What Dog Food Has The Longest Shelf Life? With all of the different types of dog food available, choosing what to feed your pooch is hard enough as it is! Adding to that, how long they will keep their most expensive purchase is not always guaranteed.
Making sure your puppy or dog is eating the right kind of diet is an important part of keeping them healthy for life. If you are ever unsure of which type of food your dog needs, looking at the ingredients can help determine if there were errors in production or manufacturing.
Certain colors of some of the ingredients indicate whether the meat source or other components have expired, but unfortunately, we probably know more about rotten foods than good ones. That is why we must learn about the longest shelf lives for various types of dog food.
There are several types of dog food that claim to be the best for your canine friend, so knowing which one has the highest amount of longevity is helpful to make a decision. In this article, I will go over three types of popular diets and what factors affect how much time these recipes have before they should be bought.
What is the shelf life of dog food?
When it comes to dog food, there are a lot of different options on the market. But how do you know which one is right for your dog? And how long will it last before it goes bad?
The shelf life of dog food depends on a few different factors, including the type of food, the ingredients, and how it’s stored.
The most common types of dog food are dry food and wet food. Dry food typically has a longer shelf life than wet food because it doesn’t contain as much moisture. However, dry food can go bad if it’s stored in a warm or humid environment.
Wet food, on the other hand, has a shorter shelf life than dry food. This is because wet food contains more moisture, which can cause it to spoil more quickly.
The ingredients in your dog’s food can also affect its shelf life. For example, foods that contain fats and proteins tend to spoil more quickly than those that are lower in fat and protein. And, foods that are high in carbohydrates can also go bad more quickly.
Finally, how you store your dog’s food can also affect its shelf life. If you store dry food in a cool, dry place, it will last longer than if you store it in a warm, humid environment. And, if you store wet food in the fridge, it will last longer than if you store it at room temperature.
So, what is the shelf life of dog food? It depends on the type of food, the ingredients, and how it’s stored. But, in general, dry food has a longer shelf life than wet food, and wet food should be stored in the fridge.
Some ingredients get bad faster than others
Certain protein sources or additives will go stale or even harmful to your dog later if you don’t keep an eye on them. The most common culprits are the proteins glutamine, arginine, and glycine.
These three amino acids make up part of the meat used in some dry food recipes. They also may be present as individual components of the wet food recipe.
Glutamic acid is the main component of glutamine. Arginine and lysine are both made of molecules containing nitrogen, so they combine with each other to form either citrulline or ornithine. Both of these chemicals play important roles in creating blood pressure and muscle function.
When dogs eat enough of this junk, it can damage their internal organs and systems. Because dogs have such large bodies, even small amounts of sub-optimal nutrition can have major health consequences for them.
Too much moisture
Many factors affect the shelf life of dog food, one of which is how dry the food is. The more water the food contains, the shorter its lifespan will be!
Dogs need water to survive, so if you notice that your puppy or older dog has dried up very quickly then it’s important to make sure they are well hydrated at all times.
You should also check for wet noses and paws- if possible, test a bit of drool against the back of a spoon to see if it changes color. If it does not change color and smells salty, then your dog may have consumed too much salt content in the diet. This can cause health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure.
Dog foods with little to no water content will last longer because the dogs do not require as much liquid to satisfy their thirst. Some types of meat can even prove to be a factor, as bone fragments keep some of the water locked away. By eating enough of these foods, your pooch will soon run out of things to drink!
Stringy vegetables and fruits like carrots lose most of their taste when dried, so unless your dog loves them already, try to steer clear of those. The same goes for nuts and coconut, both of which can go bad if left in the stomach long enough.
Too little moisture
Many factors affect the shelf life of packaged food, one of which is how much water the product contains. As we know, dogs need lots of water to drink and eat!
Dogs are not very efficient at drying out their diet when they’re given a wet meal or snack. This can sometimes cause gut issues such as diarrhea.
Diarrhea may be due to poor stomach acid that does not function properly. If this happens, then the body cannot break down certain nutrients in the stool. These undigested foods can make your dog feel sick and even more dehydrated.
