Fresh feeding pets while travelling
If you're anything like me, organising anything to do with the holiday season is a mad scramble, fighting the urge to just tap out and call it a year. Just when I think I've got it all vaguely together, I remember...
Dog food.
Every second year we go to Melbourne for Christmas and, now that we have a human child, we typically leave the dogs at home (once upon a time we would road trip and take them with us).
Fresh feeding definitely complicates travelling with pets, whether it's because you need to explain the process to a pet sitter, get everything organised for a pet motel, or plan for yourself on the road with pets. It's been a decade since Tex and I packed up our life in Melbourne and headed to sunny Byron Bay, so we've got a bit of experience with this.
HOLIDAY CHECKLIST
There are some things you need to organise if you're travelling and have pets, no matter your plans. We've put together this handy checklist that you can use to prepare for the festive season, or anytime you go on vay-cay.
Their essentials
Depending how fancy your pets are, they may have more luggage than the average Millennial dad on a Jetstar flight. Either way, make sure before you go that you've either packed up or set out your pet's essentials. Things like their collars and leashes, temporary name tags with your pet sitter's number, food and water bowls, beds, dog poo bags, dog towels, brushes and any other tools of the trade you rely on day-to-day. There's no need to overcomplicate it, but everyone's idea of "essential" is different.
Contacts
Put together any important phone numbers you or your pet's carer might need while you're away, eg. the vet, emergency contacts, and your neighbours.
Medication
Make sure you've got enough of any regular medications your pets will need to cover the period you're away, including for any foreseeable things like fireworks anxiety, or digestive upset from eating too many table scraps. If they take any regular parasite preventatives (like for fleas & ticks), check if they're due while you're away and make sure there's enough if they are. Do they have any allergies or sensitivities anyone needs to know about?
Supplements
Meal balancing supplements are a great way to easily bulk-prep pet food in advance for a pet sitter. They're also especially helpful if you're taking your pets with you and need to prepare balanced fresh food on the road, using meat you source in your travels each day. If your pet has a nervous tummy, you might want to get them some probiotics. We have our P.E.A. on a subscription to ensure we never run out of Tex's pain relief. If you give a rotation of powder supplements, you might consider consolidating them into a pre-mixed blend, so whoever is feeding your pet only has to add one thing to each meal. Depending on what it is, you could potentially add supplements to any meal-prep; all of our meal balancers can be mixed with a base protein and frozen.
Treats and enrichment
There's never been a better time to stock up on training treats, long lasting chews, enrichment feeders, toys or any other tools you use to keep your pets regulated when they're not in their normal routine. Using treats for positive reinforcement is a great way to get animals used to new places, people or other pets. Change can be stressful for dogs and cats, so giving them something to chew on once they're settled is a great way to engage their minds and stimulate calm, by producing happy, reward chemicals in the brain.
Routines
Never underestimate the power of a routine. It's a good idea to leave detailed information about your pet's typical routines, your individual animal quirks, their typical behaviours (good and bad), common communication methods (eg. which commands they understand), as well as any general dos and don'ts, house rules, and other bits of helpful advice, for whoever is caring for them while you're away.
Safety info
If you have a well behaved angel who had a happy childhood, maybe this section will be light on, but it's super important that you're up front about any behavioural information that's necessary to keep everyone safe, like reactivity triggers and situations to avoid. If necessary, discuss how to secure your property and contain any wannabe escapees.
Food
A lot of the things in this list so far are pretty straightforward and don't require much effort, but food is one that will vary depending on what your plans entail, and it can feel a bit overwhelming if your pet's usual food routine isn't practical. Because let's be real, a pet motel isn't going to prep your DIY dog food every day, and you can't pack a few weeks of raw meat into the esky, so you'll need workarounds if your usual approach is to DIY your pet food.
The most important thing is to make sure there's enough food for the time you're away, regardless of what kind. If you need to switch to a prepared option, or even a shelf stable one, that's absolutely fine. Just make sure you include any instructions for when to feed and how much, any helpful tips, or any safety requirements, such as feeding in seperate spaces if you have multiple dogs.
We've put together our top tips for feeding your pets a fresh food diet over the holidays, and we asked an expert to fill our knowledge gaps (pet boarding facilities, travelling with cats).
PET-SITTER-PREP
We're lucky enough to have friends and family that can help care for our dogs in our home when we're away, which is definitely the easiest option for our two kelpies, one of whom is senior and the other who is anxious and reactive. If you have pets that have special needs or who don't cope well with changes to their routines, pet sitting in your home is definitely one of the best options. If you don't have friends or family that can help, websites like Mad Paws can connect you with verified sitters.
