Feeding Raw While Cruising

[foreverfree2bme]

Hello everyone,

My husband and I are in the saving and planning stages of our 4 yr plan. We have a boxer that will be joining us on our adventure while our old man will be staying home with mom. Here on land I feed my dogs a raw diet, after exhaustive research. My dogs have never looked or acted better and the added benifit is that they leave very little "waste" behind. They love fish and I try to give them as much as I can afford so am sure that she will do fine with what we catch but I was wondering about other meats and how readly they can be purchased while sailing the carribean islands. Does anyone on this site feed raw to their pets? What advice would you have?

[ssanzone]

unfortunately, i dont know the answer to your question.

my vet recently told me that it takes 90 days for a dog to fully acclimate to a new food. if may be prudent to introduce a dry food many months prior to the trip in the event you do struggle to from their traditional raw diet while cruising. i would want to be in the middle of a voyage when i discovered that i had to feed the pups something different only to find they wont eat it.

i will be interested to hear what solutions you come up with, so pls keep us (me) informed

[sarafina]

Hi,

I am a RAW feeder as well. Currently our cruising is limited to a week or less. A week before we go I freeze ice in plastic jugs (I use odwalla containers usually) and I get the chicken etc for the week and freeze it in daily packs, either ziplocked or vacusealed. I take a cooler and pack it as tight as I am able, leaving as few air spaces as possible.

Often I have OUR meat packed in as well ;-)

Over the course of the week I pull the meat I need each day, and towards the end the water jugs make cool drinking water, so it all gets put to use.

A more sophisticated way to pack meat for voyages is to get access to a walk in freezer and freeze a layer of water with a plastic grid in it, then freeze a layer of meat packed tight and covered with water, then another layer of water with grid, and another layer of meat, up to the top. River rafters use this method and keep meats for over 2 weeks in this way.

For passages longer than 2 weeks I am not sure what you could do. It would depend on the climate, how much refrigerator/freezer space you had aboard, how much meat you needed.

My girl eats between 1 and 2 lbs a day. On a passage where she is not as active prolly at the lower end. She tends to fast is she is not working out.

One of the advantages of being a raw feeder is that their digestive systems are so much more robust than a kibble fed dog they really have very little trouble with changes to the diet. So if you have to finish a passage with canned it shouldn't be a problem. The stools wont be quite so tidy and dry but hey you will have a whole ocean to sluice off the deck, right?

I find that when I am on board and out of raw she is very happy with a can of costco chicken or beef. In a pinch she will chow down a bowl of rice cooked in stock (not the liquid kind; what ever dry boullion you prefer). I will be stowing an abundant quantity of both for her and us.

When I lived in Panama chicken was readily available, as was fish and beef. Except for VERY remote areas I suspect that you will be able to find supplies, although what the cost will be will depend on the location.

Just remember to bump up the innards and bones when you get to harbor to make up for the days with mostly muscle!

Good luck and good sailing!

[foreverfree2bme]

Thank you for such quick responses.

Good point about the bones and the cans.

[kiltym]

We didn't feed our dogs raw, but there is certainly no lack of meat in the Caribbean, especially chicken. Lots of odd meat pieces (at least to me) are also pretty readily available. Good cuts of beef are typically only found in the "western" supermarkets in various islands, or the local butcher which you may or may not be ok purchasing from.

So, depending on what meat is needed, it may or may not be issue. To do this successfully however I would think an onboard freezer would be almost a necessity so you can spend time away from civilization and still have food for your dog.

We fed our dogs food from The Honest Kitchen and shipped it into various ports once per year to carry enough on board. Pretty good food, and a bit easier then shopping almost daily for dog food, and takes up significantly less room then standard dry food to store onboard.

[Unicorn Dreams]

Welcome Aboard Cruisers Forum

[foreverfree2bme]

I just checked out this site and this looks like a great back up food for when raw is hard to find.

[Ocean Girl]

Yes, great tip on the dehydrated foods company.
Thanks,
Mrs. Rain Dog

[nosinglesource]

This is an issue we've been contemplating as well. Our dog eats 1-2lbs/day so, really, the poundage could add up after a while! And that's without including meat for ourselves.. We'll want to have 1 or 2 freezers if we can possibly help it, and would sacrifice refrigerator space, as there's not much we'd need to keep refrigerated..

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by nosinglesource

This is an issue we've been contemplating as well. Our dog eats 1-2lbs/day so, really, the poundage could add up after a while! And that's without including meat for ourselves.. We'll want to have 1 or 2 freezers if we can possibly help it, and would sacrifice refrigerator space, as there's not much we'd need to keep refrigerated..

Pampered animals indeed. Given that dogs are scavengers , I suspect they'd get used to anything. Why not feed them leftovers from the table. I've owned many dogs. The strongest and healthiest lived on a diet of potato skins, cornflakes and leftover cold tea. ( and a odd bone)!!
Dave

Dave