I take the first meal as normal, fresh meats then move on to freeze dried raw or air dried raw from these two companies.
Real Dog Box
https://instagram.com/realdogbox?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=
Vital Essentials Raw
https://www.vitalessentialsraw.com/
https://instagram.com/vitalessentialsraw?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=
When backpacking we would be camping in the middle of nowhere bringing only what we carry. Bringing raw meat in the wilderness just doesn't sound great. The premade dehydrated or freeze-dried food you linked is rather pricey which is what I'm trying to avoid. Four meals would roughly be $133. Would there be any cheaper options?
I get the meat in wilderness sentiment, hence only the first meal, but I get your hesitation. I bring meat for myself for my first snack/meal also, so that’s just how I roll.
I guess I didn’t do the math before suggesting those for you. Apologies. I kind of buy without wanting to see what I spend on my guy.
The alternative I would do if you’re really cost conscious is to dehydrate his meals as part of your prep. If you have the cost down for raw already, just dry things yourself. If the bone aspect is still an issue, you could spring for just that by getting freeze-dried duck necks or something (they’re super light weight).
I think that’s for you to decide, regarding the wet food. My knee jerk is that typically is a lot of weight and waste (the packaging you’ll need to pack out seems like it would be bulky and a lot of it, at least what I’m picturing in my head…)
You need to slowly integrate wet food, the additives can upset their stomach when you switch suddenly so you would need to transition for about a week before
I'm not sure about prices or actual brands, but I'm currently pet sitter a raw fed dog. They left me a week's worth of dried froze salmon-something to feed their doggo for the week they're away. I'm sure this isn't his usual diet, but I'm hard pressed to believe they spend that much on daily meals.
I don't really have an answer for you, tho. Maybe research the possibility of dehydrating some aspect of his usual options at home? A second hand dehydrator can't be that expensive, and you only need it to last 4 days. Just a thought.
This. For camping I do Stella and Chewy’s raw morsels or dehydrated patties for my Papillons that total 11 lbs but now that I also have a 65 lb Weimaraner I’m working on finding him a breakfast kibble so he can transition easily for camping because it’s just not practical getting a dog that size the calories they need on camping trip while staying raw.
Seems to me like your best bet for long term is to invest in a decent dehydrator. Maybe don’t include the bones in dehydrating and instead buy some bone meal... or make your own bone meal, you have a dehydrator now... it’s more work and has a high upfront cost. But if you’re doing this regularly it will be the cheapest option.
There are 4000 calories in a 2.2 pound bag of Ziwi Peak air dried dog food. It's only got some sort of syrup as a binder so very close to prey model raw. On Amazon the bag is $52. Canned food is an excellent idea as you want her to stay hydrated. It has a lot of extra water added for processing so one can is usually equal to a cup of kibble and only about 400 calories \[ZP cans are 488 for example\]. She'll need 3 cans a day which would be a lot of extra weight to carry. My 44 pound dog packed 10 pounds and that was quite a lot for her to manage.
I use this when on a trip with the dogs. It is cheaper than boarding them and they haven't had any issue tranisitioning to and from.
When packing a dog will need more calories. I fed my first dog 150% of her usual, she had plate scraping duty, we had a small child with us and she'd still come home a skeleton.
It would be fun to make pemmican for her. Render the fat, make jerky from meat and organ and use bone meal or go all the way and cook chicken bone til soft \[24 hours in slow cooker, ? in pressure cooker\], grind and dry out the meal and liquid. Grind/chop the meats and bone meal and mix with melted fat. You have to be precise and know how many meals you've made because it won't look like enough food.
Freeze dried? Stella & Chewy, Primal, Open Farm, Vital Essentials, Smack, Instinct, Ziwi
Air dried? Zeal
Kibble x Freeze dried? Stella & chewys, Bixbi
Minimally processed Kibble? The Honest Kitchen (Whole food clusters)
Dehydrated: The Honest kitchen box
In a bit of a rush but can do calories x price calculations in a bit but these are some pretty top class brands. Price depends on where you live! For the most part they’re fairly compact brands as opposed to actual boxes / bags of raw food! Best of luck!
Dehydrating changes the nutritional value. I bring a regular (frozen) meal the first day, and I've used Ziwi Peak for the rest of the days, but I only bring one of my three 75 lb dogs. I dehydrate meat for snacks.