For us, it also means we don't have to worry about someone storing several weeks worth of food for us, because our dogs eat 1kg of food per day and we have a chest freezer for them. In the past I have stocked up on pre-made and portioned food, such as Big Dog patties, purely for the convenience factor - and this is a great option that I recommend! This time I didn't think to do that, and in fact I placed a World 4 Pets order of DIY raw feeding ingredients, scheduled to be delivered the day I leave *facepalm*
I've spoken in the past about how I don't really meal-prep, rather I order food to last about a month at a time, and I roughly balance the order by tallying meat, organs, bones, fish and extras in the approximate portions I want, then I use a meal balancing blend to take care of the nitty gritty. This means I can just grab things out of the freezer to defrost pretty freely, and it also empowers my partner to confidently feed our dogs, without me needing to micro manage it and without either of us spending a few hours a month repackaging everything in daily portions.
In this case, we packaged up the dog food order into 1kg bags of a few different things, which equal a day of food for my two dogs, so our sitter just needs to defrost a bag each day, and serve. We have a blackboard in our kitchen where I've listen important info like how much food they each get daily, plus any medications and supplements.
I've also stocked up on bulk treats and long lasting chews to help keep them in line and manage busy brains that are likely a bit unregulated due to being outside their routine and away from their grounding force (me). I've organised for my neighbour to help out with any incidental things that pop up, and I've left really detailed instructions about any quirks, reactivity triggers, usual haunts, location of important items, sleeping arrangements and an other important bits of info.
If you're a fresh feeder and want to make things easier for your sitter, you could switch to a shelf stable food like Frontier, but be mindful that stress can cause animals to go off their food or get an upset tummy, so I would recommend sticking with their usual food if you've got a sensitive soul.
PET-MOTEL-ETIQUETTE
I've never actually used a kennel, pet motel or other type of boarding facility, so I called in an expert to advise on this. Rhianne Cork owns Meowhaus, the amazing feline-first cattery in Melbourne. Full disclosure, I've known Rhianne and her brood for close to two decades, but this only serves to cement my trust in her for all things cat and cat motel-related.
According to Rhianne, pretty much all boarding facilities will let you BYO pet food, because so many animals are on special diets these days. Cats (and dogs) will often go off their food during stressful periods, so keeping their food consistent means it's easier to pinpoint whether an animal is stressed, or just doesn't like their new food. She also lists "less diarrhoea" as a solid incentive to not make abrupt dietary changes, especially during a time of potential stress.
She prefers a few days portioned at a time (regardless of what you feed), because it's so common for the first few days to be low appetite, so any portioning is immediately out the window. But a lot of places do require daily portions, so this is something you'll just need to check with them and make accomodations for.
Her advice for choosing a facility is to try and find one whose business ethics align with yours.
"It is always a big leap of faith to leave your pet in someone else's care, so you want to feel confident they understand your pet and its needs. Ask questions of them - they shouldn't mind answering - and boarding businesses vary wildly in terms of standards, approaches etc. Find one that clicks with you."
Rhianne doesn't have a preference for if bring your own food or not, but says the key is to ensure you provide as much info as possible about things like habits, health and food, including any feeding instructions. She also allows owners to settle their pets into their suite in-person (apparently most places don't!), so this gives you an opportunity to discuss any quirks with staff in person as well.
You can check out the Meowhaus here!
ON THE ROAD
Tips for feeding while travelling with fresh-fed pets is actually a really common query I receive, and the inspiration behind this post. Whether you're heading to a pet-friendly Airbnb, going on a road trip or setting up camp somewhere, if you're taking your pet with you, you will need to feed them.
I've done many a driving road trip with my dogs, travelling to Melbourne from Byron Bay and everywhere in between. The easiest way to feed your pets on the road is to simply not feed them fresh food - but as we've discussed, this can come with its own issues, such as digestive upset if your pet is sensitive to sudden dietary changes.
In the past I have used pre-portioned raw food, but this is really only feasible if you have space to store it in your esky or the hotel bar fridge. It's manageable with two large dogs, because they go through a 3kg box before it has a chance to go bad, but if you have a smaller animal this can be tricky. Now when I road trip, I research pet shops on the road or head to the supermarket to buy a 1kg portion of meat or bones, then I add a meal balancing supplement. It's a little more work logistically, but it's preferable than dealing with days worth of defrosting raw food in a very limited space.
Some great places along the east coast to drop in a pick up your supplies are Scratch and Sniff in Ballina and Yamba, Maggie's in Coff's Harbour, Pet Mince Direct in South East Queensland, or the Pet Food Shops in regional Victoria, including the surf coast.
If I'm away for a camping trip, I also stock up on shelf stable extras like sardines, mussels, oysters, mackerel and eggs for an easy way to add variety and plan ahead. Depending on how enthusiastic you're feeling about camping food, you could also get creative and prepare things like doggy overnight oats with Norm or Hunde (and water) before you go to bed - just don't forget to bring a jar!
Make sure you've packed loads of treats and long-lasting chews for boredom busting in the car, plus all their usual essentials. I also highly recommend looking up dog parks on the journey for regular breaks to stretch your legs (two and four).
My final piece of advice if you're travelling with (or without) pets is to give yourself a little grace. It's been a weird few years and we're all tired; give yourself permission to be imperfect and get some rest.
And of course, happy holidays, whatever that looks like for you!
