Frequently Asked Questions
WHY SHOULD I FEED RAW?
Dogs and Cats at the core of their diets are carnivores. Feeding raw muscle meats, organs, and bones offer proteins, fats and enzymes that are more biologically available for your pet to utilize. Leaving these nutrients in their natural and unaltered state is what makes feeding raw beneficial.
Feeding closer to your companion’s natural diet will release abounding health benefits noticeable in the coat and skin, oral health, and general well-being of your pet.
Why Blue Ridge Beef
Our commitment to quality, service, and safety has shaped our company’s proud history in providing consumers with premium raw pet food.
Since 1979 our family has used only the highest quality, USA sourced meats and organs available. Our raw materials are sourced from USDA certified and inspected human consumption plants while we also choose to source some meats locally to support our communities; where they are then processed in our state of the art USDA registered and FDA inspected facilities using the same quality control standards as human consumption.
SHOULD I COOK THEIR RAW FOODS?
We do not recommend cooking our raw products because the whole object of feeding for health is to maintain optimum nutritional sources as best as humanly possible. Enzymes and nutritional values are lost in the cooking process.
How Do I Transition My Pet
● Day 1-3: 25% Blue Ridge Beef food with 75% current diet
● Day 4-6: 50% Blue Ridge Beef food with 50% current diet
● Day 7-9: 75% Blue Ridge Beef with 25% current diet
● Day 10 and Forward: 100% Blue Ridge Beef
Some pets may take longer or shorter times to transition.
Remember that some digestive upset is normal during a transition. This may show up as diarrhea, constipation or (very rarely) vomiting. It will eventually subside as your pet adjusts to the new food.
WHAT ABOUT SAFE HANDLING?
● Treat our products the same as you would any raw meats. Wash hands, bowls, utensils, and all surfaces that came into contact of the food with hot soapy water.
● Keep our raw products away from children.
● Keep our products away from other foods.
How Do I Feed Your Products?
Keep our raw foods frozen until ready to use.
If feeding the entire chub of food each feeding, thaw the chub in the refrigerator.
When portioning food for feeding, temper the chub (soft outside, solid center) and use a sharp knife to cut the chub into medallions that are the desired size/weight. Immediately place medallions that are not being fed immediately into a freezer bag and re-freeze till feeding time.
To quickly thaw chubs or prepared medallions in a bag, place in a cold water bath until thawed.
If the food is not eaten at the feeding time immediately refrigerate leftover product and feed within 24 hours.
How Much Should I Feed?
When feeding your companion some factors should be taken into consideration such as weight, health, age, and activity level. This assessment will help decide what food and the amount to feed
A general feeding guideline used by many pet owners for adults is two to three percent of their total body weight.
Older pets will require less fat while younger companions will need a fattier diet to help develop properly to keep up with their activity.
We have developed a feeding calculator to help give a suggested serving size based off of age or life stage your pet is in to help guide you along the way.
WHAT IS HIGH PRESSURE PROCESSING (HPP) AND HOW DOES IT WORK
HPP is a cold water process that applies pressure on our foods that fractures the cell walls of pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli 0157:H7, and Listeria Monocytogenes killing them while leaving all nutrients intact.
During this process in which the product is immersed in a pressurized container with water and put under 87,000 psi for a short amount of time. The product never reaches a temperature above 38°F during the process, and after a hold time the product is placed in a blast freezer for freezing.
This process effectively kills all harmful bacteria in the product while leaving proteins and enzymes intact and unchanged so pets receive the same amount of nutrition.
Should I Supplement Your Foods?
Depending on what route of raw feeding that you want to take your options are endless in terms of supplements.
We manufacture multiple sole proteins and meat/bone only mixes so that the addition of vitamins, minerals, and other supplements in your pet’s food is completely in your control.
We have also formulated from years of experience and trials our BRB Complete that makes complete and balanced feeding for your dog as simple as unwrapping and feeding.
What and Where Are Your Lot Numbers?
Our LOT numbers represent the day of manufacturing. The four-digit LOT number is stamped into the metal clip on one end of our chubs while the other clip is stamped with a letter representing the facility it was produced in (G-Georgia, N-North Carolina) and a two digit year.
If at any time you have a question about the date of product please email the appropriate facility with the four digit LOT number and two digit year number.