FREQUENT QUESTIONS
CRU DIET – Raw natural food
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Good nutrition is the basis of good health. 90% of the "preventable" diseases that dogs and cats suffer from today are due to an inadequate diet and lifestyle.
Foods such as feed and other ultra-processed foods may be comfortable for you, but not the most nutritionally appropriate for your furry friend. At CRU we produce and select the best natural foods, snacks and supplements in collaboration with veterinarians and specialized nutritionists to offer you a 100% natural diet adapted to the nutritional needs of your animal. In addition, ready to serve and at the door of your house so that the change to natural does not become a mountain.
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CRU is a 100% natural diet, without grains, ultra-processed or additives for dogs and cats. Our diet is based on the principles of the BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) or ACBA (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet, currently also known in the veterinary world as RMBD (Raw Meaty Bone Diet) or DCHC (Raw Meaty Bone Diet). Fleshy), which resembles the diet they would have in their natural state.
We prepare a balanced mixture of meat, meaty bones, organ meats, fruit and vegetables in the proportions they need; eliminating all ingredients that do not contribute anything to your body and thus maximizing your health potential.
This brings great benefits to the furry ones that are observed in a matter of days. We work hard to improve their quality of life through proper nutrition and thus reduce the need for veterinary visits or long-term medication treatments.
– Benefits of the BARF or CRU diet in cats
– Benefits of the BARF or CRU diet in dogs -
The transition from feed to CRU is easier than you imagine, we assure you that you will not regret it, it is an investment for life.
The ideal transition for healthy dogs is to fast them for at least 12 hours to help cleanse the digestive system of the chemicals in the feed and start CRU the next day.
If he cannot fast for some medical reason or because he is still a puppy or is very old or frail, you can give him about 2-4 days of a soft diet before starting CRU. Use 75% easily digestible meats such as chicken, turkey or white fish and mix it with 25% cooked vegetables such as carrots, apples or pumpkin.
After this, if your furry friend is not allergic to chicken, we recommend 1 week of transition* in adults and 2 in puppies in which he eats only the CRU Chicken menu . If your furry friend is allergic to chicken, you can make this transition week with the CRU rabbit menus .
* During the transition you will already be seeing the first benefits, in addition your furry friend will get used to the texture of the meat and his stomach will acidify to return to its natural pH capable of combating all internal and external threats.
After the transition you can start adding a variety of menus to your furry's diet so that he eats different proteins and ingredients.
In this simple video tutorial you can see how easy it will be to give a 100% natural diet to your furry friend.
Additionally, with your first order you receive a Getting Started Guide where you can see how to make the switch to CRU and other tips.
If you need it, you have a direct line with us from Monday to Friday via telephone, chat on the web or by email to hola@crubarf.com so that we can help you with any questions and keep track of the changes that your furry friend is experiencing.
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The transition from feed to CRU is easier than you imagine, we assure you that you will not regret it, it is an investment for life. Of course, sometimes with cats we must have a little more patience than with dogs, they are worth it!
Cats are very reluctant to change, and they should not fast. Thereforewe recommend making a direct transition to CRU power, including all menus*.
You can eat an intermediate diet with only easily digestible meat (chicken, turkey or white fish) for a week, but it is not necessary.
*As long as your cat does not have any intolerance.
In this simple video tutorial you can see how easy it will be to give a 100% natural diet to your furry friend.
Additionally, with your first order you receive a Getting Started Guide where you can see how to make the switch to CRU and other tips.
If you need it, you have a direct line with us from Monday to Friday via telephone, chat on the web or by email to hola@crubarf.com so that we can help you with any questions and keep track of the changes that your furry friend is experiencing.
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Of course, it's never too late to start eating well! Even if he is in his last years, his quality of life will improve and he will thank you for it. The CRU diet provides a lot of collagen, which will help your joints. Being a much more nutritious food with natural moisture, it will also help your digestion and kidney system.
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The sooner you start, the better! The ideal is to start giving CRU right after weaning, since it is the most similar diet to what its mother would give it in nature. In addition, by not accustoming the furry friend to the flavorings and additives in feed and canned foods, the transition is much easier and its benefits will last a lifetime. A puppy or kitten raised with CRU will have a better quality of life from the beginning since it will have grown free of chemicals and additives, although, of course, it is never too late to start.
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It will all depend on what your furry friend is allergic to, but you will surely find one that suits him in our variety of menus.
