How much kibble to open at one time?

[Julie and Charlie]

I remember seeing a recommendation here, but I can't find it for the life of me. How long after I open a bag of kibble is it still "good"?

My current practice is to divide the bag into gallon size zip-type bags because I hate cleaning large vessels in the bathtub... yeah, that 5 gallon food grade bucket went to the garage after the first bag was gone.

[Julie and Charlie]

Oh, I was going to add, the reason I ask is that I am trying to determine the optimum bag size to buy. Bigger is of course cheaper per serving, but not if it's going to go bad before we can use it.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I keep the kibble in the bag and use it within a month. It probably is fine for longer but it may be stale and there may be more mites, to which some dogs are allergic.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

As F said, it's best not to have more "open" food than you can use in a month, even if it's in zip-lock bags. But if you want to take advantage of the savings on the largest sized bags, you can always freeze anything that your dog won't eat in a month.

[jeanne & Lilly]

Have you looked at the Gamma Vittle Vaults?

[Julie and Charlie]

No, I haven't. I figure I can buy lots of zip bags for $33. And I would still have to wash the vault! :)

[BG and Gavin]

We use ours up in 5 weeks.  I have a large tupperware type bowl with an airtight lid which I fill and feed from there.  The rest I store in the basement in the foil type bag it comes in and use a clip to keep it air tight.  I do not notice Gavin's interest in the food waxing or waning depending on how far into the bag we are.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

He doesn't seem more excited about his food when you first open a new bag?

[F, Calla & Luca]

No difference for the enthusiasm level here whether the bag is open a day or a month. Calla no doubt would eat kibble that was open a decade. What I find really interesting is that in the last few weeks, Luca has begun to eat breakfast at breakfast time and dinner at dinner time and generally clean his bowl. They both had a GI virus, or so it seemed, just before that and also I became casual about bringing his dinner upstairs if he hadn't eaten it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Back in the days when JD was a picky eater, before the prednisone, he was always much more enthusiastic about eating when I had just opened a new bag of kibble, even though i always kept it in air-tight bags inside an air-tight container. I think I have heard others here say the same, but clearly many of the dogs don't care either way.

[Julie and Charlie]

I would say that Charlie is excited about the new bag, but only because I am opening a bag (any bag) and it's for him. He also enjoys the scooping of the kibble into the bags, because he gets the stray pieces. But other than that, no difference in food interest in new versus old bags.

[BG and Gavin]

No difference.  The only thing that affects his appetite one way or the other is exercise and temperature.  Cold and lots of exercise = more eating.  Hot and less exercise = less eating.  I wish I was like that and could think about food only as "fuel."  It's the perfect weight management system!