keeping dog food fresh..????

I have a feed bin for the girls that stay in the living room with me. The boys have their crates in the back bedroom, with food bowls and water pails in each crate. I get the food in 20 pound bags, and one bag pretty much fills all the guys bowls, which lasts them for several days.

The feed bin can hold up to 25 pounds, and the girls empty it about every 4 days. The idea is that the food needs to be surrounded by air so that it does not go rancid. Even the bags it comes in are not air tight. A fellow from Purina gave a talk to our Dobe club, and he was the one who recommended keeping the bags of food inside a trash can. That way the food would be safe from rodents and bugs, but would still have the needed circulation of air.

[luvmydogs]

Originally Posted by Manchesters

Does that 40 lbs of food last you? The best bet is to keep it in the bag, and put the bag into a trash can to keep it safe from vermin. It should be safe for at least a month. You will know if it goes rancid--the smell is quite distinctive.

well it doesnt last too long. but i was wondering, because its pretty hot inside my house, even with the AC on. but i stored it in a dark closet in a rubbermaid container. thanks guys

[Mordy]

generally, the more you can restrict exposure to oxygen, the better.

if you open and close a container once or several times a day you aren't going to be much better off than leaving it in the bag.

if you really want to make a difference with storage, you'd take one smaller and one larger container. store a week's worth of food in the smaller one. this is your container that you'll be accessing on a daily basis. the rest of the food goes into the bigger container, which you only open once a week to refill your smaller one.

i wouldn't recommend storing more than about 2 month's worth of food outside of an unopened bag - so in other words, if it would take you 6 months to use up a 40-lb bag of kibble, buy a 20-lb bag instead. savings aren't that significant.