Tractor Supply and expired feed

[Little Bay Poo]

It's gotten to the point where we are considering solely buying feed online. In two years of buying pellets from the Tractor Supply, we have gotten a fresh bag of feed ONCE.

Unfortunately, the brand we had been using (Manna Pro) did not come with a mill date or an expiration date so we always ended up with a mystery bag. We purchased a bag of Manna Pro Sho in February 2008 that smelled so fresh I might have eaten it. Up until then I did not know pellets could smell that good, because every other bag we had purchased was pretty stale.

Six months later, our February 2008 bag started to smell a little stale and the bunnies weren't too keen on eating. We decided to go back and get a new bag so they could have fresh feed. We ended up with a new bag that smelled exactly the same as the old one we had just gotten rid of. I'm assuming the new bag was from the same lot and had been sitting on the shelves for well over six months.

Although the feed was stale, we were okay and the bunnies didn't seem to mind too much. Then the Tractor Supply ran out of Sho formula, and we ended up buying a bag of Pro formula. Ronnie had an off day adjusting to the new food. A week later, we switched Billy over and Billy stopped eating completely (his digestive tract isn't as strong as Ronnie's). We made an emergency trip last weekend for Sho Supplement. Sho Supplement is supposed to help with digestion so we were going to try to add it to the Pro pellets.

When we got to the store and saw the bag we called in for, I turned it over to look at the expiration date. The Sho Supplement expired over a year ago (in January 2008), but was still being sold on the shelves! We were in a pickle and needed some kind of feed, so we looked around the store to see what were the freshest bags. We found DuMor Show pellets dated February 2009, so we bought those.

Both bunnies love the DuMor pellets, but I'm afraid that six months down the road, the bags at the Tractor Supply will still say February 2009. We've ordered a bag of Oxbow 15/23 (ours won't go near Oxbow BBT) in hopes that we can switch to online ordering and not have to deal with the Tractor Supply.

My question is, is it normal for a Tractor Supply or other feed store to sell expired feed? I'm not sure if this is due to lack of regulations on rabbit feed or our location. (We are located in an area where the closest farms are a few hours away and the Tractor Supply may not be doing much business, hence keeping expired feed on the shelves).

 

[Little Bay Poo]

We just got our order of Oxbow Bunny Basics 15/23 in the mail yesterday. I tried to sneak a few pellets in Billy's food bowl while he was eating and he got very upset with me! He doesn't seem to like the Oxbow, timothy or alfalfa based...he's a picky eater.

Ronnie looks like he ate some of the Oxbow which is good. We'll continue to mix half and half (DuMor Show and Oxbow 15/23) to see if they'll both come around.

I guess the major problem we're having is the fact that I cannot find an online retailer for either Manna Pro Sho or for DuMor Show, and these are the only two feeds that our rabbits have shown an interest in. I cannot ship site to store to Tractor Supply because the feeds cannot be purchased on their website. Manna Pro Sho is a no go...it essentially doesn't exist here anymore. Manna Pro Pro Formula causes GI upsets, so that's a no go too.

Looks like our only options are to
1) Hope to find un-expired DuMor feed at Tractor Supply when we run out
2) Hope the bunnies come around and learn to like Oxbow alfalfa based pellets so we can switch to online ordering
3) Find a totally different pellet that they will eat

If anyone has suggestions of another alfalfa based pellet that can be ordered online, feel free to chime in!

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Are there any pet stores or other feed stores near you? You might have better luck at a different store or even location of the same store. I would look for some independent pet stores, they may even be able to order some stuff for you. If you have to go a bit further away, you can get some smaller bags as feed tends to stay fresher if unopened. With only 2 buns, buying smaller bags (10 pounds or so) is probably better than big bags.

I don't know what you have near you, so I can't be of much help. Try finding some different brands of feed on the internet and seeing if you can get them near you.

 

[Little Bay Poo]

Korr_and_Sophie wrote:

Are there any pet stores or other feed stores near you? You might have better luck at a different store or even location of the same store. I would look for some independent pet stores, they may even be able to order some stuff for you. If you have to go a bit further away, you can get some smaller bags as feed tends to stay fresher if unopened. With only 2 buns, buying smaller bags (10 pounds or so) is probably better than big bags.

I don't know what you have near you, so I can't be of much help. Try finding some different brands of feed on the internet and seeing if you can get them near you.

Thanks for your response :biggrin2:

We've been to a few pet stores around here and the selection of rabbit food is pretty limited. I went to an independent pet food store the other day and they had Oxbow Bunny Basics Timothy, but not Alfalfa . Billy and Ronnie are such picky eaters, they won't go near Timothy based pellets. They make the process of finding edible rabbit food all the more challenging anic:

GOOD NEWS...I talked to Chris tonight and he said that Billy ate more than half of the pellets in his bowl, meaning he ate the Oxbow! If this works out over the coming weeks we may be able to switch completely to Oxbow, buying 10 pound bags online rather than the 50 pound bags of Manna Pro we were getting at the Tractor Supply. Woot

So far I'm pleased with Oxbow. It has an expiration date and it smells fresh. I was getting tired of the hour long drive to Tractor Supply to pick up stale food or items that we called in for that went missing when we got there.

I will still be on the lookout for other pellet brands and feed stores in case we ever need to switch in the future. So far I've bookmarked the American Pet Diner website because I remember it being mentioned on RO, and I see they sell alfalfa pellets. I'll also continue to peruse threads about feed to see if I can jot down any other brands