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Introducing new deer to each other

Joined May 2009
5 Posts | 0+
I have a year old buck out in his pen, friendly as can be (now) I also now have a 7 week old doe fawn who eventually will be moved out with him.



I take her out to the pen to let her run around sometimes and everytime I bend down to pet her my buck comes and "nudges" me with his antlers to get in between us and trys to kick her/step on her. Is this normal? Will they be fine once she is bigger? Will I be able to leave them together come fall?



These are my first two deer. The buck was also bottle fed and taken from his mom @ 2 days -I know, you shouldnt bottle feed a buck - A little late for that now :)
 
We are bottle raising two fawns: one doe and one buck had no choice as their mothers were killed in truck incidents. Everything I've heard/read says that bottle feeding the buck is a risk, but in this case there was no choice.

Need to remember that the buck will become a breeding machine later in the rut and will not be thinking too "clearly". Too many examples of them causing some bad hurts to people to ignore.

Good luck to you and to us bout this!
 
Normal! Yes you should cut antlers off every year. How big is your pen? Its to soon to put her in there now full time. She will come in to heat possibly and the old boy could hurt her. Id wait till she got big enough to take care of her self a little and a better time of the year. ( not the Rut) then once they establish the pecking order you might be ok. Smaller pens dont give her much room to get away. Larger pens give her more of a chance to avoid him.



Good luck