Question of "freeze dried" food

[chef g]

Hello:

I am in the process of trying to get my cats to eat more "freeze dried" food.  When I leave canned food out I'm not too concerned it will go bad over the course of the morning.  However I'm not sure if this is the case when using freeze dried food.  They don't always finish everything before I head out to work....how long is it safe to let it sit out?  It is shelf stable before adding water....so does this change?

 

[vball91]

Hi and welcome to TCS! Are you talking about the freeze-dried raw food like Stella & Chewy's or a freeze-dried cooked food? A lot of the freeze-dried raw foods are high pressure pasteurized so are pathogen free until water is added. At that point, I am sure bacteria will start to grow but how long that takes to become unsafe for cats to consume, I'm not sure there's a good answer. I'm sure it depends on environmental conditions and quality of water, etc. I think that's a judgment call. You could also contact the manufacturer and ask although I am sure that they will give you a very safe margin like 30 minutes for liability reasons.

I will add that I treat Stella & Chewy's like I do canned food for what it's worth. My cat is a grazer, but I also know she won't eat it after it dries up.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

If you are concerned that your cat will get hungry during the day, you could leave out some of the freeze dried food in it's original state (not rehydrated).  My cats LOVE it that way.  I feed it to them that way as treats, and toss it to them down the hall and around the house to get them to run for their exercise.  I did call Stella  and Chewy's and discussed it with them since it's really supposed to be rehydrated, and they said as long as I wasn't doing every meal this way, it should be fine.  (mine eat regular raw meals for 3 meals a day, so get plenty of liquid in their "real" meat, plus they do still drink water)

But I do agree that once it's rehydrated it probably shouldn't stay out all day.  But, a simple call to the manufacturer will set your mind at ease.  Only they will know for sure.