What are we gonna do with THIS thing?

TxCloverAngel · #1 06/09/08, 10:04 AM

I have the reputation round these parts as the person who will try to save any animal.. vets call me to take em... neighbors drop critters off for me to help.... the high school AG teacher.. you get the idea...

well. I have a fawn who will be here tomorrow... The momma deer was hit and killed on the road leaving this poor baby on the side of the road... the lady who has him now gave him goats milk and he likes it....

so I'm gonna have a baby in a dog kennel in the living room,..... any tips? goats milk the way to go?

I'm excited.. but clueless when it comes to them.

celticfarmgal · #2 06/09/08, 10:08 AM

I would continue with the goats milk no sense in changing his diet if he is taking it well now. how old do they think the baby is?
and a quick quest, have ya checked to see if you need one of those (rather stupid IMO)Game and fish permits just to CYA (the fines are pretty nasty )I knew a woman in AZ that bottlefed some baby jack rabbits and then got a fine for having them from the Game and Fish dept

TxCloverAngel · #3 06/09/08, 10:09 AM

a week or two they say.

celticfarmgal · #4 06/09/08, 10:17 AM

I would call the local G&F ( according to the TX website) you should be able to get a no fee educational use permit to have him

fordy · #5 06/09/08, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TxCloverAngel

I have the reputation round these parts as the person who will try to save any animal.. vets call me to take em... neighbors drop critters off for me to help.... the high school AG teacher.. you get the idea...

well. I have a fawn who will be here tomorrow... The momma deer was hit and killed on the road leaving this poor baby on the side of the road... the lady who has him now gave him goats milk and he likes it....

so I'm gonna have a baby in a dog kennel in the living room,..... any tips? goats milk the way to go?

I'm excited.. but clueless when it comes to them.

................The more "people time" you devote to Bambi the more you reduce it's natural fear of man and reduce its chances for long term survival in the wild . , fordy

Goatguy · #6 06/09/08, 10:43 AM

It'd make a pretty nifty pasture buddy for some goats, I bet they'd get along pretty well too.

wyld thang · #7 06/09/08, 10:43 AM

you can always make some nice marbled venison out of it...

is it male or female? it seems people have better luck with the females as pets/livestock(steaks), the bucks get aggressive

oops, I see you say "he" sounds like he'll be steak

TxCloverAngel · #8 06/09/08, 10:45 AM

its a male

littlebitfarm · #9 06/09/08, 11:17 AM

I've raised almost 2 dozen of them. Goat's milk works great. At least here in Illinois you need a special state permit to raise them. If he is real young you'll have to wipe his butt to get him to poop and pee.

Don't make a pet of him. Don't let the kids play with him. Don't let every neighbor in town come see him. He needs to still have some "wild" in him. The least time you spend with him the better. If you can confine him to a stall with a friendly sheep or goat he will bond with them. The last thing you want is a tame adult deer with no fear of humans.

I've never had a problem getting them to leave. After they have been here a couple weeks and are settled down and know that I am food, I turn them out in pasture during the day with my horses and sheep. I still lock them up at night, partially to keep them safe and to make it quick to feed them before I go to work in the morning. As I wean them back to 2 bottles a day, I leave them out at night too. After they are weaned I just leave them in pasture. Come fall breeding season and they get the urge (male and female) they jump out of my 5 1/2' fences. Some leave and never come back. Some come and go. One spent the winter mooching free hay and then left in the spring.

Kathie

TxCloverAngel · #10 06/09/08, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by celticfarmgal

I would call the local G&F ( according to the TX website) you should be able to get a no fee educational use permit to have him

I called and asked.... this will not cover a deer.... wow are they strict bout those!

TxCloverAngel · #11 06/09/08, 12:53 PM

they told me it was a major fine for picking him up off of the side of the road! gee... 2am in the morning... dead momma deer... just let him sit there... that sounds WAY better!

