmful than healthy. Not all of Scrumbles diets are grain free, but the option is there if you think your dog would benefit. Dogs with grain intolerances will benefit in a few important ways. There may be fewer upset tummies, farts, stinky poos, and itchy skin. As Scrumbles aims to aid your dog with better digestion and create ‘pickable poos’, it makes sense they would have a grain free range.

Food filled with grains can also lead to obesity. If your dog is eating food filled with more energy than they are burning, this can lead to weight gain. Of course, some dogs can digest grains, but a lot of thought has been put into all the different sensitive tummies out there on Scrumbles’ part.

Other Ingredients

Scrumbles packs their recipes with probiotics and they’ve managed to squeeze in 1 billion live bacteria that will aid your dog’s digestion and support their immune system. You’ll also notice something called “slippery elm” in the ingredients list which is a gentle herb that further supports digestive health. Fruit and veggies are also present and super important because they’re rich in nutrients but also pretty tasty.

Vegetarian and Vegan Treats

While Scrumbles doesn’t have a vegetarian and vegan food range, they do offer treats for that extra boost of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, and from their website, it looks like vegetarian food might be coming at some point. The debate about whether dogs are omnivores or carnivores is still ongoing. A vegetarian diet can make ensuring your dog is getting all the vital nutrients they need trickier. But as these treats only supplement your dog’s main meals, they are completely healthy.

A Quick Look at Scrumbles Dog Food

Reviews of the Scrumbles Dog Food We Tried

1. Chicken Dry Food — Our Favorite

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It looks like the Chicken Dry Food is not just our favorite, as it has the most reviews on Scrumbles’ website. These bags come in three different sizes: 15kg, 7.5kg, and 2kg. You might be used to seeing large, overwhelming ingredient lists when it comes to dry food, but the ingredients list on Scrumbles’ dry food packing is refreshingly small.

All their food starts with the most important ingredient, protein. But you already get your information about the total amount of protein on the very front of the packaging, which announces “60% Chicken.” This is made up of 30% freshly prepared chicken, 24% dehydrated chicken, 4% chicken fat, and 2% chicken liver. These are excellent, strong sources of protein for your dog.

Rice follows and it’s an excellent carbohydrate source for energy which is easy on your dog’s digestive system.

Oats are next which are high in protein and fat and also have a good balance of amino acids. Oats are a strong addition to a recipe as they’re filled with fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals which all play a role in improving and maintaining health. This recipe also contains alfalfa and linseed.

Alfalfa contains natural sources of vitamins and trace minerals like magnesium and calcium. Linseed is filled with fiber, healthy fats, and antioxidants to support the immune and digestive systems, and also keeps your dog’s skin and coat healthy!

Chicken, of course, might not work for every dog, as it’s a potential allergen. This is why we’d have liked to see more flavor options in the dry food. This wasn’t a problem for us, as our dog prefers chicken over any other flavor and he loved this food and even wanted more when his bowl was clean, and there’s no better doggy recommendation than that!

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2. Grain Free Chicken Wet Dog Food

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The Grain Free Chicken Wet Dog Food ingredients list is even smaller than the dry food list. Again, the percentage of chicken in this food is stated on the front of the packaging: “70% Chicken” and the back expands on it only to say that it is fresh chicken. This food is suitable for adults and puppies from three months onward. The wet food comes in a 395g tray and you can get them in bundles of 28 or seven.

The next ingredient is carrots, which are a brilliant source of vitamin A for healthy eyes as well as providing your dog with an excellent source of fiber and a number of minerals. Green beans are next and are packed with essential vitamins and minerals like iron, protein, calcium, and vitamins B6, A, C, and K. They’re also low in calories and full of fiber. And lastly, there is slippery elm, which Scrumbles calls their “all-time favorite ingredient.”

Scrumbles adds a feeding calculator on their website so you can work out how much of this food to give your dog. You type in their age, if they’re a large breed, how active they are, how much they weigh in kilograms, whether you are looking to reduce their weight, and if they like to eat wet, dry, or mixed food.

Our dog Freddy is small, so we measured his food out and put the tray back in the fridge. you have four days once the tray is open to then finish it. Freddy prefers his wet food mixed, so we didn’t quite manage to finish it which felt like a waste. We might have liked a smaller tray option, and this was the only negative we could find in our experience with the wet food!

