Winter Deer Feeding | Guidelines and Tips for Healthy Deer | GYT90 (2024)

Winter deer feedingis a hot topic for many people. If you are a deer hunter, you’re probably always looking for ways to improve the health of the deer you hunt. So it’s a natural next step for many people to want to take care of them throughout the year. As you’re probably aware, winter is one of the toughest times of the year for many animals – whitetails included.This is especially true in the northern half of the country, where winters can be especially cruel.Cold temperatures, body warmth-stealing winds, and lack of quality food can all work against them and weed out the weaker individuals. So it makes sense thatfeeding deer in the winterwould help them out, right?Maybe yes, maybe no.It really just depends on the situation and how the feeding is done. If it’s done the wrong way, you might actually be hurting the deer herd instead of helping them.Now we know what you’re saying. Your neighbor isfeeding deer corn year round, and it doesn’t hurt them.Here are somewinter deer feedingrules tohelp you decide whether you should or should notdo it, and tips to do it the right way.

Nutritional Requirements for Deer

The first thing we need to cover is what deer actually need to survive the harsh conditions that winter throws at them.Throughout the summer and fall, deer are hopefully able to gain enough body fat that they can make it through the low calories and cold conditions of winter. They do that by eating as much high quality food as they can in the time it is available, and theirfall dietsfocus on the best food available.But they don’t always put as much fat on as they should. And bucks, in particular, are at risk when entering the winter.

Obviously,bucksfocus on breeding during the rut, which means they avoid a lot of the last-minute fall feeding opportunities, sothey typically enter the winter with already-depleted bodies.Without good food sources throughout the winter, a buck’s body will start to cannibalize itself by converting theirmuscle tissue into energy.That puts them at risk for starvation, and if they do survive, they will start the spring at a severe deficit. At that point,allof thecalories ingestedwouldhave to build muscle mass back before allowing them touse minerals forantler growth, which means they certainly wouldn’t grow to their full potential.If one of the goals on your property is to also shoot larger bucks, this is a problem you need to address.

In an ideal world, deerneed high-carbohydrate and high-fat food sources in the winter(with some major caveats below), whether through natural food sources orwinter deer feeding. This wouldhelpthemburn enough calories to stay warm over the winter and maybe evenreplenishsome ofthefatstoreslostbefore their bodies have to resort to using muscle.Essentially, deer in northern areas just need to survive until spring, when abundant and nutritious green food sources return.Deer in southern areas may just need the additional nutrition to produce healthier fawns next year or bounce back from the rut quicker.

What Deer Eat inWinter

So exactlywhat do deer eat in the winterto get that high-carbohydrate and high-fat nutrition? Unfortunately, therearen’ta lot of natural food sources available in the winter that can provide that. Fortunately, deer are alreadyhighlyadapted for this exact scenario.

Woody Browse

Whitetails in highly forested areasconsumewoody tree browseto survive the bleakest time of the year. Their digestive system, which consists of a four-part stomach, isbiologicallydesigned to break down the high fibercontentpresent in browseand provide the most nutrition possible from it. But not all browse is created equal. Mature forests – think park-like settings – often have very little browse available at deer level, which is why deer often disappear from these areas as winter arrives. However, young forests are full of tender and nutritious browse. Think about a clear-cut area – within the next growing season, it is so dense with tender young tree branchesand shrubsthat you can barelywalkthrough it, and it is all conveniently located within browsing reach for deer. Over the winter, a few acres of this habitat can support more deer than 40 or more acres of mature forest.

Agricultural Crops

In agricultural areas, there are often various agricultural crops available for deer to eat over the winter. Some farmers or hunters leave standingrows of corn, soybeans, etc. forwinter deer feedingpurposes.Even in harvested fields, there is often waste grain left behind for them to forage on, as long as the fields aren’t plowedunderin the fall. Depending on how much snow accumulates, the ability of deer to forage for food sources on the ground may be affected. In these areas, corn, soybeans, grains, and brassicas can all be highly sought after and extremely nutritious. Corn and grains are full of carbohydrates, while soybeans provide a lot of carbohydrates and fat. These are both great for the unique nutritional needs for deer in the winter. Butif these are not common food sources in the areain a given time period, they can be dangerous.

Dangers ofWinter DeerFeeding

Getting back to the beginning of the post, it seems likewinter deer feedingwould be beneficial for them, given the lack of good food sources on some properties.But that’s not always the case. For a deer’s stomach to be able to digest wood fibers in the winter, it builds a community ofgut flora (e.g.,microbes and bacteria)that helpdigest it. When areally digestible, low-fiberfood source(e.g., corn, wheat, apples, etc.)is eaten,bacteriainthe deer’s rumenthatcandigest high-carbohydrate food rapidly multiply and produce a large amount of lactic acid. Thisrise in acidity kills many of the othergood bacteria/microbes and essentially stops digestion. The acid in the stomachcan even acidify the blood, which can kill the deer within 24 hours in severe cases. This is calledacidosis, corn toxicity,or grain overload.To identify a deer killed by acidosis, you’ll generally find them in goodbodyhealth and with a rumen full of corn, grain, etc.While severe for individual deer, this generally only occurs when deer suddenly get access to a large amount of high-carbohydrate food after they have adjusted to winter browse.If it doesn’t kill them, it canalsocause permanent damage to their rumen stomach lining,which may affect their ability to digest in the future.

