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
9:17
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
