For how long can I freeze dry food?

Some of you are a bit familiar with my problem, and have given information and excellent advice. I live in Europe, and the EU has recently been changing its import regulations so often that many pet food producers in North America have either thrown in the towel or suspended deliveries. Jamie and ZsaZsa are okay about eating canned food from Europe, as long as it's in 3-ounce cans, and I have enough storage space to buy small cans of, for example, Solid Gold by the case when it's available, but both prefer dry food from the US or Canada. For the past several months, many brands haven't been available here for weeks and weeks on end. Neither cat will eat canned food exclusively, and both want a lot of variety, meaning at least three types of dry food weekly. I normally buy small (5 or 6 lb. bags) for that reason. However, because of the delays in delivery, I'm going to have to buy dry food in large bags (20 - 30 lbs.) when the opportunity presents itself, and freeze a lot of it. We just got an extra freezer, in part for this reason. If I buy a 30 lb. bag with an August 2006 "Best by" date, and freeze 25 lbs., do I have to use the food by that date + the storage period, or is its shelf life only extended by, say, 3 to 6 months?
I realize that this sounds crazy, but right now there's a thread on a German forum I'm a member of about "repackaging" and freezing canned food, because everybody is having problems with availability and storage. Some people have cats that will only eat Nutro, or Felidae, or California Natural, and those owners have to beg for people to sell them their "surpluses".

I was told there is a 2-3 month extended period, but to be on the safe side, I would ask the companies that make the particular dry foods you're referring to.

no idea.. however, I would assume that 3-6 months is approx. right (IN an air tight container) Irrr.. longer if you can hermetically seal single servings with one of them vaccuum thingers...

incidentally is ZsaZsa another cat? since when did you have another one tricia?

Originally Posted by turtlecat

no idea.. however, I would assume that 3-6 months is approx. right (IN an air tight container) Irrr.. longer if you can hermetically seal single servings with one of them vaccuum thingers...

incidentally is ZsaZsa another cat? since when did you have another one tricia?

Click to expand...

ZsaZsa is our "half-cat". She belonged to neighbors who moved, and she kept coming back here. Her former landlords agreed to adopt her, but she spent most of her time at our house (people mistake her for Jamie, though she's half his size, and deposit her at our door). Anyway, the landlord died, and his wife moved in with their son, so I took ZsaZsa in, and tried for months to get Jamie to accept her. It didn't work out, so another neighbor, two doors down, took her. ZsaZsa still insists that she's our cat, and appears every morning, and has to be taken home every evening. We have a cat flap installed in our laundry room window for her, so she's either outside or in our laundry room during the day, and eats dinner here every evening. I promised to cover vet, litter, and food bills when Mrs. R. said she'd take her to prevent Jamie from killing her, and she sometimes eats breakfast here, and sometimes at her "owner's". Here's a picture of her begging to come in:

She keeps wrecking the screen on that cellar window, so we have "cat net" inside as extra protection against "cat burglaries", for her own good.

Most of the bags have 800 #s for the states I can call Nutro and see how long... I would the others but dont have them

NO idea.. i actually bought a huge 15LB bag of Royal Canin for Marsh, which i store in an airtight, sealed bin in a dark, dry closet. This should last Marsh at least 1/6 a year to a year.

I'd suggest calling the manufacturer to find out

I've sent several emails, and hope to get some replies other than, "We find it advisable to feed just one brand of cat food...."

This i wouldn't know, our cats eat 18lb bag of food in one month .. some times less depending on who is visiting outside. ( our dog used to eat a lot of their food too *rme*)

Although if you are going to freeze it i would say put it in several small containers in a freezer with out defrost so that it does not get ice crystals in it to make it soggy. When i freeze items here i put them in small sandwich baggies and then put the sandwich baggies in gallon size baggies. Works well for me and i can reuse the gallong bags over and over. ( Of course for cat food you could use the baggies over and over til they have holes in them.)

I think I'll try freezing small quantities of various kibbles to see which ones come out "best". I'll bag the stuff, and then put them in freezer containers and/or bigger bags.