[Judy]

Hi all. I’m new to this site. I was wondering, what do you do when you are doing a roadtrip/travel with your dog and you’re feeding the raw food diet? How are you able to continue with the raw feeding while on the road?

[Mom2Cavs]

Hi Judy! I don’t feed the premade raw atm, but I used to. When I traveled and took the dogs I fed either the freeze dried version of the premade raw or a dehydrated food, like The Honest Kitchen. I’m currently using freeze dried raw and thinking about buying some of The Honest Kitchen, as well. I usually use it to top my dogs’ kibble but sometimes I will just feed a meal solely of the FD or THK.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Judy –

Gertie (the dog in my avatar) travels with me. Last time we went on a trip we went to North Carolina. I packed her homemade raw meals in tupperware containers and packed them in a cooler with ice for the first few days of the trip. Whenever the ice started to melt I stopped and changed the ice and I made sure all the hotels I stayed in had refrigerators. For when that ran out (I brought enough for the first three days) I brought a pre-mix with measuring cups and dish soap to wash all my utensils and stopped at grocery stores to buy fresh ground hamburger and turkey – I just mixed it up in my hotel room and kept it in the fridge. My other two dogs stay with my parents when I travel and I leave them with The Honest Kitchen. Freeze-dried, as Jan mentioned, would be a great option for traveling as well if you have a smaller dog. Unfortunately it’s not practical for a 70 lb. bloodhound like Gertie that eats 2,500+ calories per day – I priced it out before the trip and it would cost me over $500 a week lol

[Cyndi]

Hi everyone! I guess, by reading this thread, my question is for Hound Dog Mom, or should I say “Hot” Dog Mom! Lol! Sorry! I will never do that again, lol!

Anyways, I am driving to New Jersey next week with Bailey. It’s a 7 hour drive. I have a cooler for her food. My question is, I’m wondering if, in 7 hours, if her food will thaw out, and does it matter if it does and if I can just refreeze it once I get to where I’m going? I have like 4 ice packs and I will get some regular ice to cover her food once it’s in the cooler, so I don’t know if stuff will completely thaw or not, but I would imagine it’s ok to refreeze the stuff.

Another question, for anyone that has traveled with their dog that is raw fed, is there any problems that you ran into or anything that might help me in knowing ahead of time, so I can prevent it from happening to me? Like, maybe you forgot something, or didn’t use enough ice, or in my case I’m wondering how I’m going to make sure her dinner is thawed enough to eat, cuz she’ll be eating on the road…

Any help/tips anyone can give me would be GREATLY appreciated!

[SandyandMila]

Hare Today states on their websit that ” it is fine to referee and will not effect the quality of the products”. And that’s after shipping for a couple days, so u should be ok. I probably won’t get my first order til next week so I don’t know personally, I just got that info from their site.

[SandyandMila]

Refreeze* not referee lol

[Cyndi]

Thanks, SanDnMila! I order from Hare Today all the time, and I knew that, but that didn’t even cross my mind, lol! I have SO much on my mind these days I just plain forgot that I do that all the time too. I thaw my grinds out to portion them out and then refreeze. I guess I was just worried about thawing and refreezing the stuff again and again. I’m sure it will still be fine though.

[theBCnut]

I haven’t traveled with my raw fed dogs yet. But I think if I did, that might be when I used a premix, so all I would have to do is find a lb of some kind of meat.

[Cyndi]

That WOULD be a good time to use a premix, but I’ve never used those. I’m just gonna have to make sure I remember to bring everything I add to her food. I just know I’m gonna forget something, lol!

Thanks Patty!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by Cyndi.

[theBCnut]

How long are you going to be gone? If it’s just a few days I wouldn’t worry much about what you forget.

[Cyndi]

Yeah, that’s true, but it WILL drive me crazy. I’m only going to be gone 5 days.

[theBCnut]

I know what you mean. I drive myself crazy all the time.

