Long Distance Hiking with a Dog - Part 3: Nutrition

Food - one of my favorite subjects. I did more to anticipate Gracie's daily caloric needs than I did my own, figuring that if I came up short for my own provisions, it would be pretty easy to supplement with what I could find in trail towns. However, Gracie's food was a different story. I met or heard of people hiking with dogs who fed anything from puppy chow (higher caloric value?) to cat food (low nutrient to weight ratio?) and everything in between. Hiking over 2000 miles is a lot to ask of a dog. Why would you choose to feed them something that doesn't meet their nutritional needs (cat food)? Or give them cheap food?

The Hiking with Fido article by veterinarian and experienced long-distance hiker Tom Grenell taught me a lot about the increased caloric requirements for hiker dogs. Human hikers can expect to burn 4000-8000 calories in a day of hiking, or 2-4X average daily caloric needs. I figured to expect about the same (2-4X average) for a dog. To estimate Gracie's needs, I measured what she was normally eating, figured the calorie count (from the values on the package) and multiplied that by 2 and 4 to get a range of values. Then I started researching nutrient dense dog foods. I ultimately chose a combination of Natura EVO small bites (chicken), supplemented with The Honest Kitchen's Thrive dehydrated dog food, olive oil, and (rarely) my leftovers. I went with EVO because it's nutrient dense, I knew Gracie tolerated it well, and it resulted in firm and compact stool. Seriously, when you're picking up or burying your dog's waste on a daily basis, this becomes quite important. I discovered Thrive at my local pet food store, and considered making that Gracie's primary source of food - dehydrated means lightweight, less for she or I to carry - but in the end, there wasn't enough of a difference in weight to nutrient ratio to compensate for the significant price difference when looking at 6 months worth of food.

I was really glad I supplemented with the dehydrated food, though. In camp, Gracie always ate after me, and I would heat water for her food in my cookpot after I ate. Hot water was great for rinsing my cookpot, and the rinse water and its concomitant food particles got added to her dehydrated food. Gracie absolutely loved Thrive, and on really cold nights I felt it was really comforting for her to get a warm meal. Drizzle a little olive oil on top for extra calories and she was in dog food heaven. In calculating how much food she would need over the course of the hike (initially planning for 5 months start to finish), I took the range of calorie needs, figured she would do fine at the low end of that range for the first few weeks, but would need more the further we went, and created a range of estimates. I bought six months worth of food, and with the help of many friends, divvied up Gracie's rations and had them shipped to us at various points along the trail. Around 30 boxes in all (which also contained much of my food) with us coming into town to retrieve them about every 4-6 days.
I actually overestimated by quite a bit. I almost always still had at least 2 days of food for Gracie when we would resupply, but as I mentioned, that was better than running out. EVO small bites is not available in grocery stores, so if we ran out, I had to make do.

There were a couple of times when I had to find other food for Gracie. Early in the hike, I forwarded a resupply box from Franklin, NC because I didn't need any of it yet. Then we got to the next pickup point at Nantahala Outdoor Center before the mail arrived. Instead of waiting another day, I left a forwarding address and walked a mile to a convenience store. I was short on my own rations as well, but a couple of cans of Alpo (for Gracie), some rice cereal (for both of us), almonds and raisins (for me) got us to the next mail drop. I did not like feeding her Alpo, and did a better job making sure she had plenty of food or worked harder to find alternatives (Iams) if she was running low. We arrived in Duncannon, PA after the post office, where our resupply box was waiting, had closed for the day. It was one of the rare times the food bag was close to empty. The Doyle hotel offered a shuttle to the local grocery where I got Gracie a ham shank, which she gnawed down to the size of a golf ball overnight.

Another recommendation, which worked really well for Gracie, and which she loved, was putting extra weight on her before the hike. I fed her 1.5X her usual ration for about six weeks prior to starting the hike. That resulted in an extra 5 pounds. We had a few visits to the vet during the hike and I was always pleased to learn she never dropped more than 5 pounds over the course of the hike. We saw or heard of dogs that were skin and bones, but Gracie looked healthy from start to finish. It didn't hurt that she got lots of treats, especially toward the end of the hike (cheese!) from our hiker family. Which brings up the subject of treats. I made the mistake of letting Gracie help me attempt the half-gallon ice cream challenge when we reached the halfway point. I also gave her a "half-way hotdog" to honor her success.

Two weeks later, she was having consistent gastric distress because I'd fed her enough junk food to throw her gut flora out of balance. Off to the vet we went. After 10 days of flagyl, she was good as new, and I'd learned my lesson about appropriate food rewards.