The 'no more overbuying pet food' challenge

jenova_2

I've an entire cupboard in my house dedicated to cat food, and that's not including cat litter which lives in an outdoor shed. This is a walk-in cupboard of a similar size to my downstairs loo and filled with shelving units, I might add.

In there right now are 12 4kg sacks of RC cat and kitten biscuits, 48 tins of PAH wet food, two 48-packs of adult sachet food, 16 12-pack boxes of RC Babycat wet sachets, 16 12-pack boxes of Hills Science Plan Kitten wet sachets and 30 or so tetrapacks of Bozita. It does also house all my cat&kitten paperwork, my cat medicine box, birthing supplies, clean blankets etc but they only take up about 1/4 of the space

I should back this up by saying I breed cats, so I have fluctuating catfood needs. Pregnant and lactating girls need constant food and once weaned off mum-milk, growing kittens eat as much as an adult - split over five meals a day. So I go through a heck of a lot of catfood, but at very different times during the year - when all the kittens have gone to their new homes and I've just got my girls, the amount I need is quite low. When I've got a pregnant lady and some 3-month old kittens, I seem to be constantly buying food and litter.

So while I most definitely 'overbuy' at times, I think it's sensible from a MSE point of view - if I buy all I can afford when things are BOGOF, because within the next 4-6 months I know I'll use it all and more, it's saved me having to buy it as-and-when I need it at full price. Obviously this is pretty specific to my situation and doesn't apply so much to people who have a constant number of mouths to feed.

I did find some foil trays of very specialist kitten weaning mush during one of my clean-outs that was about a week away from it's Best Before Date, which I sent to a breeder friend who had little ones at the time as I had no kits... and Milk Replacement Formula gets regularly binned as it goes off when it's opened and it's only for emergencies when mum can't feed the kittens for any reason, so I seem to use a tiny bit out of a pack and then have to chuck it. Next time I will sent it to the local Cats Protection as they are often raising feral litters by hand. But other than those two things, I haven't had anything "go off" while it was in my cupboard.

This thread has made me decide to stack my shelves with the shortest 'shelf life' at the front, much like you'd find at a supermarket though - so thankyou OP for making me think about that.

Catslovelycats

Glad to be of help!
When I read the first 2 paragraphs I thought you must be a breeder.
Lucky you.
Mind you, my problem would be being unable to let any of the kittens go!
I've made a list of what food we need to get through quickest and, like you, have it at the front of the shelf.
Cat's not so happy that they've only had white fish flavour for the last few days (I usually put out 3 flavours because they all like different ones) but they're getting used to it I think.
I certainly won't have any problem getting through it. And my 9 month old kitten is the greediest of the lot!
Thanks for your post!

PudseyDB

I've got 2 dogs and more dog food and treats than I've really got room to store - but the special offers are just too good to resist

Nice to know its not just me

jenova_2

catslovelycats - it is very hard when the kittens go to their new homes! They spend at a minimum their first 14 weeks of life with me, I'm there when they're born and watched their little personalities develop... they've all got their baby names that I've given them... it's actually very difficult when the new owner says "Oh, we've decided to call him Biggles" or something, and I smile and nod and on the inside I'm going "noooo, his name is Jojo and he's mine, give him back!"

But having said that, I know they're going to make other people very happy and have the time of their lives ruling a new house, rather than being stuck with their boring old mum, aunties and me - that makes it easier