How to Store Pet Food Properly

Once your dog or cat’s food has been opened, it’s possible that its quality diminishes. However, this is avoidable if you know the right techniques in order to stop that from happening.

It’s very important to know how to properly store pet food, because although we tend to forget it’s a very relevant piece of information, if not taken into account it can cause your pet’s unknown medical condition; like vomiting or loose stool.

Because of that, we have some guidelines that we suggest you take into account when storing pet food. On one hand, you must know that the food is stored differently depending on its type (dry or wet). Thus, the first thing you have to do is follow the instructions according to the type that you normally give your furry companion.

For canned or wet food, once you open it, you have to store it on your fridge inside a plastic container that absolutely has to cover it with a lid. That way, it will last up to seven days (three to five days if it’s a stewed formula).

If you store the canned food this way, it will help retain its moisture. However, be careful if it’s a canned food rich in fish oils – in these cases, it must be eaten within the following three days, because after opening they develop a strong (and characteristic) fish odor.

Nonetheless, in the rest of the cases, you can take the portioned food and warm it up to 10 seconds. At the same time, remember that all of this depends on the weather that you have at home – for warmer places it is not advisable to leave the food longer than four hours, and if you live on a very hot place, you have to be careful and discard it sooner than that.

When talking about dry food, things change. This should be stored in a dry and cool environment that ensures the vitamins and oxidation processes are safe, which starts to decompose if the food is not on this type of surroundings.

One of the things we don’t recommend at all is to store your cat or dog’s food in an uncontrolled environment like the garage, outdoors, or anywhere where you don’t know at what temperature it is.

The best option is to store the food in a dry environment and off the floor, so it reduces the possibility of infestation. The ideal temperature for storage is 100°F (38°C), and if you store it at 120°f (42°C) for more than two days, it can accelerate the decomposing of the vitamins that it contains for your pet.

Many pet owners ask if they should store their food on a plastic bag, like a Ziploc. However, we usually don’t recommend this, because these types of bags can impregnate an odor that affects the way the food tastes. Because of that, we suggest that you leave it on its original bag until you have a proper metallic container.

Now that you know some tips to store your pet food properly, make sure yours is safe so your animal companion is able to eat happily and get all of the nutrients that the food provides!