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Fresh dog food delivery · Australia 2026

Best fresh dog food in Australia (2026)

After scoring every brand in our index on the same 100-point methodology, Lyka is our pick for the best fresh dog food in Australia: the only gently cooked fresh delivery we cover, and the highest-scored brand we have reviewed at 87/100. If a frozen subscription does not fit your budget or your freezer, Scratch, Frontier Pets and Petzyo are the closest alternatives by format, each labelled honestly below.

Reviewed by the Dog Food Reviews editorial team

Independent scoringUpdated August 2026Not veterinary advice

The numbers

What a day of fresh feeding actually costs

Every brand here is priced at the same ~15kg adult benchmark, so a 1kg fresh pouch and an 8kg bag sit on one axis. Fresh delivery is expensive, but on this page it is not the most expensive way to feed a dog.

6
Brands ranked hereFresh and fresh adjacent
20
Products priced across themEntered and checked by hand
$2.32
Lowest estimated cost per dayPetzyo
$7.90
Highest estimated cost per dayZIWI Peak

Estimated cost per day

Cheapest, middle and dearest product, by brand

Each row spans the products we price for that brand, from the cheapest per day to the dearest, with the middle figure ruled. Real pricing is personalised by dog and changes often.

Middle
Lyka6 products priced$2.98
Scratch4 products priced$3.76
Frontier Pets2 products priced$6.50
Petzyo4 products priced$2.51
ZIWI Peak2 products priced$7.70
Prime1002 products priced$3.80
Estimated cost per day by brand, in Australian dollars, for a 15kg adult dog.
BrandCheapestMiddleDearest
Lyka$2.68$2.98$2.98
Scratch$3.19$3.76$4.39
Frontier Pets$6.40$6.50$6.60
Petzyo$2.32$2.51$3.16
ZIWI Peak$7.50$7.70$7.90
Prime100$3.20$3.80$4.40
Median of every product here: $3.18

Editorial estimates · ~15kg adult dog

The picks

Our picks for fresh dog food

One true fresh delivery wins the category. The other three picks are the closest alternatives by format, chosen through the same score lenses we use across the site, and each card says plainly what it is.

Our pick

Super-premium tier

Lyka logo

Lyka

Strong

87/100

The only gently cooked fresh food delivery in our index and the highest-scored brand we have reviewed. Recipes are human-grade, formulated with veterinary input, complete and balanced for all life stages, and portioned to your dog's age, weight and body condition before arriving frozen at your door.

Fresh, gently cooked · subscription only, delivered frozen · est. $2.68-$2.98/day (15kg)

Read the full reviewSee pricing at Lyka (opens in a new tab)

Also great

Premium tier

Scratch logo

Scratch

Strong

86/100

Not gently cooked fresh, and we will not pretend otherwise: Scratch is an Australian subscription kibble with a complete frozen raw line. It earns its spot on class-leading transparency, publishing the exact percentage of every ingredient, with most of the delivered-to-your-door convenience at a lower per-day spend.

Kibble + frozen raw · subscription only · est. $3.19-$4.39/day (15kg)

Read the full review

Also great

Super-premium tier

Frontier Pets

Strong

84/100

Air-dried raw made from free-range, regeneratively farmed Australian meat, with sourcing transparency that is about as good as it gets. It lives in the pantry rather than the freezer and rehydrates easily, which makes it the strongest choice when freezer space rules a frozen subscription out.

Air-dried raw · shelf-stable, direct + online retail · est. $6.40-$6.60/day (15kg)

Read the full review

Also great

Premium tier

Petzyo logo

Petzyo

Strong

83/100

A Melbourne-based subscription that mixes single-protein kibble with frozen raw BARF patties on one flexible plan. It is not gently cooked fresh, but the raw side brings some of the fresh-food appeal at a friendlier per-day cost, with strong label transparency across the range.