This could continue until you get rid of the diarrhea by changing the dog’s diet. By doing so, his digestive system will re-balance itself.
Proteins go bad
While not all proteins in meat or chicken feed will spoil, every protein in food does eventually break down into its individual amino acids that make up the structure of the protein.
As dogs are intelligent creatures that eat and taste things out, they seem to be very aware when their dinner has gone bad. They can quickly recognize spoiled foods and often refuse to ingest them.
This is why it is so important for your dog to be given fresh, quality kibble at regular intervals. Not only does this help keep his/her stomach strong, but also helps prevent premature death due to nutritional deficiencies.
Dog owners usually worry about whether or not their dog is eating enough, but less discussed is what kind of food he/she is actually consuming.
Carbohydrates break down
The most important factor in dog food shelf life is actually something very simple – carbohydrates!
Carbohydrates are the main component of meat protein as well as all of the other raw materials used to make a dry dog food like vegetables, grains, and supplements.
The length of time that a given type of carbohydrate will remain effective in your dogs’ diet depends mostly upon how much of it they’ve been eating.
As you probably know, dogs eat more than two times their body weight in food every day! This means that even if they don’t physically consume any extra volume of food, they’re still consuming enough carbs for several days.
Because this fact applies even when they’re only feeding themselves, we can assume that their bodies retain the same amount of carb intake after they’re done. A lot of dogs’ owners let them sleep through the night which also helps preserve the remaining nutritional value of the food.
Too many additives
Many major brands add too many types of “fun” flavor enhancers or fillers to their food. These include artificial colors, sweeteners, and/or preservatives.
Many dogs will eat just about anything you put in front of them, which is why it is important to choose your dog’s diet wisely.
You don’t want to risk giving your dog something that will potentially harm him later on.
Some of these additives can be harmful for dogs, even if they seem like they are not. For example, studies have linked some colorings to hyperactivity in dogs and long term exposure to aspartame (an additive found in some diets) has been associated with behavioral issues and cancer.
While it is true that most commercial foods are high in calories, cheap recipes usually contain large amounts of filler ingredients. More expensive foods typically use fewer additives. It is important to look into the ingredient lists of any new diet to see how much junk each product contains.
Not enough antioxidants
Many dog food manufacturers do not add enough of all different types of antioxidant to their products. Antioxidants help keep your dogs’ healthy by acting as an internal shield against free radicals that can potentially cause damage to your dogs’ cells or even contribute to cancer.
Some of the most common antioxidants are vitamins A, C, E and beta carotene. Dogs require these nutrients in small amounts but they work in synergy with each other so it is important to know which ones agree well together in pooch stomachs.
A good rule of thumb is to look for foods that have at least 2 mg of vitamin A per kilogram (2,000 grams) of food, 1mg of vitamin C per kg of food, 10 IU of vitamin D3 per kg of food and 20 mg of omega-3 fatty acids per kg of food. These levels must be adequate for both nutritional quality and quantity of the food.
It is very difficult to estimate how much of each individual antioxidant will be needed to achieve this goal because there is no formal way to determine what percentage of each nutrient is consumed by a specific type of animal. But you can use our interactive chart here to make some general recommendations.
To give yourself a more exact idea of how many mg of each antioxidant you need per kg of your dog’t diet, use our recipe builder.
Too salty
Another major factor in dog food shelf life is how much salt each product contains. Dogs need sodium to survive, so foods with high amounts of salt can be harmful if you don’t limit your dog’s intake.
Too much salt could cause water retention or even blood-pressure issues in your pet. This would only end badly for your dog!
Many commercial diets are very high in salt. The average one has more than 1% added salt, which is extremely large amount. A small puppy or young dog will ingest far less nutrition than an adult animal, so they will eat proportionally more food that has lots of additives.
Some dogs may develop eating habits due to poor nutritional quality of the kibble. It could also create bad manners like throwing the food away or acting hungry when it is time to go out. All these affect the overall health and wellness of your pooch.
We recommend reading our article about the best dry cat foods to see why limiting added salts is important for those who feed their cats dry food.