Best deer food this time of year
Wisconsin
I have a skinny little buck fawn eating at our place. About the size of an average lab with longer legs. He is cleaning up the sunflower seeds in the shell that are there for squirrels, he seems to prefer them. I put out just a little bit of corn because there is no corn crop residue in a distance he could travel. I have put out pieces of apple but he seems to avoid them till last. Any suggestions of what I can feed him without messing up his stomach the next several weeks would be appreciated. He has traveled with a doe but we have not seen her for 2 days, maybe she dropped her fawn.
Well...a week 'n a half ago...it was my bird feeder...
That crossed my mind, wonder if there is much protein in bird food tho.
I think there is in a mix...mine is loaded with sunflower seeds. After that storm, I filled it throughout the day (I'm recently retired) and 9 deer we've had around all winter stopped by several times during daylight, and cleaned up the spillage overnight.
Once the snow melted, they went back to natural browse. I see them out in the fields around where I live.
Feeding deer is prohibited around here due to CWD, but I put it out for birds, knowing squirrels would rob it, but deer showing up within a couple hours was a surprise. Can they smell it? That's the only thing I could think of.
Jeff. You peked my curiosity, so I "Googled" it. Bird seed is mixed for various breeds, and is high in protein. Sun flower seeds in particular.
Jeff - I have of couple of gangly fawns here too. I've been giving them sunflowers seeds and hearts, some roasted soybean and corn. They've been gobbling it up. Once the forest starts to explode I expect to see them gone.
I met a deer farmer down in Alabama last year that told me he feeds his young ones rice bran pellets. It's made for high performance horses, but he says it's really great for developing young white tails.
I picked up some roasted beans and more sunflowers. Put it out and that little buck was back about 10 minutes later. He walked right past it, went for a drink of water and moved on. He'll find it next time.
Did some searches for rice bran pellets. All I found was rice bran mixed in with dog food that had meat with it, and mixed in with horse food.
Some articles on hunting sites (texas) said deer take quite a while to start eating it and then usually introduce it with other stuff mixed with it in their automatic feeders.
Jeff - Sunflower hearts/no shells.
Crap, I bought the shells, he has been eating them. He seems to prefer the in the shell sunflower seeds over the baked beans. Even worse I mixed them with the baked beans. I am afraid birds and squirrels would vacuum up the seeds.
So, should I quit the in the shell sunflowers? Are they bad for him? He has probably been eating them for some time since I have been feeding them to the squirrels.
++Best deer food this time of year ++
I'm mostly still with chili steaks and hamburgers :)
DoorKnob, good one.
I got some sunflower hearts today, will add that to the mix. Hope the squirrels don't stuff their cheeks full and stash them somewhere for future meals. He is still not keen on the baked beans.
They gobble up the sunflower hearts and are also eating more of the baked beans. Got two new fawns hanging around now. One is even smaller than the first one that I thought was small. I can clearly see the ribs on this small doe. She constantly gets pushed away by the slightly bigger buck with her, even when she is on a different pile that he now things is better. Grass in the lawn and in fringe areas and woods is starting to green up and they are also eating some of that now too.
Hey Buckjabber! Glad to see you still kicking!
How's your "garden" coming along with this cold spring?
He might not understand the rules.
DoorKnob, that is what I thought but you would think someone with a handle like that would know what the state baiting laws say.
