so I've read some articles saying that in the winter time its not good for deer to eat a lot of corn because they cant digest it fast enough and end up dying. Do you guys believe in this? if so what is something else to put in feeders besides corn during the winter months?
I don't feed my deer corn. I feed them protein pellets. They seem to like these more and it will give them the protein needed to grow a big rack.
I feed whitetail delight a mix of corn soybean sunflower and molassass. I believe if the deer are in starvation mode and then given corn it is bad for them, but otherwise if it is in their diet it's ok. If corn were bad for deer corn fields would be full of dead deer every spring.
In the midwest, deer eat leftover corn out of the fields all winter long. With that said, their system is used to eating corn. Big woods deer that have never seen a corn field might not be able to handle the change in their diet.
Deer have to build the correct bacteria in their stomachs to digest certain foods. This happens gradually as seasonal food sources change. Deer that have changed their diet to bark and buds in grain free areas would probably starve to death from corn because it's un-digestable at that point to those specific deer. To any deer in areas where there are corn fields, this is a pretty damn rare and unrealistic scenario. Those deer have developed and retain the correct stomach biota to stay on a diverse diet including corn. Make sure any protein pellets are free from any animal, bone, blood meal protein boosters. There were links made between mad cow disease and these additives. I've always suspected it also a source of CWD, springing from deer farms using "unapproved" feed additives for protein.
May have been but this is the DNR's official opinion on feeding corn also...You can google and several articles and opinion pieces on it. DNR is bad to paint with a broad brush over a very narrow circumstance. They take something that has a little truth and blow it completely out of proportion and scare people, often with ulterior motives but also out of sheer ignorance. http://michigan.gov/documents/dnr/deer_and_feeding_ban_267230_7.pdf But it's okay if you buy a "permit". Michigan DNR Allows Supplemental Feeding of Deer in Southern U.P. Counties with Permit | OutdoorHub It's either okay or it isn't...a permit in hand isn't going to change a deer's metabolism or dietary needs/tolerances.
