Prepping for Pets

One of the considerations you need to think about when prepping for your pets is what you do when they are sick. I want to pause right here and state that ditching my pets is not an option and it never will be, they are family, period. And yes, I will feed them before I eat, that is just how I was raised. I understand that some of you have no issues ditching the dog and others have no issues, well, dare I say it, eating the dog.

To each their own, but for me, they are 100% family and they are 100% being considered in all my preps. This post is for those of us that are planning on keeping our pets with us during an SHTF situation.

I have some dog kibble stored in air-tight bags, and I have some cat food stored the same way, but once those supplies are gone, they will go with all-natural food and eat more of what we are going to eat.

I have a whole damn barnyard of pets, 11 cats, 1 rabbit, 3 chickens, 1 dog, and 4 horses. So as you can tell, I have a ton of mouths to feed. The good thing is that the biggest of those mouths, the horses can eat and survive on the grass in three of the seasons, so I just need to figure out winter the good thing about where I live, we only get a few weeks a year where the ground is covered in snow.

The egg-laying chickens are the only pet that actually serves a real purpose beyond companionship, but we of course named the chickens, spoiled them and well they are egg-laying pets now. That alone should tell you how I treat my pets. I have a post about our chickens and how they are cared for.

The good thing about the chickens is that they can be free-range in the right location, and they will be when I purchase my own land. But for now, they reside in a large cage to keep them safe and eat corn, scratch, worms, and bird seed. In the spring and summer they love clover, and grass and their favorite are when we grow the bird seed and let them eat the sprouts. So generally their food will be easy to take care of. I can grind corn if and when needed.

The rabbit is well, dare I say it, old. He is somewhere around 11-13 years old, as we don’t know his age before we got him, but we have had him for 10 years. So I honestly don’t expect him to be around much longer, but we have a small stockpile of hay and dry food for him. He loves his fresh veggies and that will be the hard part for him if SHTF. But he will adapt, he is very good at that.

The cats will be the most difficult since I have a small army of them and in an SHTF scenario, when their stockpile of dry food is gone, we will provide for them with a small game that we can prepare for them.

But we also have a first aid kit for each species of animal that contains unique items and medications for their species. I also have portable cages for everyone (the cats will be two to a cage) in the event we have to go mobile.

So if your pets are near and dear to your heart, then make sure you prep for them as well.