My Latest Find…TEFCO Raw Dog Food

I’m two months into feeding TEFCO products and my enthusiasm for this brand of raw dog food continues! They have distributors in several states here in the US and for once I’m lucky enough to have found one not too far away from home.

Raw Canine Foods is one of two TEFCO distributors here in NC. They’re a small family run, raw pet food business ​located in the beautiful North Carolina mountains who sell a variety of TEFCO products.

I came across them earlier this year while browsing the hashtag #RawFeedingCommunity on Twitter and have purchased a total of 80 lbs of raw dog food from them since for $90 each. My first order consisted of 40 lbs of beef green tripe, and the second one of 40 lbs of a beef blend called Performance Dog.

TEFCO Performance Dog 

The TEFCO Performance Dog Food is a blend of beef, tripe, trachea, finely ground bone, salt, lime stone, trace minerals and egg. It doesn’t contain any preservatives and comes in 2 and 5 lb sleeves. I bought the 2 lb sleeves.

Founder Of “Warrior Dog Foundation” Mike Ritland Feeds TEFCO Raw Dog Food

Here’s a little fun fact for ya – Mike Ritland, founder of Warrior Dog Foundation and Trikos International, feeds his working dogs the TEFCO Performance Dog food as well.

He served 12 years active duty as a U.S. Navy SEAL and was a multipurpose K9 trainer for U.S. Navy SEAL Teams. He now trains dogs for protection dog training, military dog training, police dog training, and guard dog training.

Who Is TEFCO?

TEFCO is owned by Jerry Briffa with headquarters in Brooklyn, NY. Jerry is a retired NYPD officer and very familiar with the needs of police dogs. As such, he has a fantastic network of protection dog trainers who strongly believe in feeding raw.

He started distributing his raw dog food through dog shows, events and locally around New York. When Jerry realized that he would need to build a team in order to grow, he started a raw dog food distributor model. This was about 13 years ago and, as mentioned further below, there are now TEFCO distributors in 19 US States. 

This distributor model is similar to the direct selling system of known beauty brands Mary Kay and Avon. Their products can’t be purchased online or in stores and are exclusively available through Independent Beauty Consultants. This system of direct marketing eliminates the “retail middleman” and results in lower costs for the consumer. #WorksForMe 

All TEFCO products come from dairy cows, are 100% preservative free and are shipped frozen to distributors around the United States. 

TEFCO Distributors In The US

TEFCO distributors currently sell raw dog food products in 19 US states. You can call them at  718-745-5537 or write them a message (and become a distributor yourself, too). By the way, Jerry’s # 1 piece of advice for growing a loyal client base is attending dog shows and competitions.

TEFCO Products

As mentioned above, so far I’ve fed TEFCO’s beef green tripe and their beef performance food. Missy & Buzz loved both. I used the tripe to make yummy single-ingredient frozen treats for the pups and wrote about it in my post How To Make Single-Ingredient Green Tripe Dog Treats.

Here’s an overview of their products which also includes beef rolls, ground beef trachea, and several recreational bones:

Any Cons?

Since TEFCO is only sold through independent distributors, one of my two complaints would be that they’re only available in select states. The other one would be that they exclusively sell beef. Missy & Buzz enjoy eating a variety of proteins ranging from fish and different poultry sources such as chicken, turkey and duck, meaning I’ll continue purchasing from different raw dog food sources. 

Puppy Dinner tonight – beef trachea from @rawfeedingmiami | turkey gizzards & hearts from the grocery store | beef green tripe from a Tefco distributor in the NC mountains & air-dried smelt from @realpetfood ?

A post shared by K9s Over Coffee (@k9sovercoffee) on May 4, 2017 at 7:20pm PDT

Bottom Line

I was pleasantly surprised to find a truly affordable source of raw dog food. I’ve been reading about fellow raw feeders who get a lot of their raw dog food through local raw co-ops and are able to save a bunch of money that way. I was always bummed that there was no co-op around here, so I’m stoked to have found out about this direct-marketing approach of raw dog food.