James,
I read the blog regularly and have noticed people mentioning the value of having a large dog on a property–for protection, extra set of ears, etc. Having recently purchased a German Shepherd puppy and seeing the costs of dog food rising, plus the looming dangers of hyperinflation and disruptions of supply chains, I’m wondering if anyone out there can share the recipe for a nutritious food for a large breed puppy/dog–especially a food that can be made from common items and stored. Otherwise, when the storm hits I may have a great dog, and no suitable food for her. Probably many people out there are wondering the same thing. Thanks for all that you do to assist people like me. – Scott S. in Colorado
JWR Replies: Dog food–as we now know it–didn’t become popular until after World War II. Dogs didn’t starve before then, although their diets were not nearly as uniform as they are in the present day. In the old days dogs were just fed table scraps, butcher scraps, and the occasional excess milk and eggs (in judicious quantities, of course, to avoid making a dog vomit.) Most dogs can revert to this traditional diet, especially if the transition is made gradually, over the course of a couple of weeks. Here is an illustration: Two decades ago, The Memsahib and I temporarily foster-homed a “rescue” Great Dane that at first refused to any dog dog food unless it had fried beef livers mixed in with it. Transitioning that pampered pooch took more than a month. My first attempt at having it just going “cold turkey” was a failure, as the dog starved itself for three days. Bad idea! So then I decided to just gradually reduce the amount of beef liver that it got each day. By the third week, it was down to just a bit of beef liver juices. I simultaneously tapered its daily ration by 30%, to increase the dog’s appetite. Finally, after a month, the dog was on a pure diet of moistened dry dog food, and was soon back to a full ration.
There are are several recipes for “do it yourself” dog food on the Internet, but in my estimation, that is only a stopgap, for true preparedness. There is no way to store enough dog food for a couple of large dogs for an extended disaster situation unless you have a huge budget. And unless you live in a permafrost zone, this would also require a huge backup generator and a couple of chest freezers. That just isn’t practical for most of us. You really need to be ready to transition your dog to a traditional diet. This necessitates keeping a two month supply of your dog’s currently-used food on hand, to effect a diet transition. In warm climates, rancidity can be a problem, so if possible store two-thirds of this supply in a food grade plastic bag, in your freezer and rotate it, just as you do your other frozen foods.
Using the worst cuts left over from our from deer and elk butchering, (such as the strips from between ribs, and pieces from near the knee joint that are too sinewy to include in our elk-burger and Bambi-burger), I have made “dog jerky”. This is made just like any jerky for human consumption but with a bit less salty brine, and no fancy seasonings. As with our other jerky, it is dried in our old workhorse nine-tray Excalibur dehydrator. If you will be feeding a dog jerked dry meats that are lean (such as venison or rabbit), then don’t neglect adding essential fats and oils. You should do so only shortly before they are used. (Again, to minimize risk of rancidity.) OBTW, some of my dehydrator recommendations as well as some important notes on fats and oils are included in my “Rawles Gets You Ready” family preparedness course.
Most of our stored cooking oil here at the ranch is in the form of frozen olive oil, and a bit of coconut oil. We’ve never had problem with plastic oil bottles rupturing, when frozen. Most of our stored fats are in the form of butter, again, frozen in our chest freezer. But we plan to experiment with using some canned New Zealand butter, next year. (That is available from several SurvivalBlog advertisers, at a surprisingly affordable price, considering that it is shipped from the other side of the planet.)
When times get Schumeresque, I plan to transition our dogs to a diet of table scraps, dog jerky, and butcher scraps. This will be supplemented with small amounts of excess milk and eggs from the barnyard. Oh, and one word of warning: Never let a dog watch you break eggs and put them over its food. Dogs are intelligent! Crack the eggs, whisk them, and pour them over the dog’s food, while the dog is in another room. You do not want to train your doge to become an egg thief!