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Prepping for Pets: The BEST Way to Store Dog Food
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May 21, 2024
In this guide, we delve into the essential topic of emergency preparedness for your beloved canine companions. Understand why it’s vital to include your pets in your emergency planning and how to do so effectively. We cover the advantages and considerations of both dry, and canned dog food, including cost, weight, and shelf life. Watch as we demonstrate the most efficient method to store dry dog food using vacuum-sealed Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, ensuring your pet's food remains fresh and nutritious when emergencies arise. Additionally, we compare the pros and cons of canned dog food versus dry dog food stored in Mylar bags, helping you make informed decisions for your pet’s emergency supply. Your pets are invaluable family members and deserve a spot in your emergency preparedness plan. This video will ensure you're well-equipped to keep them safe and nourished, no matter what unexpected situations you might face. Subscribe for more insightful tips on pet safety and emergency preparedness. Remember, the right preparation today can make all the difference tomorrow. Share your own pet prep tips in the comments below and join our community of responsible pet owners. Stay safe and stay prepared! Wallaby approved my affiliate application! If you want to check out their Mylar products, here's my link direct to their site (I also link to specific products from this video below) - https://wallabygoods.com/?rfsn=7886178.6d39773 Check out our Easy Food Storage Plan: https://pantrypreparedness.com/food-storage-made-of-the-meals-your-family-loves/ Products Mentioned in this Video: 12 Gallon Storage Bin by Greenmade https://www.costco.com/.product.4000229972.html Kirkland Dry Dog Food https://www.costco.com/kirkland-signature-nature's-domain-beef-%2526-sweet-potato-dog-food-35-lb..product.100343434.html
View Video Transcript
0:00
Well, how's it going, my friends
0:01
Welcome back to Pantry Preparedness. Today, we're gonna talk a little bit about food storage
0:05
Obviously, we know food storage is super important to emergency preparedness, but today we're talking about our pets
0:12
So we'll talk about dog food today and how we can store dog food
0:15
and how we can do it cost-effectively. Now, some of you love your animals, you love your pets
0:22
Some of you see them more as kind of utility and whatever perspective you're coming from
0:28
in an emergency situation, a dog is a fantastic asset to have
0:33
There are a lot of benefits to having a dog, especially in stressful situations
0:37
First of all, they're gonna provide a lot of protection. They're a great early warning system
0:42
They're gonna be able to detect things that are out of the ordinary way faster than you will
0:46
and even like during the nighttime. They're also so great for emotional support
0:52
So in a stressful situation, like having anything, especially with children, that can sort of bring back some normalcy
1:00
and that companionship is gonna do a lot to help. Keep your head on straight, keep focused, I guess
1:07
And they just do a lot for me too, not just for kids. So I don't want you to have to choose
1:11
between taking care of your dog and being able to provide for your family
1:15
And if you've only set aside food for humans, you're gonna have to make that decision
1:21
probably pretty early on. We're just not gonna deal with that, right? So we're gonna be prepared for our dogs too
1:26
but we also don't wanna break the bank. So first let's talk about what your options are
1:31
for storing dog food. Obviously we can store whatever, but we want something that's gonna be able to last a while
1:38
So we want something fairly shelf stable. There are a few great options
1:41
We've got kind of your dry dog food, the stuff that you probably feed in your dog
1:46
most of the time. In the bag, it says it's good for somewhere
1:51
between about six and 18 months, depending on where you store it
1:54
That's not bad, but that's not super long-term, which means basically the way that you would store that
2:01
just in the bags on its own is to always just keep a couple extra bags
2:05
and sort of just rotate through it first in, first out. That's a really good option
2:09
but we're gonna find a good way to stretch this a bit further. Another option here, I have some canned dog food
2:16
Canned dog food is already shelf stable. It says the manufacture expiration date is three years out
2:21
That's pretty good. And we all know about expiration dates on canned food
2:25
They are fairly meaningless, or at least they're very conservative. So I could pretty comfortably say five years
2:33
unless I've got that stored in like a really hot garage or something. I'm gonna be pretty comfortable for five years
2:39
Now, there's another great really long-term option that's 25, 30 years, and that's freeze-dried dog food
2:45
Now, at that point, we're talking about pretty astronomical cost in comparison to these
2:51
So we're not really gonna address that in this video. If money's no object for you
2:56
and you just wanna go out and buy that, like, cool, good for you
2:59
You probably don't need a video to tell you that that's an option. There's also another really great option
3:04
for shelf-stable food, and that is to feed your dogs some of the same kinds of foods you would eat yourself
3:11
and just store a little bit extra of that. So we're talking things like rice, beans
3:15
and those alone aren't gonna be enough, but if you add in some animal protein like eggs
3:21
