Raw food that travels well: More good news
Until last week, we were feeding Chloe frozen raw food at home (from a Seattle company called Natural Pet Pantry — yes, Chloe rejected all of the nationally-available brands) and a motley assortment of foods on the road, including Taste of the Wild and Now! kibble, and Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried raw food. I’ve been wavering in my allegiance to frozen raw food since my brother, an infectious disease specialist, asked over Easter break how confident I was that I wasn’t putting Chloe in a position to contract toxoplasmosis. Not that confident, it turns out, but I still hankered for the benefits of a raw diet.
Enter ZiwiPeak’s air-dried raw food — or, rather, re-enter, because I tried it out on Chloe as a puppy and she rejected it then as vigorously as she rejected every other food we offered her. For the past week, however, she’s been wolfing it down, and I’m convinced enough that it’s a keeper that I’ve invested in a couple of the big bags of venison and lamb. I’m pleased, too, because this food will travel well, so I don’t have to switch diets on her just when she’s dealing with the stress of travel and jet lag. One last thing to celebrate: Portion sizes for ZiwiPeak air-dried food are very small (just 2 oz. a day for a dog Chloe’s size), so this food doesn’t take up a lot of packing space either.
Please note that the Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried raw food I mentioned also packs easily and is a quality product, but Chloe doesn’t consistently love it, and rehydrating it takes more time than she’s willing to wait.
Related posts:
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- Feeding a picky dog while traveling: Sending frozen raw dog food ahead Otherwise trouble-free, Chloe is a very picky eater. After extensive trial and error, we’ve found something she likes: The raw...
- Dog food kit: Packing food and treats for a long trip On our first trips, I packed food, treats and training kibble in separate Ziploc bags, and put them in Chloe’s...
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Given that you do a LOT of plane travel with Chloe, I imagine that a “healthy” and “easy to pack” dog food don’t always go together. At the recommendation of @DoggyBytes, we tried and switched to a dehydrated raw food for Ty and Buster back in December. So far, so good – keeping our duclaws crossed!
Just re-read my comment. Don’t know if it’s important to add that the dehydrated food we’re using is from The Honest Kitchen. It probably takes 2 minutes to re-hyrdate.
Hi, Rod! The Honest Kitchen food IS good-quality, and rehydrates easily, and is feather-light. Chloe, however, won’t touch it (and to me it smells like rehydrated instant soup, so I can’t blame her!). I’d LOVE it if it worked for her, but it doesn’t.
We sell Ziwipeak and it is a great raw dried product. Also good for raw eaters on the go is Addiction dehydrated. It is a great product as well, for pets on the go.
Cheers
Neal
@growlies
Hello, Neal! Thanks for your comment and your recommendation. I ran out yesterday and bought a box of Addiction (figs & venison flavor) and I’ll try it out on Chloe once she’s fully on-track with the ZiwiPeak. I’m always happy to hear about good travel food alternatives!!
Traveling in the US it isn’t as important but for any international travel or travel to Hawaii the bag will have to be brand new unopened or it will be confiscated at the border.
If I am traveling and cannot bring their food with them I have been known to order them chicken and broccoli at a Chinese restaurant with rice (hold the sauce) which they love and is calming on their stomachs in case of any stress.
Interesting, Felissa! It’s good to know that you’ve encountered a rule like that — easy enough to pack a full, unopened bag of dog food if you’re prepared ahead of time. (And I like the travel food alternative!)