Kibble + raw BARF · subscription + Petstock · est. $2.32-$3.16/day (15kg)

Read the full review
Independence

Why you should trust us

Dog Food Reviews is published by PetReviews, an independent Australian review platform. Our editorial team scores every brand with the same published 100-point methodology: no pay-to-play, no sponsored rankings, and no brand currently pays us anything, through commissions or otherwise. Prices are editorial estimates we enter and check by hand. How we review · Editorial policy

20
Brands scored
39
Products priced
5
Brands we score under 60
0
Paid placements, ever

The range we actually publish

Every brand sits on the same 0 to 100 scale, and the middle mark is the median of the index rather than an average.

Median
Every food brand in the index20 brands scored69.5
Lowest, median and highest published score across the food index.
IndexLowestMedianHighest
Every food brand in the index4469.587

Our published 100-point methodology

Highest in the index: Lyka at 87/100 (strong).

Lowest in the index: Black & Gold at 44/100 (compare carefully).

Who this is for

Who fresh dog food is for

Fresh dog food, often called gently cooked, is made from lightly cooked, human-grade ingredients and kept chilled or frozen rather than extruded into shelf-stable pellets. In Australia it is sold almost entirely as a direct-to-consumer subscription: you answer a questionnaire about your dog, meals arrive frozen and pre-portioned, and the plan repeats on a cycle you control. It tends to suit dogs with sensitivities that do well on single-protein recipes, fussy eaters that walk away from dry food, and owners who want portions calculated for them rather than guessed.

It is not automatically the right choice for every dog or budget. Fresh food carries the highest per-day cost of any mainstream feeding style and needs real freezer space, and a quality complete and balanced kibble remains a legitimate everyday diet with different trade-offs. Think twice if you want the lowest possible feeding cost, if freezer space is already at a premium, or if you would rather grab food in store than manage a subscription. Still weighing the formats themselves? Our fresh vs kibble guide compares them side by side.

Raw chicken breast on a wooden board, sliced carrots, brown rice, broccoli and sweet potato arranged around a white bowl of dry kibble.
The pillars do not change with the format. The same ingredient, nutrition and transparency criteria are applied to a gently cooked bowl, an air-dried pouch and a bag of kibble.

Licensed stock photography

Method

How we picked

The same weighted 100-point model runs behind every review on this site. Here is how the points are split, and the five rules we applied to this category.

Read the full methodology

The published weighting

How the 100 points are split

Price and value and ingredient quality carry the most weight, because they are the two things an owner actually feels day to day. Availability and customer sentiment carry the least.

Price & Value
25 pts
Ingredient Quality
25 pts
Nutrition & Suitability
20 pts
Transparency
15 pts
Availability & Convenience
10 pts
Customer Sentiment
5 pts
Total
100 pts
01

Six pillars, one methodology

Every brand is scored out of 100 against the same weighted criteria as every review on this site: price & value (25 pts), ingredient quality (25 pts), nutrition & suitability (20 pts), transparency (15 pts), availability & convenience (10 pts), customer sentiment (5 pts). Nothing on this page is scored differently because it is fresh.

02

Fresh means fresh, labelled honestly

Only one brand in our index is gently cooked fresh delivery. Every other entry is named by its real format, subscription kibble, raw, air-dried or chilled rolls, so you always know what you are comparing.

03

Price-per-day maths at one benchmark

We price every brand at the same ~15kg adult benchmark using each brand's published pricing and feeding guides, so a 1kg fresh pouch and an 8kg bag can be compared on one line. Fresh gets no free pass on value.

04

Editorial estimates, flagged as such

All per-day figures are editorial estimates our team enters and checks by hand. Real pricing is personalised by dog and changes often, so confirm current pricing with each brand before you commit.

05

No commercial reordering

Rankings follow our published scores; nothing is moved for commercial reasons. We currently earn nothing from links on this page; if we join an affiliate program in future, affected pages will disclose it and commissions will never change a score or a position.

