Where to put fawns

We keep ours in baby cribs till they take the bottle good. Then they go to the barn in stalls, and I never keep them alone unless there is one that don't act right. Then they go outside in small pens that they can still go in the barn for feeding. This way works for us.

For the fawns to run loose than yes. Thats where they grow up, and it makes it easier to get them in the barn when there older. In the baby cribs, thats at the house, so much easier to start them on the bottle rather than chasing them in the barn stalls

Yes, but they do not go to the barn till they come to the bottle in the crib good. Once they come to the bottle I made holders that hold 6-12 bottles at one time. At about a month feeding more than 2 fawns can be a chore. I will keep up to 8 fawns together and move the older ones outside to there pen. It's all trial and error, fawns for me are fun for bout a week bottle feeding. So hopefully we don't have to many this year.

We prefer not to bottle feed, but once in a while there is one where the mother dies etc. We feed them until we can put them back with a different mother. If a doe has just has fawns sometimes you can rub some of the afterbirth on another fawn and they will take them like theirs. Also, sometimes if you just put them in a pen with a lot of fawns there is usually one doe that will let them feed. We check by going in with a bottle to see if they still take it or how much they will drink.

Well, my does are fairly calm so I leave them. Bottle feeding is very demanding, plan on spending three months do this. Leaving them on the mother is the best thing to do in my opinion. Mothers milk contains everything the fawn needs, it can not be replicated. Fawns that are mother raised will have bigger bodies which leads to greater production over time (antlers, fawns, etc). Fawns aren't going to be eating out of your hand (most likely) if they are mother raised but I don't want them too anyway.

It depends on the size of your herd and what your personal desire is for your herd. If you like a calm herd that you and visitors can enjoy by petting the deer and seeing them without binoculars then bottle feeding is a good tool. If your a large herd and not in it for the personal enjoyment then a wilder herd is acceptable for you. I respect Ryan's thoughts on the size difference of bottle fed verses mother fed. Body size is important. However over the years I noticed the body size had more to do with a fawns health the first 3 months than it did if they were bottle fed or mother fed. Some of my biggest bodied does and best producers were all bottle fed.

So far nearly all of my first time momas abandon, neglect or just don't know what to do with their fawns so I've decided to pull nearly all when it's a does' first time.  But I agree that there is a body size benefit to most of those that are raised on their mothers.

Define tame. And not I am not being a ********. You would be surprised what some people call tame. I bought a die once that was considered by the seller to be a fairly calm animal. I ended up sending her to hunt ranch. Another one I bought died less than 30 minutes after getting off the trailer at my farm. She was so beat to crap after bouncing off fences and walls from the sorting and loading process. I won't have deer if it means having deer like that. And I would never sell anyone a deer without giving them a true indication of what it really is. Bottle feeding is a ton of work. Larger farms can't do it like small farms can. It just is too much work. Even I am picking and choosing when we will bottle feed now. The profits just aren't there anymore to justify the cost and time involved to bottle feed. But I will never have unmanageable deer.

Yes, if your pens are small and you go in each day and feed them treats, walk around, etc, your deer can be very calm.  All mine are extremely  calm but are not bottle fed.  I sold a couple does and the buyer said it was like they were born at his place because they were so calm.  The two doe that I have that were bottle fed nearly knock me down trying to get treats out of my pocket.  The non-bottle feds just walk up and let me toss it on the ground next to them.  However, none are fence crashers or every really run for that matter.  Also, if you spend time within the first few days, I think that makes a big difference as they can almost imprint on you.  My breeder, Lake Effect, is my tamest deer and he was not bottle fed but I did bring him in the house a couple hours after he was born for about an hour or two because it was cold and rainy and I wanted to warm his body temp. back up.  In short, you can have a calm herd without bottle feeding but it's not likely that they will stick their nose in your pockets for treats but I would classify that as tame rather than calm.

If you feed them then leave them then the end result is different. We have bottle feds that act like there not, but there not fence bouncers and dont act stupid when you go in the pens. Sure makes it easier to run them in the barn.

Padencreek1023761431564064



Yes, if your pens are small and you go in each day and feed them treats, walk around, etc, your deer can be very calm.




As evident by the miss spelled words in my last post you can see I was pretty tired. I had just flown from Liege Belgium to Tel Aviv Israel, sat on the ground there 9 hours and then flew back to Liege. Then got in a limo and rode from Liege to Brussels before getting to the hotel. As this deer crap is like a crack addiction, I checked a couple of posts on the forum here before going to sleep. UGH! Not good to post while two thirds asleep.


I do agree that if a farm has small pens, and if someone goes into the pens every day with treats and talks to the deer you can keep an already tame herd's subsequent offspring calm. That really is my goal the next couple of years. If someone walks the pens each day, and this includes walking among the fawns from day one on, I think we can avoid the time and money of bottle feeding for now.


Tame to me is you can pet the deer.


Calm to me is they stand between 5 and 15 feet away from you.


Dog tame is when you can give shots and put CIDR's in them just by standing in the pen with them.


Each farm needs to decide what level of temperament they desire based on their personal enjoyment or business needs.

TRUTH1023641431478936



So far nearly all of my first time momas abandon, neglect or just don't know what to do with their fawns so I've decided to pull nearly all when it's a does' first time.  But I agree that there is a body size benefit to most of those that are raised on their mothers.




 First time mother? Do you mean 2014 animals or 2013?

Josh, I was referring to does I had fawn out for the first time last spring that were breed at 1.5yo.  I had two yearling does that fawned last spring that actually took good care of their offspring.  But I lost a few from my 1.5yo's that had never fawned before.  When you only have about 20 fawns loosing 5-6 because their mother's wont stand to let them nurse makes you sick.  If I had to do over I wouldn't have started with a doe under 3 years old, but live and learn.  Last year it was hot and dry when mine were fawning out and dehydration was a big problem this year it's raining every day so we've got standing / running water in all our pens. 

I have never heard of anyone having that many issues with first time mothers. I wonder if there was some other issue involved.

I lost 5 or 6 in a row that got dehydrated their mother's licked them clean and never let them nurse.  When it's sunny and 100 degrees out it doesn't take long for them to get dehydrated.  We started giving them all as much goat colostrum as we could get them to take within 3hrs of birth after that and again in 6-8 hrs and we pulled everything within 2 days and didn't loose another fawn to dehydration.  If their mother wont stand and let them nurse and they die of dehydration in my eyes it's their mother's fault.  Between dehydration and EHD I ended up with only 4 buck fawns out of 12.