Dog Food General Advice

[sean.sanchez]

I've got a 70lb Pitbull/American Bulldog mix who will be hiking about 10 states with me on my Thru Hike, he eats a 20lb bag of Purina Dog Chow every 30 days or so. From what I've read so far it seems he'll be eating about double this every month on the trail... Any Advice?

[kanga]

look for a dog food that is higher in protein and fat content that dog chow. many use puppy chow for this reason. you might want to check and see if there is a local mill around you that makes feed for hunting dogs.

[Fog Horn]

Check with your vet and see if it would be okay to put something caloric in his food like olive oil

[kanga]

not on a daily basis. while olive oil can help with calories and dry skin as a temporary aid, too much can cause digestive problems quickly.

[sean.sanchez]

And what about how much to carry, when to mailing or bouncing, etc... I realize I'm soundin like a greenhorn here, but I am, lol

[sean.sanchez]

**When to mail or bounce**

[kanga]

they're both expensive because of the weight, but bouncing dog food is just paying for it 5 billion times over. hiking with a dog definitely changes how you can do a through hike. i mailed reef's dog food to certain p.o.'s where i knew i would want a town stop anyway (erwin, etc..) but sometimes i had to supplement in the smaller towns when i ran out and then i just bought puppy chow. i tried to do that at little as possible though to keep from upsetting her stomach. as for carrying her food, she carried 3 days worth and i carried 4. don't worry about being a greenhorn, everybody starts out that way. you're asking the right questions and that's what counts.

[Perennial]

Just a suggestion... being the owner of 2 dogs with easily upset stomachs, I would definitely let him try out whatever 'new' food he'll be eating on the trail for a period of time before starting the hike. Many dogs have a very hard time adjusting to abrupt changes in their daily diet.

[sean.sanchez]

Lots of good advice! @kanga, I will def check out the mills in my area. Thanks for the info about how you did it, and for noticing my interest in detail. @perennial thanks for that nifty tidbit, good to be refreshed on that subject. Keep It coming hikers!

[Trailweaver]

You also need to check with the vet before you change his diet to a high protein diet. Even with hiking, a higher protein diet may wreak havoc with his kidneys. I once had an animal that I switched to a higher protein diet and it ended up in kidney failure in a few months. The protein molocule is "larger" than other food molocules, and the vet said it literally tore holes in the animal's kidney because there were too many of them. It was a sad lesson to learn.

[stonedflea]

just fyi... i would definitely do a mail drop of dog food at neel's gap. all they had for resupply was ol' roy when we went through there in april, and any dog hiking through georgia will need better nutrition than that.

swayze has an iron stomach and adjusted well to different dog foods throughout the trail. in the "real world," i feed her iams healthy naturals, but that was way too expensive on the trail. like kanga said, mail dropping dog food is basically paying a bajillion times more per bag. i know it sounds better to buy in bulk and ship since a large bag is much cheaper, but by the time you add shipping costs, it's a losing battle.

swayze basically ate pedigree puppy food the entire hike because it's readily available... even dollar general has pedigree food. i would suggest staying away from beneful... i have heard that's the worst dog food you can get, even though it looks relatively healthy. occasionally, i would buy purina one or even a bag of iams if we could get to walmart. she never suffered GI upset from the change in food.

swayze is a vizsla. she started the trail weighing 55#. i weighed her friday on our way home at a vet clinic and she weighed 63#. i was very lucky in that the amount of food she started with in georgia carried her through our entire hike... she always ate 1qt. food/day. she would get her occasional people food like mcdonald's burgers in town or jerky on the trail.

swayze carried no more than 6# of dog food at a time because that's all that would fit in her pack if i put her dog bowl and my guidebook in there, too. anything more than 5 qt. bags, and i carried the rest. you can guess whose pack the excess food came out of first. ;D

[Bags4266]

Don't know the protien level or specs on the food but on hiker I meet along the trail had dehyrated dog food it looked like oatmeal. All I remember was that he said it was expensive. Also don't know how much of a weight savings it would be over regular dry food, but it would be more compact.

[TyTy]

My dog eats Blue Wilderness dog food, its grain free, high protein, SUPER high quality. The portion sizes are much smaller versus cheap dog food. You might look into something like that to save bulk and weight but I would switch the dog gradually well before the hike.

There are a lot of schools of thought on this but I tend to agree with the idea that wild dogs, wolves, etc eat almost nothing but protein. I know most dog trainers and serious dog experts feed their dogs a raw diet of almost nothing but protein. I have also seen first hand how dogs react to cheap dog food with lots of fillers/grains, typically they are fat, lazy, throw up a lot, no energy. You put them on a high quality, high protein dog food and all that changes pretty fast.