that could work for your dog. So one way to be able to manage that
3:26
is just have some extra rice and some extra beans to be able to feed your dog
3:30
but maybe get a couple extra chickens if that's something that you've already got going on
3:34
So those are good options, but now we've gotta talk a little bit about feasibility
3:39
and a little bit about cost. I mentioned that freeze-dried food is basically off the charts
3:43
compared to the rest of this stuff, so we're not gonna talk specific numbers there
3:47
Just know it's gonna cost you way more. But now let's talk a little bit about the canned food
3:51
versus the dry food. We all know canned dog food costs more
3:55
but it's already shelf-stable, so maybe that's better. So I wanna talk a little bit about this
3:59
So this little package here, based upon a 40-pound adult dog, they say that they should eat between 2 1⁄4
4:11
and three cans a day. What are you doing with partial cans anyway
4:15
You open it up and what are you gonna do? Leave 3 1⁄4 of a can for tomorrow
4:20
I don't know. Maybe you're gonna put it in the fridge, but maybe you don't have a fridge in this emergency scenario
4:26
So if we're eating three cans a day, this whole thing lasts eight days
4:32
That's not a long time. Now, you could argue as well, though, that this dry dog food, this bag that I have here
4:40
it takes up about twice the space of that. The difference is that that is gonna last
4:47
the same 40-pound dog between 45 and 60 days if you feed it the amount that it says on the bag
4:53
which is about 2 1⁄4 to three cups a day. That's a lot longer, but now we gotta talk cost
4:59
because this canned food that lasts eight days, it costs about $30
5:05
This one costs about $36. But like I said, it's gonna last
5:10
between one and a half and two months. So we're talking about six to eight of these little pallets
5:16
to be able to match one bag. That's $180 to $240 versus 35
5:23
We all know dried dog food is cheaper. It's that much cheaper
5:27
So how do we make it last longer? That's where we're gonna go next
5:33
So to accomplish this, we are going to the Mylar. I've got these one-gallon Wallaby brand Mylar bags
5:40
and I've got my Wallaby Mylar sealer. Wallaby is not a sponsor of this video
5:45
or of this channel yet. So, but we're gonna go ahead and use them
5:52
So this gallon bag is gonna hold about 10 cups of dry dog food
5:57
And we're just gonna fill a bunch of these up and store them in these totes
6:01
The cool thing is, is one of these totes perfectly fit for us
6:06
basically one of these bags of dog food. And so it's like a two-month supply of dog food per tote
6:12
And then we got them all labeled and stuff. I'm gonna show you all that when we get there
6:16
But now let's go ahead, fill a couple of these bags, get them all sealed up
6:20
So just bring this over. There you go. Okay. We also need these oxygen absorbers
6:39
Now some of the Mylar bag packs from Wallaby come in like as a kit and come with some of these
6:45
but these are super cheap and you can get them separate as well. So like this set in particular, it didn't come with them
6:51
So we're gonna stick one of these in each gallon bag and each gallon bag is gonna hold
6:58
about 10 cups of this dry dog food. Now on their website, Wallaby actually specifically
7:03
also recommends that if you're gonna do this, you try to find a dry dog food
7:07
that's less than 10% moisture. This Kirkland dog food, this beef and sweet potato formula
7:14
it meets that criteria. And while I'm also not sponsored by Costco yet
7:21
they have a lot of really good products. So, all right, we're gonna go ahead and pack some of this up
7:49
Nope. Almost forgot one of those. Also make sure that you seal it
8:08
above the little perforation, not below it like an idiot. I can say that because I just did it below
8:18
Ah, oxygen absorber. And if you forget to put in the oxygen absorber
8:23
just rip it back open, throw one in here, and seal it back up
8:47
And on the third bag, we got one right. There you go
8:53
Cooper's already getting dinner. Again, I just kinda want that to stay wide
9:06
Yeah. Ha ha
9:17
This is like the one I kinda have to spread it. There we go
9:30
Beautiful. All right, there's four. It's very stackable
9:56
It is easier to do like four, four, two. So here I'm kinda folding it over like that
10:14
That's getting a little more air out, which is gonna let these lay flatter. And then as long as this is really good and flat
10:19
both sides, when I set it on there, I'm gonna get a good seal
10:27
But it's not a bad idea to just kind of, I'm not pulling these apart
10:33
but I'm just kinda getting a visual, kinda opening it up a little bit and making sure I don't have any gaps
10:39
where it just wants to pull apart. There we go. Ha. Practically a pro now
11:03
Oh, let's see here. Nice. Now these bags in this tote setup is great
11:13
for kind of the everyday food storage. With those, I mean, it's basically like
11:18
we have this in case, for any reason, we're not able to buy dog food for a little while
11:23
Now we've got a month or two supply per tote here, right
11:28
But there are other situations where like, see, I've got a little extra here
11:34
There are other situations where I might wanna use one of these kind of pint-sized bags to hold a couple cups worth of dog food
11:39
Actually, just about a day's worth of dog food for camping, backpacking, off-roading
11:45
that you can just have in your bag or in a tote or something like that, just ready to go
11:50
so that when you go up there, your dog's already taken care of
11:54
So I'm gonna go ahead and make a few bags of these. Also, in part because I've got a couple
12:00
