.JPG){kind=link}
The base
Oats are the constant. Everything else is an extra. Fawns eat the same trough as the does. There is no separate menu, and there is no set dinner bell. Visits come day and night.
Deer Streams / Wiki / What deer eat
What deer eat
A wild whitetail eats what the season offers. On the Deer Streams cam the meal is simpler. Oats are the base feed. Apples, carrots, squash, and pumpkins are added on top.
On this cam. A season uses about 14,000 pounds of oats. A surprise “mystery item” sometimes shows up with the regular feed. This page is not a recipe for feeding deer at home. The trough is private, and the herd is wild.
Through a wild year
In spring and summer, whitetails browse green growth: leaves, forbs, and new shoots. In fall they add fruit and mast where the woods have it. Acorns are a classic wild food. In winter, when the ground locks up, they lean on woody browse: twigs, buds, and whatever evergreen they can reach.
Acorns are not the point of this camera. The lens watches a trough, not the forest floor. The herd is here for the oats.
How they digest
Whitetails are ruminants. The first stop is a large fermentation chamber. Later the cud comes back for a second chew. A deer can fill quickly at the trough and finish the meal in cover.
Sudden piles of rich food can upset that system. That is one reason this page will not tell you what to put out in a backyard. The cam’s trough is a managed, seasonal feed, not a suggestion.
Produce
Apples are the fruit. Carrots, squash, and pumpkins are the vegetables. Pumpkins go on through the season with the squash. They sit on top of the oats. They do not replace them.