Dose cat food ever get stale?

Question

my family has a cat and when we buy cat food we get the big bag. when were not feeding the cat it is open. Dose the food ever get stale like human food? if so how long dose it take?

ps. we buy meow mix

Answer 1

Yes, it does. It expires eventually, so don't exceed the expiration date.

I'd recommend feeding a better food than Meow Mix too.

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: : Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Canidae All Life Stages, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less p**p!

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diet's include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Taste of the Wild.

Some of the high end foods can be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness and Solid Gold. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.rawfedcats.org/

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...

Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least. Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/  (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.

More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)

Answer 2

It probably doesn't get stale for several years.  It could get bugs, mold, or turn into a powder if it gets wet or stays open for an extended amount of time, but if it is kept in a storage container, or the original package isn't opened and exposed to air, it should be ok.  If your cat is finicky, it may not taste the same.  

Answer 3

Yes it does get stale. I didn't really know how long until it goes stale but the best thing to do right now is to transfer the food to a bucket with a lid

Answer 4

Yes, it does get stale. Have you ever noticed that once you open potato chips and if you leave the bag open they will go bad very quick. Even if it doesn't go 'bad', the cat will not enjoy it if all the smell and freshness have gone away. We only buy a small box or bag of food and we noticed that our cat loved it when we first opened it. After a while (about 3 weeks) we noticed she didn't like it anymore. Now, whenever we open a new box, we take the remainder and put it in a sealable plastic bag. Some people use a jar or other container that can be closed and not let in air or moisture. This is a good practice because you want to make sure that dry food is never allowed to get wet, as it will quickly develop all kinds of nasty bacteria.

Answer 5

hello, i buy the 20 pound bags of meow mix but i got a bucket shaped like a kitty at petsmart and fill the food in there and scoop as needed its great i think it was about 29.00 it will last forever..........

Answer 6

Yes, cat food does get stale.  I don't know how long it takes, but chances are the food in that bag is stale.

If you ever want advice on healthier foods for your cat, please let us know.

Answer 7

Just put the bag in a pail with a lid. Or a bucket. Or just get a big clip and close the bag that's what we do.

Answer 8

If its open it could i would get a BIG contanair and with a lid and cover it