[Cyndi]

Lol! I try not to let stuff like that bother me, but it still does, lol!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Cyndi –

First, if you haven’t thought of this already, make sure there’s a fridge in your hotel room. I travel with Gertie a lot and generally I pack a pre-mix and stop at a grocery store to pick up meat when I get to the hotel room or I just bring a dehdyrated food such a Grandma Lucy’s or THK and feed that.

[Cyndi]

Hi HDM, I’m actually going to visit family, so I won’t be staying in a hotel. (even though I’d rather stay in a hotel, lol!) But I am going to gross them all out by bringing a whole quail for Bailey to eat while I’m there. Lol! 🙂

I’ll have to look into the dehydrated or even a pre-mix and see if I can get any of that before I leave. That would be easier than trying to remember to bring everything I feed her in a 5 day period… Bailey has never had any of that before, so I hope, if I do go that route, that none of that messes with her system.

[SandyandMila]

If Gertie can do it, Bailey can do it. 🙂

[Cyndi]

Lol! I think you mean ‘if Hound Dog Mom can do it, Cyndi can TRY to do it!’ Lol!

[SandyandMila]

Well because Gertie has been eating raw for so long and has no issues, I think Bailey can do it too. I love Grandma Lucy’s and THK, they make great products. You can still still feed the raw ground meat with a premix, Bailey might like it.

[Cyndi]

I have another question for you experienced ones. If I start using a premix, which for some reason I’ve never thought of doing before, do I still need to add a one a day vitamin and the Dr. Harvey’s Multi Vitamin Mineral & Herbal Dog Supplement and eggs and stuff like that? I’m kind of figuring I wouldn’t have to still, but figured I’d ask. I order from Chewy and I am leaning towards Dr. Harvey’s Veg-to-Bowl Grain free pre-mix or Grandma Lucy’s Artisan Grain Free Pre-mix. I would add the pre mix to Bailey’s breakfast grind, which is ground beef, ground organs, and ground tripe, I feed that to her every other day in the a.m. and I have been doing the whole carcass ground rabbit on the other days.

As usual, thanks in advance for your help! 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Cyndi –

No, you would not need to add a multivitamin is using a pre-mix. You could add the Dr. Harvey’s supplement still if you wanted. Make sure not to use a pre-mix with a grind which contains bone.

[theBCnut]

If you go with the Dr Harvey’s, get the fine ground, it digests more completely.

[Cyndi]

Thanks HDM! The grind I use for Bailey’s breakfast is just the beef and organs and tripe, that I mix myself. No bone. I wouldn’t use the pre-mix on days when I feed the whole ground rabbit. Thanks for letting me know.

& Patty, I saw they had a fine ground one & that’s the one I had decided on. Makes more sense to me. I think I might just get both the Dr. Harvey’s and the Grandma Lucy’s and use one til it’s gone, then use the other. Maybe Bailey will prefer one over the other, lol!

Thanks guys! 🙂

[Cyndi]

For anyone that uses the premixes, does anyone use either of the two I mentioned…Dr. Harvey’s Veg-to-Bowl Grain free pre-mix or Grandma Lucy’s Artisan Grain Free Pre-mix? Which do you think is better?
I may order both, but if someone recommends one more than the other, I may do that…

[Hound Dog Mom]

I’ve used Dr. Harvey’s veg-to-bowl and veg-to-bowl fine ground. I like the fine ground, the regular came out the same way it went in lol. I’ve never used GL’s pre-mix but I have used the complete and balanced GL foods and I’m a big fan.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by Hound Dog Mom.

[theBCnut]

I’m using the Dr Harvey’s now. I like it for 2 of my dogs, not so much for the third. it’s got some potato in it. I haven’t looked at the GL Artisan yet, does it have potato?

[Cyndi]

Thanks HDM! Yeah, I meant the fine ground of the Dr. Harvey’s. Patty mentioned that yesterday after I had seen that Chewy had it. Good to know they both have your approval. I am going to order both and figure out which I like better. The Grandma Lucy’s is cheaper, but the Dr. Harvey’s does have quite a bit more in it, so we’ll see…

[Cyndi]

Yes Patty, it does, here are the ingredients:
USDA Potatoes, Flax, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Celery, Apples, Bananas, Blueberry, Cranberries, Pumpkin, Garlic, Rosemary, Vitamin A, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, Niacin, Iron, Calcium, Phosphorus, Zinc, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Potassium, Manganese, Chloride, Copper, Magnesium, Pyridoxine, Cyanocobalamin

I’ll just have to wait and see which one I like better I guess. They both looked good to me, lol! Thanks Patty!

