A fawn is a young deer, typically less than one year old. Most fawns are born during the late spring and early summer months, a time when natural forage is abundant and highly nutritious. Their survival is entirely dependent on a successful progression through distinct nutritional phases, beginning with milk and transitioning to solid plant matter.
Primary Diet: Milk Dependence
The fawn’s mother’s milk is specially formulated for the young deer’s intense growth needs. Doe’s milk is significantly richer than the milk of domestic animals, containing high levels of fat and protein. This highly concentrated nutrient profile provides the substantial energy and building blocks required for a newborn to double its body weight within the first few weeks.
Fawns typically nurse frequently for the first four to six weeks of life, a period when the milk delivers crucial antibodies for immune system development. The doe’s lactation period can last for several months, with the fawn relying almost entirely on milk during this initial phase. This nutrient-dense fuel ensures the fawn can quickly gain the strength and speed needed to evade predators.
Transition to Natural Forage
While milk is the initial food source, fawns begin to experiment with solid foods almost immediately, often within the first two to four weeks after birth. This early nibbling on plant material stimulates the development of the rumen. As ruminants, deer rely on a complex ecosystem of specialized microbes in the rumen to ferment and digest tough plant cellulose.
The introduction of solid food helps establish the necessary microbial population in the rumen, a process that takes several weeks to become fully functional. Fawns learn which plants are safe and palatable by observing and mimicking their mother’s foraging behavior. Their diet quickly expands to include a diverse selection of natural vegetation.
The preferred solid foods are generally soft, easily digestible, and high in protein. This includes forbs, which are broad-leaved herbaceous plants that are especially rich in nutrients during the spring and summer. They also consume tender browse, which consists of the young leaves and succulent shoots of woody plants and shrubs.
As the summer progresses into fall, the fawn’s diet incorporates more dense food sources like mast, which includes hard mast such as acorns and soft mast like berries. Forbs and browse remain staples, but the inclusion of mast provides a necessary boost of carbohydrates and fats to help build reserves for the winter months. This gradual shift ensures the fawn’s digestive system matures correctly to process a full adult diet.
Dangers of Human Feeding
Interfering with a fawn’s natural diet by offering non-natural foods can have fatal consequences. Deer possess a highly specialized digestive system that relies on a delicate balance of specific gut bacteria to break down their natural forage. The sudden introduction of foods high in simple carbohydrates, such as cow’s milk, corn, bread, or sweet feed, disrupts this balance. This rapid change can cause a dangerous condition known as acidosis or lactic acid buildup in the rumen, which kills the beneficial microbes. A fawn may starve with a full stomach because its digestive system is no longer able to absorb any nutrients. Digestive distress often leads to death within a matter of days.
Furthermore, feeding fawns causes habituation, conditioning them to associate humans with food and leading to a loss of their natural fear. This learned behavior significantly reduces their chances of survival in the wild and can lead to increased conflicts with people as they mature. In many jurisdictions, feeding deer or interfering with wildlife is illegal, often carrying substantial fines.