Experiment with fawns. HELP

I don't think they will ever bond with you as long as they can still get milk from mom. The only reason they take the bottle from us is they are starving usually, around 24 hrs of no milk before they take to the bottle.

I do think they will be less scared of you and may be able to pet them, but to have them take the bottle, I don't think so.

If you do get it to work be sure and let us know as it would be alot less work on me and quite a few others

I think it could work. If you can spend time with them in a smaller area it would have to help. Some will always be calmer than others but it is worth a shot.

We feed our deer old bread from outlet store. They all come up and beg and fight for the treat. When the does decide to bring in there fawns for this event, daily, they learn we are no threat and some get as tame as a lot of bottle feds without ever doing any thing special. works for us.

i've done this on both a smaller scale as well as a larger one. I've had it to where I had 6-8 doe fawns inside this "fawn" pen and spent as much time as possible in there until they could jump out. we also wiped them for the simple fact that they would associate that nurturing with us. at a year old we cannot pet those deer but can get feet from them and they are comfortable.



on the other hand i just tried it again this year with 20-25 in each and it didn't work. too many fawns to make sure they are getting enough milk and proper care becasue we had a handful of does go in and feed any one that was hungry and we started having nutrition problems.



if you are going to do this i would only do doe fawns and not more than 10...just from my experience

My fear with this is that when each doe goes in to feed her fawns, she is going to be protective and not let some other does in to feed their fawns. Then the possiblity of fights is lurking around with the fawns caught in the crossfire.



I wish you luck !!

Ed - I foresee some potential and/or eventual problems with ''all'' those fawns being in such a small area and expecting ''one'' mother to come in ''all'' those fawns, and feed hers only. I think Jack brought out a real concern and danger zone. Spiderman - couldn't agree with you more. Ed - I just got done typing a post on taming deer on the ''Health and Wellness'' forum before I came here. It is entitled ''Taming Deer - How To'' and I would suggest/recommend you read it. I believe it will help you in what you are trying to achieve. It parallels what Spiderman spoke of. Whatever you do Ed, best of luck!

look at the post on" taming deer", all of our deer are tame but this is something I will be trying

LJwhitetails said:

look at the post on" taming deer", all of our deer are tame but this is something I will be trying

Click to expand...

Me too, I wonder if it would work on semi tame yearling does.

Ed - You witnessed something that brings out another good point and concern for your ''experiment'' that obviously you recognize. The set up allows the doe to feed the fawns when she wants to, but doesn't allow the fawns to feed when they want to. I think you made a wise decision to dismantle. Best of luck!

I studied deer behavior for 2 masters degrees. Even grown deer will become habituated to human presence. We aren't bottle feeding unless we have a problem with a fawn that needs be be taken. We don't feel like we need our deer tame enough to pet. When the fawns are born I tag and give shots. I'll carry that fawn around for 5 or 10 minutes petting it and talking to it. Most of the wild ones calm down in that amount of time. Every day we check pens I'll pick them up and carry them until they get big enough to run. They have been imprinted enough that they are much calmer than fawns we don't pick up. I spend as much time in the pens as I do bottle feeding when the fawns start getting a little older. I'll sit at the trough and throw animal crackers. They gradually get a little tamer. When we wean we put the fawns in 20X100' holding pens at our barn. We will leave several of these open at a time so they have enough room. We keep them in the small pens until spring or early summer. They see us from close distances and learn to tolerated us. If I have deer that don't crash a fence if I'm standing in the gate of one of those pens, I'm satisfied that they are ok. Most will come within feet of us. My deer that are tame enough to come within 10 or 20 feet work much better than our bottle feds. They can be a pain trying to move through the handling system. Everyone will be going the right direction and then a bottle fed turns around and walks back to us and the others want to follow. That's what is working best for us. It won't work for everyone.