FEEDING DEER IN GARDEN RIDGE
Part of the charm of living on the edge of the Texas Hill Country and away from the bustle of the city is the vast amounts of wildlife in the area. There have been numerous meetings and discussions on the deer in our area, some love them some hate them, but the fact is they are a part of our community.

Currently there are no regulations regarding the feeding of deer in the City, but it has not been encouraged. In the past month five fawns have been found dead or dying, with no apparent cause. The fawn that was alive was lethargic, nearly skin and bones, diarrheic and its coat was ragged. Texas Parks and Wildlife was called in to help assess the situation with some interesting results. A necropsy was performed on the fawn that was still living when found and preliminary results indicated sever liver damage. The liver damage is possibly caused by aflatoxins.

What are aflatoxins? They are toxins produced by naturally occurring molds, which begin growing in corn before it is harvested. When these toxins are found in corn above a certain level, it is not permitted to be fed to cattle or other livestock. However, corn with aflatoxins as high as 50 parts per billion (ppb) can be sold as feed for deer. In large amounts (several hundred parts per billion), the toxins will build up and damage the liver. The yearlings and younger are the most susceptible to this kind of damage followed by the elders in the heard.

What can residents due to reduce the risk of poisoning the deer? The best option is to not feed the deer. In addition to the danger caused by aflatoxins, and other toxins produced in corn, if corn makes up too much of a deer?’s diet it can damage the deer?’s ability to digest food properly and can be lethal. Another reason not to feed deer is that it concentrates the damage to landscapes caused by deer. Finally, deer that become dependant on people for food lose their natural fear of people. This can be very dangerous to people because of their very sharp hooves and antlers and unpredictable behavior. So not feeding the deer is the best for both deer and people

The next two options are for those who insist on feeding the deer. For both of these options the most important thing is to limit the amount you are feeding. One option is to feed protein pellets in the 12-16% range. This is a better quality and safer food source when attracting deer for viewing purposes. The second option is to continue feeding corn, or ''beer for deer'' as the biologists were calling it. Corn has limited nutritional value to the deer, it is strictly an attractant to draw them to feeders, such as for hunting. Corn can actually make poor nutritional conditions even worse. If you are going to feed corn, feed less of it, and look for labels that state the level of aflatoxins are less than 20 parts per billion (ppb), keep it dry (low humidity) and don't let it sit outside after the deer have left. Humidity and letting the corn get wet or letting it sit out will cause the toxin levels to rise to detrimental levels.

Basically, if you love the deer let them stay wild and don't feed them they can be dangerous animals. But if you insist on feeding, DON'T FEED CORN for the deer?’s sake.

Detaining Deer

Nicely put! Please submit this to the newsletter if you have not already.

I found a yearly buck in my yard with 20ft rope and a ribbon around it's neck. I removed both. The ribbon was too tight and would have cut into the neck as the deer grew.

According to TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE you cannot trap or detain deer without a permit.

Please do not try to domesticate the deer. They are cute when they are young, but bucks become aggressive when they mature.

check your facts before you talk

The deer corn, that you think will kill a deer so quickley would actually take three dump truck loads to harm ONE deer. They won't sell feeding corn with a rating higher than 15 parts per billion, so it's impossible for the deer to eat 50 parts per billion. And 15 parts per billion is in one sack. There are so many deer, and one deer will not eat a whole sack of corn, they'll stop when they get full. It's impossible for corn to kill the deer, the corn that we buy has aflotoxins. That's not the reasons as to why the yearlings are dieing. Once a deer falls down and dies, it's body expands, then contracts, leaving it to look like skin and bones. No telling how long that deer was dead before they found him. The reason why the yearlings are so skinny is because they are weening from their mothers too early. And that has nothing to do with us over feeding, or aflotoxins. That's the mother's choice, they'll ween at an earlier age because of the domesticated area. Feeding deer would actually be good, because of the way they're weened in this area. It will help the deer grow and be healthy, and not be sick with aflotoxins, as you think is the only reason. Feeding deer is perfectly acceptable, it's one of the attractions to live in this area. Feeding deer would actually help us see healthy deer instead of the dead ones starved to death. It seems to me that somebody guessed why the deer were dieing, and you started looking up information based on a guess, and tried to put it into fact. What you needed to do was look at all the facts. If you knew anything about deer, you would know common knowledge such as this.

also

Also, the mothers ween their yearlings early because of the traffic and because deer are so sensitive, and overwhelmed by the houses and construction, on-edge as you could put it. And because of that feeling, the deer ween early. The more houses that go up, the more dead deer you'll see lieing on the road. Aflotoxins was an internet guess, not an educated guess. Nice try though, most people don't think of that, unfortunately, you're wrong.