Pet Prepping

[Double R]

Just curious if anyone preps for their pets?
Do you know home remedies for their needs?
How you would balance a diet without kibble?
Would they have to fend for themselves?
Just curious if anyone preps for your furry friends.

 

[Grimm]

We have several hundred cans of cat food for our 5 cats. The idea is to supplement a diet of mice and rats with the canned food. One of the cats has bad arthritis so I wouldn't expect much from her. She is a favorite of the girls so we'd have to keep her around as long as it was humane. We also keep extra litter and a few huge bags of dry kibble for them.

The dogs have hunting blood so I'd expect a bit more from them to earn their keep. They have proven to be good farm dogs and safe to have around chickens and ducks. Winter has good herding instincts and is good with goats and sheep. They are both very interested in horses but have yet had a chance to interact with them other than from afar. We keep kibble for them but they are good hunting for their own food.

I have very extensive first aid kits for both the cats and the dogs. Since I have worked with hunting dogs in the past I have a basic knowledge what to keep on hand for an accident in the field and how to use it.

 

[Resto]

Im down to one dog now, so I have a years worth of Dry and Canned dog food. After that She will eat what I eat. I have a 22 pellet rifle for small animals, if I need to feed her gophers or Doves. I might have some myself. Ive had Bird Dogs in the past, did most of my own First aid. Raised in a Farm Town, kind of Used to it. I have a Doc a Nurse and a Mobile Vet within a 4 mile radius. Two are MAG Members.

 

[snappy1]

I have a pretty good first aid kit for both dogs and the pygmy goats. We have a lot of woods around us as far as the goats are concerned. I can a lot and the dogs would have to eat with us mostly. Now I feel I need to can more!

 

[The Innkeeper]

Back in the day when we raced sled dogs we figured they gave us an edge over snowmobiles because you can’t eat a snowmobile. We have dog food packed away for our border collie, then she can eat what we eat and in a worst case scenario I have some spices for her. I would undoubtedly bawl like a baby to have to do that but sometimes life is hard

 

[Double R]

Did you kibble feed them or raw feed them? I know a lot of sledders raw Feed.

 

[angie_nrs]

I always try to have a couple large bags of food for the dogs on hand, especially in the winter b/c it's a pain to cart around that food in the snow. It's tough to store much of it though since it can go bad rather quickly. I've never had it happen, but I store it in a climate controlled closet in the garage. If we ran out of dog food, we would just feed them rice, green beans and meat scraps. It wouldn't be ideal, but they wouldn't starve. We could always cook up some squirrel if needed.

I also keep a dog medical kit along with the "if there is no vet" book. Our dogs are getting up there in age so I'm sure they wouldn't be able to handle too much stress.

Hats off to you Bob. I'd starve before I ate Fido. There's just no way..........

 

[The Innkeeper]

Did you kibble feed them or raw feed them? I know a lot of sledders raw Feed.

We cooked our own mix of grain, meat and fish everyday. We fed raw when it was possible but it takes a lot of meat to feed up to 100 dogs and puppies. We didn’t typically have nearly that many, usually we kept around 30 or so but at times it was much higher.

 

[The Innkeeper]

Hats off to you Bob. I'd starve before I ate Fido. There's just no way..........

Please don’t think it would be easy. I would have to be facing death and even then it would likely be traumatic, but I believe the desire to survive can be strong.

 

[SheepDog]

I will eat ANYTHING to survive. I have practiced eating things that most people would not just to see if I could. I could easily eat dog or cat but food is readily available if you know where to look.
The inner bark of trees is a good source for vitamins and the sap is a good source of carbs. Insects, in grub form, are excellent protein as are slugs and snails. Snakes are good food too.
Early on in our back-packing days my brother and I swore that if we needed food and one of us died the other should use the muscle and organs to stay alive. It always seemed a waste to just let the body rot.
Not a pleasant thought but it tells you how our belief system dictated survival.
Pets and working animals can find food under most circumstances but if you want to keep them around you better be able to supply their food. That is your job as the alpha member of the pack.

 

[The Innkeeper]

I will eat ANYTHING to survive. I have practiced eating things that most people would not just to see if I could. I could easily eat dog or cat but food is readily available if you know where to look.
The inner bark of trees is a good source for vitamins and the sap is a good source of carbs. Insects, in grub form, are excellent protein as are slugs and snails. Snakes are good food too.
Early on in our back-packing days my brother and I swore that if we needed food and one of us died the other should use the muscle and organs to stay alive. It always seemed a waste to just let the body rot.
Not a pleasant thought but it tells you how our belief system dictated survival.
Pets and working animals can find food under most circumstances but if you want to keep them around you better be able to supply their food. That is your job as the alpha member of the pack.

Not disagreeing with you sheep dog.in my travels around the world I have eaten a lot of things that might not be considered culturally typical in North America. I have no problem with eating dog or cat, it’s just that eating a member of the family (and our dog is spoiled and like a member of the family) would have some emotional baggage with it.

 

[LastO]

I'm eating mine before I bug out.

 

[SheepDog]

BugoutBob,
I get attached to my dogs too, but they are part of a pack and not family. Your dogs would eat your carcass if you died and they needed the food - that's just the natural world.
I enjoy working with dogs and I understand their needs. What they need most is leadership in how to serve in the capacity that they exist for. If you treat a dog like a person you end up with a neurotic dog.
I could go for hours on the behavior problems and stress that dogs go through when they are not treated like dogs but that is better in a separate thread.

 

[The Innkeeper]

BugoutBob,
I get attached to my dogs too, but they are part of a pack and not family. Your dogs would eat your carcass if you died and they needed the food - that's just the natural world.
I enjoy working with dogs and I understand their needs. What they need most is leadership in how to serve in the capacity that they exist for. If you treat a dog like a person you end up with a neurotic dog.
I could go for hours on the behavior problems and stress that dogs go through when they are not treated like dogs but that is better in a separate thread.

Part of the pack would have been a better description. There is a clearly defined order the boss, the Mrs, the dog.

 

[Weedygarden]

No way am I eating my pets. I always have a bag or two of kibble and several cans of wet food.