BOTTLEFEEDING WITH WILDERNESS WHITETAILS

This article was originally printed in the June / July 2001 issue of Tracking The Industry. . .
This article is copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

What is one of the most asked questions posed by fellow deer farmers? Very often we receive questions and queries on bottle-feeding, so we make it a habit to quiz successful deer farmers about their bottle-feeding programs. Some bottle-feeders have fascinating records based on numbers and experience. It was not Sheret's experience or numbers that impressed us, but their methods and philosophy. We spoke with James and Kathy at the Alberta convention and although they profess no expertise, we were fascinated with the "training" aspects of their program. We decided to follow up with an impromptu interview.

1. Why do you bottle-feed? Well, we don't go out of our way to bottle-feed fawns. Mainly just to save the ones that seem distressed (crying). Deer farming is supposed to be as easy as possible and bottle- feeding really ties you down. Some bottle-feed to allow the doe some extra time to get into peak condition. We usually introduce the does and fawns (once fawns are moving along with their mamas), to new lush pasture. We run about 15 does to 7-10 acres of pasture. Then we try to wean the fawns a bit earlier to give mama some recovery time before breeding season.

2. What do you feel is the most common cause of fawn distress? Probably young mothers/inexperience. They tend to abandon fawns most often if weak or sick.

3. Don't you find that bottle-feeding calms them down? Yes, but we would rather put the time into training the deer rather than bottlefeeding if possible. Lots of close contact (deer pens right by the house)

4. Do you think the stress factor limits them from reaching their potential? Stress is probably somewhat of a factor in growth. But that doesn't explain the ones that grow big in small pens with little good nutrition.

5. How many years have you been deerfarming? About 6

6. How many years have you bottlefed fawns? How many? 5 years now, only 1 or 2 fawns at a time.

7. How old have fawns been when you removed them from the doe? From 1 day to 1 month old (have usually had opportunity for mother's colostrum, so we don't supplement).

8. What equipment do you use? A pop bottle with the screw on little red non-vac nipples

9. Have you a preferred milk replacer? (a) Yes, we have tried a few but we really like the Canadian Agri Blend ungulate milk replacer -Agri-Melc. It has good consistency and mixes nicely with a whisk. Len has it at Deerstore. (b) tips: use warm water, make formula fresh, and don't microwave, and have a variety of people bottle-feed so they don't bond to just one person.

10. Where do you bottle-feed? We begin raising them in the house for about 2 weeks. At feeding time, we feed the fawns in the litter box. By feeding them here, we train them to actually go back to the litter box when they need to use it. We used to raise/feed them in the dog run beside the house, now we start them in the house, then when moving around well in the house (and when they start trying to climb into bed with us,) we move them to the handling facility (corral) (which is when we start using "the bell" ), then to pasture with the other deer.

11. The bell? We ring an old cow bell to call the fawns over to eat ;(we feed them through the fence). This also allows us to reintroduce the fawns back into the herd as soon as possible. They are trained to come to the bell. (A whistle would probably work too). This training usually starts after the fawns have had about 2 weeks of bonding time.

12. Why do you want to return them to the herd so quickly? Reintroducing them to the herd early on makes their transition easier. When isolated as they usually are, reintroduction of bottlefeds to the herd is cruel. The herd can be very hard on them. Also, this way they will generally wean earlier as they will browse with the rest of the herd in good pasture. Quality pasture is what makes for healthy deer, not replacer. Plus, they will not be so tame that they are hard to handle. These bottlefeds go where you want them to go. Ideally ,they will run with the herd but not be quite as wild as the others.

13. How often do you bottle-feed? And how much? Well, we don't get up at night. We feed at 11:00pm and then 6:00am. We only feed for a total of 12-15 weeks. By Sept. 15 they are usually weaned. Bottle-feeding is very labour intensive, which is not what deer farming is about. Our basic schedule looks something like this (and is not set in stone):
1st 2 weeks= 7x/day 3oz
week 3= 6x/day 4oz
week 4= 5x/day 5 1/2 oz
week 5= 4x/day 6oz
week 6,7,8= 3x/day 7oz
week 9= 2x/day 9oz
week 10= 2x/day 8oz
week 11=2x/day 8oz
week 12= 1x/day 7oz

14. Were scours ever a problem? No. Not with this replacer. But we did have to bring in a sick fawn to bottle raise and the antibiotics caused some scouring. We just used electrolytes instead of replacer for a bit.

15. How often do you need to wipe them? We wipe every feeding until we notice them going on their own or until we move them out to the corral.

16. How important is sterilization? Not too important. We keep things clean and wash the bottles, but we don't make a point of sterilizing. At some point these fawns need to be allowed to build up their natural immunities too.

17. What has been your biggest challenge while bottle-feeding? Probably having to begin bottle-raising a month old sick fawn. We watched one day as a doe seemed to bring this sick fawn up to the fence by the house. She made it lay down, and took the other twin and left it- almost like she wanted us to notice that it was sick. It turned out that it had a navel infection. We brought it in, washed it up, and had to force feed it at first as well as give it electrolytes and penicillin. It took awhile.

18. Do you find that bottle-feds are smaller or stunted in their growth, (as is often a common concern)? They may be smaller at first. Generally, we feel it takes at least 2 years to catch up in body size. But they don't suffer in the antler growth because there is less stress to compete with growth.

19. Do you have any further tips? Generally we feel that fawns do much better with their mothers, but if we have to bottle-feed again we would not want to do just one by itself again. But by reintroducing them to the herd early, and training them with the bell, we find it even has a positive effect on the rest of the herd. When that bell rings, we soon have all heads up and when the fawns come running up, the rest of the herd may come in for a closer look out of curiosity.

Well, we found out that deer are trainable if one cares to take the time. But by handling the critters most deer farmers realize that deer are really creatures of habit and thrive on routine, be it always walking their pen in the same direction, feeding on time, or becoming more comfortable with a facility, the more times they are through it. Isn't this why does usually choose the same fawning areas from year to year, or follow their specific feeding and bedding times in a day to day routine.

Bottlefeeding can be intensive , but if you would prefer not to have "pet tame" deer, perhaps this type of training and routine program is something to consider.

Randy & Tara-Lynn Barks
with James & Kathy Sheret

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