Suplemental Nutrition for Whitetail Deer

Depending on where you live, it may feel like late winter or early spring. Either way, it’s a tough time for deer, and many well-meaning managers are considering ways to help the deer over the hump. But the road to disaster is paved with good intentions. Conversely, providing the right food could pay significant benefits.

Bad for Winter Deer

Let’s start with what you shouldn’t use. Unless you’ve been feeding all winter, now is not the time to provide corn. A deer’s digestive tract is very complex, and it takes time for bacteria in the gut to adjust to different foods. This time of year, much of their diet consists of coarse, woody browse, which is difficult to digest. Corn is a “hot” food, and suddenly providing it now would be analogous to running your chainsaw on straight gas; it could be fatal for deer.

Bulbs and tubers in late-season plots may persist through winter.

Bulbs and Tubers

If you planted winter plots, you’re already ahead of the game. Long after herbaceous vegetation freezes or gets eaten, bulbs and tubers from plants like brassica, turnips, and beets persist, and deer will dig and eat into the frozen ground to get them. If you didn’t plant them, you might consider it going into this fall. Established perennial clover plots are also a good idea, as they’ll be in place and ready to provide nutrition at green-up.

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Calories, Minerals, and Vitamins

Now, we move into true supplements, which could be blocks or loose feed. This is where climate might factor in a little more. Deer have been operating at a nutritional deficit all winter, and by late winter, their gas tank of fat reserves is empty. Right now, they need calories, which they can get from grains like wheat, oats, barley, and rice, and a little corn. They also need trace minerals and vitamins. Supplemental loose or block feed designed explicitly for deer contains all of the above, along with some protein. In the latter case, around 10% is a good guideline.

Perennial clover plots provide a source of natural protein as soon as green-up begins.

Plenty of Protein

As winter gives way to spring, the growth process begins again, and the deer’s protein needs increase. The growth rate of unborn fawns and antlers starts speeding up, increasing nutritional demand on the deer carrying them. Now, you may want to provide feed with a higher level of protein – 14%-plus.

Protein will remain important throughout the growing season but after green-up deer should be able to get most or all of what they need from natural vegetation and food plots. However, late summer can be another nutritional bottleneck. Antler and nursing fawn growth is peaking, while many herbaceous plants are maturing and dying. A little protein boost now could go a long way in the future.