Deer Won't Eat Corn On Cob
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Zbone
20-Dec-20
I feed shelled corn 365 days a year, until yesterday local supplier ran out until later this week, so anyhow they had full ears dried field corn for $6 a grocery bag so decided to try to hold over... The dang deer don't seem to know what to do with it, like they've never seen it before... There's a couple cornfields within a mile or so but they get picked early, usually in October but you'd think they'd know, but all they do is just smell it and move it around with their noses... Have watched deer before in fields take ears by the ends and bite it off and watched them chew off kernels... Maybe it's not weathered and soft enough to do so, or guess they're not hungry enough yet...
From: Thornton
20-Dec-20
They eat cobs at my place.
From: Zbone
20-Dec-20
Thornton - Are they chewing from the ends or are they nibbling off kernels? Thanks
From: Bou'bound
20-Dec-20
They are just spoiled like kids. When the see that you are not going to come over and scrape it off for them they will roll their eyes and eat it off the cob. They want butter too and I would not acquiesce to that preference either
From: JB
20-Dec-20
I've watched them pull full cobs off the stalk in the fall and chew on them. A lot of the corn would fall off as they chewed. I figured it was a way to stash some for later.
From: Cornpone
20-Dec-20
Just google "deer eating corn off the cob". Plenty of pictures.
From: Woods Walker
20-Dec-20
My dog eats core on the cob just like a person does, a row at a time if you hold the cob and turn it for her. But then again, she'll eat ANYTHING!!!
From: t-roy
20-Dec-20
It’s not Indian corn, is it? If so, maybe the deer are showing solidarity with getting rid of that horrible racist “Chief Wahoo” mascot. This IS in Ohio, correct? ;-)
From: WV Mountaineer
20-Dec-20
Different kind of corn then what you’ve been feeding them. Probably lower in sugar. And, they don’t need it or they’d be chewing con and all.
From: drycreek
20-Dec-20
Maybe if you steam it, butter it, a little salt and pepper ?
From: Woods Walker
20-Dec-20
Maybe they're Latinix deer. Try putting a little ground red pepper on it to make it "elote" like the street vendors in the city do!
From: ahunter76
20-Dec-20
Not in the midwest. They rip it off the stalk. Now, that being said, a few years ago I was in Texas hunting hogs on a HF ranch. They had all sorts of animals including Whitetails (4000 acre place). They had feeders that cast corn out at given times. I took ear corn, not schucked from home & put it around the area I was hunting.. Hogs had no problem gobbleing it up. Deer would smell it, nudge it but seemed NOT to know how to eat it. I watched them do this for 2 days & not one Deer ate the ear corn.. Feeder corn, if around, they did..
From: Huntcell
20-Dec-20
Time to cull them before they become skin and bones.
From: Owl
20-Dec-20
Butter not margarine.
From: Thornton
20-Dec-20
ZBone-they do both. In this pic, the deer closest is a buck and he's chewing on a whole cob. The does in the back, are eating the broken cobs and kernels in my tire tracks. The truck broke them up as a drove over. I've noticed the bucks seem to like to tear a whole cob off the stalk and eat it.
From: Scooby-doo
20-Dec-20
Don't give them any more shelled corn and just feed the cob corn. I promise they will start eating. Like anything else they get hungry enough or are wanting corn in their diet they will eat it. Shawn
From: jingalls
20-Dec-20
Ask sitO!!!
From: Shug
20-Dec-20
Print up this photo and tape it to a nearby tree...
From: Zbone
20-Dec-20
You guys got some good ones...8^)
ahunter76 - " Deer would smell it, nudge it but seemed NOT to know how to eat it. I watched them do this for 2 days & not one Deer ate the ear corn" That's exactly what mine do... Day 3 coming up...
Shug - Now that's funny right there...8^)
From: Jethro
21-Dec-20
When we eat corn on the cob for dinner, we throw the empty cobs off the back deck. The deer come up and eat the entire cob that doesn't even have any corn kernels left on it.
From: Shuteye
21-Dec-20
I love squirrels in the crock pot and put out some cob corn for them. The deer will eat it along with the squirrels. My neighbor has several hundred acres of corn and the deer destroy several acres each year so they know what it is. Once the neighbor picks the corn I switch to shelled corn and they like that too.
From: ahunter76
21-Dec-20
I think it's just a matter of not knowing. Deer in corn country rip it off the stalk or on the ground.. Deer in non corn country only see shelled as a rule. Once it's there often, they will learn.
From: Gunny
21-Dec-20
I've sat in stands and watched deer eat it from the cob, on the stalk and from an ear they picked off the ground. Watch a doe one year pick one up and roll it in her mouth with her tongue while eating the kernels. Looked like an old type writer.
My mom use to tell me her cat wouldn't eat any food except Tender Vittles. I told her bull crap, don't feed her for three weeks and she'll eat the corn out of a cow pie(cleaned up for this site).
If the deer are hungry, they'll eat it.
From: Rupe
21-Dec-20
Deer will devastate a field of standing corn.
From: Zbone
21-Dec-20
Well, have like a half bushel of scattered ears back there that they barely nibbled, so I gave in this evening and bought shelled corn from Tractor Supply... Was over $18 for a hundred pounds, ouch! Oh well, guess I spoil my deer...8^)
From: nowheels
22-Dec-20
They probably think that it’s from Monsanto seeds. Just put up a “non-GMO” sign and they’ll start eating it :-)
From: midwest
23-Dec-20
LOL@ Shug!
From: dmandoes
23-Dec-20
Drive over it, smash it on the ground or stomp on it. Some corn is just hard for the deer to get off the cob. See if it makes a difference.
From: bigswivle
23-Dec-20
They eat strawberries and strawberry plants. Finding that out the hard way
From: bigswivle
23-Dec-20
From: pirogue
23-Dec-20
I hunted on my BIL’s place this year, and he bought some corn on cobb, and they hit on it the first night.
From: Shuteye
23-Dec-20
zbone, I just drive my Gator out of my driveway up to my neighbor's farm. I get shelled corn for $7 for a hundred pounds. He doesn't live where I get the corn, but I keep track of what I get and pay him for what I use. He has big grain wagons with a little sliding door on the side. Put a bucket under and slide up the little door and fill the buckets. It is nice and clean corn so it will run through a feeder with no problem. Before my cousin moved to Wyoming she would give me several hundred pound of cob corn. She had a huge farm and when her husband died she went West to take pictures of the big bears. She has names for them and went out there for years before moving.
