Has anyone ever seen a doe nurse its' fawn?

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I have lots of deer around and naturally lots of fawns being born. I have yet to see a doe nurse a fawn. Anyone else witnessed this?

-- Carole (carle@earthlink.net), November 02, 2001

Answers

Yes, when I was visiting with a friend on Herron Island, Washington this summer we saw three does with their little fawns nursing. One doe had a set of twins. The deer on the island are protected and wander freely as they choose. Our friends feed them shelled corn both morning and night and the deer eat right out of their hand.

-- Grannytoo (jacres40@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.

yes. on several occations. one was a white deer, i witnessed the birth ans subquently the nurseing on more tha one time. lateley [this year] we have a three acre finced in area. a doe gave birth to a single fawn, and now that it has grown up refuses to leave the fenced in field, so we feed it apples corn etc and although it is not tame we can observe it running around the area. my guess its happy to be protected in the fenced area. good luck , takes time to find and observethe nurseing. i am retired and have lots of time.

-- bill dayhoff (billeday@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.

We used to raise fallow deer and often they would nurse them lying down!

-- Earthmama (earthmama@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001.

Yes, only once, some years ago. It was so hilarious, the fawn must have worked up quite an appetite waiting for Mama; he latched on to the teat so hard, her hind quarters were literally lifted off the ground for several seconds! It was fun to watch; I could study deer for hours and not get bored.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), November 02, 2001.

We watch them, about 150 yards across the lake on our dam. Plenty of clover over there. Once, we saw a young buck on the dam. Little bits of velveted antleres. A doe came out, walked right over to him, and (I swear on a stack of bibles) both got up on their hind legs and swung their front legs at each other, almost like kangaroos. Eventually the buck left, and a when he was gone two fawns came out of the woodline to browse on the clover. Mentioned this to a game warden, and he said he had heard about that kind of behavior, but had not seen it.

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), November 05, 2001.


Funny you should ask. We have a doe and her fawn that visit our yard each evening to eat the acorns. One evening the fawn decided a drink would be nice and she tried to nurse but Mom would have nothing to do with that idea. Solid food was to be the course of the day. I have never seen a younger one do it though.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), November 05, 2001.

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