SHTF Pet Diet
image courtesy of: http://sophieuliano.com/whats-in-your-pet-food/
DISCLAIMER: I am not a veterinarian, I do not practice or prescribe medicine. I do not diagnose or claim to treat or cure any disease or illness. If you need medical advice for your pet or your furry child needs treatment, please seek out a licensed veterinarian. All readers are strongly encouraged to research the safety and efficacy of the food/medicine you choose to give your pet and develop your own opinion. The topics discussed here are hypothetical for informational purposes only and require a heavy dose of common sense.
As is with anything in a SHTF scenario, make sure that you have extra stocks of food for your pet, whatever that may be. It’s weird to me to see preppers with all kinds of food storage when it comes to their own diet, but they have no food plan for their pets. Please do your pet a favor and make sure that they have enough food to last them several months (at the least). Also be aware that many bagged food items will not keep much past the expiration date as some of the nutrients in the food begin to degrade. It may be wise to stock up on some dry and some wet food to give yourself more food stocking options. Also make sure that these options are easy to grab and store in your vehicle in case you need to bug-out (read about the concept of the pet bug-out bag under the “Random Considerations: Pet Things to Think About When SHTF”).
What if you have to resort to food in the wild?
Hope you are ready for my soapbox….
We have turned the average pet diet into a whole host of things that it naturally is not. The first ingredient in most pet food should NOT be grain. Cats are obligate carnivores, as they need to have taurine in order to survive. A dog’s diet is more omnivorous, meaning that dogs can eat a diet that is filled with both vegetable and meat sources. There are plenty of people who make their own homemade pet food, and they post their ingredient lists online–some of them are pretty accurate considering the biology of their pet, so it may be worth taking into consideration in case you need to resort to making your own pet food in a SHTF scenario.
As you may imagine, it drives me crazy that no one bothers to read the ingredient lists of their pet’s food (let alone ingredient lists on their own food). Research what your animal would eat if it lived in the wild and stock up on those items, if possible. Also remember to research what is toxic to your animal, and what some of these toxic foods look like in the wild so your pet will remain healthy during a bug-out situation in SHTF.
The upside to this is that you may be able to feed them what you catch in the wild. Raw meat is great for providing many nutrients (such as taurine), since these nutrients break down in the cooking process. On the contrary, the likelihood of giving your pet worms increases with raw meat intake. Many pets end up eating grass in order to give themselves fiber in a high-protein diet. Pro-tip: It may be wise to start integrating some more wild-type food in with your pet’s dry or canned food to get them used to the taste and allow their bowels to adjust before SHTF.