Ranked by score

The best fresh and fresh-adjacent dog food, ranked

Straight talk before the list: only one entry here is gently cooked fresh food delivered to your door, and that is Lyka. The other five are the closest alternatives by format, ranked by the same published scores as the rest of the site, with the format named on every card.

The ranking, drawn

Overall score, out of 100

Nine points separate the top and bottom of this line-up, so the shape matters as much as the order. Every score comes from the same weighted model set out above.

Lykaest. $2.68-$2.98/day87/100
Scratchest. $3.19-$4.39/day86/100
Frontier Petsest. $6.40-$6.60/day84/100
Petzyoest. $2.32-$3.16/day83/100
ZIWI Peakest. $7.50-$7.90/day81/100
Prime100est. $3.20-$4.40/day78/100
Overall score out of 100 and estimated cost per day, by brand, in ranked order.
BrandOverall scoreDetail
Lyka87/100est. $2.68-$2.98/day
Scratch86/100est. $3.19-$4.39/day
Frontier Pets84/100est. $6.40-$6.60/day
Petzyo83/100est. $2.32-$3.16/day
ZIWI Peak81/100est. $7.50-$7.90/day
Prime10078/100est. $3.20-$4.40/day

Our published scores

0187 out of 100
Lyka logo
A dark green bowl of Lyka fresh dog food photographed from directly above on a plain white background.
LykaTrue fresh delivery

Fresh, gently cooked · Super-premium · est. $2.68-$2.98/day at 15kg

The only true gently cooked fresh food delivery in this line-up, and the highest-scored brand in our entire index. Recipes are human-grade, formulated with veterinary input, complete and balanced for all life stages, and portioned to your dog from an onboarding questionnaire before arriving frozen at your door.

Pillar scores, each out of 100

Overall 87/100

Value66
Ingredients90
Nutrition88
Transparency91
Availability62
Sentiment86

Pros

  • Human-grade, gently-cooked fresh food with full ingredient and nutrient transparency on every recipe
  • Vet-formulated and complete and balanced to AAFCO all-life-stages across the range
  • Portions are calculated to each dog's age, weight and body condition during onboarding

Watch-outs

  • Premium price point, typically the most expensive way to feed a dog day to day
  • Subscription-only and direct-to-consumer, so not available to grab in shops
  • Frozen delivery needs dedicated freezer space and some defrost planning
Read our Lyka review
0286 out of 100
Scratch logo
Three Scratch dog food pouches in pink, teal and green standing on a plain white background.
ScratchFresh alternative, not gently cooked

Subscription kibble + frozen raw · Premium · est. $3.19-$4.39/day at 15kg

Straight up: Scratch is not gently cooked fresh food. It is an Australian subscription kibble with a complete frozen raw line, and it sits this high because its transparency is class-leading. Scratch publishes the exact percentage of every ingredient, and the delivered-to-your-door model gives you most of the fresh-subscription convenience at a lower per-day spend.

Pillar scores, each out of 100

Overall 86/100

Value72
Ingredients84
Nutrition85
Transparency95
Availability62
Sentiment90

Pros

  • Class-leading transparency: publishes the exact percentage of every ingredient
  • Made in Australia with the large majority of ingredients sourced from local farms
  • High-protein recipes (mostly 28-30%+) with options for sensitivities and single proteins

Watch-outs

  • Higher price per kilo than mainstream supermarket and big-box brands
  • Subscription and direct delivery only, so you cannot grab a bag in-store
  • Compact range with no dedicated wet food line
Read our Scratch review
0384 out of 100
Frontier Pets product photography on a plain white background.
Frontier PetsFresh alternative, shelf-stable

Air-dried raw · Super-premium · est. $6.40-$6.60/day at 15kg

Air-dried raw made from free-range, regeneratively farmed Australian meat, with sourcing transparency that is about as good as it gets. It is not chilled fresh food: it lives in the pantry, needs no freezer and rehydrates easily, which makes it the strongest option when freezer space rules a frozen subscription out.

