Lizzy, that is such a hard decision - I know I won't be much help because my advice would be "don't go". I dunno - I used to like to travel but any more the stress isn't worth it for me and I'd rather stay home. With dogs, cats and poultry there are too many arrangements to make and even then I spend the whole time I'm gone worrying about them. Did they tip their water over and run out? Did a predator get in and wreak havoc? Or even, did they fill up the nest box and now every egg they lay gets cracked and broken? At my old house I had a neighbor who didn't mind checking on them for me, collecting eggs, and refilling feed/water. I used to just leave the coop door open so they could come and go as they pleased, since it was a well-fenced backyard and predators weren't too big a concern. Even then, I didn't enjoy traveling for worrying about the things that could still go wrong.
Now that we are here, where I can't feel comfortable leaving them with free access to the coop, that is why I ordered the auto door. It will mean I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn throughout the year to go and let them out, and don't have to worry about forgetting to lock them up at night. In reality, I imagine I will walk down there every night just to check that the door did in fact close but having it take care of itself is one less thing to have to worry about, since the chooks go to bed at a different time of day year round depending on the amount of light. In theory it will mean we can go out of town without worrying about them but I doubt I will ever stop worrying.
The last time I went out of town it was for four days. I can easily leave that amount of food and water, and decided to just let the eggs build up so I didn't have to ask my neighbor to check on them. They did fine - but I really didn't enjoy the trip and spent most of it counting down the time until I could get home. On the flight home, I spent the whole time looking out the window kind of chanting under my breath "I'm going ho-ome, I'm going ho-ome". Yeah, yeah, now you have a glimpse of my neuroses
That was when I realized travel is for other people, not me. My DH does a lot of business travel and keeps asking me to go on a trip with him since his hotel is paid for and he has enough frequent flyer miles that I would travel for free but....I keep putting it off telling him it would be nice but NOW isn't a good time. Sad, isn't it?
Hawkeye, those doggie daycare places are pretty sweet, aren't they? The times I have traveled in the past, that is what we did - put the dogs in doggie daycare. For me the cost was worth it for the peace of mind (see above) - the dogs, at least, were something I did NOT need to worry about while I was gone
Medawinks, the chicken feed is mostly grain based but the actual ingredients vary by manufacturer. Purina uses no animal protein so the protein is soy-based, I believe. Some other brands do use animal protein, but the bulk of the ingredients would still be grain - mostly corn. It is possible there is no wheat in it at all. Strange isn't it, that the most expensive brands of dog food charge so much because they don't have WHEAT, CORN or SOY, but given a choice, the dogs go after a feed that consists predominantly of those ingredients! I say, if it is working for your dog's intestinal tract, why not let him have it? Its cheaper per pound than the expensive dog food, for sure. I had a dog who had terrible gas. I tried every brand of expensive feed I could find but he could still clear a room with his silent stink bombs. Then DH brought home a bag of the cheapest food Dillons sells and after a couple of weeks it occurred to us that the dog hadn't cleared a room since we started him on it. So against, the grain, I continued to feed him the cheap stuff since he was actually doing better on it than on the higher rated feeds. Sometimes you just have to follow your gut (no pun intended).
Now that we are here, where I can't feel comfortable leaving them with free access to the coop, that is why I ordered the auto door. It will mean I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn throughout the year to go and let them out, and don't have to worry about forgetting to lock them up at night. In reality, I imagine I will walk down there every night just to check that the door did in fact close but having it take care of itself is one less thing to have to worry about, since the chooks go to bed at a different time of day year round depending on the amount of light. In theory it will mean we can go out of town without worrying about them but I doubt I will ever stop worrying.
The last time I went out of town it was for four days. I can easily leave that amount of food and water, and decided to just let the eggs build up so I didn't have to ask my neighbor to check on them. They did fine - but I really didn't enjoy the trip and spent most of it counting down the time until I could get home. On the flight home, I spent the whole time looking out the window kind of chanting under my breath "I'm going ho-ome, I'm going ho-ome". Yeah, yeah, now you have a glimpse of my neuroses
Hawkeye, those doggie daycare places are pretty sweet, aren't they? The times I have traveled in the past, that is what we did - put the dogs in doggie daycare. For me the cost was worth it for the peace of mind (see above) - the dogs, at least, were something I did NOT need to worry about while I was gone
Medawinks, the chicken feed is mostly grain based but the actual ingredients vary by manufacturer. Purina uses no animal protein so the protein is soy-based, I believe. Some other brands do use animal protein, but the bulk of the ingredients would still be grain - mostly corn. It is possible there is no wheat in it at all. Strange isn't it, that the most expensive brands of dog food charge so much because they don't have WHEAT, CORN or SOY, but given a choice, the dogs go after a feed that consists predominantly of those ingredients! I say, if it is working for your dog's intestinal tract, why not let him have it? Its cheaper per pound than the expensive dog food, for sure. I had a dog who had terrible gas. I tried every brand of expensive feed I could find but he could still clear a room with his silent stink bombs. Then DH brought home a bag of the cheapest food Dillons sells and after a couple of weeks it occurred to us that the dog hadn't cleared a room since we started him on it. So against, the grain, I continued to feed him the cheap stuff since he was actually doing better on it than on the higher rated feeds. Sometimes you just have to follow your gut (no pun intended).
He is still my big old baby.