Most furry dogs are allergic to one of the thousand additives, cereals and meat flours that feed contains, which is why there are few that do not cause a reaction and it is very difficult to find what they are really allergic to. The CRU diet, being simple in terms of composition and only containing fresh and natural foods, will not give us that problem. If a menu causes you an allergy, we can quickly find out by ruling out the root of the problem and eliminate the allergen from your diet without compromising the balance of your diet, or trying a thousand possibilities before finding the perfect diet.
If your furry friend has problems with hives, intermittent diarrhea, redness or itching, we recommend you start with our CRU Rabbit menus, rabbit is a very noble and low-fat meat that is not usually used in ultra-processed foods and therefore the best to use in a hypoallergenic transition.
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Completely! It is what they have been eating for thousands of years and what their body was designed for. Your stomach is prepared for it, and our menus are made with ingredients suitable for human consumption (those you could find in a supermarket) and deep frozen to guarantee the elimination of any bacteria.
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When our dogs have been consuming highly processed food for a long time and with ingredients that their body cannot assimilate, they may go through a short “detoxification” process , in which the symptoms that we explain here may appear. It usually doesn't last more than 3-5 days.
The good news is that thanks to this process you will eliminate many of those additives stuck to the walls of your intestine that do no good for your health.
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At CRU we work with fresh and natural raw foods, without preservatives or additives. Our menus are blasted and ultra-frozen at source, right after production, in this way we help preserve all the nutrients and prevent the proliferation of bacteria without the need to add any preservatives or additives to your furry dog's food.
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Our menus are finely chopped steak tartare style in case you need to cook them. We recommend this only in case of any pathology due to veterinary indication or to facilitate adaptation. Your furry friend is carnivorous and their body is designed to eat raw foods, this is how they ingest the greatest amount of nutrients for their body and the most similar to their evolutionary diet.
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Our furry dogs are carnivores and feeding them as if they were chickens ends up causing a multitude of problems. At CRU we only work with ingredients with high nutritional value, so cereals are left out of our menus.
PORTIONS – Recommended daily amount
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To solve this doubt we have the Portion Guide for Dogs and the Portion Guide for Cats , where you can check their daily ration in a simple way just by knowing the weight and activity of your furry friend.
These guides are a starting point for feeding your furry friend, but natural feeding is not an exact science. Observe your furry friend during the first days of his diet change or if you make any changes to his routine, since some adjustment may need to be made to his ration. We must observe if he is gaining a lot of weight or has lost more weight than necessary and adjust the ration accordingly until we find his ideal daily ration. Each furry dog, like people, is different and we must calculate their ration individually.
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At first you can divide the daily ration into as many feedings as your furry friend is used to, we make the routine changes little by little.
For puppies we recommend that they be as short as possible, at least until they are 3-4 months old since at that age they would still be fed on demand by their mother. For small and medium-sized dogs, two doses a day are ideal and for large dogs we recommend a single dose at the end of the day.
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We do not recommend that you feed your furry friend any ultra-processed food , many feeds are the equivalent of junk food, so by mixing them you will be confusing the benefits of a raw diet.
That said, if for whatever reason you must do it, it is always better to give some natural food than nothing.
In this case, do not mix them in the same meal since raw and processed foods have different digestive processes. We recommend CRU for breakfast since it is more digestible and I feed it for dinner, this way it has all the hours of sleep at rest to digest it (some feeds may take up to 15 hours to be digested!)
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Our menus are designed so that a healthy dog does not need other supplements. If your dog suffers from any pathology or you want to add a supplement, you can do so in the amount recommended by your veterinarian.
If you want to complement your furry friend's diet with some super food , we have at your disposal a series of 100% natural and organic supplements that can help him deal with parasites, environmental allergies and problems with his joints or digestive tract and which you can find here .
TRANSPORT
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Peninsular Spain:
Our shipments to all of mainland Spain (except Barcelona) are delivered on Wednesdays and Fridays before 2:00 p.m. for frozen products.
If your order is for dry products only, it will be delivered throughout the day.
Before its arrival, you will receive an email from CRU confirming the departure of your order and another email from our transport partner so that you can track the shipment with all the details.
Barcelona city:
If you live in Barcelona, you're in luck, so are we! This allows us to organize shipments on bikes or electric motorcycles so you can have it at your home the same day if you order before 1:00 p.m. We deliver from Monday to Friday in the time slots: from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. You can also select the day so that your furry friend's menus arrive at home any day, from Monday to Friday.
