What to Feed a Newborn Deer

If you happen to find an injured fawn that needs medical attention, you can provide some help yourself. Of course, a deer can never be kept as a pet, so if you do decide to help it, make sure it is purely a rehabilitation effort. If you merely see a healthy looking newborn deer in the wild, don't try to feed it just for fun (leave that job to the mother). And ultimately, it is always best to report injured wildlife to your nearest wildlife rehabilitation center.

  1. What to Feed

    • If the baby deer is still wet with uterine fluids, don't attempt to feed it. If it is dry, only handle it while wearing gloves. Newborn deer need to drink a large supply of colostrum during their first 12 hours of life. If you don't have colostrum from an adult deer, use goat's milk. Use a large bottle with a nipple to dispense the drink into its mouth. Use rubber nipples, not silicone ones.

    How Much to Feed

    • If the newborn is still within its first day of life, you should feed it as much colostrum as it will take. This could be gallons. The days after birth, though, feed a fawn 3 cups of goat's milk a day (usually two feedings per day). If you are low on goat's milk, you can mix half with regular cow's milk. Don't feed a fawn cow's milk by itself.

    Return to the Wild

    • Unless you are a licensed deer farmer or zoological society, you cannot keep a deer. If it came from the wild, it must return to the wild. The best thing you can do for a deer that needs to return to the wild is to call a wildlife rehabilitation center. Without proper rehabilitation, an animal may not know how to survive in the wild. It's important that you fed them and kept them alive for a few days, but you should always get a wildlife rehabilitation expert to take the animal from you before it goes back to the wild.