How To Keep Bags Of Cat Food Fresh: A Must-Read Guide

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Wanting to buy a big bag of cat food, but you are wondering if it will go bad before having the chance to use all of the food in it? Or are you maybe just wondering how to keep your bag of cat food fresh to ensure you are giving your cat the freshest food possible? What is the best way to keep your bag of cat food fresh?

The best way to keep your bag of cat food fresh is to keep it in a cool, dry place and ensure that it is properly sealed in an airtight container or cat food bin. This will prevent the kibble from going stale or bad before you get to give it to your cat.

Let us take a better look at the steps that you can take to make sure that you are keeping your bags of cat food as fresh as possible for as long as possible and what storage solutions you can utilize to help with this.

How To Keep Bags Of Cat Food Fresh

Buying small bags of cat food regularly can become a tedious task. Having to go out once a week to go buy a fresh bag of cat food in order to try and prevent your cat’s food from going stale is not only frustrating, but it is also extremely inconvenient.

There’s a way that you can avoid all of the frustration of constantly replacing their bags of cat food; buy a big bag of cat food that will last you a couple of weeks instead of buying a small bag that will last you a couple of days.

You may think that if you buy one large bag of cat food instead of many small bags of cat food that the cat food will become stale or go bad before you manage to use it all.

This situation can be avoided, though. With the correct storage of your cat’s food, you will be able to buy a large bag of cat food and keep all of its contents fresh all the way down to the last bowl that you feed your cat.

Let us have a look at some of the best storage solutions when it comes to your cat food and keeping it fresh for as long as possible.

How To Keep Bags Of Cat Food Fresh: Unopened Bag Of Cat Food

Keeping an unopened bag of cat food fresh is not as hard as it is to keep an opened bag of cat food fresh; however, if it is not stored correctly, your bag of cat food could go bad before it is even opened.

So then, what is the correct way to keep your unopened bag of cat food fresh? Let us take a look:

Keep Unopened Bag In A Dry And Cool Place

To avoid moisture getting into the bag and to ensure that you do not create an environment for mold growth, it is important that you store all of your unopened bags of cat food somewhere that is dry and cool.

If your cat food is left in the sun and/or heat for extended periods of time, you are creating a space for molds to grow in your bag.

If your bag of cat food is exposed to moisture for an extended period of time, even when it is unopened, there is a high chance that the moisture may get into the bag of cat food, and this will ruin the dry pellets of cat food.

Needless to say, if your dry cat food pellets become moist or wet in the bag, they are compromised and should be decarded.

 If your bag of cat food has been exposed to either of these elements for an extended period of time, the dry cat food should be properly examined before placing it in any new storage containers.

If there does happen to be any mold growth or moisture on the kibble, unfortunately, the entire bag should once again be discarded.

If you have the option available to you, another great way to store your unopened bag of dry cag food is to store the whole bag inside of a storage container.

Keeping your bag of cat food in a storage container, in a cool and dry environment (like in a pantry, for example), will help create another barrier around your bag of cat food to keep it fresher for longer.

So, when you go shopping for a container to put your dry cat food in, consider buying two of them so that you have a container to store your unopened bag in as well.

If you keep your spare, unopened bags of pet food in your garage (as many families do), be sure to take extra precautions to the conditions that they are kept in.

This type of environment would be a good place to consider keeping your unopened bag of dry cat food in a storage container or cat food bin so that it has a protective barrier around it. However, if you cannot do this, keep an eye out for the following:

  • Rain or damp weather conditions – garages do not have very well sealed off walls due to the door being opened constantly, so when the weather is wet or moist, keep a closer eye on your cat food to ensure that the outside of the bag still feels dry at all times.
  • Rodents – garages are very often a hot spot for rats and mice to run around in and roam freely. Because of this, if you keep your cat food in your garage, you run the risk of the bag being broken into by vermin. If you are noticing rodent droppings around your garage or near the cat food, bring your cat food inside right away, as rodent feces and urine can be incredibly toxic, and if it gets on the bag, the safe thing to do would be to throw the unopened bag of cat food away.
  • Chemicals – the garage is somewhere that people will often store the chemicals that they need but do not want to keep in the house (like paint, cans of spare petrol, and motor oil, for example.) Be sure that when finding a place to keep your bag of dry cat food in your garage that you do not store it under or near any chemicals that are toxic to animals.

When you are taking all things into consideration, the best place that you can store your bag of unopened dry cat food would be in a cool, dry pantry with the bag inside of a storage container.

However, if this isn’t an option for you, be sure to keep the ideal conditions in mind when you do choose the spot to keep your spare bag of dry cat food, and if it is at all possible, store it inside of a storage container or cat food bin.

