What Do Deer Eat in November?
What do deer eat in November? Deer eat a thousand things in anticipation of the cruel winter months, and we will outline all of those meals in this article.
For some people, the month of November is the best time to hunt for deer. However, for these majestic creatures, they have to think about surviving not only predators but also the upcoming winter months. Usually, rubbing and scraping between bucks and does are peaking around this time as they channel their efforts in hopes of eating enough to get through the brutal winter season.
Winter might be only a few weeks away, but these animals are already evolving to ensure that they can live to see food abundance in the next spring. So, you might wonder – what do deer eat in November? How do they find the right food sources? What are their options? In this article, we will help you have a clear picture of their feeding habits in November.
What do deer eat in November?
Deer eat much food and up to about 8 percent of their total body weight daily. The females, especially, will eat more when breeding or lactating. The bucks also increase their meal sizes in preparation for the winter. This is because it might lose more than 25 percent of their body weight before the end of the winter.
You must also know that although deer are ruminants like cows, they do not eat grass alone. To make up their daily requirements, they might eat up to 20 different plant species. Nevertheless, they are not fussy eaters. Their body is so adaptive that they depend on the environment for their meal changes from time to time.
Mealtime delicacies
Nuts
To boost their fat stores, deer would eat many nuts. They preferably feed on nuts from pecans, hickory nuts, beechnuts, and acorns. For the acorns, deer ideally eat those that fall from white oaks to the others from red oak trees
Fruits
Deer also eat fruits a lot. They preferably snack on persimmons, apples, crab apples, and sumac heads. They can stand on their hind legs and eat from the tree or forage on the forest floor.
Mushrooms
During the fall season, mushroom becomes a personal favorite because it provides a healthy source of fats and carbohydrates.
Woody browse
Deer also feed on the buds, twigs, and stems of plants. They enjoy feeding on both flowering and non-flowering perennials such as dandelions, wild roses, and clover.
Farm Crops
Deer may also eat beans, potatoes, legumes, wheat, rye, and many more. They usually source for these varieties from farmlands, when they cannot find other sources. If you want to keep them out, you can use fences, a guard dog, or tall plants to do so.
Concluding thoughts
So, what do deer eat in November? Everything they find available, especially fat sources, to augment their fat stores in anticipation of the winter months. Deer are so versatile that they can eat buds, twigs, leaves, nuts, fruits from over 600 plant species.
