Deer Husbandry: How To Bottle Feed A Whitetail Deer Fawn

My husband and I received our first Whitetail Fawn when he was one day old. A few weeks before bringing her home, we applied through the Department of Natural Resources for our wildlife breeders license. You should get this, and the breeding numbers of the male and female the fawn came from. We allowed this fawn to nurse from her mother for 24 hours to get some colostrum before bringing her home.

We put her in a dog crate for transport home. Fawns are very skittish and docile and are easily handled for the first few days. They kept her in the house for her first 3 weeks and then moved her to a dog pen outside. White-tailed deer can jump upwards from a very young age. We recommend at least 4 feet. fence until 12 weeks of age and then a 9- to 10-foot fence thereafter.

White-tailed deer are fed goat’s milk replacer. This can be found in many feed or farm stores. For feeding, we use a normal bottle with a rubber nipple. You can also buy a long red rubber teat used for bottle feeding goats and lambs. The substitute bag will tell you how to mix the formula. We would mix up a large batch and store it in a container in the fridge.

We start our fawn with a 3 hour feeding schedule. It is very important that these fawns are fed at least 6 times a day for the first few weeks. Start with one ounce of formula. Our fawn lay down for the first week and didn’t get up or move much. To feed her, we placed her on a towel and fed her while she was lying down. We had a lot of problems with his diet. She didn’t take the nipple well at all and we ended up using a syringe to force feed her for a few days. After she learned it, she ate like a pro. It is advisable to add 1-2 tablespoons of natural yogurt to each bottle to prevent diarrhea. Diarrhea can be fatal for a fawn and you can lose it very quickly. If diarrhea persists, it may be necessary to speak with a wildlife or exotic animal veterinarian about medication.

The reason most people lose fawns is because they don’t know to wipe the deer’s bottom after each feeding to stimulate urination and defecation. It is mandatory that this be done. Fawns are unable to use their bodily functions on their own until 4-6 weeks of age. They can easily become septic and die if not cleaned up. We place our fawn in a Rubbermaid tub with newspapers in the bottom. We used baby wipes to clean her and did this after every feeding.

At about 12 weeks of age, you can wean the fawn from the bottle. We started offering deer pellets and water in a bowl starting at week 3. He started eating solids around 8 weeks of age. We also feed clover, corn and soybean hay to supplement their diet. Our bottle feeding schedule is as follows:

Day 1-3 2 ozs every 3 hours (gavage as needed)

Day 4-7 4 ozs 6 times a day

Day 8-14 6 ozs 6 times a day

Day 15-21 8 ozs 5 times a day

Day 22-28 8 oz 5 times a day

Day 29-35 9 ozs 4 times a day

Day 36-42 10 ozs 3 times a day

Day 43-49 10 ozs 3 times a day

Day 50-56 12 ozs 2 times a day

Day 57-63 12 ozs 2 times a day

Day 64-84 16 oz ounce a day

Please note that every deer is different and adjustments may be required. The main problem with bottle feeding is overfeeding of fawns. All deer farmers do things differently, we have found this system to be the one that works for us.