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Tips to store dry cat food safely. Regular dry food does have preservatives and can be left out indefinitely.
See also Best Feline Caviar Wet Cat Food Idea.
How long will dry cat food last. How long does dry cat food stay fresh. Preservatives and antioxidants are what keep your cats kibble fresh for up to six months but you can do things as well such as storing the kibble is in the original bag and making sure its tightly sealed. Dry cat food can last up to two years after it has been opened.
This is because the ingredients are primarily dehydrated. The moisture in the air will cause the food to turn into a solid-state making it difficult for bacteria or other microorganisms to grow on it. Dry cat food can remain fresh inside an unsealed bag for just a few days after which it will turn stale which can become unsafe for your cat to consume.
You may often tend to buy bigger bags while buying your cats food which is understandable since it is cheaper and saves trips to the store. Depending on the type wet or dry or brand of food the shelf life of a cats food may vary. As indicated previously having an older bag or can of food does not mean losing nutritional quality.
However do not hang on to a product that is three months past its BB detail. A couple of months is too long a time. How long does dry cat food stay fresh.
Anywhere from 1 to 5 years. Heres the scoop on the safety and freshness of your dry pet food and how you can play it safe with your pets health. Its a good idea to wrap the original packaging in another layer of plastic or paper.
Generally dry cat foods come with a shelf life of 4 months to three years. For the canned cat foods the expiration period extends and is around 1-year to 5-years. The cats snacks and treats also have a similar expiration period of 4-months to 3-years for the dry category and 1-5 years for the wet category.
How long before dry cat food goes bad. A bag of dry cat food will last for approximately one year before spoilage. If you are not sure if your Merrick dry cat food is still good check it after opening then every six months to ensure freshness.
Dry cat food can sit out for a maximum of 4 hours in temperatures above 50 F. In lower temperatures 40 to 50 F dry cat food can sit out for 5 to 7 hours. As a rule of thumb any cat food that stays out for more than 10 hours should be thrown out.
Dry food will be good for years unopened and months opened the only thing you have to worry about is like an open box of cereal where if the air is humid the kibble just like your corn flakes will go stale assuming your house is normal temperaturehumidity 65-80oF and 30-60 humidity someone storing the food outdoors would be in a different boat. I store a small quantity of my cats dry food that way in a plastic snap-lock lidded container at room temperature in an amount that lasts for 4 months of morning-meals amounts greaterlonger than that and the fats in the food can start. The conclusion has to be that dry cat food should last a good six months after opening and if the date on the packaging is a lot longer than that you can even add some months to that date.
I would welcome the thoughts of visitors on this to widen the discussion because my personal views on this may clash with others. Answer 1 of 2. Well it depends doesnt it.
If you have more than one cat it will not last as long. If you feed both wet and dry it will last longer. An adult cat should not be free feeding dry food because they will eat a lot and get seriously overweight.
Also a cat needs some wet food i. The expiration date on different food types can fluctuate quite significantly. To give you an example dry food can last anywhere from 4 months to as long as 3 years.
However with canned food you can see rather long expiration dates such. Anywhere from 1 to 5 years. Cat snacks and treats usually last about the same sort of duration as dry food.
In general wet cat food will last for 4-6 days after being opened. However the life of the food is largely dependent on how its stored. If youre not going to eat all of the food right away store it in your fridge or freezer for later use.
See also Best Feline Caviar Wet Cat Food Idea. As a general rule of thumb dry food should not be left out more than 8 hours in cool temperatures. If its a warm day however say about 50 degrees F you shouldnt leave dry food out more than four hours.
If its a humid day or the food has become damp then the time it can be left out is greatly reduced. Thus dry cat food will last for that certain time and ideally it should be consumed within that period. Also the expiration date is only good if the bag of dry cat food is unopened and stored at a cool temperature.
However once it is opened it should be used within a maximum of 14 days to three weeks. Tips to store dry cat food safely. As long as you purchase unopened canned cat food it will last for two years in good condition if properly stored in a cool dry place away from sunlight.
How Long Does Canned Cat Food Last. When purchasing canned cat food check out the expiration date to. In general dry cat food lasts a long time and there is no need to worry about it going nice in a month or two.
Canned cat food usually has a best by date that should be checked before feeding it to your pet. You can safely leave dry cat food out for several days and it wont spoil but its best to throw out leftovers and wash the dish on a daily basis to keep Fluffys food at its freshest. Keep in mind that dry food will grow stale within a day and may not be as appealing to your cat once this happens.
Regular dry food does have preservatives and can be left out indefinitely. Most cats are likely to eat it within a few days. After a few weeks it would probably start to taste stale but that would be more an issue of palatability than danger.
A combination of wet foods and quality dry foods would be recommended. Only using 50g of dry food a day will make a bag last 3 times as long as if you only feed your Maine Coon dry food at 1151g per day. Typically Maine Coon dry food will come in 1 2 5 or 10kg bags.
So here is a handy little table. What Ive learned. Dry food commonly expires 6-months past the best before date.
The best before date on most dry foods is the date that manufacturers would recommend retailers to take the product off the shelf. Oftentimes retailers will donate these foods to shelters and the food is considered safe. This is not true of all pet-foods.