Bugs found in pellets

[riley47203]

This morning I found three little bugs in Chickens food (Pellets)…does anyone know anything about this?  How or why they are there? Thanks! Trena

[JK]

Gross! Was this before or after you put the pellets in a dish? I always keep my pellets in a sealed plastic container just for that very reason.

[KatnipCrzy]

I have major issues with bugs- grosses me out so bad to find them in pet food.  I think it  is partly because the few times I have ever found them it is a surprise- and I was a bit startled.

Anyway- I do not buy much food in bulk anymore- prefer to buy sealed bags that I keep in sealed containers at home after opening.

But as gross as this sounds- I know that for parrots and hamsters- they recommend putting the food in the food in the freezer as this will kill any bugs and eggs.  And then the parrots and hamsters can still eat the food as any dead bugs are just protein for them.  Yuck!  i am too grossed out to ever do this with food that I know had bugs.  But I have frozen small bags of parrot snack mixes to make sure there were OK and that I would NOT see bugs.

Julie

 

[Sarita]

It is difficult to know just based on your post why they are there. I have heard about putting the food in the freezer as well to store it but I never have.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I buy BIG bags of food, so they last me a looong time; I store them in a big locking lid type tupperware thing, and store a smaller amount that I refill from the large tub, in a small locking lid type tin! This so far has worked for me!

[Gravehearted]

toss them right away and buy fresh. I keep mine in a sealed tupperware and don’t buy in large quantities.

[Toki+Pumpkin+Elmo]

I buy the bigger bag of Oxbow Basics T. I put 1/3 in a zip bag to use. Freeze the rest and take out only 1/3 at each time whenever needed. I do the same for their homemade treats as well.

I cant tell whether if it’s after you opened the bag or before. Also, how are you storing it? It is gross though.

[Spacehopper]

Eeeeouw!! It made me wretch (silly i know) when some time back the boyfriend pointed out that Brian’s food was crawling with bugs. I had a look and there were all these reddish shiny small beetle things scurring about in the dried food. That was it, straight in the bin, cage cleaned (as my poor Brian must have been sat eating with them scurrying about at his feet) hoover came out, anti bac spray etc etc. We now buy small bags of food and keep it stored in an airtight box, and i find myself peering into the food stuff before giving it to the rabbits nowadays.

At school i did my work experience in a pet shop and the amount of food they threw away due to weevil infestations…good god! I remember being horrified and i shot off sitting on the big bags of dried foods eating lunch when i was told i might not want to do that “just in case”. I had to check the foods before bagging them up from the big sacks too incase of bugs. I think that may be where my aversion to creepy crawlies comes from, wont even pick up a worm now!! lol (yet give me a rabbit poop and i’ll inspect it in great detail for threadworms as i’d be devastated if Brian OR BETTIE ever got them again – fully armed with turquoise rubber gloves and a tub of alcohol wipes..JUST TO BE SAFE!!

 

I tend to go for the compressed dust free hay bags now too, after being bitten red raw after finding out a big bag of hay was full of little nasties!

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