I was checking out the rabbit supplies at Tractor Supply yesterday and saw something very scary. At first glance I thought, "wow a great idea, a Best By Date".... until I read the date... It read, "Best by Dec. 15, 2015". I wanted to ask just how nutritious this rabbit feed was going to be in a year's time.
Blue Seal Feed prints the date the grain is milled/bagged on the paper strip of each bag. It has a number that designates the mill where the feed is produced and the Julian date. A Julian date is the numbered day of the year starting with January 1. The last number is the year's last number. So if you have a bag of Blue Seal Show Hutch Deluxe the first number states that it was milled at the Vermont plant (where the extruder machine is located), next the Julian day of the year and then either a 3 for 2013 or a 4 for 2014. If the last four digits read 3653, then it was milled December 31, 2013.
A good rule of thumb on grain is to get it as fresh as possible. Try to get it no older than 3 months if at all possible. After 3 months it starts losing its' nutritional value. Check for numbers on the feed bags. Find out where your feed company prints that information and how to decipher it. Call their 800 # for help. Make sure the store you purchase at rotates their stock. If they keep putting newer bags on top and not rotating it, eventually they'll work their way down to the older stuff and you will be stuck with it. That is only if you notice it by keeping an eye on the date imprints.
Not all store workers are knowledgeable or aware of feed dates or the importance of rotating bags and keeping fresh feed. Unless they are properly trained, they don't know the difference. To some, grain is just grain. Many years ago a feed store was out of the protein level of feed I used. The worker said "Just give them this other bag, it is the same company and all the food is the same anyway". I just looked at him and asked, "If it is all the same, why do they go to the trouble of creating different names and bags?" Did I think this person was trying to pull a fast one? Maybe, but he probably didn't know any better (and no, ignorance is not bliss). He definitely didn't think through what he was saying. He either needed some education on what he was selling or didn't care. I should have asked him if hamburger and filet mignon were the same thing because after all they are both beef, right? If I didn't know the difference it could have turned out badly as the substitute feed he wanted me to take was a much higher protein and would no doubt have made my animals sick.
And remember, you never want to abruptly change brands, even if the same protein. Mix your regular feed with the new feed 50/50 for a week until you get the rabbit eating it all well. This isn't necessary when getting a new bag of your regular feed, only if you are changing brands. Different companies use different formulas even if the protein level is the same. The ingredients will vary and the percentages of those ingredients will as well.
When buying a rabbit, ask the seller for a sandwich baggie of it's current food if you feed a different brand. If selling a rabbit, give the new owner a free baggie of grain to take to its' new home.