Pillar scores, each out of 100

Overall 84/100

Value62
Ingredients95
Nutrition88
Transparency95
Availability58
Sentiment88

Pros

  • Free-range, regeneratively farmed meat with named sourcing
  • Complete air-dried raw diet that is shelf-stable, no freezer needed
  • Outstanding transparency on ingredients and ethics

Watch-outs

  • Genuinely expensive per kg once rehydrated
  • Mostly direct-to-consumer, so patchy on retail shelves
  • The ethical story can make it easy to overlook the price
Read our Frontier Pets review
0483 out of 100
Petzyo logo
Petzyo product photography on a plain white background.
PetzyoFresh alternative, dry + frozen raw

Kibble + raw BARF subscription · Premium · est. $2.32-$3.16/day at 15kg

A Melbourne-based subscription that lets you mix single-protein kibble with frozen raw BARF patties on one flexible plan. It is not gently cooked fresh, but the raw side brings some of the fresh-food appeal at a friendlier per-day cost, with strong label transparency across the range.

Pillar scores, each out of 100

Overall 83/100

Value70
Ingredients85
Nutrition84
Transparency88
Availability66
Sentiment89

Pros

  • 100% Australian made and owned, with ethically sourced local ingredients
  • Single-protein recipes that suit dogs with sensitivities or food intolerances
  • Full ingredient lists and guaranteed analysis published openly for every recipe

Watch-outs

  • Premium pricing, especially compared with supermarket and value brands
  • Mainly sold direct or via Petstock, so harder to grab off the shelf at major chains
  • Frozen raw patties need freezer space and a little prep planning
Read our Petzyo review
0581 out of 100
ZIWI Peak logo
ZIWI Peak product photography on a plain white background.
ZIWI PeakFresh alternative, air-dried

Air-dried · Super-premium · est. $7.50-$7.90/day at 15kg

Gently air-dried New Zealand recipes with very high named-meat inclusion and genuinely minimal processing. There is no subscription here: you buy it through pet retailers, and the per-day cost is the steepest on this page, so it suits smaller dogs and owners who put the ingredient panel first.

Pillar scores, each out of 100

Overall 81/100

Value64
Ingredients88
Nutrition83
Transparency85
Availability72
Sentiment81

Pros

  • Very high named-meat inclusion
  • Excellent ingredient transparency
  • Air-dried, minimally processed

Watch-outs

  • Among the highest price per kg and per serve in the index
  • Value lags well behind ingredient quality
  • Small bag sizes inflate the real cost of feeding
Read our ZIWI Peak review
0678 out of 100
Prime100 logo
Prime100 product photography on a plain white background.
Prime100Fresh adjacent, chilled rolls

Single-protein rolls, air-dried + dry · Premium · est. $3.20-$4.40/day at 15kg

An Australian single-protein specialist whose chilled fresh rolls are the closest thing to fresh food you can pick up in a pet store fridge, alongside air-dried and dry formats. Built for elimination feeding and sensitive dogs; price the rolls per serve before you commit, because value varies a lot between formats.

Pillar scores, each out of 100

Overall 78/100

Value72
Ingredients83
Nutrition79
Transparency81
Availability73
Sentiment79

Pros

  • Single named protein options
  • Great for sensitive stomachs and elimination diets
  • Australian made

Watch-outs

  • Rolls are expensive per kg for a simple single-protein recipe
  • Format sprawl makes value hard to compare like-for-like
  • You pay a premium for the limited-ingredient positioning
Read our Prime100 review

