Deer

It wasn't me!

Some friends of the family have raised a deer. They found it nuzzling against the doe, which died of exposure, and have had it quite a while; I only found out about it today. They raised it on a bottle and it integrated with their dogs, to the extent that it now plays football, headbutts the dogs once in a while, and seems to think it might be one. It's a young buck, possibly a fallow (dappled with white spots, only starting to grow in) and it's currently in velvet. Is there any problem with keeping it? It's in very good condition, roams around with the dogs and is healthy and quite content.

doctor evil

Do they have the space and fencing for it?

They could try contacting deer farms for advice on husbandry.

Since it think its a dog I would be worried it would get out and try to interact with other dogs and either cause injury or get itself injured.

It wasn't me!

doctor evil wrote: »

Do they have the space and fencing for it?

They could try contacting deer farms for advice on husbandry.

Since it think its a dog I would be worried it would get out and try to interact with other dogs and either cause injury or get itself injured.

It's contained on a rather large farm and has shelter. It really does seem to have adapted well and I just wonder whether this is all too peachy at face value. The eternal cynic in me is wondering whether this will go tits up. It looks great for now though. It's rather amusing: It nuzzles and sniffs humans like a dog and likes to be scratched behind the ears.

gerky

I can imagine there being problems as it gets older but for now they should contact NPWS for info and advice.
I'd presume it would be subject to the same requirements as farmed deer such as tagging and the likes but the NPWS should know all about that.
I know that with doe's it can work out quite well bucks may be another story.
Theres also the possibility that it could be raised and released, deer can be quite successful at this.

It wasn't me!

I think it was NPWS who gave them the information on how best to rear and take care of it. They've had it quite a while, unbeknownst to me, and yet it seems to be doing really well.

John Griffin

When he is fully mature he will become aggressive around rutting time and his human family could bear the brunt of his aggression. This doesn't happen in the wild because their fear of humans overides the aggression normally. My suggestion would be to donate him to a pet farm that has deer already. There is one in Kilcoole (Glenroe), Co. Wicklow and another in Myshall, Co. Carlow. Thats all that i know of off the top of my head. I'd stay away from deer farms unless you want to see him on somebodies dinner plate. If there are more deer in the area it is possible he will disappear at rutting time (October- November) and return afterwards provided he survives. A deer this tame doesn't normally last long in the wild.

artieanna

I know the family meant well in rearing the deer but, really they should have had him taken care of by people raising deer.

This deer will become an adult and chances are, they may not be able to manage him. He will will never be able to survive within a herd because of how he was reared.

Ideally he should have been raised with other deer.

I hope it works out:(

It wasn't me!

It's going to make a cracking sheepdog someday.

meathstevie

Leaving the legalities of having a wild animal in your possession aside the rut when his blood starts boiling might pose a bit of a problem as John said. If they decide to keep him maybe an earmark ( even a dud one ) and turning him from buck to "bullock" might be a road to go down.

doctor evil

Out of curiosity would they have to have a tag on him like cattle/sheep

meathstevie

Since he doesn't belong to a herd of farm animals I'm not too sure about the legal requirments in relation to ear tags but it might save him from running into something hard and fast that'll see him in someone's freezer if he'd start wandering around comes autumn.