Food Storage.

[kaylayuh]

How do you store your bird food?
Does your storage method change when storing seed versus storing pellets?

Normally I buy 10 pounds of a bird seed, fruit, and vegetable mix. I've been trying to get my birds to convert to pellets so I bought a 20 pound bag of ZuPreem natural pellets. I usually just keep the seed in the refigerator since I know I'll use it fairly quickly, but now I'm at a bit of a loss because I'm mixing it in varying ratios to transition my birds slowly into a pelleted diet. Right now, the bag I didn't portion out is in the refigerator along with the portioned bowls. Is it okay to keep the food in the refrigerator like this?

Also --- I did check the bag and it just says to push the air out of the bag to store. It makes no note about storing in a refrigerator, freezer, or just out in a dry place.

[Michael]

I usually get a 25lb bag of pellets and portion it into about 8 gallon sized zip lock bags. I load all of those into the freezer and take one bag out at a time as needed. My guess is each bag lasts me about a month. Most of the time I end up conserving a lot of food by portioning out the amount my birds actually eat rather than giving more to just throw around and play with (and become fat, ill mannered, and hormonal). However, during injury, heavy molting, outings, and when I leave on trips, I end up wasting a lot so it balances out the conserving and usually helps me use up the gallon bag before it's too old. During those times the birds are overfed or I take a lot of pellets with us on the outings and discard what isn't used.

So freezing is for long term storage and making a big bag go a long way. But then for temporary storage for use I transfer the gallon bag of pellets to a cooler I keep near the bird cages. During the summer I use freezer packs but not in winter. The point of the cooler is mainly to keep rodents out, keep the food dry, dark, and cooler than out. I may also keep some sprouting mixes, nuts, seeds, and other relevant non-spoil treats in there. This keeps my fridge freed up and the food where I need it. The pellets don't spoil easily and they are used up quick enough for it to be totally fine. However, I would not do this with organic pellets and this is a major reason I don't want to use the organic pellets. Those can spoil more easily and can do more harm than good to the birds in the event that they do.

[kaylayuh]

Your freezer reminds me of my refrigerator. It seems like I have more bird food than people food! I almost wonder sometimes what non-parrot owners would think, especially as I've never seen a cat or dog owner stock up food like parrot owners do.

The cooler idea is genius, though. While it's not really an ordeal for me to walk the whole two feet to the refrigerator, it'd make a lot more sense to keep a monthly amount inside a small cooler under the cages.

[Michael]

No no, huge cooler. Like the ones people take to the beach with loads of drinks. About as big as they get without having to put them on wheels. You'll end up putting more and more stuff in it than you expect, believe me. Sometimes I'll see some kind of nuts on sale and get the bag just in case or something like that. So there's always plenty of goodies in the cooler that are open. This way I only use my freezer for long term storage. Having a big cooler also leaves room for putting in an ice pack without it touching any of the food bags. I'm definitely happy I got a big one up front when I didn't need that much space (esp cause I've added birds since getting it).

It's definitely a bad idea to keep bird food out and low in any normal storage container because bird food is like the perfect rodent food and the bastards can chew threw anything. At least a cooler is so thick that you'd probably recognize the damage before they complete the job.

[kaylayuh]

It's definitely a bad idea to keep bird food out and low in any normal storage container because bird food is like the perfect rodent food and the bastards can chew threw anything. At least a cooler is so thick that you'd probably recognize the damage before they complete the job.

I've heard of roaches being a problem, too, which is why I generally keep all my food stuffs in the refrigerator instead of out under the cage. I've actually had a mouse come venturing around my apartment.. considering I'm on the second floor, it was quite the feat for the little guy. He never got to the bird food because I saw him slinking around before he could get to it.

I don't think I could fit a huge cooler in my apartment. The actual cages and playstands take up about a quarter of my living space. But I could definitely see using a smaller cooler. Not a super tiny one, but not one of the gigantic ones either.

When you travel with the birds, do you take the cooler along or do you have a smaller one that you use? I'll be moving across country in the next coming months, so a cooler would absolutely be beneficial for that. Probably more practical than reboxing all of the bird foods, too.

[Michael]

I got like this kind of lunch box cooler bag for when I take the birds along. I don't take them away from home for more than like 3 days so this is enough space for their little bit of food. This keeps the sun/heat/moisture out of it. It's in ziplock bags inside of this. I put this inside of a plastic travel box I have with their travel supplies, bird first aid kit, harnesses, and toys.

[CheekyandMalolo]

No no, huge cooler. Like the ones people take to the beach with loads of drinks.

Like an Esky??

Kaylayuh I would avoid putting seeds in the fridge, I'd say the moisture in there would start the germination process.

We keep our seeds in a cupboard in the Laundry, in a big plastic tub that has a lid.
Our pellets are kept under the cage in a basket in their own plastic bags (they seal).
A lot of people have said they're having big issues with mice around here (Victoria) lately, but I haven't seen any (apart from the bastard that ate a hole into a bag of horse feed) so we aren't worried about them.

[Michael]

Remember that just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. They tend to be nocturnal and hard to come across. The way I discover them is because I hear them rustling through the newspapers under the training perches at night (where some dust of chewed up treats may fall) or because I find them in the traps. It doesn't cease to surprise me how damn many there are. Now I keep some traps baited and loaded (with a parrot pellet definitely the most effective bait) year round and find mice in them when I thought the problem was already solved.

And because I am hesitant about using poison, I can't make the problem go away entirely. The best way to deal with mice is prevention. Anyone that doesn't have mouse problems, please store your food very securely and try to keep things tidy because if you provide the resources, someone will take advantage of them. If not mice then at least bugs.

[CheekyandMalolo]

Our house is on 7foot steel stilts, I'd be very very surprised if they managed to get up them lol. But definitely, food stuffs need to be away and sealed to prevent pests.

[kaylayuh]

Our house is on 7foot steel stilts, I'd be very very surprised if they managed to get up them lol. But definitely, food stuffs need to be away and sealed to prevent pests.

I thought that same thing until I saw a sneaky little mouse in my second floor apartment. It came up through the wall and poked it's little head through a gap in the baseboard against the carpet. I was shocked at how much work this little thing went through just to get inside, though I'm sure he did it more for warmth than he did for some bird food, as it happened in the middle of winter.

I would have never guessed about the seeds being able to be germinated in the refrigerator. The bags I order are vacuum packed, so I guess I never thought about it being a problem. Once I open the bags, I put all seeds in an airtight tupperware container.