BWCA dog food on long trips Boundary Waters Group Forum: Doggie Paddle
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      dog food on long trips     

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01/03/2020 10:42PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
what do people take on longer trips? I'm doing a 10-14 day trip next summer, and the volume of kibble seems large, just space-wise.
 
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01/04/2020 04:30AM  
Roasted hammer handles is a nice supplement. :) Whenever I have a fish dinner I always include Luna. I don't season hers though.

 
01/05/2020 11:31AM  
My dog eats 1.25 lbs per day so I’ve searched for ways to deal with this too. He can carry about 6 days worth of food (I don’t want to exceed 10% of his body weight) but I just have to carry anything in excess. Part of the issue is even if he carries part of his own, it still has to be made bear-safe at night. On some trips when my barrel was full I’d just raise his backpack up on a rope like a bear bag for the first few days until room was available in my barrel. Later, planning for a 17 day trip, I got a 10 liter Ursack just for dog food. For me, 1.25 lbs of dog food is about 1 liter. I pack my food in 1 day rations with a food sealer (not vacuum packed though) so it holds about 8 of those packs. Btw, I always bring an extra 1 or 2 days extra dog food. If weather or other factors cause me to be an extra day or two late, I can either ration my food, fish, or just deal with it - but he would never understand my not giving him food any given day.

Once before a long trip I tried switching him over a higher calorie performance food that would save about 15% by volume, but it messed up his digestion so I abandoned that idea. I’ve heard of some people trying dehydrated fresh foods, but I have no experience with that.
 
01/20/2020 10:17AM  
Never tried it but here is a link for one brand of dehydrated dog food.

Dehydrated dog food.
 
chessie
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01/20/2020 12:06PM  
I second these comments. Years ago we did a month long trip. Messing around trying to find a more 'efficient' dog food to save weight just screwed up our dogs GI system. So I suggest sticking with the food you normally use. Our dog could carry a certain amount in her saddle bags, and we carried the rest. And definitely bring a little extra. We always packed her light enough to not be a strain, and such that she was stable on rough, rocky terrain. As she got older, we ditched her saddle bags and just carried her food in our food pack. Be sure it's double bagged/water proof!
 
01/21/2020 11:05AM  
LindenTree: "Never tried it but here is a link for one brand of dehydrated dog food.


Dehydrated dog food. "


I'm planning for my coonhound puppy's first trip this summer. I'm also worried about the weight and volume of food needed for a longer trip.

This dehydrated food looks very promising. A 10lb box makes 40lbs of rehydrated food. That's a huge weight savings. It's about $1.50 lb. so a little pricey. I'm going to order one of the small boxes and see how the dog likes it.

Thanks for the link Lindentree. I had no idea this stuff existed.
 
01/22/2020 06:43PM  
Beavers: "
LindenTree: "Never tried it but here is a link for one brand of dehydrated dog food.



Dehydrated dog food. "



I'm planning for my coonhound puppy's first trip this summer. I'm also worried about the weight and volume of food needed for a longer trip.


This dehydrated food looks very promising. A 10lb box makes 40lbs of rehydrated food. That's a huge weight savings. It's about $1.50 lb. so a little pricey. I'm going to order one of the small boxes and see how the dog likes it.


Thanks for the link Lindentree. I had no idea this stuff existed. "


Hold on everyone - this might be very good food, but you need to do some math and look past the marketing as it may not be as much of a weight or space saving as you think. First, I think its wrong to call it dehydrated. It lists "Max moisture content" as 8%, whereas my regular food (like many others) is max 10%. Thats not a lot of water content difference. Also, this food lists the calories (kcal) per cup as 485. My regular food - like many others is about 380 kcal per cup. So for me feeding 4.25 cups per day, to get the same calories into my dog I would need to feed 3.3 cups of this Honest Kitchen food. By volume thats about a 29% savings in space which would be nice but is far short of the 4:1 ratio the marketers are promoting on the box.

Just because you add water to something doesn't mean you get more. And by the way, the performance food I tried to mix 50-50 with my food last year was 525 calories per cup. Like Chessie mentioned, it screwed up my dog's GI and I've had trouble ever since. Some dogs can handle any food and some can't, but I'd suggest anyone thing twice before risking it to save 28% volume.

 
01/22/2020 10:19PM  
Thanks for pointing that out Jaywalker. I didn't think to compare the calories. Now that you mention it regular dry dog food is...well already dry. There's not much there to dehydrate.

I'll definitely do some further research before ordering any.
 
01/22/2020 10:30PM  
Personally I wouldn’t want to change my dog’s food but supplementing with plain grilled chunks of fish mixed into the food bowl is a nice way to offset the weight. She is 50 lbs and normally eats 2 cups of dry food a day. I take 1 and 1/2 cups per day when we go on 10-12 night trips.
 
01/26/2020 08:23AM  
I'll carry a lot but if I were to cut back I would substitute with human food and fish. My dogs have never had issue switching their diets up though.
 
01/10/2021 10:03AM  
My 10 yo toy Australian Shepherd now receives a 50/50 mix of Instinct Rawboost mixers freeze dried food in her "trail" blend with dry Iams puppychow. Combined they provide her an excellent source of calories, a concern on long trips (two weeks or more) and the weight reduction is appreciable. She loves the flavor and has had no stomach issue

 
InvertedEgg
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01/25/2021 08:24PM  
We've used Stewart Raw Naturals Freeze Dried Dog Food for our 70-80# golden (who normally eats Iams). When I looked into best calories:weight for a two week trip a few years ago Stewart came up tops. She likes it, so we've used it ever since successfully. You do need to transition into it (mix it in increasing proportions with the normal food for the week leading into the trip) to avoid stomach upset if your dog (like ours and many) doesn't do well with change.

One comment -- it will partially break down to powder (still perfectly edible for a hungry dog) under assault in a food bag if you take all the air out, so I've tended to leave the air in bags other than the current bag, to buffer it a little.
 
Duckman
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01/26/2021 08:42AM  
Won't help with the weight issue, but I usually bring an extra serving per day for my dog.

Between portages, staying up all day, and just being more active than at home, she seems to appreciate it.
 
10/09/2023 02:58PM  
We took two dogs (18 and 30 pounds) on a 16 day trip this summer. I made dehydrated food using 2 parts dehydrated protein (chicken, hamburger, or tuna), one part instant rice, and one part veggies (dehydrated carrots and freeze dried peas I bought on Amazon). I sealed, no vaccum, two servings in a bag, then rehydrated in the bag with lake water by hanging in a tree for about two hours.
I added some parsley, bone broth powder and pumpkin powder for flavor. They loved it. Supplemented with a little kibble (around a cup a day just because one of the dogs loves kibble) and a few treats. The dehydrated food is lighter than kibble so saved a lot of weight.

I also tried some dehydrated food I found on Amazon. It was beef, oatmeal, and some veggies/fruit (carrots, apple, and, I think, green beans). One dog like it and the other didn't. Both preferred the homemade.
 
10/10/2023 08:58AM  
According to my vet- who is exceptional, nearly everyone overfeeds their dog and nearly every dog is overweight and the feeding suggestions on the bag encourage overfeeding. My 60#+ dog gets two cups of kibble/day and needs to lose weight. Dogs are at their best when very lean.

Still- on long trips a pint/day is significant weight and volume. If I'm out over five nights the kibble (packed in single day portions) gets its own (Sealine) dry bag that goes and the pack and gets hung with the rest of the food.
 
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