The diet of deer shifts constantly with the seasons and the available landscape. Understanding what attracts these opportunistic browsers is important for wildlife management, property protection, and hunting strategies. White-tailed deer consume a wide variety of plants and supplemental foods, driven by their current nutritional requirements for energy, growth, and reproduction. They seek foods that maximize calories and nutrients in the most accessible way possible.
Natural Forage Staples
Deer are classified as concentrate selectors, meaning their digestive system is optimized for high-quality, easily digestible plant parts. The foundation of their year-round diet is browse, consisting of the leaves, buds, and tender twigs of woody plants like white cedar, sassafras, and various shrubs. This forage provides a steady source of fiber and energy, becoming significant during the winter when other food sources are scarce.
Seasonal preferences shift dramatically with the availability of mast. Hard mast, such as acorns and hickory nuts, is a primary late-fall and early-winter attractant because it is rich in fats and complex carbohydrates. Deer actively seek out white oak acorns first, as they contain lower levels of bitter tannins compared to red oak varieties, making them more palatable.
Soft mast, including wild grapes, apples, persimmons, and various berries, offers a seasonal pulse of nutrition. These fruits are high in simple sugars and vitamins, providing quick energy that helps deer gain fat reserves in late summer and early fall. Forbs, which are broad-leafed herbaceous plants, are also sought after during the growing season due to their high protein and digestibility.
Agricultural and Garden Attractants
Cultivated crops and garden plants are attractive to deer because they offer a high concentration of nutrients in a localized, easily consumed area. Field crops like soybeans and alfalfa are powerful attractants throughout the growing season because, as legumes, they are exceptionally high in protein. Deer consume the green foliage of soybeans in the summer to support antler development and lactation, then switch to the protein-rich bean pods in the late fall and winter.
Corn, a staple energy source, is highly desirable for its concentrated carbohydrate content, making it an excellent food for building fat reserves before winter. Cereal grains like winter wheat and oats are planted in food plots to provide nutritious “green browse” during the cool season when most other plants are dormant. The concentrated nature of these food plots often draws deer away from surrounding natural forage due to their superior caloric value.
In residential areas, the deer diet extends to common garden favorites, often leading to human-deer conflict. Ornamental plants such as hostas and daylilies are quickly consumed because their foliage is soft, succulent, and palatable. Vegetables and fruits like pumpkins, peas, and apples are heavily targeted for their high sugar and moisture content.
Supplemental Feeds and Mineral Needs
Beyond natural and cultivated forage, specialized manufactured products are used to supplement deer diets. Protein pellets are a common feed, often formulated with 16% to 20% crude protein using ingredients like grain products, plant proteins, and molasses. These pellets supplement dietary deficits, especially during periods of high nutritional demand like antler growth and the nursing of fawns.
Mineral licks and blocks are popular attractants, primarily filling a nutritional gap rather than providing energy. The main draw is sodium, which is often deficient in vegetation found in inland environments. Supplemental mineral mixes contain essential elements like calcium and phosphorus, necessary for bone density and comprising approximately 55% of a buck’s hardened antler mass. Deer use these sites intensely from early spring through late summer when their mineral requirements are highest.
Regulatory and Health Considerations
The practice of concentrating food to attract deer carries significant ecological and legal risks. A major concern is the transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal neurological disorder caused by infectious prions. When deer congregate at supplemental feeding sites, they increase direct contact and share saliva, urine, and feces, which are pathways for CWD spread. Research indicates that deer feeders pose a greater risk of prion transmission than natural feeding areas like mast trees.
For this reason, many state and local wildlife agencies have enacted strict laws prohibiting the baiting or feeding of deer, particularly in CWD management zones. In areas where baiting for hunting is illegal, the law specifies that any attractant, including grain, salt, or mineral blocks, must be removed for up to ten days before hunting is permitted.
Introducing high-carbohydrate, low-fiber foods like corn suddenly in the winter can be fatal to deer. During the cold months, a deer’s rumen, the first chamber of its stomach, is adapted to digest woody browse. A sudden influx of grains disrupts the delicate balance of gut microflora, leading to lactic acidosis, or “grain overload.” This rapid acidification of the stomach causes severe digestive distress, dehydration, internal damage, and death within 24 to 72 hours.