How much feed!!!

metroman_digital · Nov 4, 2010

Hello All,

I have a question that may be somewhat different. We have a herd of deer and it seems like they are eating WAY too much feed. We have 3 pens with 8-9 deer in each three pens. We are feeding them THREE 5gal buckets of feed in one day!(for each pen). They seem to be gaining some serious weight. The only problem is the bill! Is it possible to overfeed deer and by my description am I doing it? They do have pasture and browse as supplement to feed.

ddwhitetails · Nov 4, 2010

The deer are only doing what is naturally bred into their make up.......they know winter is on the way and this is when they eat like there is no tomorrow to put on the weight for the harsh winter.....they will slow WAY down when the snow flys!! It does really ....really stink with the feed bill right now......but is all evens out as I said they will slow way down soon...........If you have mature bucks I bet they are hardly eating anything right now as they have other things on their mind....but they will slap on the feed bag as soon as the rut is over......now this years fawns....they will just keep pounding the food......they are growing and can't help themselves.........good luck!!

Bluff Country Whitetails · Nov 4, 2010

Sounds like it is too much. I haven't heard of over feeding deer but from what i experience with my deer is that a mature deer should eat between 3 & 6 Lbs. of feed per day + browse. That being said this time of year they do eat more feed than normal. From what your saying is your deer are eating between 8 & 9 Lbs per head assuming your 5 Gal. pails weigh about 25Lbs per.

Circle J Ranch · Nov 4, 2010

ddwhitetails said:
The deer are only doing what is naturally bred into their make up.......they know winter is on the way and this is when they eat like there is no tomorrow to put on the weight for the harsh winter.....they will slow WAY down when the snow flys!! It does really ....really stink with the feed bill right now......but is all evens out as I said they will slow way down soon...........If you have mature bucks I bet they are hardly eating anything right now as they have other things on their mind....but they will slap on the feed bag as soon as the rut is over......now this years fawns....they will just keep pounding the food......they are growing and can't help themselves.........good luck!!

I agree, in my time deer farming i have noticed that the fawn will eat way more then adult deer. And during this time of year i go threw 6 gallons of feed a day per 4 deer in each of adult pens and fawns are doing about 8 gallons per the same amount of deer. You can also suppliment some good alfalfa to hold them over when feeder is empty. We also see a drop once serious cold weather hits. Weather it be the rut and not worrying about eating or just plane old not moving and bedding down more. Last year during winter we use about half the feed we use in fall!

DJ Johnson · Nov 4, 2010

Maybe something else is eating some feed.

Right now I am trapping muskrats that are in the feed.

HuntsEndDeerRanch · Nov 4, 2010

We realized this year that we were feeding our deer way to much. They were getting to the point of being seriously overweight. I know that it is not good for anything to be far over weight, especially does with pregnancy concerns. Our deer really like the sweet feed mix they get, and I think they are like us. If they really like it they will overeat. As others said, I also see drastic differences in the amount of feed different deer eat at different times of the year. I would just keep an eye on their body condition and reaction to feed. If they seem thin or especially hungry, they need more. If they are starting to jiggle when they walk, probably good to back them off some.

CurtisLloyd · Nov 4, 2010

this time of year I want my deer fat, does in the wild that have access to ample feed will be fat this time of year.... we call them "jelly does", our reality is different because of where we live , beacuse of how a deers metabolism slows in the winter ours need to have "a good layer of fat" going into the winter even though they have all the feed the can eat they will still lose condition and draw on the fat they store now ...just a part of the natural lifecycle of the wt deer , a fence can not stop that

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How much feed!!!

metroman_digital

ddwhitetails

Bluff Country Whitetails

Circle J Ranch

DJ Johnson

HuntsEndDeerRanch

CurtisLloyd

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