If you go RVing with pets you know that storing their food takes up a lot of space in your rig. For those lucky dogs and cats who also get canned food with every meal, the extra weight of wet pet food really adds up too.
Lightweight pet food is great for RV travel.
Thankfully, today’s RVing cats and dogs can now feast on premium foods that are healthy, taste great and take up much less storage space in our rigs. Dehydrated and freeze-dried diets are two excellent lightweight choices for RVing with pets.
Dehydrated or Freeze-dried Food Takes Up Less Space
Dehydrated and freeze-dried pet foods are made with premium (and often organic) meats and vegetables that get processed under conditions comparable to human-grade commercial kitchens. They cost more than traditional commercial pet foods found in grocery store aisles, but as more health-conscious pet parents realize the correlation between cheap pet food and expensive veterinary bills, it’s easy to overcome the sticker shock.
Just add water to rehydrate the dried dog food.
I’m a big fan of these pet foods not only because they’re RV space savers, but because I’ve seen their benefits in my own dog. His fur is shiny, his health is exceptional and he’s unaffected by typical pet health issues (like fleas) which are usually the end-result of a poor diet.
When we’re on the road, we rely on dehydrated and freeze-dried pet foods. Since you only need to add water right before serving, we end up saving a lot of storage room in our 27′ RV.
Space-Saver #1: Dehydrated Pet Foods
The Honest Kitchen makes all natural human grade dehydrated dog food and cat food products, using dehydrated whole foods. Dehydrated pet foods are made by removing the moisture from ingredients. They are not cooked, canned or extruded, preserving vitamins, minerals, natural color and flavor.
If you’ve ever carried dehydrated backpacking food on camping trips, you’ve had this type of meal.
Dehydrated pet food makers remove moisture using heat.
Dogs and cats have several different varieties and types of The Honest Kitchen food to choose from, including grain-free, novel proteins (for example, venison) and complete and balanced base mixes that allow you to add your own freshly cooked meats. Every ingredient is produced in the USA from non-GMO produce, hormone-free meats. You’ll also find some organic, fair trade ingredients that are carefully sourced from around the world – but never from China.
Space Saver #2: Freeze-Dried Pet Food
Primal Pet Food creates another high quality diet for dogs and cats through a freeze-drying process. The main difference between freeze-drying and dehydrating is how the food is preserved and prepared for packaging. Freeze-drying doesn’t use heat, dehydration uses some. Check out this great article about freeze dried versus dehydrated pet food.
Freeze-dried pet foods don’t use heat during processing.
Primal Pet Foods is geared toward pet parents who want to feed a raw-food diet without having to grind, chop, measure or mix the ingredients, which can get really messy and space consuming in a RV.
The company’s focus is on providing an optimally nutritious raw food diet for cats and dogs using human-grade poultry, meat and game with no added hormones, antibiotics or steroids. Their meats are all sourced from New Zealand and the United States from responsible, ethical and environmentally-responsible farms and ranches.
In the end, dehydrated and freeze-dried pet food are both excellent diets. Feeding them to your pets not only gives you more room in your RV, but ensures that you’ll have far more RV adventures together as your pets enjoy longer, healthier lives eating these premium foods.
