Pantries and Preparedness. Your pets.

This week we are thinking of how to include our pets and farm animals into our preparedness. If you were stuck at home, the shops were shut or you couldn't shop for a period of time would you have enough food and supplies to go on with?

This is pretty easy for us. We have budgies, a larger parrot and chickens. All of them will eat a lot of supplementary things i.e. things I could pick from the garden, Ricky and the chickens will eat so many things from fruit scraps etc.
I try to stay well ahead with chicken feed. We keep a large bucket in reserve. I also keep back up bird seed and nuts in a whole heap of baby formula tins I made over to blend in with my other supplies.

Chippie  is our friendliest budgie but we also have two other blue budgies and one bright yellow one.

Hillhouse asked for advice on preparedness for her large dogs. This was well out of my sphere so I asked Glenda who has two Labradors how she covers them in her preparedness.  The following is some of what Glenda advised...

 The dogs do eat a lot and a lot needs stored for them. They go through one 26 lb bag of high quality dog food in three weeks, plus they have extra hamburger on their food and treats. To store the dog food we purchased Vittles Vault storage containers. Each container holds 50 lbs of dog food and they are stackable. The containers are heavy duty, airtight, FDA approved, and have a Gamma Seal to keep the dog food fresh. Keeping dog food fresh for long term storage is an issue, so these work great for that. Rancid dog food is unhealthy, but the oil in dog food does go rancid. We purchased the Vittles Vault containers from Amazon. The plastic containers from the Dollar Store and Walmart are inexpensive, but won't keep the dog food from going rancid, so the investment in the correct containers is important.

   We buy the dogs really high quality dog food, so we always try to get it on sale. Gracee has a sensitive stomach. Often, one of the farm/ranch supply stores will have the food for five dollars off per bag, plus if you buy six bags you get the seventh free.

   Finding storage space for food, water, medical, household, personal, and animals can be a real problem. We have two dedicated rooms downstairs to storage of food, medical, household, and personal items. We opted to take one of the stalls of a two car garage and make it a prep center. The Seville metal shelving works wonderful for storing heavy items, such as dog food, water, extra household case goods, etc. The shelves can be spaced in one inch increments, so they can be utilized for all types of storage. The shelves are strong up to 500 lbs per shelf.

   The garage is heated but we keep it at 42 degrees in the winter. Just warm enough to not freeze, but not so warm it runs up our electric bill. In summer it does get hotter, but it's well insulated so it's not too bad normally.

   In addition to food for dogs or other animals, herbs, extra med's, clippers, and other necessities should be stored in quantities for six months to a year. After six months of dog food, a back up plan should be in place, just in case there is not availability or money to purchase more dog food. Dogs that are active and on farms would eat more than our two house plants (LOL). I have a medicine cabinet full of extra med's for pain, and medical equipment specifically for the dogs. If no Vet is around or available it is wise to know how to care for the 'what if's' for the four legged members of the family. Knowledge of grooming would, also, be very wise and helpful.

Glenda also made the point to me that thought needs to be given to how to exercise big dogs when you are stuck indoors for any length of time. There is a lot to think about! 

These tins are on my kitchen shelves full of bird treats.

A good place to start might be to get several weeks ahead with pet food and keep that buffer.  

What pets do you have? How do you store extras for them incase it is ever needed?

Ricky totally loves Broccoli. But other favourites are chops, sausages, cheese, nuts, apples, toast. 

This is Chickies pot. Once there was a plant in it but we gave up. She loves this pot!

I think pets are important, they bring us so much joy everyday!

Have a wonderful week!  Our week is looking pretty warm but so far is is lovely. xxx