How much pet food do you "stockpile"?

With all the snow in North America and parts of Scandinavia, and the tsunamis in Asia, I'm wondering how much cat (or dog, etc,) food you usually consider your "iron ration". We rarely have natural catastrophes other than flooding or the occasional small earthquake in this area, but having grown up in a region where blizzards and hurricanes weren't unusual, I always try to have enough cat food to last several weeks on hand. 9/11 also made me a bit paranoid about not being able to get the food Jamie likes. At the moment, I have about 200 1-meal cans of cat food, and roughly 9 lbs. of dry food stored away. That was bought for two cats, one almost 14 lbs., and the other a dainty 6 lbs.. I realize that's "overkill", but I buy in bulk online, and not just for us. Do you buy pet food as it runs out, or do you think ahead and make allowances for strikes, rotten weather, terrorist attacks, illness, etc.?

Because I just feed my babies dry food, it's hard to stockpile it without having it go rancid. I should keep some wet food on hand though, in case of emergencies. We usually don't have much severe weather out here but we were stuck at home for three days last January due to a snow and ice storm. Next time I'm at the pet store, I will definitely stock up on some quality canned food. Thanks for asking the question as it is definitely something we should be thinking about.

I've never ran into any extremely bad weather that caused me to want to stock up on pet food for those potential ocassions. At the most, I've been stuck in the house due to snow for no more than 1-2 days. However, I typically keep an on-going supply of dry cat food handy that lasts for one month.

I stock up on canned cat food when I go, but just because with 4 cats they tend to go through it and I hate lugging it to the store and home. For the cats that is about as far as I go, but for the parrots - I usually have at least 20 pounds or so on hand, preferrebly more - The phrase "Eating like a bird" is *NOT* a compliment!

I really don't worry, as we don't get hurricanes or tornadoes in my region, and a snow storm bad enough to stop the subways (which is how I get to the store to buy the catfood) is incredibly rare. Worst case scenario, there is a grocery store next door, so in the event of something unexpected, I could always go next door and get cheap cat food; not something I like to feed them, but they wouldn't starve. For a month I buy, I believe, 14 lbs. of dry food, and 24 cans of food.

If I know of potential bad weather or am aware of a situation that might be coming up, I'll get an extra 20 lb. bag of dry, and be sure I have an almost full bag of the prescription dry foods, plus get more than usual canned foods.

At any point in time, I have canned food as part of my store, that in an emergency, I have access to, but I do not keep extra bags of dry, preferring to buy only when I'm in the lower 1/4 bag of a 20 lb. bag of food. Canned food I buy every other day (!) as Tyler and Patrick's "favorites" can change daily.

I live in Ohio, and aside from the freak blizzard every so often, there's never a problem getting out to buy food. I just started feeding canned, and can only afford buying it once a month, so I wait until I'm on my last cans to buy more. As for dry, I break it down into gallon-size freezer bags, and keep two out at all times. I freeze the rest until I need it. (We have a deep freeze, so there's room.) Once I'm on my last two bags, I'll go out and buy another 20 lbs. The freezing works great for keeping dry food fresh. Plus, our last cat loved frozen kitty food!

Because we lived in Alaska so long, old habits die hard. We have more pet food stockpiled than we do human food. We have at least 30 pounds of dry food in the barn, along with bottled water and also extra grain for the horses.

I usually have a case (24 cans) of either Felidae or Innova (canned only) as an emergency stockpile.

Well I always have a lot. Mostly because I used to have to drive over an hour to get my food. Right now I have 6 6 pound bags of catfood in my kittie room!

I have about 40 cans of soft food too. Also, if there is a good sale I stock up!

Originally Posted by wodesorel

I live in Ohio, and aside from the freak blizzard every so often, there's never a problem getting out to buy food. I just started feeding canned, and can only afford buying it once a month, so I wait until I'm on my last cans to buy more. As for dry, I break it down into gallon-size freezer bags, and keep two out at all times. I freeze the rest until I need it. (We have a deep freeze, so there's room.) Once I'm on my last two bags, I'll go out and buy another 20 lbs. The freezing works great for keeping dry food fresh. Plus, our last cat loved frozen kitty food!

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That's a terrific tip! We're planning on buying another freezer once the electrician gets around to running another line into the cellar (we're expecting him any day now), and I think I'll try that. Most of the dry food I buy is imported, and often only 20 or 35 lb. bags are available, so I've been buying them, and just keeping what I need and giving the rest to the shelter or neighbors. I never thought about freezing it - I could buy a couple of big bags whenever they're on sale, and freeze whatever can't be consumed within a few weeks. We have a big problem with Felidae dry going rancid quickly. The shelter doesn't have a freezer, but if I get a big enough one, the stuff could be stored here.

Hmmm.... should I be concerned that I don't stockpile? I just wait til the bag is almost empty... then again, I've been here for 6 months, in Texas most of my life, and have never had an emergency like you guys, knock on wood!