Pet food WTSHTF
 

I just browsed this thread...

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=276352

and it got me to thinking, I've got two cats (no dog yet until I get a bigger place), and while they're probably pretty good foragers, it might be a good idea for all of us pet owners to figure out what to do to feed our animal friends WTSHTF.

In all seriousness, would it be practical to raise mice or any other small animals for cat food? What about food for dogs or other pets?

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

buy a bb gun, sit in your backyard and watch the power lines.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

Chicken of the Sky! Brilliant idea. I'll have to see if I can use a BB gun in the city limits where I live.

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When TSHTF - I might just use a .22 in town on doves and squirrels for fresh meat... I won't be worrying much about legal or not legal. Prudent and Moral will be my law.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

Just did this for this same purpose,bought a crossman 760, best bb gun I had as a kid + I think its good for my girls to learn to shoot with!
On sale @ walleys for $25, usually they are $40 nowadays!

...Chicken of the sky LMFAO!!!!!

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

I feed a non preservative feed, but the dog likes almost everything we eat just fine. I intend to share, watching for defecencies. Birds and rodents may not last long and get hunted out, plus that can call the door kickers your way.

Deer were nearly hunted to extinction last depression.

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And when you figure that the U.S. population is more than double what it was back during the Depression, the picture is even less rosy.

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I have a blue heeler (australian cattle dog) and i love her...BUT

if TS really HTF we will be eating our pets, not feeding them.

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Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

+1

a lot of pet owners don't want to think of this possiblity
but if it comes down to feeding your family
meat is meat
your family members don't have to know where it came from

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

wshtf pets are food

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

If it ain't a working animal, it's food.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

And when the pets are gone, take the most useless family member and put them on the menu. Once you step over the line, it will be easier to do so think about that when you decide to saute Rover to feed the kids.

Remember the Donner Party?

The last man standing will be the best fed; a Pyhrric victory, at best.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

Don't worry about the cats and dogs. They are carnivores and we will need a way to dispose of the dead. Dogs and cats will serve this disposal function very well WTSHTF and we are busy with strict survival. When the smoke clears then look to treat your pets with table scraps.

Let�s face it, when it really gets ugly we will have no choice but to get Medieval.

Think Donner party

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

Sorry, but the Rott stays with the family while the hound and I are out poachin the next thing to eat if TSHTF...neighbor kids beware, but my dogs are part of the team!

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Any pets left/allowed outside during prolonged disaster will end up being stir fry. As will rats, mice, raccoons, etc., etc.

"Other pets" and possibly "dead humans" may be your only option unless you have a mountain of "Mountain House Tender Vittles" stacked up.

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Yep.... remind me not to get snowbound with this crew. :bear_w00t:

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Wouldn't it be better to start learning vermiculture instead of sacrificing Fido??

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http://www.vermiculture.com/

are you talking about eating worms ?
while i've never done this, i am open to the idea
i've heard that worms are a good source of protein and have heard about cooking contest using worms

http://www.ehow.com/how_2028596_eat-fried-worms.html


on the other hand, i think people would more readily eat Fido than worms

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

A good dog may save your life someday:

http://www.madmaxmovies.com/archives...s/DogHeels.jpg

Find a great one, train it well, share, and treat it as good as you can.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

Yep, the dog is a vital part of security and earns her keep. The cat mostly gets insects living inside as she does, but she eats quite a few that slip in. I hope our food will appeal to her more if TSHTF bad enough we cannot get her beloved crunchies. I think being hungry will widen what appeals. She comes from a long line of survivors, being of feral stock.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

Road kill. My old dog Zipper used to patrol the roads and drag his own home. Come spring melt the yard would look like a super predator lived here. Deer bones and partial carcasses all over the place. Still miss that dog. He was a good hound.

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I remember fondly when the first time our 4month old puppy was finally big enough to jump the wall and go prowling the neighborhood with our older dog. She came back dragging an entire goat leg. (where she got it, I have no idea). It was as long as her and she kept trying to jump back inside our compound with the leg. The leg kept hitting the wall and preventing her from getting back in. After watching her try 5 or 6 times, our older dog grabbed the leg, scaled the wall and dropped it inside. The puppy jumped over and he let her have the leg.... true story, my wife and I were fascinated while watching the whole thing.

