Well, I've gone raw with Jenga, and I couldn't be happier. All this time I thought you guys were exaggerating about the benefits, but you were bang on.

Here's my dilemma - I'm going camping in a few weeks, and as you might imagine, it would be difficult to bring along a week's work of raw chicken. We'll be pretty far from town, and the cooler would only be good for the first day or two - it'll be on while we're driving there but not once we're there. So I bought some Nature's Variety raw instinct, a small bag. Given Jenga's past with kibble (bad poops, ear infections that may or may not have been linked but are no longer appearing on raw), I decided to try it out in advance. Well, he had EXPLOSIVE diarrhea. I have never in my life seen such awful diarrhea. I thought it would be just absolute torture to keep him on it, even though everyone was telling me he just needed time to adjust.

So, I need some input - was I right for not feeding the diarrhea kibble after his reaction to it? And secondly, does anyone have any ideas on feeding raw while camping? I don't have a dehydrator, and I can't keep buying food that I'll end up throwing out. Maybe there is no answer, but I just thought I'd ask just in case.


PS. I searched this forum, but not terribly thoroughly - I apologize if this has been covered already.

Hi Heather, did you just feed the kibble for one whole meal, or did you put a little kibble into Jenga's raw and ease him into it for a few days?

Once your dog has really acclimated to raw, switching back and forth to kibble without easing one into the other can cause problems. We did a similar thing when we went on vacation last summer and left Oscar's babysitter with kibble only - he was fine going ONTO the kibble, I'm pretty sure (at least I didn't hear anything was wrong), but going BACK to raw he had terrible diarrhea for a few days. We didn't do any transitioning ...

If you have a few weeks before you go, and kibble does sound like your best bet while out in the woods for a while, start to transition him onto kibble NOW, with increasing amounts mixed into his raw. If the results don't change even WITH the transition, maybe that particular kibble just isn't right for him? It's worth a try... maybe someone else has some info on that specific brand of food...

~Natalya

That's a good point, Natalya. I switched him cold turkey. I've never had dogs with sensitive stomaches and that's never been a problem, but obviously I need to take it a little slowly with Jenga. He does fine switching onto raw and handles the variety within his raw diet just fine, but kibbles, eek.

I'm almost afraid to try the nature's variety again because man, it was awful. Maybe I will try to ease it in, though.

Heather, maybe you should switch him onto the kibble that he USED to eat, since, while he may have had long term problems with it, at least it didn't sound like he had tummy trouble short term?

It's a pain. We travel occassionaly with Oscar (not usually to anywhere without a fridge or a supermarket ) but it's always more complicated when you try to maintain the raw while away from home. Sometimes, we don't bring anything but his bowls and just go shopping for him at each meal - he LOVES the exoticism of that, since the ingredients are always different than what he gets at home!

For your situation though, kibble sounds most practical - unless that is Jenga is quick enough to CATCH his own meals! .

Good luck,
~Natalya

 Quote: Heather Williams

Here's my dilemma - I'm going camping in a few weeks, and as you might imagine, it would be difficult to bring along a week's work of raw chicken. We'll be pretty far from town, and the cooler would only be good for the first day or two - it'll be on while we're driving there but not once we're there. ....

How about dehydrated? It's easy to rehydrate.

http://www.leerburg.com/honestkitchen.htm

Travel is exactly why I always have it in the house.

If you can carry any meat (cooked or raw) to add to it, it will make it much more familiar to the dog... I would use some as a gravy for a few meals before the trip so the dog isn't shocked when you present it on the camping trip, and, as I say, if you can add any meat to it on the camping trip, that'd be great. If you can't ... well, that's OK, and it's completely balanced.

Force and Embark are grain-free.

And no, I wouldn't keep a dog on kibble that was causing explosive diarrhea.

Good call Connie!! I wasn't even THINKING of THK!!
past my bedtime here on the east coast...

~Natalya

I forgot about THK, but duh, Heather! I've never tried it - is there ANY chance it could cause the same reaction even if I introduce it slowly? Has anyone ever had dogs that couldn't handle it?

After feeding my pup THK Embark (Turkey) for a day or 2, he begins to get gas. Not pleasant when traveling

Haven't tried any other THK though.

 Quote: Heather Williams

Here's my dilemma - I'm going camping in a few weeks, and as you might imagine, it would be difficult to bring along a week's work of raw chicken. We'll be pretty far from town, and the cooler would only be good for the first day or two -

Does this mean that the humans on this trip won't be eating out of the cooler after the first few days? What will you all eat?

I think you should invest in another cooler. Think of it this way: if the dog was on kibble, you would just cart it along and leave it out in the open because it doesn't require refridgeration. But now that you feed raw, you should probably consider that your dog's food needs to be preserved now. If you all get coolers for your food, I think the dog should get the same. A week is not that long; there should be a cooler that can handle the load.

By the way, a good trick to insulate a cooler is to put comforters over it. It will make a difference!

 Quote: Rick Miller

Does this mean that the humans on this trip won't be eating out of the cooler after the first few days? What will you all eat?

If you're camping out of your CAR a few large coolers could certainly last a while - and you're right, if the people are eating out of the cooler that long, so should the dog. However, the only times I've ever been backpacking/camping for more than a few days (away from our vehicle), there was NO WAY we were packing in a cooler with food that needed to be refridgerated. ALL our food (that's people food) was dry or dehydrated and we boiled water from streams if we needed to rehydrate something - did a lot of that actually. That's just a sacrifice you make when you're limited to the carrying capacity of your body, but it's not really a big deal.

I like the idea of The Honest Kitchen dehydrated food because it will weigh far less than raw chicken, and probably compress well, yet is surely a much healthier option than kibble. It's only a week...

Heather, what type of camping is this exactly? Will you be hiking away from your car for days at a time, or is there the option of an industrial strength, week-long cooler set up?

~Natalya