[theBCnut]

Potato in Dr Harvey’s is much further down the list than that.

[Cyndi]

Oh, ok. Well, I don’t think Bailey has any issues with potato, so I’ll see. The Dr. Harvey’s has a lot more ingredients too. I may just have to leave it up to Bailey, lol!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Grandma Lucy’s Pureformance pre-mis doesn’t have potato. I really do like Dr. Harveys Veg-to-Bowl fine grind but I just hate the company so much I don’t like buying their products.

[Cyndi]

Quick question for anyone that knows. I would imagine it’s ok to do this, but figured I’d ask. Is it ok for me to mix the Grandma Lucy’s premix up into Bailey food ahead of time and freeze it? I can do either, but I was just getting ready to mix up the beef, organs and tripe and thought it would be a time saver to just add the premix before I portioned it up and just refreeze it all together….

[Hound Dog Mom]

It should be fine.

[Cyndi]

Ok, thanks HDM! 🙂

[losul]

Hi Cyndi.

Do you by chance have the book “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet”? If you do, pages 90 and 91 (2010 edition) gives very good info on frozen storage and quality concerns. The rest of chapter 7 “Storing Foods to Retain Quality” gives excellent info for storing dry foods

[Cyndi]

Hi losul, I do have that book, on my generic iPad. (I bought it when I first came onto this site and HDM recommended it) Not sure which edition I have, but I’ll look that up. I do remember reading the info on the storing dry foods, which I never knew, but I no longer feed dry dog food, but I did pass along that info to people I know.

I’ll look up the info you mentioned on the frozen storage though, thanks! Now that I already froze Bailey’s food, with the premix added, that book is probably going to tell me not to do that, right? Lol!

Thanks for the info! 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

There is some nutrient loss with freezing – but because this is only temporary that you’ll be using the mix I don’t believe there would be any problems. Obviously feeding anything fresh is preferable, but it’s not always possible.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by Hound Dog Mom.

[Cyndi]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help! Now that I know a bit more about raw feeding, I’m gonna have to read thru that whole book again. I absorb more info when I actually read things more than once. & asking stupid questions doesn’t hurt either, lol!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Yeah – basically Steve just talks about how frozen raw foods should be used within three months. If foods are frozen longer than that fats can go rancid and antioxidants can oxidize. This shouldn’t be an issue for your purposes. I’m always going back and re-reading things, especially Steve’s book. Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet is my go to.

[Cyndi]

I always use Bailey’s food up within a month anyways. Probably even less than that. I know I’ve heard before that freezing foods can destroy some nutrients, but I never remember the specifics. That book is very informative. I let my boss borrow it and I’ve shared with him alot of the stuff I’ve learned these last few months and he has completely changed the way he feeds his dog. Next I have to work on my boss of my second job. I found out that she feeds her dogs Shep! I was shocked when I saw the bag of Shep in her house. Ugh!

Thanks for your help, as always! 🙂

[SandyandMila]

I’ve seen that book at walmart.com, I’ll have to check it out.

[losul]

Hy Cyndi!

By now you have maybe already looked it up. I don’t see any serious problem with what you did. In fact I sometimes do the same with small quantitities to be used fairly quickly. Sometimes it’s just not very feasible to do any other way. I guess I mostly just used the opportunity to plug Steve’s book again, lol. While I don’t consider it to be the absolute gospel, I do think he gives a solid foundation to start, so I highly reccomend to folks thinking about starting a raw and/or fresh diet, balancing foods, and/or improving a dogs processed food diet with minimum effort, along with other good tips and advice, and interesting tidbits like gross inaccuracies of professional laboratory analysis testing.