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3. Softies: Chicken & Duck Dog Treats

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While it isn’t a meal, we wanted to add the treats in because we got them as part of our review and treats are always a tricky thing to get right when it comes to balancing them with our dog’s food. Scrumbles has a good selection of treats with three flavors in the “Softies” range which are training treats, a “Nibbles” treat which is a calming treat, and “Gnashers” which is a dental stick.

The first ingredient in the Softies: Chicken & Duck Dog Treats is dried chicken at 26%, which is a strong protein. There is also pumpkin in the ingredient list which is a superfood. It contains essential micronutrients and fiber and is also a natural stomach soother, so it’s clear why Scrumbles have added it. Pumpkin seeds are also loaded with potassium which supports healthy muscle function. Omega-3 and fatty acids in the chia seeds support a healthy coat and skin.

Scrumbles suggests giving 4–5 of these training treats a day, but to adjust meals accordingly to support a healthy diet. Freddy struggled with this balance as he really loved them. He even grabbed the packet when we made the mistake of unpacking near him and a fight ensued between him and his puppy.

Freddy is usually a simple chicken or beef type of dog, but he really enjoyed these. We’re hopeful that this might spark an interest in other flavors, even if they are just paired with chicken!

We couldn’t find anything negative about these treats, they were yummy and clearly healthy. Compared to some other treats on the market. They’re probably a little pricier, but you are paying for that quality assurance.

Our Experience With Scrumbles

The experience with Scrumbles was overwhelmingly positive. You don’t have to have an account to see the ingredients, nutritional or analytic information, or the prices of any of the food which means you can decide before you’ve even signed up for it. There are options to buy one item or to subscribe and make a saving of 15%, where you choose how frequently food will be sent out to you.

Scrumbles offers you quality food that you generally see in subscription-only services but offers you a convenience they can’t; if you run out of food for whatever reason you can pop to your local supermarket and pick up a bag (although remember to check which ones stock it because all of them don’t.) It’s also available on Amazon, so if you’re a Prime customer you have the assurance you can get it sent quickly.

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Any Smelly Poos?

Scrumbles make a big promise about less smelly poos in your life. If you live with a fussy dog, you’ll know how worrying it can be to find food that is healthy but he will also like. Freddy can sometimes take some time to get used to food but he took to Scrumbles straight away. His puppy, Sonny, even came over and stole some pieces before Freddy noticed.

I did exactly what Scrumbles had suggested and slowly introduced the new diet in, which I think Freddy was actually frustrated by because he made it clear he wanted more. The treats went down especially well, with both Freddy and Sonny, and it was a smooth transition. No big smelly farts, and no runny poos which can sometimes be a problem during transition time.

Anything Else You Should Know?

It might seem to be a negative that Scrumbles doesn’t offer personalization for your specific dog. There isn’t a very large selection of flavors, especially in the dry food option, which subscription services can get away with when they offer personalization. But what you’re looking for is something that your dog will love the taste of, is nutritious, and is healthy. Scrumbles food ticks all of those boxes, and there are flavor options if you are trying to avoid those pesky proteins that are known allergens.

We also don’t think this is all we’ll see from Scrumbles. But simply put, some dogs will need more personalization when it comes to their food because there might be specific ingredients they just cannot eat. For those dogs, you will need to look elsewhere.

Clearly, a lot of thought and research has gone into these recipes, so we’re eager to see what else Scrumbles comes up with because it’s important to remember, the Scrumbles story only started in 2018, and it is still quite new. Not only that, but Scrumbles have put some extra thought into their eco-friendly packaging, which I definitely appreciated.

When I saw the white, plastic tray from the wet food, I worried it might not be recyclable but it was. It turns out they chose white on purpose because black trays can’t be detected by recycling sorters, which is something I didn’t know. This small detail really shows how every small detail has been well thought out.

Conclusion

Even from a quick look at their website, it’s clear that a lot of thought, time, and love has gone into Scrumbles. While there isn’t the option of personalized meals, you still feel like you have more control over what you’re feeding your dog than with some other brands. Ingredient lists are short, so they aren’t overwhelming and you are assured that every ingredient is on there for a reason: to offer your dog a balanced, nutritious diet you can trust.

We would like to have seen more options in flavors, but what is there is tasty and smelled so good that Freddy and Sonny were squabbling over it before it was even out of the bag! Thankfully, Freddy was at least patient about the fact his small, mischievous puppy was trying to steal his food. It’s a big thumbs up from our house, that’s for sure.

• Related Read: Retriever Dog Food Review: Pros, Cons and Recalls