Freshness of Pelleted Food / Food Choices Part 1

I've seen a lot of comments on various chin groups about various pelleted foods not being "fresh," so I wanted to lend a quick comment to that, and how chin food (well, any food) is made, and distributed.  Also, wanted to comment about different choices of pelleted feed, and why we feed what we feed, and why you may feed differently.

Some of you may know that I used to manage one of the pet stores here in town, I was the store manager.  We had our small animal section, and we'd get in food.... and often, it would sit.  So here's the thing... not saying it couldn't be super fresh... but, let's look at how the pet store supply chain works, so we all understand this as best as possible. 

Feed mills produce the food, bag it up.  Pet stores, distribution centers, etc, order the food, and get large quantities shipped to the warehouse / DC.  When I worked at the pet store, it would be nothing to order a few thousand pounds of dog food per week.  Per week..... and that was to be shipped to the store.  Imagine how much a warehouse is shipping in at once.  Of course, the mill doesn't want to make batches of 20 pounds, usually even the smaller mills make 1-2 tons of a specific pelleted food at a time.  That's 2,000-4,000 pounds.  So, if we're looking at those little bags of chin food that are like 3 pounds a piece, that is 666-1,333 bags.  So, say that's produced, and shipped to the Petco / Petsmart / wherever distribution center, and then will be shipped out to the stores.

How long do those bags sit at the distribution centers before being shipped out to the stores?  I don't know.  No one knows.  I suppose the DC could get in a batch and ship out some bags that day.  Or, they could still have 100 bags left from a previous order, order another batch, and not get to that second batch until the remaining 100 bags are shipped out.  How much time does that mean the bags sit before they ever end up on the shelf, and in the food dish?  No one knows.

But you never know, maybe the new batch of chin food bags does get shipped out right away.  How long is that bag at the pet store before you buy it?  When I worked at the pet store, our small animal section was super slow moving as far as sales.  I remember, specifically the ferret items... we'd have more expire than we'd ever sell.  And sadly, that was kind of true for most of the food (read: pellets) items (as opposed to the treats, which sold better... but not well).  For these items to expire, they'd have to be at the store for at least a handful of months... we'd rarely get in anything under 4-5 months from expiration.  Which is fine if used right away... but that's assuming it gets sold ASAP, and used ASAP.  Keep in mind... we'd have much of this expire.  So, unless you came into the store when our last batch expired and we just ordered a new bag to put up on the shelf... you were probably not getting the freshest food, at least in saying that it sat around for months on end.

And I'm not saying it isn't "fresh," don't get me wrong.  If it's not expired, it's perfectly fine.  The only reason I even mention freshness is because I've heard people claim that food bought in bulk is never fresh, as opposed to the small bag pelleted food... and I wanted to comment about this real quick. 

I feed most of the herd Tradition.  It comes in 50 pound bags.  Many large breeders use this food, as it's been developed by one of the top breeders over the last 50 years, and tweaked as necessary.  I get it from a Hubbard dealer / distributor, who picks it up, weekly, from the mill near their ranch.  Depending on the time of year (and money in the chin accounts), I usually have between 500-1000 pounds of chinchilla food here at the house.  Before you even start to think, "holy cow, that amount must sit forever"... know that I'll easily go through 500 pounds in 1-2 months.  It's nothing to go through a 50 pound bag every 2 days, possibly even less sometimes.

If you figure, the dealer picks up from the mill weekly, I usually get my batch the same week or the week after... and the max amount of time it will take before I run out and need a new batch is 8 weeks... if you get food from here, your food can't be older than 8 weeks, simply because I'll run out of my supply before then, and have to get more... and by that point, the dealer will have a new batch from the mill.

Just for example...

See at the bottom that "75/10/12/17"?  The 10/12/17 is the mill date.  That is the last bag of food I currently have here, it'll be opened in the next few days.  10/12 is 7 weeks ago.

Not saying you couldn't get a 3 pound bag of chin chow off the shelf and have it be fresher than 8 weeks... but I guess for me, the thing is, you just don't know.  Keep in mind, they put expiration dates, rather than mill dates, on bags meant for pet owners.

... to be continued.