Whay kind of dog food while cruising

down_shift · Mar 4, 2015

The best game in town for pet food storage:
http://www.amazon.com/Vittles-Vault-STACKable-40-Stackable/dp/B0002H3S5K
I kept dry food at our boat in a smaller version for months with no issues.

capta · Mar 4, 2015

We used canned dog food only on our circumnavigation. There is no possibility that it can go bad or be contaminated. We would buy large quantities where it was available and cheap.
Even in the best container it is possible for the dry food to get moisture in it and if you are where you cannot replace it, your dog is going to be eating your food, which you may not have planned on.

Justin_NSA · Mar 4, 2015

I have no experience on this subject but I would suspect that if dry food isn't vacuum packed, moisture could be a problem.
I'd be more concerned about what is coming out, not going in

markwbird · Mar 4, 2015

A German Shepard?

You are taking a German Shepard cruising in the gulf? I have two Aussies and I have taken them on weekenders in Northern California and they love being with us but they hate sailing. Seasick. Have you had your dog sailing before? Overnight? It's hot in the gulf. Also, German Shepherds shed more than any breed alive. If you have not done so already I suggest some test trips. That will be hard on the dog.

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Mar 4, 2015

Check where the coconuts grow blog. They have done a couple of posts on this topic. Most recently they talked about the issue that Beniful is one of the few brands you can get and a few dogs in the USVI are becoming sick potentially from this food.

Paul Mermelstein · Mar 4, 2015

Consider what's best for your dog. If you have not done so, take him/her out for several overnight trips, in messy weather. Check out for seasickness, also if it has to "go" and you're not at land, then what, etc. I know a number of people that cruise with dogs (mostly small), so it's doable, depending upon the dog, the conditions, how long, etc.

Stu Jackson · Mar 5, 2015

Wouldn't it depend on what the dog likes? My old terrier didn't like dry dog food at all.

Dog food = canned corned beef hash, at least for my family. I like it, they hate it.

People have been sailing with their dog for ages. Beats me why folks would do it with 100 pound dogs, but most times it's (they're?) actually part of their family, so they actually enjoy getting up at o'dark thirty to bring them to shore.

That's true dedication and I applaud them for their commitment and the enjoyment of their pets.

No end to dogs-on-boats threads here and elsewhere.

Woof woof

CloudDiver · Mar 5, 2015

If you decide to change your dog food brand based on a recommendation make sure you slowly change from the old food to the new food by mixing them in a reducing ratio over at least a week. A sudden change in diet is very disruptive to a dog's sensitive digestive process.
If you want a good brand, try Wellness. Its expensive ($60) for the large bag, but that's because it has no fillers like corn meal which dogs can't even digest anyway. The first ingredient is meat, fancy that! Anyway, your dog will keep more of the good stuff in his body and poops are smaller and drier. Not sure you can find this brand outside US pet retailers like Petco or Petsmart.

capta · Mar 5, 2015

CloudDiver said:
A sudden change in diet is very disruptive to a dog's sensitive digestive process.

Seriously?
Our dog ate whatever was available beyond her canned food. If we caught a fish she was right there for scraps, while it was being cleaned. She loved raw tuna and dolphin. Even some vegetables and any meat, from lobster to kangaroo. I've never met a dog with a sensitive digestive process. She never got sea sick either.
In Fakarava, there was a dog which would walk out on the reef at low tide and catch fish to eat. It didn't seem to have any problem with fish bones, either. It's owner had never even heard of 'dog food"!

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Mar 5, 2015

CloudDiver said:
If you decide to change your dog food brand based on a recommendation make sure you slowly change from the old food to the new food by mixing them in a reducing ratio over at least a week. A sudden change in diet is very disruptive to a dog's sensitive digestive process.
If you want a good brand, try Wellness. Its expensive ($60) for the large bag, but that's because it has no fillers like corn meal which dogs can't even digest anyway. The first ingredient is meat, fancy that! Anyway, your dog will keep more of the good stuff in his body and poops are smaller and drier. Not sure you can find this brand outside US pet retailers like Petco or Petsmart.

