The bigger the bag of cat food, the more cost-effective it is to buy. However, cat food, like potato chips, will start to deteriorate and become soft when exposed to air. If it is eaten too slowly or stored improperly, it will not only become unpalatable, but also its nutritional value will decrease. Cat food may even become moldy or contaminated with aflatoxin. If cats accidentally eat spoiled food, it will cause serious harm to their health.
The first common mistake: cat food is not completely sealed
If you use the cat food bag directly for storage, even if you use a clip to seal the bag at the opening. Compared with professional food storage containers, it is still difficult to achieve an ideal sealing state when only using bags and clips. So it is better to use professional sealed containers.
The second common mistake: the cat food storage container is too large.
New air will enter every time the container is opened. If the capacity of your feed bucket can feed the cat for 2 months, it means that if you open the feed bucket every day and feed the cat one meal, the cat’s food on the 60th day has been repeatedly exposed to the air at least 60 times, which will make the food more likely to deteriorate. It is recommended to use multiple smaller containers to pack cat food. Each can of feed only needs to be divided into 2 weeks of food, so as to reduce the situation of repeatedly opening the same feed can.
The third common mistake: the cat feed bucket is not clean
Different batches of food cannot be stored in the same container at the same time. If the container has been used to hold feed, it must be cleaned before it can be used again. The grease from the previous batch of feed will adhere to the inside of the container, so the spoiled grease must be washed off first, and new feed can be poured in after the container is completely dry. When cleaning, we should also check if there are many scratches inside the container. If so, because these scratches can easily lead to dirt and grime, it also means that the container should be replaced.
The fourth common mistake: poor storage environment for cat food
In addition to being sealed, cat food should not be stored in an overly humid environment or exposed to the sun, otherwise the food will deteriorate more easily. It is recommended to seal the food and store it in a dry and cool place, and write the date of packaging on each can to be a safer approach.
Recommended cat food bucket:
Common choices for storing food containers are plastic, stainless steel and glass, because plastic materials are less scratch-resistant and have the disadvantage of being easily scratched. It is recommended that you use stainless steel or glass containers to store cat food. We use glass sealed jars sold in supermarkets. They are not only scratch-resistant, but the transparent glass also makes it easy to check the amount of cat food.
How to clean the cat food bucket:
Before each new package of food, we must first wash the container. Because the food contains grease, dishwashing liquid is needed to effectively remove the grease when cleaning, so you need to wait until the container is clean and air-dried before you can use it.
After cleaning the food, you need to pay attention to the fact that in addition to cleaning the jar itself, the lid of the sealed jar usually comes with a sealing tape, which must also be removed, cleaned and air-dried before use! Also, when cleaning, we should avoid using hard brushes and sponges, and try to use fine sponges to clean, so as not to easily scratch the container.