[Jonathan S]

I’ve heard an earful lately about how long dog food manufacturers keep their foods before shipping, and the benefits of small batch foods that are delivered fresh. It made me wonder, what is the shelf life of kibble?

I’m not so much worried about how long it’s been stored, let’s focus on how long you should have it at home, and is cost a contributing factor? In other words, I could save some money by buying a 30 pound bag of food, but it will be in the food bin for more than a month. I could by a 15 pound bag that will only last two weeks, and cost me more in the long run, but the food will be rotated more often, and could give me the opportunity for better variety for the pups.

Anyone have suggestions?

[Pitlove]

Hi again Jonathan-

I’ve heard a lot of things about pet food storage as well. I work at a small pet boutique that mainly carries natural dog foods with natural preservitives. If we catch a bag with a hole in it, even a tiny one, it gets damaged out and put on the return shelf because once air has started hitting the food the fats start going rancid.

Most of what I’ve heard about what size bag to buy depends on how fast you go through the food. I can buy 5lb or 15lb bags for by 68lb dog and I store them in a Gamma Vittles Vault air tight container. A 5lb bag will last slightly under a month and a 15lb bag will last me well over a month for him. I don’t buy the largest size bags anymore as I switch foods more frequently than that size bag would allow. That being said a small breed dog or toy breed dog is not going to eat a 30lb bag before the food would start to go rancid, so it would not be smart to buy such a large bag for a small dog. That size would be fine however for a large or giant breed dog that was not eating canned food as well (my dog eats canned so my dry food lasts longer).

[Jonathan S]

I’m in the same boat… I have two border collie pups 34 and 36 pounds. Half their diet is raw food of my own creation, so the kibble goes a long way. I want to be able to feed them a variety to keep them interested and I think I’ve finally found the brand I want to switch to as they have lots of choices for flavor mixes (going with Orijen/Acana). I’ll probably stick with the 15ish pound bags so they can be rotated to different flavors on just about a monthly basis.

I was just curious about if there is a concern over freshness, what is the threshold for that concern. I think I’ll be fine if I keep rotating.

[Linda H]

“Shelf life” of kibble varies…I’ve seen anywhere from 12 months to 18 months, some even longer. However, that’s only for an unopened bag. Once opened, life goes down dramatically. I certainly wouldn’t buy any more than what I could feed my dogs in a month. I know that buying in larger quantities saves money, but if the food goes rancid before you can get through it, it’s really not a savings.

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