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I'm well stocked with dog food...........Taste of the wild. If need be we will be eating it too. Better nutrition than 90% of the people food you will currently find in your local supermarket.

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There's a good book out there regarding the dog food industry, I gave my copy away, but I believe the title was "Foods Pets Die For." It was a real eye-opener.

I cringe giving my dogs dry dog food; they aren't vegans and the chemicals...horrible; they do supplement with wild bunnies and other larger rodents (be sure to tape worm them regularly).

They aren't into mice at all, just look at them and pounce on them and kill them, same with snakes, will kill them, but won't eat them? I have no idea why they are prejudiced against mice and snakes but they are.

They'll eat the small ground squirrels, really seem to like digging them out and snacking on them. I can always tell when they've had fresh kill, won't eat their dry dog food for days...can't say I blame them, especially knowing how it's made and what goes into it.

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What about dogfood such as Eukanuba or some of the brands that are supposed to be totally natural?

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I used to feed my dogs top shelf dog food but switched after the Melamine scare.

I switched to a homemade food of rice, meat,(leftovers from dinner)bran flakes,
multi-vitamin and a calcium tablet.(tums)

It actually worked out close to the cost of dog food not including energy to cook the rice.

I have not recently crunched the #s as of late but, would guess it's still about the same.(10FRN/week for 2 50+# dogs)

If you can find jack makerel it's got plenty of protein& fats.

There a a few sites about the dangers of commercial dog food...scary.

If you make your own take a read dog-care.suite101.com/article.cfm/homemade_dog_food_dangers

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

I'm waaaay ahead of you :evil:

http://goldismoney.info/forums/custo...atar2592_3.gif

But seriously, llama tastes much better:
Attachment 55420
Attachment 55421

And if you don't have the freezer space, there's always alpaca, right JoBob? :tongue_ma:

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Wal-Mart has a special on imported dog food from China...http://www.wackypackages.org/sticker...ront_small.jpg

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Oh, BARF, Julian!

It's possible that i could get hungry enough to think about eating my pets - the alpacas or the dogs - but I'll cross that Rubicon when i have to. After being a vegetarian for 35 years, it would take one hellova lot to get me to think of them as being food. Besides, after this long I could not digest them anyway.

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Rice, my dogs have to eat it now and then if we're away from civilization we always have 50 lbs of rice or better on board. I usually throw a little gravy on it or something.

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Hint.....They'll probably figure it out when Fido is missing. Glad I'm not your dog.:wink:

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LOL! I love vegetarians, they taste WONDERFUL! :4_1_72: :moon:
Anyway, I'd never eat my dogs or cats, but any herbivores outside my back door are fair game if food is scarce. That llama was given to me because he was a "rapist"... he had such a strong mating instinct that he kept causing the female to abort. He also fought with other males. That made him fairly useless, unless someone happened to want a pack llama and had no other males.

LLama is by far the best tasting meat I've ever had, and alpaca is reputedly even better. The royalty in Peru kept alpacas exclusively to themselves because of the higher quality of fiber and meat. They are so expensive in the US, though, that someone would have to be nuts to eat one...

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

Actually, mice wouldn't be a bad idea if you just have cats. They are very thrifry and prolific. One could feed a sizable colony with a sack of mixed grains for nearly forever. This assume that your cats are acustomed to eating meat. 2 of mine are genuine carnivores...the other 2 won't eat anything but kibble. If SHTF, they will either learn to like meat or else.

For the dogs, I have dairy goats/sheep, so most of the kids/lambs are fed out on pasture for the dogs' freezer. We also raise meat rabbits, primarily for the dogs. Rabbits are quiet and easy to raise, making them suited to any environment with the possible exception of an apartment. Store some quality alfalfa hay, grow some mangle beets and you're good to go. You could even seed red clover in the strips of dirt along sidewalks, or anywhere else that is handy and make your own hay. I like New Zealand rabbits, but honestly, if you have small dogs, Mini Rexes are awesome. They're essentially solid blocks of meat with soft, colorful pelts.