The only thing he hypothesizes about about mixing in vegetables with ground meats before freezing, is that it can further degrade nutrients in the meats and shortens the shelf life because of additional ice crystal formation further damaging the cell walls and making even more exposed to oxidizing agents. It could be a consideration if prepping and freezing for longer periods, or for commercial raw foods that already contain veggies. He says to insist on knowing the production date and then determine yourself the quality shelf life, not just on some of the manufacturers proclaimed 12 month expiration date.

Other things about frozen storage;

for frozen at constant 0 degress, ground meats and whole poultry giblets, USDA only determines to be considered quality that they are used in 3 to 4 months. Whole meats, roasts, poultry, etc., up to 1 year.

Once frozen, and especially ground meats and fish, or especially those with delicate polyunsturated fats, oxidation, degradation, enzyme activity, etc continues, albeit at a slower pace. Ice crystals also grow steadily, increasing damage to cell walls.

I’ve tried to get one friend interested in feeding her (health problems)dogs better, and I had left the book for her to read. She will still have nothing to do with raw, but I thought I had some of it sinking in until visiting recently I saw she again had a large bag of kibble standing wide open in her too warm laundry room. I scolded her carefully(again), closed the bag and brought it in, went and got my book and insisted She read right then and there the section on kibble storage.

I’m convinced that many of todays illnesses are caused by rancidity, nutrient degradation, molds and mycotoxins, and infestatations, from kibble stored too long or under inadequate conditions, especially with the move away from toxic, but more effective, chemical preservatives, and the move towards more delicate fats, and presumably much less toxic, but also much less efficient natural preservatives. I currently feed only about 25% kibble, majority raw, and the rest canned. Probably in the near future I will go to 100% or near, home prepped raw.

[Cyndi]

Thank you losul! I appreciate all that information. Regarding that section of the book on kibble storage, I was in disbelief when I read all that. It totally makes sense, but I never thought of that when I was feeding kibble. It really explains alot! & good for you for pointing that out to your friend. I always try to nicely pass along information I’ve learned over the past 4 or 5 months since being on this site. Most of the people I try to “educate”, don’t believe me when I tell them what goes into most kibble. I always have to send them links to the articles on this site.

[Hound Dog Mom]

I remember being shocked when I read the section on kibble storage as well. Luckily when I fed kibble it generally only took Gus 2 – 3 weeks to go through a bag. Wish I had known back then about not pouring it into a bin though – I always used to put it in a bin. So many people buy bags big enough to last a month or two thinking it’s fine and it’ll save money. 🙁

[Cyndi]

I used to pour my kibble into a big bin too. I had one on wheels. I would always use most of it up and then pour the new bag in on top of what was left. 🙁 & to make matters worse, it was Purina One, and for a while, Pedigree. 🙁 If only I had known then what I know now….

[SandyandMila]

I only buy the smaller 4-5 lb bags and rotate, I only have the one dog so it’s not so bad. And now that I feed mostly raw I only have one bag.

[theBCnut]

I used to buy the 40 lb bags, dump them in a metal trash can, and store them in the hot garage. Man, was I stupid!! Pig ignorant!!

[Cyndi]

Atleast we all know better now.

[BeachMiles]

We are heading out on a 10 day trip, including cross country air travel. Gracie is on a frozen raw diet. We pack it in DRY ICE.

I have found , through experience , that you can carry a cooler with up to 5 pounds of Dry Ice on board.

[silkwingspapillons]

I’ve been making my own raw dog food for 12 years now. I travel with my dogs and have tried to dehydrate their food but have found that there is so much oil in it that I can’t get it to a dry consistency. I got a sample bag of Honest Kitchen this weekend and their food is like powder. I’m wondering how they do that with raw meat. Does anyone have any experience at this and can offer suggestions?

[Cyndi]

Hey everyone, I have a question, possibly a stupid one, but I can’t figure it out…

When I was questioning about premixes at the beginning of this thread, HDM told me “Make sure not to use a pre-mix with a grind which contains bone.” Why is that? I have a few different premixes here that I’m using and I’m just curious to why I don’t want to use them with meat and bone.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 7 months ago by Cyndi.

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