How To Keep Bags Of Cat Food Fresh: Opened Bag Of Cat Food

Keeping your dry cat food fresh will obviously become more tricky to do once the bag has been opened, so let us dive right into how to keep your opened bag of dry cat food fresh for as long as possible.

The first big thing that you need to ensure takes place when it comes to storing your dry cat food is to avoid it being exposed to air as much as possible.

This means always having your dry cat food in an airtight storage container of some kind to ensure that it is not being constantly exposed to the air around it.

Here are some examples of airtight storage containers that you could use to store your dry cat food:

Ziplock Bags

This usually works better when storing smaller bags of dry cat food rather than bigger bags of cat food, as storing large amounts of cat food into multiple ziplock bags could become a rather big task.

Tookich 10 Pack Reusable Food Bags, BPA-Free, Resealable Leakproof Ziplock Bags, Premium Sandwich Freezer Storage Bags for Lunch, Snack, Fruit, Vegetables, Pet Food or Travel (3 Size)

Decanting your small bags of cat food into ziplock bags will help to keep the pellets inside fresher than they would if they were to just sit in their original packaging since the original packaging generally will not have a seal.

Without a seal, the cat food would go stale really quickly as it would be constantly exposed to air.

Even though some cat food bags do come with a seal on the top, often they do not last for the full duration that you are using the bag of cat food and usually end up not sealing correctly halfway through using the bag.

It is for this reason that it is usually better to use another form of protective seal for your cat’s dry food.

Air Tight Storage Container

Using an airtight container to keep your cat’s dry food in is one of the most efficient ways of ensuring that your cat’s food stays fresh all the way until that last scoop of food.

Purchasing a large airtight container to store your dry cat food in will not only prevent the cat kibble from being exposed to air constantly, but it will also prevent bugs and insects, like ants, from getting to your cat’s food.

You could run on over to your local supermarket and simply purchase the largest airtight storage container that you can find, or you could go the online route.

There are airtight containers that are designed specifically for the storage of pet food that you can buy, but they are generally only available online as most pet stores and supermarkets do not stock them.

rezip Roll Top Reusable 14-Cup Pet Food Storage Bag

Cat Food Storage Bin

Cat food storage bins are large boxes or containers that are designed specifically for the intended use of storing cat food.

Some of these containers are very well designed and actually do have an airtight seal on the lid so that once the lid is closed, it will essentially work almost as well as an airtight container would.

However, you, unfortunately, cannot trust every cat food box that you come across, as some of them are so poorly designed that the lid actually does not seal at all.

For this reason, if you are planning on using a cat food box to store your cat food, it would be better for you to shop for one in person rather than online so that you can test each one out and make sure that the lid will seal properly.

Other than the lid needing to seal properly, you will want to ensure that there are no gaps anywhere in the container itself.

A lot of these cat food storage containers are made out of a metal of some kind, and it is bent into place. When done well, these storage containers will keep your dry cat food fresh for weeks without any problems at all.

However, if they are poorly made, these tins can often have gaps left in them where they were not closed tightly enough, and this will allow for air and insects to eat into the food.

So once again, if these containers are made well, they will do the job excellently, but if they are not made well, they can ruin a whole bag of cat food.

This is why it would be best to shop for one of these bins in person if you want one so that you can inspect it thoroughly to ensure its quality before buying it.

The Do’s And Don’ts Of Storing Bags Of Cat Food

Don’ts

  • Freeze it – Do not freeze your dry cat food. Freezing your dry cat food will make it more susceptible to mold growth once it has defrosted, as well as allowing for moisture to develop once it is defrosted. Freezing your dry cat food, unfortunately, will as a whole deteriorate your dry cat food once it is defrosted.
  • Leave your cat food bag open – leaving your bag of cat food open, and simply folding over the part that was cut open will not help protect your cat food in any way at all. Your dry cat food will be just as exposed to all the outside elements as if it were not sealed at all.
  • Do not get it wet – do not leave your bag of cat food somewhere where it could stand the chance of getting wet, like under the kitchen sink or next to a washing machine. The integrity of your dry cat food will be compromised if it were to get wet.

Do’s

  • Keep it sealed – no matter what type of seal you choose to use, whether it be a ziplock bag or an airtight lid, as long as the dry cat food is sealed off well in your chosen form of cat food storage, it should last well.
  • Store it in a cool and dry environment – remember to store your sealed-off container in the correct environment that is well suited to maintain your dry cat food’s integrity. This is usually a cool and dry environment.

Conclusion

The best way to keep your bags of cat food fresh is to utilize the use of an airtight container or cat food box.

Doing this, as well as keep your bag of cat food in a cool and dry environment, such as a kitchen pantry, will help keep your bags of cat food fresh for as long as possible.

If your bags of cat food, big or small, go bad or stale before having the chance to finish the bag, consider making use of the information above and storing your new bag of cat food, opened or unopened, in an airtight container.

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