of these oxygen absorbers left, and I either need to seal off this bag
12:06
like at least tape it off or something, or use these, otherwise they're gonna get used up
12:13
You can't just like leave them out. They're gonna try to soak up the oxygen for around here
12:17
So we need to get them used up. So this is a good way to go through a few of those too
12:34
Voila. We got Cooper here cleaning up for us. You could clean up crew coop
12:46
All right, so now I'm gonna prepare labels for each of these because I wanna, first of all
12:51
label what they are. I don't wanna have to open this thing up to remember what's inside of it
12:55
So dog food and the amount, 10 cups. But then I also wanna put on there when I packaged it
13:01
and when I'm gonna treat it as expired. So we're packaging this now
13:06
We'll call it, it's February 2024. So we'll say it expires February 29
13:19
All right, cool. Then I'm gonna put one of these on each one of these bags
13:22
This is just really good labeling. I mean, up to you how much you wanna do it
13:28
but also these Wallaby bags come with the labels and so it feels kind of wasteful to not use them
13:36
All right, the other thing that we wanna label is the tote itself. So I'll show you this one that we've already got done
13:43
It just says dog food on the side. So again, I don't have to know what's inside
13:48
And then we have one here on the top that also says dog food
13:54
It tells me that there's 12 bags, 10 cups each. And again, this one actually says what's in it
13:59
like exactly what the dog food is, but also when it was packaged and when it expires
14:04
Now, why are we worried about putting in these totes? And why is this thing so taped up
14:09
There's actually a good reason for that. It's because these hard totes
14:14
are gonna give it extra protection. I mean, these bags, these are gonna protect it from air
14:18
They're gonna protect it from light. They should protect it well from moisture
14:22
But this is gonna give it a little more protection from all of those things
14:26
but added protection for pests like mice. Mice will chew right through like the dog food bag
14:32
Super easy, right? No problem. You put it in your garage, put it in your crawl space
14:36
You're gonna find holes in there and they're gonna eat through and eat through that food
14:41
These Mylar bags should be a little harder for them to chew through, but man, they're probably gonna do it
14:45
So by putting them in and we can stack them really nice and neat in these totes
14:50
And then we taped it down. So it's taped down twice on each side here
14:55
and then on each end. There's no spot here where this is gonna be able to open up enough
15:00
even for a little mouse to squeeze through. And so it's gonna be pretty well protected
15:05
I can throw this thing in a garage, in a crawl space. Pests aren't gonna get into it
15:09
and it's gonna be really awesome and available for whatever we need it
15:13
We've also got to add that this tote size here is portable
15:18
I mean, this is relatively heavy already. Imagine if you use like the bigger size of these totes
15:24
You wouldn't be able to carry it by yourself, let alone get it through the entrance to a crawl space
15:29
So this size of tote works incredibly well. These are also super stackable
15:35
and they're conveniently exactly half the footprint of the larger size of this exact same tote
15:41
So literally you could stack the large tote and then turn two of these sideways on top of it
15:45
and then stack another full-size one on top of that. They're made to be stackable
15:50
in that kind of modular structure, which again is, I don't know, really good planning
15:55
So something to consider as well. We'll put a link to these in the description
15:59
but you can find these all over the place, especially at Costco. One more comparison that we should make
16:04
between these different dog food types is the wet dog food. First of all, it's wet, water's heavy
16:11
Second of all, it's in a can and cans are heavy. So remember this eight days worth of food
16:17
this weighs just shy of 20 pounds, but our 45 to 60 days worth of dry food weighs only 35 pounds
16:26
It's a lot less weight per day's worth of food. So again, in terms of like storability, packability
16:34
all of that stuff, I don't know. I'm gonna store mostly dry dog food
16:39
And then if I need to supplement that to make it stretch out a little further, adding in some rice, beans, eggs, whatever
16:44
even mixing those in are gonna help stretch that food. And that is how we make sure that our pets
16:50
are gonna be well taken care of. We're planning for them the exact same way
16:54
we would plan for ourselves. It's just a lot easier because they're way less picky than we are
17:00
So just put a little forethought in and then you're gonna be able to have your pet
17:04
that's gonna be able to help with protection. It's gonna be able to help you with emotional support
17:09
and comradeship even in the middle of the worst emergencies. And what's awesome is that all of that food storage
17:18
now I've got four months worth of food storage for a dog, a 40 pound dog
17:22
That was 70, $75 for all of that. Even the Mylar bags don't cost very much
17:29
It's very affordable to do. It just takes a little bit of forethought. That's what we're all about here at Pantry Preparedness
17:34
A little bit of forethought. And being prepared for whatever it is
17:38
life's gonna throw at you. If that's the kind of stuff you like, you're in the right place
17:42
We'll see you on our next video. Like and subscribe for more. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
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