Storage containers for hay & pellets?

I know that chinchillas love the fresh smell of hay, and usually refuse to eat it if it does not smell good (correct me if I am wrong). And I also know that pellets go bad after time. We have a ton of oxbow hay unopened bags, and we have a half-finished bag of oxbow pellets. Could anyone recommend any storage containers they use that would keep the freshness of the hay and the pellets, if any at all? We want less storage place, his toy parts and food is taking up a bunch of room.

There are specially made animal food containers you could get (for like dogs and cats) or you could just get plastic shoe or coat boxes or other storage containers for people. I will say that hay put into an air-tight container, if even slightly moist, can go bad. Hay may be best kept in another method.
You can also keep access pelleted food in the freezer, as it gets rid of any bugs such as moths that may have gotten into the food as well as preventing spoilage.

Just make sure you don't buy too much at a time, as any food will go bad eventually. A 2-4 week supply is safer than a 6 month supply.

I hope this helps. : )

I have to disagree with GitaBooks, or perhaps I am misunderstanding, but you really don't want the hay in an air tight container, it can trap moisture (unless you live in the desert), you don't see farmers packaging up storing hay in plastic bins do you? The best thing is actually a cardboard box or large paper bag, if you use a plastic bin make lots of holes in it to allow the hay to breath and check the hay regularly. Or you can use a wicker laundry hamper for the hay. You want the hay to stay, cool, dry, and away from sunlight. The hay cubes are the only hay I do keep in a plastic tub, but it's not air tight.

With the pellets, you want to be very careful with freezing them, or rather careful when thawing, you don't want the pellets to get damp and moldy. When I had about a dozen chins we did by the 50lb bags and stored them in the deep freezer, taking out what we needed as we needed it. But with just 2 it's not worth it, buy what you need for a 1-2 months at a time is better. I dump my pellets into a gallon ice cream pail, a 5lb bag fits perfectly in it (too bad they got rid of the 5lb size). Or you can just leave the pellets in the resealable bag they came in. The pellets you do want to keep in an air tight container. Pellets lose nutrients when exposed to air. I only open one month worth at a time, though with oxbow changing package size I guess it would be open one bag at a time.

pellets can go into a normal pet air tight container. You generally do want to freeze them however. It creates ice crystals that when thawed and make the food all wet and moldy. No good. But standard pellets are good up to 6 months after the mill dates. After that they can still be used but slowly start to lose nutritional value.

Hay on the other hand needs to be able to breath. You dont want it getting wet either. It can also cause it to go moldy. If its a large amount that is compressed, the insides are ok because no moisture can really get into there. It would jsut be the top/exposed parts that need to breath.

I store my feed in a large metal trash can (bag emptied so that I can confirm the quality of the feed) - they make small ones that are cute painted or stenciled purchase at Walmart or as stated purchase a dog food container. I will only use hay that is within 3 months of its production date myself. I keep hay in a breathable container so I use a cardboard box unless I am storing large compressed bales which are stored in the same a/c as the chins in their original farm wrapper.