Quality pet food products cost quite a bit of money. The last thing anyone wants is to have food go to waste because it wasn't stored properly. When food isn't securely packaged, rodents, insects, or moisture can get into containers and bags and ruin everything.

Some food needs to be prepared for long term storage before it is put into the appropriate containers so it doesn't go bad. For example, many pet bird and small mammal diets that contain seeds should be frozen for about 48 hours to keep moths and weevils from hatching out over the upcoming weeks. Cobwebby, bug filled food can create a major pest problem in your home.

The key to proper dog food storage is to be sure you only buy the amount of food that you can use in a certain amount of time. As the food sits in your storage containers, the oils in it seem to gradually make it rancid. Also, although I have never eaten any dog food to test my theory, I suspect that older food tastes stale to dogs, just as cereal grows stale for humans.

I tried a lot of different dog food storage systems, but the simple design of plastic stacking bins with front opening doors seems to work the best. Other storage options either were so tall and narrow that I had difficulty reaching the bottom or had such narrow openings that it was hard to reach inside them with a scoop.

When I was feeding the 19 feral cats that lived in my yard when I bought my house, I needed a lot of cat food storage. I used the same stacking bins that worked for my dog food. However, as I found homes for them, I realized that I did not need this much storage for my two indoor cats.

I moved to a very inexpensive option for the small quantity of food I needed - simply refilling the screw top plastic container that came with my first purchase of kitten chow. When I buy a bigger bag of food, I pour the remaining amount into a canister.