Side by side

Fresh delivery and its alternatives, compared

Checked

Prices entered by hand

#1
Brand
Lyka
Format
Fresh, gently cooked
Price tier
Super-premium
Est. cost/day*
$2.68-$2.98
How you buy
DTC subscription, delivered frozen
Score
87 out of 100
Review
Read review
#2
Brand
Scratch
Format
Subscription kibble + frozen raw
Price tier
Premium
Est. cost/day*
$3.19-$4.39
How you buy
DTC subscription
Score
86 out of 100
Review
Read review
#3
Brand
Frontier Pets
Format
Air-dried raw
Price tier
Super-premium
Est. cost/day*
$6.40-$6.60
How you buy
DTC + online retail
Score
84 out of 100
Review
Read review
#4
Brand
Petzyo
Format
Kibble + raw BARF subscription
Price tier
Premium
Est. cost/day*
$2.32-$3.16
How you buy
DTC subscription + Petstock
Score
83 out of 100
Review
Read review
#5
Brand
ZIWI Peak
Format
Air-dried
Price tier
Super-premium
Est. cost/day*
$7.50-$7.90
How you buy
Retail, in store + online
Score
81 out of 100
Review
Read review
#6
Brand
Prime100
Format
Single-protein rolls, air-dried + dry
Price tier
Premium
Est. cost/day*
$3.20-$4.40
How you buy
Retail, in store + online
Score
78 out of 100
Review
Read review

The delivery model

How fresh dog food delivery works in Australia

Fresh feeding is a routine as much as a product. Here is the cycle you are signing up for, based on the published models of the subscription brands in this guide.

01

Tell them about your dog

An onboarding questionnaire covers age, weight, body condition and sensitivities. Portions are then calculated per dog, which is one of the biggest practical differences from scooping kibble.

02

Meals arrive frozen

Boxes ship frozen in insulated packaging on a repeating cycle set by your plan size. Larger dogs mean bigger, more frequent boxes.

03

Freezer in, fridge to thaw

The box lives in the freezer; the next day or two of meals thaw in the fridge. Plan dedicated freezer space before you subscribe, not after.

04

Adjust as you go

Plans can be paused, skipped or resized. Because fresh delivery is subscription-only with no in-store top-up, keep a small buffer so you never run out mid-week.

Details vary by brand and plan. Scratch and Petzyo run subscription delivery too, with kibble shipped ambient and only the raw lines frozen; Frontier Pets and ZIWI Peak are shelf-stable, and Prime100 rolls sit in the pet store fridge.

The competition

Ranked, but not picked

Two more fresh-adjacent contenders sit in the ranking above without making the picks. Both are covered in full reviews; here is the one honest line on why each stayed off the podium.

ZIWI Peak

Air-dried, Wet · Super-premium tier

81 out of 100

Excellent named-meat, air-dried recipes with genuinely minimal processing, but it carries among the highest per-serve costs in our index and the small bags inflate the real cost of feeding anything bigger than a small dog.

Prime100

Air-dried, Fresh, Dry · Premium tier

78 out of 100

The chilled single-protein rolls are the closest thing to fresh food in a pet store fridge and a capable option for elimination feeding, but the rolls work out expensive per kilo for a deliberately simple recipe and the spread of formats makes value hard to compare like for like.

2 brands

Scores out of 100

“Only one brand in our index is gently cooked fresh delivery. Every other entry is named by its real format, so you always know what you are comparing.”

Dog Food Reviews

From how we picked, above

Fresh dog food FAQs

6 questions

Not universally. Fresh food scores higher in our index on ingredient quality, processing and transparency, and many owners of fussy or sensitive dogs prefer it. A complete and balanced kibble remains a legitimate everyday choice with different trade-offs: it costs less per day, keeps longer and is easier to buy. Our fresh vs kibble guide walks through the comparison in detail. Not veterinary advice.

Want the full format breakdown, including where kibble genuinely wins? Read our fresh vs kibble guide.

General information only. This guide is an independent editorial comparison, not veterinary advice. All prices are editorial estimates at a ~15kg adult benchmark and change often, so confirm current pricing with each brand before buying. Speak to your vet before changing your dog's diet, especially for puppies, seniors or dogs with health conditions.

Keep reading3

Lyka deep dives2

Ranked alternatives3