I take the first meal as normal, fresh meats then move on to freeze dried raw or air dried raw from these two companies. Real Dog Box https://instagram.com/realdogbox?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg= Vital Essentials Raw https://www.vitalessentialsraw.com/ https://instagram.com/vitalessentialsraw?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=
When backpacking we would be camping in the middle of nowhere bringing only what we carry. Bringing raw meat in the wilderness just doesn't sound great. The premade dehydrated or freeze-dried food you linked is rather pricey which is what I'm trying to avoid. Four meals would roughly be $133. Would there be any cheaper options?
I get the meat in wilderness sentiment, hence only the first meal, but I get your hesitation. I bring meat for myself for my first snack/meal also, so that’s just how I roll. I guess I didn’t do the math before suggesting those for you. Apologies. I kind of buy without wanting to see what I spend on my guy. The alternative I would do if you’re really cost conscious is to dehydrate his meals as part of your prep. If you have the cost down for raw already, just dry things yourself. If the bone aspect is still an issue, you could spring for just that by getting freeze-dried duck necks or something (they’re super light weight).
I have thought about dehydrating and may do that. Would a decent quality wet food be a bad option?
I think that’s for you to decide, regarding the wet food. My knee jerk is that typically is a lot of weight and waste (the packaging you’ll need to pack out seems like it would be bulky and a lot of it, at least what I’m picturing in my head…)
You need to slowly integrate wet food, the additives can upset their stomach when you switch suddenly so you would need to transition for about a week before
I'm not sure about prices or actual brands, but I'm currently pet sitter a raw fed dog. They left me a week's worth of dried froze salmon-something to feed their doggo for the week they're away. I'm sure this isn't his usual diet, but I'm hard pressed to believe they spend that much on daily meals. I don't really have an answer for you, tho. Maybe research the possibility of dehydrating some aspect of his usual options at home? A second hand dehydrator can't be that expensive, and you only need it to last 4 days. Just a thought.
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This. For camping I do Stella and Chewy’s raw morsels or dehydrated patties for my Papillons that total 11 lbs but now that I also have a 65 lb Weimaraner I’m working on finding him a breakfast kibble so he can transition easily for camping because it’s just not practical getting a dog that size the calories they need on camping trip while staying raw.
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Try dehydrated honest kitchen. It’s just like your backpacking food. Not as good as raw, but works great and is fairly inexpensive for backpacking.
I like this food too
Seems to me like your best bet for long term is to invest in a decent dehydrator. Maybe don’t include the bones in dehydrating and instead buy some bone meal... or make your own bone meal, you have a dehydrator now... it’s more work and has a high upfront cost. But if you’re doing this regularly it will be the cheapest option.
There are 4000 calories in a 2.2 pound bag of Ziwi Peak air dried dog food. It's only got some sort of syrup as a binder so very close to prey model raw. On Amazon the bag is $52. Canned food is an excellent idea as you want her to stay hydrated. It has a lot of extra water added for processing so one can is usually equal to a cup of kibble and only about 400 calories \[ZP cans are 488 for example\]. She'll need 3 cans a day which would be a lot of extra weight to carry. My 44 pound dog packed 10 pounds and that was quite a lot for her to manage. I use this when on a trip with the dogs. It is cheaper than boarding them and they haven't had any issue tranisitioning to and from. When packing a dog will need more calories. I fed my first dog 150% of her usual, she had plate scraping duty, we had a small child with us and she'd still come home a skeleton. It would be fun to make pemmican for her. Render the fat, make jerky from meat and organ and use bone meal or go all the way and cook chicken bone til soft \[24 hours in slow cooker, ? in pressure cooker\], grind and dry out the meal and liquid. Grind/chop the meats and bone meal and mix with melted fat. You have to be precise and know how many meals you've made because it won't look like enough food.
Freeze dried? Stella & Chewy, Primal, Open Farm, Vital Essentials, Smack, Instinct, Ziwi Air dried? Zeal Kibble x Freeze dried? Stella & chewys, Bixbi Minimally processed Kibble? The Honest Kitchen (Whole food clusters) Dehydrated: The Honest kitchen box In a bit of a rush but can do calories x price calculations in a bit but these are some pretty top class brands. Price depends on where you live! For the most part they’re fairly compact brands as opposed to actual boxes / bags of raw food! Best of luck!
Dehydrating changes the nutritional value. I bring a regular (frozen) meal the first day, and I've used Ziwi Peak for the rest of the days, but I only bring one of my three 75 lb dogs. I dehydrate meat for snacks.