Go fishing! Gut 'em and can 'em up. An occasional meal of fish is great for both dogs and cats.

We try to raise or catch all of the dogs food. They are 16 and 50 pounds, so it's not difficult. We haven't hunted specifically for the dogs, but you certainly could. If you live in an area with a lot of deer, roadkill is also an excellent source of dog food, as long as you find it pretty fast.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

My dogs are part of my team. The terrier is a great huntress and verminator, and a good watch dog. I can tell the difference in her barks, so I know if she's barking about a person walking by or a deer in the yard or just to announce to all the other dogs that she just had a great dinner. The Husky is strong, and being a Husky, lives to pull stuff around (though it's mostly just us she's dragging down the street these days). She's a pretty good huntress herself, being as agile as a ferret. Huskys are bred to be fuel-efficient, so she doesn't eat much, and she's as warm and fluffy as a down comforter. Both of them are absolutely crazy about rice and beans, and I included the needs of both my dogs and lizards in my FD storage food calculations, though it cost me a small fortune.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

After the melanine scare I learned about making homemade dog food. Dogs are simpler to cook for because they are omnivores v. the cats being pure carnivore.

To simplify--here's what I settled on as rules of thumb for making dog food.

1) Avoid soy, wheat, and corn. (not very digestible/common allergens)
2) Of course, avoid those things which are hazardous to dogs--grapes, chocolate, onion family (though some of my leftovers have a little bit of onion in them which has never hurt the dog--I avoid giving them anything big enough to pick out)

And 3) Ratio 40% meat, 30% grain, 30% vegetable

For meats you can use meat, eggs (eggshells included), yogurt, some cooked dried beans/lentils. It's also fine to use some organ meats sometimes, which are often inexpensive because a lot of people are squeamish about organs! I often use chicken livers, gizzards or when we process our own chickens--hearts and lungs. For meats, sometimes I will use a whole (cleaned and gutted) chicken carcass. Cook it in the pressure cooker on high for a while and it will mash (bones and all) with a potato masher.

For grains I usually use brown rice, oatmeal, and sometimes whatever leftover bread I need to get rid of.

For veggies I've used just about everything. My dog isn't a huge fan of kale or swiss chard, but she'll eat is as long as it isn't in huge hunks that she can pick out. I usually classify green beans and peas as veggies.
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Aside from that, canned dog food should keep as well as the canned human food, so stockpiling a bit of that might be wise as well for when you don't have the time to cook for the dog.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

cats and dogs will eat table scraps and extra raw bones from cooking, as well as the aforementioned bb gun fodder. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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Bingo....for those who say their pets become food if TSHTF, obviously you are not adequately prepping.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

My first dog, a black lab and rhodesian ridgeback mix, died at 11 years 3 months from vaccinations from a vet.
He was healthy prior to that and ran with me a few times a week.
I'd always fed him commercial dog food from the store, plus lots of raw carrots and veggies.

Two years after that I got my second dog, a short hair border collie mix, and looked into the best diet for him on the net. That's when I found out about the vaccinations, and also the BARF diet. He is 34 pounds and his diet comes from the basics of that.

every 3rd day - 1 raw chicken quarter, bones and all
every 3rd day - 1 raw egg
daily - large quantities of large raw carrots
daily - any other raw veggies that he likes, such as broccoli
he devours watermelon rinds, only leaving the skins

He's a great possum catcher, and has killed a few dozen of them in the last six years. He jumps up when they happen to get on the 6 foot fence, pulls them down by their tails, then shakes them. At first he just left them and I'd toss them in the trash the next morning, but now he's taken to ripping them apart and perhaps eating them, as they tend to vanish. I saw him playing with a big gopher one time, which escaped through a hole in the fence.

Re: Pet food WTSHTF
 

you can feed your pets human food. If they don't like it, they'll eat it anyway when they're starving. It's economical and simplifies things.