Furthermore, from the Glovo application you can order our products and they will arrive to you in less than an hour.
Subscription plans:
All of our CRU Subscription Plans are shipped in temperature-controlled shipping and delivered Tuesday through Friday (we will ship your plan on the next shipping day after renewal).
*Delivery days may vary due to holidays or other exceptionalities.
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Barcelona city: Your CRU order will arrive in a cardboard box directly to your home by electric motorcycle in about 20 minutes from when it leaves our chamber at -18ºC.
Rest of mainland Spain: Your CRU order will arrive in an isothermal refrigerator with dry ice* and protected by a cardboard box. These shipments are made by express transport with delivery before 2 p.m.
If you have purchased CRU menus, place them directly in the freezer when they arrive, but remember to leave a package defrosting in the refrigerator for your furry friend's next meal.
*Dry ice or dry ice is CO₂ in a solid state and is at a temperature of -78.5ºC and evaporates without leaving moisture.
We use this method to guarantee the cold chain during shipping, although some packages may arrive a little soft at the edges, you can refreeze them without any problem.
Subscription plans:
All our CRU Subscription Plans are shipped in temperature-controlled transportation for optimal cold chain maintenance.
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All shipping is free on purchases over €99.
For smaller purchases, shipping costs are €10 for frozen products and €6 for dry products.
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Upgrade to our CRU subscription plans.
All of our subscription plans include temperature-controlled transportation and deliveries from Tuesday to Friday. The service is free from 25 packages.
With your CRU already at home
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Once your order arrives at home, you should keep the CRU menus in the freezer, leaving only the one that your furry friend will eat first in the refrigerator.
If this is the first time you order CRU, we will send you by email the Getting Started Guide that we recommend you read. We also recommend consulting our serving guides:
-Dog portion guide.
-Cat portion guide. -
When you are defrosting a new package, cut off the top and empty the block of frozen food into an airtight container (for example, a lunch box), thaw in the refrigerator . You can also thaw directly in the bag and serve if it is a large portion.
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Once thawed, we recommend storing CRU menus in an airtight container (for example a lunch box) in the refrigerator.
Properly stored, they maintain their properties for up to 4 days in the refrigerator .
You must keep in mind that CRU menus do not contain any type of additive or preservative, so, once opened and thawed, oxidation will begin and the meat may change color slightly; this does not affect its properties.
Do not refreeze an already thawed menu.
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Only in exceptional cases can you defrost in the microwave or in a bain-marie. Our menus are 500g to reduce defrosting time and at the same time make portions easier.
Additionally, you can always choose to give him one of our cans of natural wet food that you should always have in your pantry for any emergency:
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Once the transition phase is over you can start adding variety to their diet. If your furry friend does not have any intolerance or pathology that prevents it, we recommend a mix of our menus throughout the month. Each ingredient or protein provides different benefits and in a natural diet we can take advantage of them all!
Eggs – added to your CRU they are fabulous, you have more information here .
Bone broth – here we tell you the benefits .
Superfoods – you already know their benefits, we have designed these supplements specifically for different uses (environmental pollution, allergies, parasites, joints, constipation, etc.).
Raw bones – for daring and advanced barbers – here are our recommendations.
Fish – add Omega 3 and surprise your furry friend with a snack with our preserves made in Galicia .
Additionally, you can add natural snacks to use as rewards, to educate or train or simply to pamper your best friend.
- Remember that if you feed him extra, you will have to reduce his CRU ration that day.
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Most of them were looking forward to it! But it could be that a furry friend who has never tried fresh, raw food looks a little strange at the plate the first time you put it in front of him, he doesn't directly associate it with food.
Always check before serving that it is not cold from the refrigerator, it should be at room temperature.
If he still doesn't pay much attention to it, you can minimally pass his CRU through the pan, just round and round, just so that it cooks a little on the outside, and the smells and heat catch his attention. Day by day, cook your menu less until you reach raw, this way you guarantee all the nutrients.In cats, it may cost us a little more. If the frying pan doesn't pique your interest, we can try mixing some of a wet food that we know you like with your CRU menu. Each day we will decrease the amount of wet food a little and increase the amount of CRU, until finally he only eats this.
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Not at all, it is something completely normal. When he eats food, your furry friend has to ingest enough water to rehydrate him, but with CRU he absorbs water along with the food, since it maintains 80% of its natural humidity.
