Hamster Central - View Single Post

Pebbles82 · 03-16-2020, 05:35 AM

Hi. I put the bags of hamster food in the freezer for a week. If you have space you can leave one in there all the time then when you need a new bag, take it out and put the newly bought bag in the freezer. So you always have a spare bag in the freezer. I currently don’t have the freezer space to do that but have 2 or 3 bags of various hamster mixes that have all been frozen.

They defrost really quickly- within 2 or 3 hours. After freezing/defrosting, I tip the contents of the hamster food bag into a lock and lock food storage box which is airtight. And put fees out from that. For the regular mix anyway. I also have a bag of science selective that is open (having previous been frozen) and just an open bag. But I would never leave an open bag of hamster food if it hadn’t been frozen first. Because that’s how my moth outbreak started.

I freeze the food for a full week. To make sure any moth eggs are dead. It has worked very well for about 4 years and never had any bugs since-). The freezing kills bugs or eggs. I do the same for hamster treats and treat sticks as well - and hay and herbs. Not all al the same time so it doesn’t fill up the freezer. I also freeze cork logs and any wood bark items (some have had woodworm!). This is purely to kill any microscopic insects or eggs that could hatch. It isn’t for disinfecting. Did my research on moth eggs!

The airtight storage box probably isn’t essential if the food has been frozen but it’s quite convenient and keeps the dry mix fresh. Also avoids the chance of a moth laying eggs in the open food bag. I think that is less likely as they are usually a specific type of food moth but I actually had 3 different species hatch out and some were clothes and carpet moths as well as food moths.

Sorry - maybe too much information ugh. But basically prevention is better than cure. Any dried pet food is susceptible. Even if it is in sealed plastic bags - moths can lay eggs through plastic bags - seems unbelievable but apparently the case.

03-16-2020, 05:35 AM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Freezing hamster food Hi. I put the bags of hamster food in the freezer for a week. If you have space you can leave one in there all the time then when you need a new bag, take it out and put the newly bought bag in the freezer. So you always have a spare bag in the freezer. I currently don’t have the freezer space to do that but have 2 or 3 bags of various hamster mixes that have all been frozen. They defrost really quickly- within 2 or 3 hours. After freezing/defrosting, I tip the contents of the hamster food bag into a lock and lock food storage box which is airtight. And put fees out from that. For the regular mix anyway. I also have a bag of science selective that is open (having previous been frozen) and just an open bag. But I would never leave an open bag of hamster food if it hadn’t been frozen first. Because that’s how my moth outbreak started. I freeze the food for a full week. To make sure any moth eggs are dead. It has worked very well for about 4 years and never had any bugs since-). The freezing kills bugs or eggs. I do the same for hamster treats and treat sticks as well - and hay and herbs. Not all al the same time so it doesn’t fill up the freezer. I also freeze cork logs and any wood bark items (some have had woodworm!). This is purely to kill any microscopic insects or eggs that could hatch. It isn’t for disinfecting. Did my research on moth eggs! The airtight storage box probably isn’t essential if the food has been frozen but it’s quite convenient and keeps the dry mix fresh. Also avoids the chance of a moth laying eggs in the open food bag. I think that is less likely as they are usually a specific type of food moth but I actually had 3 different species hatch out and some were clothes and carpet moths as well as food moths. Sorry - maybe too much information ugh. But basically prevention is better than cure. Any dried pet food is susceptible. Even if it is in sealed plastic bags - moths can lay eggs through plastic bags - seems unbelievable but apparently the case.