What Kind of Food Do Deer Eat?

Deer are vegetarians that love a good meal of leaves. There are some trees that they prefer to get their leaves from, though they will also eat leaves from smaller plants and bushes as well. Different types of leaves are available to them at different type of the year, but they enjoy evergreen leaves just as much as they do deciduous leaves.

  1. Identification

    • Deer love to eat white cedar trees. As one of their favorite foods, you can expect to see deer in any area that has plenty of white cedar trees around. They will eat the leaves as well as pieces of the stems and the branches.

    Significance

    • One of the easiest trees to spot in many areas is the white pine. It's also one of the favorite foods for deer. These trees have needles that are grouped in clusters of five.

    Types

    • Maples are another favorite deer food. Depending on the region, these may be silver maples, red maples, amur maples, sugar maples or box elders.

    Geography

    • Deer also enjoy shrubs, such as the sumac. They will eat dogwood leaves and twigs as well. Dogwood is a shrub in some regions and a tree in others.

    Considerations

    • Spruce trees are a tree that is known to be eaten by deer, but only when all other foods are gone. When a deer eats spruce, starvation is not far away.