This is beneficial for your kidney and urinary system, since we will not make you overwork yourself.
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It is completely normal, when eating based on natural ingredients and adapted to your nutritional and digestive needs, the body absorbs the vast majority and the part that is “discarded” is much smaller.
This is a sign that your body is taking advantage of all the nutrients in your CRU.
Snacks & Bites
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You can simply use them as a reward, pampering or entertainment for your furry friend. In addition, you will be supplementing their diet with high-quality proteins and omega 3 fatty acids.
For use as training rewards, due to their small format or because they can be easily broken, we recommend:
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This is a classic in ultra-processed snacks, many times worse than most feed.
There is no daily maximum of snacks, since they are natural and will not do any harm to your furry friend. You just have to keep in mind that they are food and, if you give him a lot, you should subtract something from his daily ration of CRU so that he doesn't end up gaining weight.
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Our dehydrated snacks do not have moisture, this means that if you preserve them well, they can last up to two years without losing their properties.
We advise you to store them in their tightly closed container or in a glass jar with a lid.
Always keep them in a cool, dry place, away from direct light.
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Our natural teethers are a tool to reduce stress and increase the production of your furry's happiness hormones (endorphins, serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin).
In addition, they are 100% natural, of national origin and sustainable.
They are guaranteed entertainment for your furry friend, which also promotes their oral health by reducing bacterial plaque.
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Cats don't usually use chewing toys, but if your cat chews furniture or toys, they can be a good remedy. In this case, we recommend you start by offering our Lamb's Ear Snacks that are manageable enough for them to play catch.
For the first steps in dogs we also recommend the ears, but you must choose the one appropriate to the size of your furry friend, these are a mix between a snack and a teether.
- If you weigh less than 10kg: We recommend Lamb Ears and Rabbit Ears.
- If it weighs more than 10kg: You could choose Beef Ears , Pig Ears andBeef Tracheas .
When you have tried the above, it is time to go to the 100% biters .
We recommend starting with Olive Wood and then trying Fallow Antler , Heather Root and Deer Antler until you find the perfect teether for your furry friend.
Wooden and antler chews will be a great ally for your puppy's cognitive development, to reduce stress or anxiety situations, combat boredom and also prevent them from using your furniture for that same use!
Our Happy Box contains all of the above selected by size and is also the perfect gift!
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You are the one who knows your furry best.
In these cases, as with any furry dog, we recommend starting with ear snacks appropriate for their size.
For older dogs who have gum problems and may even be missing some teeth, we recommend staying here, as anything harder could cause pain.
However, for puppies we recommend moving on to wooden teethers, which will help relieve the pain of changing teeth and strengthen them. They will also save you some trouble with the furniture!
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The first time we give a dog a teether, we must always supervise him so that he does not try to swallow it and plays safely with it.
Our teethers are specially polished so as not to form splinters and break down into sawdust that will provide fiber and natural minerals to your furry friend.
When the teether reaches a size that your dog can swallow, it is best to remove it to avoid choking. The time has come to renew it.
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Natural teethers can lose their hydration over time since they are long lasting.
When it dries you can rehydrate it with olive oil, coconut oil or our fish oil and it will look like the first day again.
Others
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Once your furry friend has tried CRU, you will notice the difference.
Forget about having to place orders and dedicate yourself to enjoying, we will take care of the rest.
- Fully customizable in number of packages, types of menus, products and renewal frequency.
- Benefit from a 5% discount on the web price.
- You will not depend on the stock of the website. We save the products of your plan in advance so that your furry friend always has his favorites on time.
- All shipments are made in temperature-controlled transport to guarantee an optimal cold chain. Included from 25 packages.
- Deliveries from Tuesday to Friday.
- Cancel whenever you want.
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If you have registered in the discount pop-up that appears on the website, you will first receive a confirmation email. Once your subscription is confirmed, you will receive a discount coupon for your first purchase in your email. Sometimes it may take a few minutes to arrive, but check your spam folder in case bad luck sent it there.
If after 15 minutes it still does not appear, contact us through the web chat, WhatsApp or by email hola@crubarf.com and we will help you as soon as possible.
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We are here to help you improve your furry friend's diet and quality of life.
If after reading this section you still have questions, please contact us in the web chat, WhatsApp, phone at +34 654 50 26 39 or hola@crubarf.com .