Our dog is 7 now. A short while before we rescued her a friend lost her dog to what is believed to be food related poisoning. Her vet told her that the dog food companies process allowed for a certain amount of contaminants that had built up in her dogs system over the 6 years he was fed the same brand of food.

I also wanted a dog that would be a good cruising dog. We had only just started local cruising in our C&C 24 at the time but I knew I wanted this lifestyle. I had read that you can always find dog food in the islands, just not the same brand you normally buy in the states.

So right from the beginning I would change her food every time I needed a new bag and I would only buy the small bags. I told my vet I was doing this and we did the slow mix/crossover thing at first. We also give her people food, both raw and cooked. But by the time she was 2 I could feed her what every. She is very healthy and active. Now it goes to even bigger extremes. I take her to work with me every day and she gets breakfast at the office and usually gets dinner on the boat. I have different foods at both locations. No issues at all with this approach.

Just some food for thought for would be cruisers with dogs.

Fair winds,

Jesse

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Mar 5, 2015

capta said:
In Fakarava, there was a dog which would walk out on the reef at low tide and catch fish to eat. It didn't seem to have any problem with fish bones, either. It's owner had never even heard of 'dog food"!

haha. I like that! My dog will go clamming. If we are walking the beach at low tide she will dig up razor clams, break them open and eat them. Don't know how she learned that trick and people are always amazed when pull the inflatable up to the beach and she hops out and starts digging for clams.

down_shift · Mar 5, 2015

Shopping for a dinghy now. How to the inflatables hold up to dog nails? I have a pair of tollers that sail with us but leave behind if we are on the hook - no dinghy.

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Mar 5, 2015

down_shift said:
Shopping for a dinghy now. How to the inflatables hold up to dog nails? I have a pair of tollers that sail with us but leave behind if we are on the hook - no dinghy.

We haven't had an issue in 5 years. Our current dingy is a hypalon.

Bill1565 · Mar 5, 2015

down_shift said:
Shopping for a dinghy now. How to the inflatables hold up to dog nails? I have a pair of tollers that sail with us but leave behind if we are on the hook - no dinghy.

We had shepard mutts and a golden mix for 30 years. Had 2 hypalon dingys, but i wasn't the dogs that did them in. Id be cautious of big dogs in a hard dingy as the can heel and fill with water..

CloudDiver · Mar 6, 2015

Human being respond to trauma and illness in different ways than dogs. Worst case trauma a human experiences cardiac arrest, where dogs respond immediately with digestive disruption (vomiting or diahrreha/both). A sudden change in diet has an immediate effect on most dogs, some more extreme than others. I think that you make a valid point, that dogs who are accustomed to eating a variety of foods build a resistance to diet change shocks.
I've been a pet parent for most of life. It is simply always my policy to never feed my dogs people food or scraps, its a discipline thing (I hate begging dogs). I buy the more expensive food that is not full of fillers like corn so the nutrition stays in my dog. A good friend of mine has 3 very beautiful Viszlas. He feeds them cheap Purina from Walmart. Not only do they eat twice as much but their poops are big, soft, and they are gassy more often. I spend more on each bag of food but I imagine I am buying less bags per year and more of the food stays in my dogs body.

capta said:
Seriously?
Our dog ate whatever was available beyond her canned food. If we caught a fish she was right there for scraps, while it was being cleaned. She loved raw tuna and dolphin. Even some vegetables and any meat, from lobster to kangaroo. I've never met a dog with a sensitive digestive process. She never got sea sick either.
In Fakarava, there was a dog which would walk out on the reef at low tide and catch fish to eat. It didn't seem to have any problem with fish bones, either. It's owner had never even heard of 'dog food"!

woodster · Mar 6, 2015

CloudDiver said:
A good friend of mine has 3 very beautiful Viszlas. He feeds them cheap Purina from Walmart. Not only do they eat twice as much but their poops are big, soft, and they are gassy more often.

thats because it has a diuretic in it to aid against heartworms......and yes it is a mess.....

Sailor Sue · Mar 6, 2015

I can't comment on different dod foods, but when we went to the Bahamas with two cats we took three months worth of dry food. We bought big (maybe 2 gallon size) zip-lock bags and then double bagged all the food. It kept just fine the whole trip.