The other dangerous part aboutfeeding deerin general is the risk of disease transmission.In many parts of the country, diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) are wreaking havoc on the population. When deer browse, they are generally dispersed and only nibble on the end of branches. But with supplemental feeders and bait piles, deer are attracted to and gather aroundthe feed in very close proximity, so it crams more deer into a smaller area. Inevitably, there is more nose-to-nose contact or exchange of saliva, which can spread the diseasefurther.As a result, many state wildlife agencies have put feeding bans into effect to limit the spread of such diseases.A good way to avoid that risk is to limit the amount of food offered and scatter it across a large area.

Guidelines forWinter Deer Feeding

It should be pointed out thatwinter deer feedingis different thanbaiting deerduring the hunting season. When you’refeeding deer during the winter, it is solely to help them survive until spring, whereas baiting during the season is often to attract them to a spotspecificallyto hunt them.Depending on how severe the winter is and how good the habitat is, deer may not even requiresupplemental deerfeeding. But if the winter gets particularly harsh, the deer herd is larger than the habitat can support, or there is just no winter browse available,winter deer feedingcould actually be beneficial. As long as you do it right.Hereiswhat to feed deer in winteranda coupledeer feeding rulesyou can use on your property.

First, it’s no use trying to provide deer supplemental feed if they can’t find it. When you’re starting in a new area and want to make sure the deer find the food source, try applying GYT90. Our deer attractant is a great blend of over 90 minerals and crude soybean oil, and it is super attractive to deer. The calories from fat provide a boost of nutrition, and the aroma helps draw them in to the food source. You can get a4 gallon caseof GYT90 deer attractant and mix it with your deer feed/deer corn, or apply it to a decaying log nearby to get their attention. Periodically refresh it for the most attraction and benefit.

From the feeding standpoint, the most important thing youshoulddo if you want tofeed cornto deeris to start very slowly. Start applying only a small amount (i.e.,sprinkling agallon bucketover a large area)at a timeto allow deer to find and get used to it.Whether you manually feed them or use an automatic feeder, replenish the feed every couple days initially.Continue this pattern of providing a few pounds of food every few days for 2 to 3 weeks, which will allow them(and their digestive systems)time to get used to it.So corn is not exactly a “what not to feed deer” item – you just need to do it the right way.As long as it is not a large amountof cornthatsuddenlymakes up the majority of a feeding, acidosis should not occur. In other words, don’t go out in mid-winter and dump an entire sack of corn into a field, or you run the risk of killing a deer or two.But to err on the side of caution, youcan justmix corn into ahomemade deer feed mix, with corn only occupying about 25% of the mixture.Providing a variety of different food sources within yourdeer feed mixis a good way to reduce the chance of acidosis.

If you’re looking forsomething else in the mix orwhat to feed deer instead of corn, abetter and safer option forwinter deer feedingis to usedeer food pelletsor other high fiberdeer feed. This isnutritionallymore in line with what they naturally eat anyway.It just provides good nutrition in one area rather than a deerhaving to browse over a large area.With feed mixes, make sure to look at thedeer feed ingredientsto make sure it is high in fiber, and has low carbohydrates.Some people usealfalfa pellets for deer,which offer about 16% protein and a lot of fiber, but some deer can suffer from bloat when eating hay as they are designed to be a browsing animal rather than a grazing one.Pellets don’t usually have the same effect as hay, but again, mixing pellets with another food source can eliminate problems.As for the advantages ofdeer pellets vs corn, pellets are definitely saferthan straight corn, butwill probablycost more than a sack of corn.

The safest optionof allis tohave high quality, early successional habitat on your property. If you don’talreadyhave the young, dense, and nutritiousre-growththat deer need to browse on,the mostinexpensive way to feed deeris todo some emergency timber harvests. Simplycut down somedeciduoustrees(e.g.,maples,birch,aspen, basswood, etc.)and brush(e.g., dogwoods, willows, etc.)to ground levelin a small patch, so that deer can eat what natureintended them to eat without any consequences.Gather the brush piles loosely so that deer can still get to them. In the future, these areas will likely respond with a flush of raspberry, blackberry, and young trees to provide additional browse, which is thebest deer feedfor winter.

Will You TryWinter Deer Feeding?

In many areas,winter deer feedingis not necessary or won’t make much of a measurable difference for thelocaldeer herd. If a winter is severe enough, it’s inevitable that some deer are going to die. But in some cases, feeding deer using the right techniques can help them.