[nw_arizona_granny]

been stockpiling cat food when it’s on sale, but all the bags seem to expire about a year out from the purchase date.<<<

I am thinking about your question, rotation is of course the answer.

Maybe it would be wiser to study what is in the cat foods and gather the recipes for making the foods yourself, for the grains alone, will last longer than a bag of cat food.

Your chickens, ducks and hogs, etc will also eat cat food, if they can find it.

I suspect that after a year, the oils in the food are rancid and then it will not be eaten.

[CottonBall]

Maybe it would be wiser to study what is in the cat foods and gather the recipes for making the foods yourself, for the grains alone, will last longer than a bag of cat food.

I was thinking that myself. I find lots of recipes for homemade wet cat food, but I'll have to do more research to gather ingredients that will last longer.

Oils - that's the problem. I was thinking the moisture content, but I think you're right, it's the fat instead. I thought about drying it out in the oven, pulverizing it so it would compress, then storing it that way. Rehydrating and reforming somehow later on. Then, I figured I was going off the deep end and came here to post the question. And get a sanity check. ;)