Use Less · #12 06/09/08, 01:53 PM

Hereabouts a special permit and training is required. Folks who take in fawns raise them in outdoor entirely-enclosed pens with little handling or eye contact with people. Otherwise, you'll end up turning loose a buckling who will want to come into the house or barn. Sue

momof3boys3cats · #13 06/09/08, 03:41 PM

We went to go get fencing one day from a ladys house in the country and while we were taking fence down these 2 deer came right up to us wanting us to touch them. we though tit was very wierd. The old lady said they were someone down the streets rescued babies from a year or so ago. The Wildlife people told them they had to let them go so when deer season came they put these Bright orange harnesses on them so no one would shoot them on their own land and the wildlife people made them take them off. I just don't get it. But they survived that deer season prob. cause they were too tame and the guy said that they hid in his barn a lot.

Bearfootfarm · #14 06/09/08, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TxCloverAngel

they told me it was a major fine for picking him up off of the side of the road! gee... 2am in the morning... dead momma deer... just let him sit there... that sounds WAY better!

It IS "way better" since it also helps prevent anyone from killing a mother deer to take her babies just because they want "cute" pets

**Terri** · #15 06/09/08, 03:55 PM

Here in Kansas, they like to release such deer in wooded parks. There is no hunting allowed, and by the time they drift off they are no longer looking to people for food.

Goatguy · #16 06/09/08, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearfootfarm

It IS "way better" since it also helps prevent anyone from killing a mother deer to take her babies just because they want "cute" pets

I don't see this arguement as "Way better", Sure, its a good reason... but that fawn was as good as dead without its mother. Even if it DID turn out to be a pet, isn't that better than a fawn starving to death in a ditch?

hiswife · #17 06/09/08, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlebitfarm

The last thing you want is a tame adult deer with no fear of humans.

Very good advice, and given from someone who has been there/done that. There are wildlife centers all over who will take the fawn, raise and release it back to the wild. I wouldn't be able to because the urge to make it a pet would be hard to resist, even with the best of intentions!

Wild animals need to be kept wild, mother nature is cruel and yes maybe the fawn would have been a coyotes midnight snack, but the damage to a person that a "tame" deer can do is probably a lot worse.

Fines for this sort of thing can be huge

good luck with whatever you decide!

**Terri** · #18 06/09/08, 04:47 PM

The weaned fawn that I know of did not become friendly. It approached a few people at the park, but as soon as it figured out that nobody had food for it it avoided people. There was enough wooded area so that it could not be seen if it did not wish to be.

Lizza · #19 06/09/08, 05:57 PM

You need to find a wildlife rehabilitation center, I've taken in wildlife before and they get REAL angry (real angry!) if you try and raise it yourself or "keep" it for any length of time (it is completely illegal here in Oregon and may be in Texas as well?).

If you MUST take it in, only do so while you are tracking down a licensed center. Good luck!

piglady · #20 06/09/08, 07:52 PM

When I was a little girl my dad rescued a little deer. We brought it in the house and mom made it a bed on a towel behind her recliner. She would stay where mom put her until mom came to get her for a bottle. Us kids took turns feeding with the bottle. Soon she began to run and play with us through the house but always went back to the towel to go to the bathroom. She loved to jump on the bed like it was a trampoline. After she got too big for the house, we moved her out to the fenced in chicken yard where she did very well. She was as friendly as any tame goat and loved to run and play with us kids. After she was nearly a year old we came home from church one Sunday to find her with a broke neck. She was still alive and was kicking. She would put her hind legs under her front legs and kick. By the time we got there she had nearly severed the front legs with those sharp hooves. We later learned that the neighbor had her city grandkids come to vist and was chasing her until she ran into the fence and hurt herself. Dad had to put her down and we all had a big family funeral like you do for family dogs etc. There was never going to be a good ending to this story. That's why people should never bring them home. But, I must admit. We sure enjoyed it while we had it and I'll never forget that cute little deer jumping on the bed with me.