Excessive padding overhead induced by packets of heterogeneous lengths is a critical problem when using network coding for real-world data in the wild. Current network coding schemes either use excessive zero-padding or communicationintensive packet reconstruction strategies, i.e. bundling or chaining. This paper presents novel encoding strategies to reduce the padding-induced overhead while preserving the original packet structures. The conducted evaluation is based on traces of datagram-based real-world applications, namely browsing via QUIC, Skype VoIP, FFmpeg video streaming, and UFTP file transfer. The results verify that the packet-preserving coding schemes can significantly reduce the overhead of transmitted bytes for different generation sizes and packet loss rates without the need for additional communication about packet reconstruction.