I am having to feed one of my dogs boiled rice at the moment and finding it a real pain to cook twice a day!

Does anyone know how long boiled rice will keep in the fridge and is it safe to take out of the fridge and give immediately to the dog cold?

I know a certain bacteria grows on rice and I am worried about upsetting their stomach even more!

I would keep it for 2-3 days max.

When you have cooked it, cool it down as quickly as possible (keep rinsing it with freezing cold water until cool) and then put straight in fridge.

The main things to avoid are leaving it to cool down naturally or leaving it hanging around on sideboards ie not in fridge, other than that it will be fine.

Rice is the worst thing to keep...goes off really quickly, keep no longer than a day maximum...bacteria grows very quickly...I should know I was a Laboratory Microbiologist

Rice will freeze well though, you could freeze lots of individual portions and then defrost it as and when!

I cooked it every other day but made sure to remove each portion from the fridge in time for it to return to room temperature (not too long as this gives the ideal temp for bacteria) .  Fridge cold food is fine if your dog will eat it but mine wont.  Either I leave it to warm up a bit or they would leave it in their bowls til it's less cold!  If your dog has a dodgy tummy then just warm, or room temperature food is much kinder on their system.

You can reheat rice for dogs and people.  Here is a useful guide for rice from the Food Standards Agency

Thanks everyone :)

Looks like I would be safe enough to cook a batch at tea-time which would do for the morning too. I don't mind cooking it daily - it was more the 6am stint that was a real bind. Me and boiling water is not a good mix at that time of the morning :)

So, cook at tea time - cool quickly - pop in the fridge and serve for breakfast :)

I add a little luke warm water to the food dogs-a-babe so should be enough to take the chill off :)

Thanks again - it's much appreciated x

I've been cooking rice for my dog for several years (medical reasons). What works for us is to boil up the rice with four times the volume of water then take it off the heat and allow the water to be fully absorbed. The rice needs to be a carvable mush, not individual grains the way we like it - if given like that I always see undigested white flecks in the poo. I always do enough for four days and freeze the individual portions; it can be nuked in the microwave if it hasn't quite thawed out at feeding time. This method has worked well for several years.

Slightly off topic but my friend who is a childminder is not allowed to save any boiled rice 'for later' ('elf n safety etc etc).
When I was pushed for time I used one of the microwaveable bags of rice for the dogs. No washing up of saucepans!

Wow! I never new that about rice- I always cook mine in the rice cooker and keep it for about 3 days in the fridge- I always throw food out if not eaten in 3 days...

Yup new for the dogs it must be a mush like mashed potatoes pretty much for them to digest.

> Yup new for the dogs it must be a mush like mashed potatoes pretty much for them to digest.

In that case, flaked rice would be a better option than rice grains. Not sure where you would get that, I haven't seen it in the shops for a few years now. I used to use rice flakes for my cats whenever they had to be fed fish/chicken and rice as it goes to mush and absorbs the stock.

I always get round (starchy) pudding rice

Buy a microwave rice steamer - so much easier than using a saucepan :)

Rice cooker

You will probably find them cheaper elsewhere.

Daisy

You should be able to get flaked rice in a health food shop.

Agree with the mushy consistency, one of my oldies used to be really difficult to get to eat anything when she was off colour, so I used to add chopped chicken skin and meat into the rice as it was cooking so that it flavoured it throughout.  I found she would eat more of the rice this way, rather than just plain. 

I have a pup staying with me who is a very picky eater with a sensitive tummy and she refuses pretty much everything apart from rice and chicken (with live yoghurt on the side).  Easiest way I have found is do cook a handful of rice with about 2 mugs of water in a big dish in the microwave for 15 mins, then leave till stand till all liquid is absorbed and the rice is sticky and mushy, very easy and the pup loves it.