My brother's two big labs at cheap Wal-Mart food, they ate a 50lb bag each per month. They dogs were constantly begging for food and threw up each at least once a day. They switched to Chicken Soup for the Dog or some kind of high quality food, thought they were going to spend more. Dogs eat their portion and don't beg, they stopped throwing up on day 2 and have not thrown up since. Their gas has all but stopped and loose stool no more. Their coats are like show dogs, more energy, weight started coming off. Neither of them sit and beg for food, carry their bowls around anymore. Also the dogs don't dive into the bowl like they are starving, they more calmly eat and appear more satisfied afterwards. They save money because the dogs eat less but it is very obvious that they are satisfied.

I'm a big believer in the high quality, no grains, high protein dog foods. Read the ingredients on the back of your bag, they go in order of most to least. Cheap dog foods (Science Diet included...which is what most vets recommend but is the same old crap) is mostly corn, grains, oatmeal, flour...since when did carnivore's eat corn and oatmeal?

[Gaiter]

Another vote for Blue...

biggest thing is that dogs tend not to handle their brands being switched very well, so unfortunately a bounce box or mail drops are usually needed,
what ever your typical brand is, switching to the puppy version is a good option for a long hike

before the hike start to combine his normal food with his hike food, mixing them together will allow for an easy adjustment to the new food...

[Ken_Elwood]

Science Diet included...which is what most vets recommend but is the same old crap

The reason being for that is because the Hill's Company will help pay for veterinarian education if you agree to promote they're crap. it's the biggest dog food facade ever!

If you plan on hiking 10 states with your dog then that dog's caloric intake is going sky rocket! my first suggestion is to count how many calories your dog typically eats in a day, a 90 lbs dog should be in the ballpark of: 3,500 to 5,500 calories per day. This may sound like a lot but if you look at the back of your dog food bag you'll see something like "1,500 calories/lb". Now before anyone objects I would like to say that this is a very rough estimate. There are way too many variables to take into account; climate, season, activity level, the list goes on! when you know your dogs caloric intake then you can begin to calculate how much food your dog is going to need when on the trail. my second suggestion is to decide whether or not a brand like Purina is compatible for hiking with you or your dog. "Purina dog chow" per pound has more calories than the aforementioned "Blue Buffalo" however whether or not those calories are going to be a better investment is a different matter, because Purina's ingredients are not nearly as rich as "blue Buffalo". if you've watched the documentary "Forks over Knives" then you know what I'm talking about, you see there are these sensors in your (and your dog's) stomach that send messages to the brain how many calories are in your stomach and foods made with lesser ingredients seem to trick your stomach into thinking that you're not meeting your daily caloric intake when in actuality you're exceeding it. So in my BIAS opinion dog foods like but not limited to: "Blue Buffalo", "Natural Balance", "Solid Gold", "Nature's Variety", "Wellness", "Orijen", ETC. are the best kinds of food to feed your dog not just for hiking but to improve your dogs all around health.

I hope you find this information useful and good luck to you and your companion! =D

P.S. If you have any questions then I would be happy to help you (or anyone for that matter) answer them.

[TyTy]

The reason being for that is because the Hill's Company will help pay for veterinarian education if you agree to promote they're crap. it's the biggest dog food facade ever!

Exactly. I was so disappointed when I found this all out and started reading the labels. I bought my dog Science Diet without checking simply because I thought it was the best...that is what my vet sold so why wouldn't I think it was the best. When I started comparing labels, its the same junk as in the Wal-Mart junk dog food! So not only was I feeding my dog junky food, I was paying more for the junk. Makes you wonder what else vets are peddling that is not as good.

[Lea13]

Wow, this is a really great series of responses. I'm just curious, but what are people's opinions of wet dog food on the trail? Obviously it's going to be heavier, but I've put a couple of cans into ziploc bags for my dogs when I've taken them on 4-day hikes before because I know that's their favorite and I figured the protein / calorie levels would be higher than dry food.
On a longer hike, dry food seems to be a lot more practical, but I was wondering if wet food would still be a good occasional treat, or if there's any reason other than weight that most hikers don't seem to use wet food on the trail.
I'm trying to plan a thru-hike w my dog in the next couple of years and want to learn as much about dog nutrition and first-aid as possible.

[Gaiter]

once the can is open you have to worry about it going bad, (i worked in a kennel and doggie daycare for several years, believe me it can happen)
i've seen some wet/moist in packets, which would be a little more reasonable to carry, you could also moisten the food with a little warm water
for a long trip, i would think that wet would be a good 'in town' treat, (which i might do for my dog now that the idea is in my head)
we gorge ourselves, eating all kinds of **** when we get into town, why not the dogs too!
the major disadvantage to wet is that dry is better for their teeth and gums, unless its an older dog

[Serial 07]

we feed our dog mostly raw and have found awesome dehydrated dog food online that's full of meat and veggies...it seems to us that 8lbs of this dehydrated food will feed our pup for 2 weeks or so...we have a 60lb weimaraner...

[kanga]

ooh! link?