Travel and raw...

[amalie79]

I'm just wondering how those of you who feed raw and travel do so...

I'll go ahead and give all the info, in case it matters. Sorry it's so long!!

We currently feed our girls TOTW High Sierra or Natural Balance Bison in the morning (these aren't my first choices in kibble, but there are a whole host of reasons that we've been using them, which I won't go into unless anyone's interested), and in the evenings they get raw-- we grind chicken leg quarters (since i have gulpers and resource guarders-- we feel good about grinding, at least for now) for 4 days a week, and they get a variety of other meats for muscle meals on the other 3 days-- chicken thighs, pork, and beef, and the occasional exotic meat through Nature's Variety or Bravo. They get a veggie mash of 50/50 green veggie and either root veggie or squash. We do roughly 5% beef or chicken livers and I've started adding in beef kidney, too. I usually add Solid Gold Seameal, and have used Missing Link, too. They get a probiotic, salmon oil, and various other supplements according to their needs (my lab gets joint supplements, my allergy girl gets extra salmon oil and we're starting coconut oil, the girl with a history of crystals gets cranberry). Yogurt, wet dog food, peanut butter, kibble in kongs...

I think we're ready to cut out the kibble-- my allergy puppy, Luna, (the shar-pei pit mix) is having terrible flare-ups, and we haven't even entered serious allergy season yet-- plus, she has a sensitive tummy that does BETTER on raw than the processed.

Our lab, River, is having hip issues and she's a fair bit overweight, so I need to cut the kibble for her. And Robin, our pit who had a terrible time of it with crystals and UTIs, has done so well on raw that I feel good continuing it with her.

I travel with Luna and River for shows, and they do a lot of training in the evenings. I've been able to substitute kibble on these days and while traveling. Freeze-dried is expensive, and we may not have a fridge in the hotel room. If I can't get a room with a fridge, does anyone have any recommendations?

I suppose we could go to the grocery when we get there... Would keeping an ice chest work? Take it frozen in the ice chest and thaw under cold water? She'll be getting so many treats during the day while training, that this may be a non-issue (I don't like to mix the treats and raw too closely together)... and I can always go back to kibble for those couple of days, but I'd like to see what other folks do.

[FransterDoo]

I wrote a blog post a while back about a short trip we made and how I pack food for it:

http://blog.carnivorecafe.net/post/2011 ... ra-Flyball


What I do depends on our resources. I always call ahead and ask if there is a fridge. If there is, I simply freeze everything and then stack it all in the fridge. It can require a defrost the first night but then it's ready-to-eat the rest of the time.

If there isn't, I have a dedicated dog cooler and just restock with ice. Mine get a ground product in the AM and boneless meat for PM. So re-usable plastic containers for the AM and then cheap-o plastic baggies for the PM meal. You can see my portioning and labeling system in the post above.

We did live in an RV for 2 weeks to and from a competition back in 2010. My non-racing dogs got kibble every other day to cut down on having to bring tons of food. My friend raw feeds but puts her dogs back on dehydrated part-time when they're competeing.

[amalie79]

Thank you!!

We've always stayed in a place with a fridge, but this time, there's not a hotel attached to the show site, and we want to stay close by, so we're limited with affordable options.

I can always go to kibble, but I'd prefer to keep her on raw...

[Team Peanut]

i just did this this weekend. I have a small cooler that is JUST for Peanut's food. i had everything portioned and marked. i brought my shower curtain for him to eat on since we stayed in a hotel. it worked out perfectly. i do this each time i take him some place it ends up being no different then when i feed him at home.

the only thing this time is we ran a little late so after he rested from his last competition i had to feed him at the site and that worked out fine too and i was a little worried of the looks i may get but no one said anything to us.

[FransterDoo]

We usually also keep the dog cooler in the bathtub! So that way we can close the door against poking noses.

And it does take a few back and forth trips with the ice bucket but we try to use the motel's ice if at all possible!

We've been traveling with raw for over 6 years at this point and I've never had an issue.

I do feed dinner in crates at the competition site once everyone is finished and cooled done for the day. Mine can all eat in their separate areas with lots of supervision for breakfast. But most of the time, we have a porta-crate in the room so it's a dog in there, a dog in the bathroom and 3 in various places in the room.

[amalie79]

I'm only taking the one dog this time, since I'm travelling alone. My step-daughter usually comes to help me carry stuff and to help us all holding our dogs while we take our walk-throughs, but she'll be on vacation with her mom. We keep teasing her that she needs different labelled baseball caps for all her duties: "Dog-sitter," "Substitute trainer," "Caddie"...

This show will be a nice trial run because I think I'm taking both girls to the show after this.

Just got back from the shop to buy coconut oil and will start that tonight! Here's hoping it helps Luna's itchy feet...

[mtlu]

We don't feed raw but have done some camping trips here and there - block ice will stay frozen a lot longer than cubed ice and that's what we use in the summer. We just got back from Yosemite and used cubed ice since the cooler had to be stored in the bear-proof locker and it was at or a little below freezing at night.

[mommy2kane]

Our weekend trips (dog shows), we just use a regular cooler to keep their raw in. Generally, we just take a couple bags of quarters or backs for their meals. Everyone eats in their crate, just like at home, so that's easy enough.