What to do with leftover cat food

[Didi]

Having had to make the awful decision to let my beautiful boy Milo go on Saturday I find having his food in the house really upsetting do rescue centres take open bags of dried food ? I have a full bag of prescription food for the diabetic cat and an almost full back of Royal Canine over 7 indoor cat food with joint support . The diabetic food was only opened on Friday and there has only been about 20g taken out of it the joint support one is about ¾ full it just seems such a waste if someone can use it. Bilbo who is my daughters cat that is living with me at the moment is only 4 so neither are suitable for him and it seems wrong to just throw them out of they can be used

[meriad]

I'd be very surprised if a rescue didn't take them. Alternatively what you could do is contact your vet and ask if they have a client who may be slightly hard up financially and struggling with a cat that has dietry needs and could use that food...

I am sorry re Milo - it's just so hard. RIP

[alanc]

Very sorry about Milo. I can understand why you find it upsetting to have his food around. Both our Vets and the local cattery have donation boxes for surplus cat food which is given to the local cat rescue. If yours do not do this, try emailing the local cat rescue, Blue Cross or Cats Protection. One at least of them is likely to have old cat or a diabetic cat in their shelters so will be glad of some extra food.

[MarkB]

Sorry to hear about Milo.

I would recommend trying a smaller rescue and telling them that they have been recently opened. I know when I volunteered for CP, people often left open bags in donation bins, but often they were stale, so it became practice to bin them - also they were stored in a shed, so there was a risk of mice contaminating it.

It is a shame to waste good food.

[MarySkater]

When my previous cat died, I was left with a nearly-full bag of expensive dry food. I e-mailed my nearest shelter (Cats Protection) and explained about the food being opened but fresh. I also had a lot of other stuff which I donated to them - beds, carry box etc, and a helper with a car came to my house to collect it all.

I agree it would not be a good idea just to put opened food in a collection bin.

Mary

[MarkB]

Slightly off-topic, but reminded me of one of the checkout women caught someone putting boxes of basic Morrison's dry food in the collection bin and taking out the good stuff. She kept an eye and the woman did it the following week. When confronted about it, the woman was unapologetic and said she thought the cheap stuff was good enough for rescue cats! - she was sent away with a flea in her ear and didn't do it again

Mary - I think that was the problem with just finding open packs in donation bins. I think some was checked and it had actually gone soft, so was probably open for months/years. As they had no way of telling, they just binned any open packs. Also things like Morrisons own dry food was passed on to fox rescues - I organised some of it. The woman who runs the wildlife rescue said that hedgehogs won't eat the cheap high-cereal food like supermarket own basic, Go-Cat and Whiskas dry, but foxes will.

[Cussypat1974]

With. Will 28 cats, I am happy to get any food donations!